Well, I am trying to put my weekend ride experiences in one thread. I live in Bengaluru and own an Thunderbird 350.

Let's start:

Bengaluru to Ooty:

Persons: 2 (Akhil and me).
Bikes: 2 (TB350 and Apache RTR 160)
Luggage: 2 backpacks tied to back seats of each bike with bungee cords.
Kms covered: 700 kms on 2 days
Route: Bangalore- mandya-mysore byepass- gundlupete-bandipur-masinagudi-Ooty-Connoor and back same route.
Days: 2 (12-13March 2016)

I was dying to go on a long(ish) trip on my TB since I was done with my 2nd free service. But I am a little reluctant to go solo because of the tube tyres of RE(duh !) , in case of puncture I wanted to have a back-up rider.

But since I live in such a circle of peace loving friends and roommates, it was hard to find a like minded rider(kinda crazy). Finally, I managed to get hold of my college friend Akhil who is sort of crazy, but a risky rider as well. I gave him a mouth full of advice first about safe riding and safety of others on the road.

So it was decided that he will come down to my apartment on the friday, 11th and we will leave by 3AM on saturday.

But as it happens in all over the world's plans, the other guy arrived at 12 in the midnight and we could manage only 2 hours of sleep from 1-3 AM.

Alarm rang, and by the time we could tie our luggage and get ready to leave, it was already 4:10 am.

Cursing him, I withdrew some cash(my bad !) and after taking few clicks from phone cameras, we left by 4:30 am from marathahalli. I being the responsible guy, had to decide on the route, fuel stop etc. I decided to take the city route since it would be empty in the morning.

Here are the clicks before leaving:


Our first stop was at McDonald's just before Maddur. It was 6:10 am and I was riding carefully to let Akhil follow me(thankfully) as I had given him strict warning not to run away

McD was not open at that time and we decided to eat breakfast at adjacent Kamath since they were preparing hot wadads.

Akhil trying to unload the luggage:



Happy bikes



After having breakfast and loo break, we started with a target to reach Mysore bye-pass by 8:30 so that we can reach Ooty by 11.

The accident:

As we were nearing mandya, traffic was heavy, but moving at decent speed. I was following 4 cars in back-to-back formation and behind me was a 10 wheeler truck. Suddenly, at a median, the front car leading the motorcade, turns slightly, and brakes hard, seems he was unsure whether to turn or not. All the 3 cars behind also braked hard, and the alto in front of me hit the car in his front and broke their bumpers. I followed the suit and the infamous brakes of RE(mine are both discs though) made the rear wheel lock. I hit alto at 20 kmph Nothing happened though, neither did the alto driver noticed as he was himself surprised at the happenings. I was more worried about the container truck following me and he also braked hard and stopped some 6 feet behind me(Thank you, truck brakes ).

Then starts the road rage in the mid of highway, and I carried on without bothering.

We reached Mysore bye-pass by 8:50 AM, behind out schedules and could notice numerous riders heading towards Ooty/Wayanad.

Time for a click:



My ride:



We carried on and as we left the Mysore byepass after 17 kms(yes it is 17 km long). Under construction section of road starts. It continued till further 10-12 kms and slowed us down. After it got over, roads are a breeze all the way till Ooty.

We were doing 100 continuously for next 30 kms or so, and then stopped for a butt-cum-tea break before begur.

Enjoyed this at the ta stall:



After this, we crossed gundlupete and sometimes later, Bandipur. As the forest inside Bandipur was burnt deliberately for some 20 m on both sides of roads, we could see ash and autumn on full swing with bald trees.

We could only see herd of deer and monkeys, nothing apart from that in the name of wildlife.



Butt break before starting the hairpin bends:





It started getting cold.



After this, the ride was the best I have ever had. 36 hairpin bends and gaining substantial amount of height with each of them ! I had done this stretch before, but by cars. Trust me, it is a lifetime experience riding on these.

Couldn't take a picture as I was busy enjoying the experience.
At 30th curve, Akhil's bike refused to pull. So we decided to take a short break to allow cool the engine. After sometime, I told him to take it easy and we carried on. We reached Ooty at 12 noon and reached our stay Hotel Darshan, just in front of Ooty lake.

We took bath and had dinner at Hyderabadi biryani and decided to sleep for sometime. In the evening, we visited botanical garden, and had dinner and slept. Few clicks:









DAY 2:

The plan on day 2 was to have complimentary breakfast at hotel and check out and head to connoor to visit lamb's peak and dolphin's nose and start back to bangalore by 10 am.

En-route Connoor:






One for fb



So we started our journey back and just after exiting Ooty, we were intercepted by rain. We waited for 30 mins in first halt. And then started the descend of hairpins. I had turned off my engine and came all the way back down in this condition.

As we entered Bandipur, rain struck hard and it was pouring down for next 2 hours. There goes the plan of reaching Bangalore by 6. After wasting 2 hours straight in an abandoned shade at Karnataka-Tamilandu border, we decided to move on after covering our bags with plastic. We were not carrying any rain gear with us, so were getting drenched.

Accident 2:


I was doing 70-80 kmph in rain and there was a slope in the forest. I was following an innova. Suddenly came a speed breaker and as I was trying to overtake the vehicle, it braked for the speed breaker. I followed, and the dreaded wheel lock strikes ! Wet road, wheel lock, vehicle in front and 2 feet deep shoulder on each side filled with rocks, perfect ! Tried releasing and re-applying rear brakes in order to overcome the wheel lock didn't help and I was not trying to apply front discs harder as I didn't want it to lock either and fall down at 50kmph.

I skidded while maintaining my balance(thanks to 200kg bike) for a good 50 meters and when I realized that I am not gonna stop without hitting the Innova, I decided to get bike off road and swerved to the right and thud ! into 2 feet rocky ditch. The bike and I didn't fall down, thanks to my experience riding for long and even longer legs . Nothing serious happened thankfully, and we continued back.

After this, nothing much happened and we reached Bangalore by 9 PM .

That's all folks, thanks for reading !