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**The Monk** · 02-02-2015, 04:14 PM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Travelogue Approved

Congrats on a wonderful ride. Waiting for the rest...

**joshi.varun91** · 02-05-2015, 10:05 PM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Mysore - Kanyakumari - Mysore

So the journey begins. I was really excited for this part of the journey for various reasons. One being that I had never ventured on bike to this part of the country, where the demographic is totally different. Even though I had visited Kanyakumari back when I was a kid, i was really looking forward to touching the southern most part of the country on my bike.

Another reason why this trip was very important was because this was going to be my trial run, on a very long stretch ( about 750kms ). In one day, the maximum i had covered was about 250kms , so this was literally 3 times than that. I wanted to know how i hold up, against the changing weather, riding for very long hours, what kind of clothes would be the best, how do i fare with all the riding gear on etc etc. A special note of mention to my friend and roommate , Rahul and avid tourer himself , who accompanied me and taught me many important things which really helped me a lot throughout my journey.

So armed with all the riding gear, the bag all saddled up on my bike, we started from Mysore at around 4am in the morning. The routes were pretty clear since Rahul is a regular on Mysore-Coimbatore route after which we just took the national highway all the way till Kanyakumari.

Just before we hit the Sathyamangalam Ghats, a light drizzle prompted us for our first stop, to put up the rain liners on the jacket and have some tea.

BTW: thats me. notice the height difference between me and the bike

Lovely weather.

The start of the Ghat section was amazing. Nature at its best. Beautiful weather, lush green mountains and the cool wind. We stopped for a moment to admire the view.

But the happiness was short-lived as we moved further down. As the sun came up with all its glory, the weather became warm. Lush green ghats gave way to arrow straight roads with traffic and warm air.

After covering about 80kms odd, we again had to stop to remove the rain liners as we were getting roasted inside them.

By the time we reached the National Highway 7, it was blazing hot and we were facing dehydration. Stopped for a quick lunch, had lots of water and continued. Even though the highway was awesome 4 lanes highway with dividers and arrow straight, the heat had become unbearable. We decided to stop every 50 mins for a water break.

PS: I had to remove my inner knee guards as the sweat and continuous riding position made them scratch my skin really bad. I don't like inner knee guards, period.

The heat had become so unbearable that even the water in our bottles had become too hot to drink. Battling with the heat and the thirst, we stopped once again at a small restaurant and i had one bottle of water without stopping.

Finally we reached Kanyakumari by around 4 30pm, checked into a hotel, quickly freshened up and headed for the beach to see the sunset.

Now because of the heat issue while travelling through the day, we brainstormed and thought of starting in the evening, travelling through the night and reaching back early morning.

This would also test my skills of riding in the night. Though a bit apprehensive, i reluctantly agreed to it. What i didn't know that an amazing adventure was about to unfold during the travel.

So after spending the day loitering around

I love this picture. We took our bikes onto the beach, and behold the mighty thunderbird sinks into the sand while my r15 looks on ( and laughs!! ) .

We started our journey back and left Kanyakumari around 3pm. Again, once we hit the highway, we followed the ’10 minute break every 50 mins’ schedule

Pictures along the way

Now comes the exciting part. Trust me, you are gonna love it.

It was around 1am when we hit Sathyamangalam Ghats once again. Normally the police check post don't allow 2 wheelers to pass, but when we reached, they were busy with other vehicles and no one stopped us.
So imagine this. Its dead of the night, 1am, a full moon, just a few trucks but thats it. Absolute silence. As we started the climb through the hair pin bends, in the dense creepy forest, i couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. With only the brightness of the full moon and our bikes headlight, we could make out deers and wild boars amongst the shrubs, crossing the road sometimes. All this, at the speed of what 10-15kmph. Very scary.

Now get ready for the goosebumps. So I'm trailing behind Rahul who is planning to overtake a truck. We had slowed down much more as the truck was going very slow, and as rahul goes into the opposite lane to overtake the truck on the steep mountain, i decide to move towards the left and overtake once he's done. As i slowly inch towards the left of the road and my bike’s light illuminated the edge, i suddenly saw 2 bright eyes looking back at me. Now I'm doing what, like 5kmph, so after 2 seconds, when i came closer, i notice that the body of the animal is yellowish. Another 2 seconds, and i notice whiskers and an open mouth. I see sharp pointed canine teeth and a growl. Wait, what! Exactly my thought process. Realising in that split second that i was slowing moving towards a leopard,i immediately severed right. Probably he thought i was coming right at him, he swung back with his paw which grazed part of my shoes and bike, and i distinctly felt a thud. Not wasting even a microsecond, i immediately revved my engine and raced ahead of the truck. As i reached next to Rahul, i shouted at the top of my lungs “ Rahul Cheetah Cheetah run run run “ and i raced ahead like a motogp racer. After 5 mins when rahul finally caught up with me i told him “ dude cheetah “ to which he was like “ nah maybe a deer or something”.

Finally when we reached a small village where the trucks had stopped and a small dhaba was open, we stopped. My heart was still beating frantically when rahul came over. By the time i caught hold of my breath and got down from my bike, 2 drivers came up to me and started checking my leg if i was hurt. They then told that they were behind us and saw the whole thing unfold. A lot of people gathered then and were discussing the same thing. Apparently a man eater was on loose the same time and had killed 2 men already.

I thanked my lucky stars that i was saved and oh god, decided never to ride in the night!!!

Not much to tell. we stopped once more on the outskirts of mysore cause my behind was paining like hell. We finally reached home at around 4am.

A very eventful journey came to an end. Learnt a lot !!!

Stay tuned for more

Attached Files

**krishna77** · 02-06-2015, 09:51 PM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Beautiful photos. Will stay tuned for more.

**Lone Wanderer** · 02-06-2015, 10:38 PM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

awesome pics and plot,,,, was wonderful to read,, and hell yeah we all are tuned up,,, i mean we just read the first K of K2k,,, bring it on dude,,,,,,

**akshay** · 02-07-2015, 10:49 AM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Good going there. Glad you like riding the R15 and I agree that this is a decent bike in its class to tour, contrary to what many think otherwise. The cheetah incident was epic and on the brighter side if that's what it took to put you off riding at night, then perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.

**joshi.varun91** · 02-07-2015, 03:49 PM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Thanks all

Does everyone feel a lot of silence in the tourer section nowadays or is it just me ??

Originally posted by akshay View Post

Good going there. Glad you like riding the R15 and I agree that this is a decent bike in its class to tour, contrary to what many think otherwise. The cheetah incident was epic and on the brighter side if that's what it took to put you off riding at night, then perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.

Yes the cheetah incident really scared me a hell lot and was one of the strong reasons for not riding during the night. Also I'm short sighted, so need spectacles all the time to look at things far away. Night time, with people always resorting to driving with their high beams ON, and insects getting stuck to specs make it much more irritating and difficult. Day riding is always good , atleast for me

----consecutive posts auto-merged-----

Mysore - Bangalore ( 150kms short ride)

So i learnt a lot from my previous ride to Kanyakumari.

1) I was pretty sure that I will not be riding during the evening and night
2) Butt-ache was a problem that needed an immediate solution, especially for longer rides. I knew i had the stamina to ride for very long distances without getting tired, but the pain while getting off the bike was unbearable.
3) Keeping few things, like chocolates, a small pack of biscuit, loose change handy in the riding jacket pocket for the quick breaks. Ample water, in arms reach to have water without getting off the bike. All these small niche details help in saving a lot of time.
4) Bit of stretching to do, while riding. Like I used to grab the 'grab handle' behind the pillion seat with one arm and stretch.
5) Get all the necessary and important parts like clutch cable, throttle cable, spark plug, tyre puncture repair kit and keep them for reserve. Learn the basics like tightening the chain etc.
6) All the documents to be kept safely and updated aswell.
7) Power bank for charging the phone on the go
8) Service the bike
9) After going through thousands of travelogs and learning from them, I learnt many cool travel hacks. For example, if you line the inside of your saddle bags with polythene (Garbage bags), they help insulating against water, and trust me, even with a rain liner, there were places where water would come through eventually.
Was able to get hold of only one bungee chord, so went and bought the cloth-hanging ropes
10) Was really doubtful about the 'legal' number plates. Apparently in many cities, including my hometown chandigarh, if you dont have the high security number plates, you can get caught easily. So went ahead and got myself a new number plate which adheres to the RTO.

4th July:

All Saddled up

I had done just 50 odd kms, just before Mandya, it started to rain, and heavily. So much that my rain liner inside the jacket proved to be helpless against the heavy rain and the wind blasts. Stopped at a roadside bus stop where other people were also taking shelter.

**vijayfazer** · 02-07-2015, 06:20 PM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Hi buddy,
That's really great to read the travelogue... That too with R15... Although I loved to tour the countryside, never attempted to cross beyond Chennai-Pondicherry and Chennai-Yelagiri. After reading your story my heart pumps its fuel faster to throttle my fazer for longer rides... Happy to read... :thumbup:

**Lone Wanderer** · 02-07-2015, 09:12 PM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

fantastic just love the way things have been building up,,,,,how did u over come the butt ache did u use anything like towel or something,,,??

i mean i use r15v2 ,, and we all know how unforgiving this bike is on butts,,, i used towel during my last ride to Bhutan it did provide quite a bit comfort,,,

**joshi.varun91** · 02-08-2015, 02:26 AM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Originally posted by vijayfazer View Post

Hi buddy,
That's really great to read the travelogue... That too with R15... Although I loved to tour the countryside, never attempted to cross beyond Chennai-Pondicherry and Chennai-Yelagiri. After reading your story my heart pumps its fuel faster to throttle my fazer for longer rides... Happy to read... :thumbup:

Hey Vijay. Glad to hear it. Bro, its after about 6 months that I am writing this travelog, so the enthusiasm, the energy, the excitement I had when doing this is beyond comparison. After the trip was done and i came back to Mysore, i faced some hard events in life which kind of killed all my joy and energy which thus led to this delay in writing this travel log. IF someone asks me now, whats the best moment from your life, I can easily count this roadtrip, as THE BEST time of my life. Period.

There will always be some obligations , some hurdles, some problems which might make you postpone your plans , be it a roadtrip or anything else. What i suggest is, if it is something you really aspire to do, you dream about it, the best time to do it, is NOW. And trust me, when you put your heart and soul into something, other things WILL fall into place. !!!

I read in " The Alchemist ", When you want something truly and deeply, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

Originally posted by Lone Wanderer View Post

fantastic just love the way things have been building up,,,,,how did u over come the butt ache did u use anything like towel or something,,,??

i mean i use r15v2 ,, and we all know how unforgiving this bike is on butts,,, i used towel during my last ride to Bhutan it did provide quite a bit comfort,,,

I'm extremely sorry for missing out on that detail. Dont know how it slipped out of my mind.

For butt-ache:
1) All the way from Mysore- Chandigarh, I didn't do anything except take the hourly breaks in between to give rest.
2) Kept shifting my weight here and there just to let the blood flow.

Pain would creep in after covering about 500kms. and the last 100 kms would be the worst. SO after reaching Chandigarh, i thought i had enough.
I read various threads online.

Few folks suggested to get a innerwear especially meant for bicycle riding. Those have paddings inside. I got one from the Decathalon store in Chandigarh.
I wore that too, but even that didnt help much.

In the end, i just kept a bed sheet which was the best solution ever!

Ride to bhutan seems awesome !!! Travelog please. I too wanna do it soon !

**krishna77** · 02-08-2015, 07:19 AM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Good narration till now. Please carry on.

**vijayfazer** · 02-08-2015, 08:04 AM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Originally posted by joshi.varun91 View Post

Hey Vijay. Glad to hear it. Bro, its after about 6 months that I am writing this travelog, so the enthusiasm, the energy, the excitement I had when doing this is beyond comparison. After the trip was done and i came back to Mysore, i faced some hard events in life which kind of killed all my joy and energy which thus led to this delay in writing this travel log. IF someone asks me now, whats the best moment from your life, I can easily count this roadtrip, as THE BEST time of my life. Period.

There will always be some obligations , some hurdles, some problems which might make you postpone your plans , be it a roadtrip or anything else. What i suggest is, if it is something you really aspire to do, you dream about it, the best time to do it, is NOW. And trust me, when you put your heart and soul into something, other things WILL fall into place. !!!

I read in " The Alchemist ", When you want something truly and deeply, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

I'm extremely sorry for missing out on that detail. Dont know how it slipped out of my mind.

For butt-ache:
1) All the way from Mysore- Chandigarh, I didn't do anything except take the hourly breaks in between to give rest.
2) Kept shifting my weight here and there just to let the blood flow.

Pain would creep in after covering about 500kms. and the last 100 kms would be the worst. SO after reaching Chandigarh, i thought i had enough.
I read various threads online.

Few folks suggested to get a innerwear especially meant for bicycle riding. Those have paddings inside. I got one from the Decathalon store in Chandigarh.
I wore that too, but even that didnt help much.

In the end, i just kept a bed sheet which was the best solution ever!

Ride to bhutan seems awesome !!! Travelog please. I too wanna do it soon !

Cool! How about using gel seat pad or air pads. Even I never tried... But heard about it that these products reducing the heat and helps riders to go up to 1000kms (gel) and 2000kms (air) at a stretch.

If anyone tried using this please share your valuable suggestions on these products.

**joshi.varun91** · 02-15-2015, 10:10 PM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Bangalore - Pune ( 850 kms )

I don't know if it was the excitement, or was it the cold weather in Bangalore or maybe to answer the call of nature, but i was wide awake around 3am, much before the scheduled 3 30am. I had just under 4 hrs of sleep, and was a bit worried as it was going to be a mammoth ride today. Got ready quickly, had a cup of tea and some biscuits. My sister was kind enough to pack few parathas for me for the journey. By 4am i was out on the NICE highway to get to the Tumkur highway which goes till Pune.

NICE highway which used to be a bliss for riders disappointed me at a few places. After you cross the exit for Mysore highway, i felt the NICE roads weren't NICE enough. I mean firstly, at many places the roads weren't level enough. Bike kept jerking and i even found few potholes. Nothing major but then you know

Anyways, while riding on curves, i felt a bit off, like something is wrong. I felt like my bike is leaning a bit towards the right. Imputing it to the uneven roads of the NICE, i took the exit for Tumkur. Still up till Tumkur, that odd feeling still loomed in my head. So when the Tumkur toll plaza came, i thought its best i checked , and since it was pitch dark at all the places and the Toll plaza was well lit. So i got down to check and to my horror, my utmost horror, i had not fastened the bag using the D locks properly. In all the morning haste, i had passed the strap through the D ring, but didn't loop it. Just passed it and stuck the velcro, and because of that it was moving here and there. While cursing myself, i locked the bag firmly, double checking each D lock, put on the rain cover (since i could see the overcast sky ).

I finally started on the Tumkur-Chitradurga stretch. That stretch is a bliss. Beautiful roads, smooth tarmac and so even. My bike could easily do 100-120kmph. The sun finally came up and i was kinda skeptical about the weather. As far as i could see, i could see dark clouds looming overhead. Stopped for a break where i had the parathas and some juice. There was a kid nearby who came over to check my bike, and talked to me for a while.

I started again, this time deciding to take the next break after crossing Chitradurga, since that was a stretch i had never done before. After a while after crossing Chitradurga, i felt a bit sleepy and bored. Had slept for just 3 hours the previous night, i was afraid of feeling drowsy while riding. So stopped and decided to do something i had never done before. I put on my earphones with my iPod. Put the volume in low just so it acts as a background noise. That helped immensely. Though its not advisable i took a lot of precautions, kept checking my rear view mirror every few mins and rode mostly in the left most side of the road.

After sometime, i saw that i was running low on fuel. Luckily i spotted a Kamath next to a fuel pump. Tanked up the bike as well as my stomach, Again started on the journey. Not much to tell, i just went on an on an on. Stopped a few times for ass breaks.

While entering Maharashtra, I stopped to click a picture. The overcast sky was making room for the sun, and the temperature was increasing steadily.

Eventually i was about 150 kms from pune where the real ass pain started. I hadn't had lunch , so was kinda hungry, hot and sweaty. Maharashtra roads, sorry to say, weren't helping either. The traffic , oh god, nobody cares about bikes. You have to move away from cars or they are gonna do it for you. LOL.

So i was really damn exhausted, and not able to decide for a place to stop when i spotted a RE classic, which was also saddled up. Punjab number (Pathankot). I went next to him and signalled for food to him, he gave me a thumbs up. I signalled to him to lead and stop wherever. So we stopped at a dhaba. He turned out to be an Army officer posted at Pune, who was returning from Goa. After exchanging stories, we had a good lunch ( Some famous daal of that region : Satara ). Now since i was also visiting my friend, who was also an army officer, my new friend asked me to follow him since he was also going to the same place. That really helped a lot, since he took me from a way where we encountered little to no traffic lights.

Finally i reached CME (college of military engineering) where my friend was. Another awesome thing was that the entrance gate lies on the old Mumbai-Pune highway. so that was another cool thing since I had to hit the same highway the next day.

I had a haircut first from an army barber

after which i freshened up and me and my friends, along with other officers went to party. Pune, rocks when we talk about the crowd. Wow, it was amazing. We partied hard, a really awesome way to end the day. Came home and slept and woke up around 8am the next day. That was a good enough 7 hour sleep i had. Since Mumbai was not far, i thought to relax more an enjoy my friends company for sometime.....

**dblackhawk7** · 02-20-2015, 07:18 PM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

Kudos man...Nice ride

**nadz11.ns** · 02-20-2015, 11:21 PM

Re: K2K | Because i love to ride.

awesome stuff man

the narration is simple and clear, which make it interesting to read.

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