Re: The story of a bike, a rider and a journey: Bangalore to Pushkar

Akshay,

I didn't do the Pune stretch via Hubli, I did Bangalore-Hampi-Bijapur-Solapur-Pune, but have heard that the road is top notch. Do let me know how it turns out.
Regarding Bungee cords, I am strapping my backpack down using two of the 2*2 cords and are doing pretty good until now.

Ride safe,
Roomy

Re: The story of a bike, a rider and a journey: Bangalore to Pushkar

Day 2: Bijapur-Mumbai(25151-25691)

I had checked with a local driver the previous night about the road conditions and he had warned me that the stretch till Solapur has random potholes that can catch you offguard and advised me to start only during daylight. With his words in mind, I started when dawn broke at around 5 50 and fueled up at a Reliance pump nearby and logged the details in the Drivvo app to meticulously keep track of the fuel consumption. The road had surprises every now and then and the plush suspension of the CBR soaked up most of the undulations without transmitting any of the effects to my butt. As per the gyaan gained at the petrol bunk, this stretch has been approved for a 6 lane highway and the work is expected to commence soon.



After close to 60Km's of patchy roads, a good road helped me cover the remaining distance to Sholapur very quickly. En route, I had heard some loud music blaring and was expected a windows-rolled-down, pimped-up loud car and got the shock of my life when a tractor joined from a side route with massive speakers and a host of people merrily enjoying the song. Later during my journey, I accepted this in house boombox as everyday happening. Also during the ride to Solapur, I saw people walking along the stretches of the road with a small cup of water presumably to attend Nature's call and for the same reason I didn't dare to stop my bike by the roadside. From the moment I started riding, my ear had begun itching and it was proving to be a major irritant as I had to poke my gloved hand though the visor and try to reach crevices I never knew existed. I believe this was a way of body trying to keep me awake as these roads had nothing exciting going on to keep me occupied. I was told that near Solapur a special kind of tea prepared with ghee is served and is delicious. I asked a couple of people and they seemed unaware of this and finally I made my way to a shop called 'Solapur Idli Grih' for breakfast as they were recommended by some locals and had a couple of idli/vada. For someone brought up on a diet of authentic South Indian cuisine, those weren't suiting my palate but still managed to tuck away quick some calories to keep my body moving until the next meal break.



After breakfast, I left Solapur at 8 30 and was in Pune by 12 30 owing to the butter-smooth highways that helped me sustain a constant speed as the traffic was very minimal. I found my way to the Old Mumbai highway knowing that the new Expressway is off limits for two wheelers and is fined for violating this. Lonawla was a good 60 Km's away and the stretch was a welcome change from the dry and monotonous highway that had preceded this. I had talked to @gopakumar s pillai and we had made Lonawla as the rendezvous point owing to his home being a stone's throw away. I made him wait a bit longer than planned as I had misjudged the distance/time required, but nevertheless I spotted him on a shiny black CBR just after the toll booth. Exchanging pleasantries, we quickly moved a little further to a foodcourt where we talked over some delicious sugar cane juice. We had exchanged bikes and I could see his bike urging to go from as little as 2200 RPM while mine would be as lazy as a cat after his meal. The Akropovic exhaust(and head porting as he told me) had vastly improved the low end grunt making it a much more suitable city machine. The machine certainly didn't look its age as was evident from all the TLC he was pouring in on his bike(2 bedsheets and 3 bike covers is his definition of 'covered up'). Me being naturally loquacious and coupled with the fact that I am talking with a fellow moto enthusiast meant that we lost all track of time as we covered topics from road rage to remapping of cars. I finally pulled myself apart and waved goodbye(I think I said bye thrice and got carried way by conversation again) as he wished me luck for my journey.



He had warned me against a famous Nadirbhai turn which has a sweeping lefthander followed by a sharp right hander and true to his words I realized that the turn can draw you in and prove deceptively dangerous owing to a 'vanishing corner' but thankfully I took the curves at a moderate pace and stayed safe. The roads following that were a bit confusing as the old highway merges with the expressway for a short duration there was no clear signboards for Old Mumbai highway. I waited at each turnfor fellow motorists for guidance and thus stayed safe from a police fine. The road of Mumbai was devoid of any incidents of interest and I entered the city much before what I'd anticipated owing to the Diwali holiday. I had to go to Kandivali and I relied on the traditional method of asking people for directions as removing the gloves to use the smartphone was not pragmatic. Surprisingly, Mumbaikar's were the most intrigued by the helmet cam and I was drawing a lot of attention at the traffic stops with people pointing and looking at me. I answered all the questions and they were genuinely surprised by the concept of the action cam, the only exception being a young chap on an Activa who wanted to know which Youtube channel I motovlog on(I told him I don't and he wished me good luck and sped away). Some gems I faced includes "Aap movie bana raha hein kya?" & "Yeh extra headlight hein?". A couple of policemen were very interested in the cam and stopped me in the pretest of checking for documents and initiated a conversation with me. I explained where I am coming from and where I am headed too and they were impressed that I am doing it solo and wished me luck. One thing I noticed is that people generally pay a lot of respect when you are a touring biker, something this is not extended to even luxury car owners.

The guy who wanted to know my Youtube channel


I finally got to my relative's place at around 5 30 PM and happily settled in there. The next day(31st Oct) was a 'no-ride' day as I used the day to spent some time with the folks there.

To be contd...