That's my motto!!!

Here's my log:

I had a off on friday due to some festival, was planning to head to Bellary and visit my aunt/cousins. I was planning to buy some jeans as well, very cheap in Bellary. But praful tells me to come to Kodachadri as well and will be joining MG in his ride. I was skeptical of climbing Kodachadri as my bike has not done Run-in and the thought of completing run-in at Kodachadri was scary

I decided to goto Bellary on Friday and catch up with the gang for saturday and sunday. We were supposed to meet at Bhadravathi, but i couldn't leave my aunt's house at 0400 in morning, I under-estimated the distance from Bellary to Bhadravathi. So instead we were going to meet at Sagar. I had two options either take Bellary ->chalakere->Chitradurga->Shimoga->Bhadravathi or take the state highway route to Sagar. When I woke up on Sat. morning I saw praful message stating they were near Banavara, so I dropped the plan of riding to chitradurga and shimoga. I couldn't ride faster than 75kph so took the interesting route through statehighway. I left my aunt's place at 0700 with her not so happy that I am leaving so early, and I had the heavy bag on my shoulder with lot of jeans

I went on the Hospet road and took a deviation to Sondur. The road was just pathetic and with slush all around, but the scenery around made up for it. Beautiful mountains with train tracks running through it. I couldn't stop at places to take photos as there was no place for me to stop and take without getting splashed by slush (iron ore mixed as well). But did manage to take few pics:

Water reservoir in Sandur:


There's a railway track at the base of the Mountains, I had just missed the train passing through it. Was an awesome scene to see


Once out of sondur, the roads improved towards kudligi, I went through kudligi towards kottur and on either side of the road it was just field of jolla around me. I saw couple of king fisher birds near, stopped immediately but they flew away, managed to get one on camera but with digital zoom



I reached harpanahalli at around 1100 for breakfast, the roads leading it to were very good with just enough curves to keep it from being boring
At the exit of Harpanahalli, there is a lake for which I stopped and took photos, soon enough some guys and were asking what photos I was taking, I answered the lake and didn't understand the reason, turns out there were couple of ladies washing clothes down below, who knew!!!

I exited harpanahalli and next stop was harihara, this stretch was excellent best part of the trip so far, green fields of corn everywhere with mixture of sunflowers in between!! last time I came in bus in this route, the roads were non existent and was a pain in the ass literally!

corn fields everywhere!!


Road to Harihara:


I crossed Harihara and saw the message from Praful stating they had gone beyond shimoga and were nearing Sagara, I knew I would keep them waiting for sometime in Sagara for sure. I hurried fast towards Honnali and had to stop to take photos of the beautiful fields across the road, the roads were good and one stretch went on for 3km straight!!!!

Green fields at Honnali


I reached Honnali and had to take SH26 towards NH206, I found NH206 and was riding for sometime, then I had a doubt whether I was heading in the right direction as I was going too much northerly direction. Stopped on the side and checked MGMaps to find I was indeed going in wrong direction, Came back to Honnali then took the road towards Shikaripura. I can't thank creator of MGMaps enough, I found shortcuts which saved me at least 10km near the end and for this amazing route I took

Finally reached NH206 and found this lorry near the narrow bridge, left me wondering how this happened!


Look at where he has hit the bridge and look where it ended:


After a short ride on NH206, I received a call from Praful who said they were heading back from Jog and it was a disappointment. I wanted to see Jog again and told him I shall see the photos then decide whether to go or not. I finally reached Sagar by 1445 and had a nice lunch in the usual place, spent another 15 minutes before Praful and rest joined up.

After seeing the pics and seeing the time i decided to skip the Jog ride and went towards the Launch at Hessarimakki. I knew there were two places for the boat, one at Sigandur and the other couldn't recall the name, All i knew was not to take the right at one intersection but to head straight.

We reached the launch after 30 minutes ride and then I noticed the red light for fuel glowing on my bike, I was cursing already for noticing it earlier and not filling up in Sagar. There was so much water in the reservoir, I had never seen it at this level before. Finally the launch arrived and we were told to wait till the bus arrives.




TBC....

Nice Travel log & Beautiful Pics,Its Awesome

To solve the 1 5 mystery .. there are 2 bits.

1. There was some problem with the fuel (maybe dirt - none of you guys faced it as I was the last one to tank up at shimoga) and hence before the climb it was not revving. revving the engine once or twice rectified this problem for good.

2. By the time we reached the top, the lack of air cooling caused the coolant to boil but the engine was still cool enough (relative temperature) but then the fan died. This caused the engine malfunction light to stay on. Luckily we had just another KM to go on relatively plain roads to reach the top and the engine had all night to cool down. The next day the light didn;t turn on for the entire ride down as the engine was never stressed but as soon as we started moving at 20-30 (crucial speed : medium revs + not enough wind to the radiatpr) it was time for the fan to kick in and hence the light came on again. Removing the fairing meant the engine was cool enough not to require the fan anymore for the next 500 Kms. It did show once again just before the sirsi circle flyover when I turned off the engine and the coolant stopped circulating (plus thanks to bangalore traffic conditions). And then 5 KMs from home I looked at the radiator and thought what are these two wires doing touching the radiator so I moved them and presto the fan turns on when I switch off the engine.

Still have to visit the SS but I think it was just a loose contact that had developed over the many rides (due to the great roads) and also due to the SS guys not placing the electricals in their designated places causing a disconnect. Will give my bike a thorough checkup next week.

The 1 5 is an awesome touring bike but not the best for offroading (mainly due to the tyres). I had no aches apart from the engine headache the entire ride.

.:. Archi

Awesome pics Praful and Pranesh. Seems the beauty around is never ending. Any more pics??

Excellent travel log guys.....

Beautiful pix too....

Veda, I heard a lot about your MGMaps. There was a discussion somewhere else where Praful was pulling your leg.

Can I just ask what it really is? Maybe it deserves a thread of it's own . Just give me a link if there is one.

Cheers
Sid

Very nice post - -we are doing Kodichadri next month in 2nd or 3rd week......

Any one who are interested can join me......

yes you can.... there are 2 ways to go to the base of the hill.....

One way is the normal steps rout which is normal climb down..
another one is a trek which most of the people dont know and I can be done only in Summer as it is very dangerous..... I have done both.....

It takes 45 min to climb down to the base on the steps...

Enjoy,,,,,

Hey... Did any one bike from Kemmangundi to Hebba Falls in rain or rainy season.

I tried 4 times and was successful only 2 times - other 2 times need to turn back from mid way as one of my friends in the team had a fall ......

I did it on my RE thunder Bird TBTS....

Great pics Praful and Pranesh! It looks more good than in real

@Praful: Thanks for inviting me for this ride! Thanks for the accomodation at your place. Loved riding with you again after a long time dude! I think our last ride together was Yercaud. I was astonished to see the amount of spares that you carry for your rides man! Really good practise, should follow it. All the best for the ride.

@Veda: Finally saw a Fastest Indian in flesh. Your bike looks sexy! It was great to meet you and ride together. That pic of ours in the Yercaud ride is one of my all time favorites man . I salute your touring spirit. Who will go on a 1000+ kms ride just to buy cheap jeans . All the best for you too.

@Archi: Congrats to you for taking the R 15 to the places where it is not meant for.Are the issues fixed??

@Pranesh:No pics from my side man poor mobile camera of mine Log from my side will come a bit late as I am now caught up with my hectic training. It was great to ride along with you Pranesh. Loved your style of riding. Your riding style complements the Uni well

Mobile GMaps - View maps from various sources on your mobile phone!

It's an innovative program which uses Yahoo maps, Yahoo India maps, Google Maps, Live Maps (not for india). You have gmapmaker for this program, which downloads the map from the respective servers and make it available for Offline use. Essentially, you can load it in your mobile, have gps and you don't need to have a signal let alone GPRS to use

I love the compass feature in this as well, you need to download the app on mobile, then gmapmaker on PC you can use co-ords to download the map area or use the create function on the site to get a MAP file.

@Manoj: I also visited my aunt, don't forget that

nice pics there pranesh veda and praful..!

the jog sure looks malnourished.. ..

Thanks Everyone !!!

Hey Guys,

Thanks a lot for your complements , it was indeed great to enjoy such an awesome ride, take mind-blowing pics, express everything that went through our minds in the travelogue and getting huge round of applause from everyone around ... Special thanks to Praful for spear-heading this road-trip, Veda for being our chief planner (His knowledge of the routes was no less than a LIVE Map)...

@ Archi: It was all bcz of ur bike that every1 else got noticed, R15 is surely a head-turner I still remember the farmer's expression near Sun-Flower fields when he learn that your bike has 6 gears & he was confused like hell what will you do with 6 gears

@ Manoj: Thanks a lot for your complements... Even you've been a great rider, and riding behind you was a bliss... Your gestures / hand signals about bad patch, potholes on the road was very helpful all throughout the ride... This gave me an extra 2 secs to react to any dangers lying ahead...

@ Veda: Awesome trip log !!! You actually made me nostalgic of my childhood days... I belong to Hospet & Harapanahalli is my mom's native have spent all my summer vacations in that place & the lake (these days hardly any water , but about 15 years ago, it was full) which you've mentioned in your logs is where we used to go swimming ... Thanks a lot for the memories

@ All: Your bikes were too fast compared to my Uni and it would take ages to get to top speed & if the momentum breaks, it takes me forever to reach the top speed again & a poorly lit lamp , thanks a lot for riding along & making my life easier ... In fact these are the only disadvantages of my bike... It makes up by providing lotta goodies like superb engine refinement (absolutely no vibes @ all, i remember Praful asking me @ K-Top if the idling is really too low, i couldn't help but smile @ him & say dude, its a Uni ), really big tank, fuel efficiency, riding posture (i don't get any back-pain or whatsoever)... Overall my bike lived upto its expectations ...


@Praful, Sept 21, 28 & Oct 2 are long weekends
So, when are we riding next ????

very nice praful.....
dont know how i missed this thread!! but was wondering after seeing the pics at other places