Our bunch in office had been planning a trip to Goa for quite some time. Every few months 4-5 of us plan a trip, pile up in our colleague’s car, just to get out of the daily grind. Last trip was a trek at Sakleshpur and on the way I had announced to my friends that I had booked my Ninja and my next trip would be on the Ninja, no matter what.

Few of the guys weren’t very keen in going to Goa coz of the heat. They were more willing to go to cooler places like Chikmanglur or Coorg. But I put my foot down that it’s either Goa or nothing (haven’t seen Goa yet). The main reason for Goa was to cover more distance on my babe.

So my colleague who generally arranges for the trips found middle ground and decided on Gokarna, as a matter of fact I hadn’t even heard of this place. But 500 km distance and a beach were fine by me.

After hearing about my touring plan, another colleague Sunny who had recently got an R15 agreed to join me on his bike, instead of the car.

Preparation:

This would be my longest trip ever on a bike; the last was a 350 kms to and from Hogenakkal Falls on my Pulsar. So I made a list of things I would need to buy

1. Visor / Helmet - Got an Indian AGV for Rs. 2400 + Rs. 450 (clear visor) (The helmet I was using was pain at high speeds and I deserved something better on the Ninja)

2. Knee Guards - Alpinestar Bionic Knee Guards – Rs. 3750

3. Boots - Found the Cramster Touring Boots to be good, but skipped for now, chose to use my old Woodland Boots instead.

4. Puncture kit - Took advice from fellow xbhpians and got the kit for 100 bucks

5. Electral - A tourer friend who did the GQ in 140 hours suggested to get this to avoid dehydration.

6. Snickers - My favorite chocolate for energy.

I already had a Balaklava, Cramster Jacket and Gloves so all I needed was stuff for the beach and I was set.

So the plan was to leave Bangalore on Thursday Night (April 1, 2010), I didn’t sleep the previous night so that my body clock keeps me awake on the night of the trip. Two bikes and Scorpio with 5 guys left Bangalore at midnight and took the Nice Road towards Tumkur.



On Nice Road I touched 140km/h but didn’t go faster as it was too dark. Near Tumkur there was a huge Jam at the toll gates on NH4 due to which we lost some time.

After that ride was fairly insignificant till we stopped at highway joint for a small Tea Break. There was a young group already there possibly going for a trip somewhere. And, as always a lot of attention for the bikes and for the fully geared up riders too. Man .. I still can’t forget the smiles the girls were passing us. But we had to move on, and we went ahead on our journey.

Soon after leaving the joint my fuel light came up and I knew I had 100 Kms worth of fuel left. The maximum I have ridden with the fuel light on is 60 kms, so that is what I consider to be on the safer side. Even the R15 was showing low on fuel. We crossed many Petrol Pumps but all were closed for the night.

At day break we stopped at Tea Shop for tea and ask for a Petrol Pump, I found this the right time to Lube my Chain which had started to look dry. Without a center stand this is a pain, coz u have to roll the bike after every spray. This looked even more stupid after we lubed the R15 (with center stand) as it took just a few seconds.

The guy at a tea shop told that there was a petrol pump quite near, but when I reached there I found they only had normal unleaded fuel. I have been quite particular about the fuel for the Ninja, till that date I have only used Shell Super (barring once, 100 bucks worth of Speed) and I was no way filling it up with normal unleaded. So I chose to ride further with the low fuel light on, than fill it with normal.



I stopped at a few petrol pumps on the way, but no joy. The only good part was we were near Shimoga and I was sure I would get something there.










^Photoshopped



This is not Snow , it was chalk or limestone mine on the way.

Finally at Shimoga I found an Indian Oil pump with xtrapremium. So I told the attendant to fill up with 700 bucks worth of the stuff. The Funny part was that the attendant was filling the tank in quick bursts on the nozzle. It took me some time to understand why, due to language issues and found that there was metal piece lodged in the nozzle causing the weird behavior. It took a full 5 mins for 12 ltrs of fuel to get in.

Even the Scorpio got its tank full here and on we went. On the way we had some nice curves and had fun leaning into them, though I overshot one with my heart in throat. Promised myself that next time I will take time judging the turns and with slower speed.

We stopped at Sagar for breakfast. It was already sunny and I had started to feel a bit of fatigue setting in. I had a Masala Dosa and Dahi Wada for breakfast with some Coffee which was very important as I was kinda bit sleepy now. I also changed to a tinted visor. My friends informed that we would enter the Ghat section and I made Sunny (on R15) promise (who had also bungled a corner) that we would be slow and be behind the Scorpio at all times.

Stopped near Jog Falls for some pics.

^Don’t wear your knee guards like this. I learnt this the hard way.

Riding up and down the twisties was fun, however it had become really hot now and I had started to feel tired. We both stuck to our plan and kept behind the car throughout the Ghat section.






By the time we were out of the Ghats, I had started to feel really hungry, and tired. I tried to stop the guys for a break, however they guys told me that Gokarna was just 40 kms away so I switched my reserve energy and rolled on.

We reached Gokarna at 2 pm, and after 14 hours of riding my right wrist had started to hurt, now I know that it’s due to the posture, but old habits die hard. After reaching Gokarna I was told that I would have to park the bike in the open far from the resort as there was no parking available there. It was already very hot and this really steamed me up. Out of disgust I told my buddies, ‘guys I can’t park my bike in the open and I would rather go back to Bangalore at this very instant’ . Luckily we found a guest house where we could park the bikes and car for a fee and that brought my BP to normal.

2 days and 2 nights on the beach was fun, I won’t go through the details about the girls in bikinis on the beach here , because this is supposed to be a Touring piece.







The only things worth mentioning is that while coming back from Om Beach to Kudle Beach (where our resort was), I saw 2 fully geared up bikers enjoying Nimbu Pani, as even our lot had been beach hopping in the sun, we stopped there to hydrate ourselves. We started to chat and they told they had come down from Pune and were touring, It was only after one of the guys had his back against me that I realized he was wearing an xbhp Tshirt. It was now that a feeling of bonhomie prevailed . The first thing we asked each other were our Xbhp Ids, believe me we didn’t even ask each other’s names…. Weird. We chatted for a while, the guys (tourer_kashif and Beruist) discussed about the route we took from Bangalore. They told me that they would penning the trip in tourer section which they did.

http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...abian-sea.html

Second thing, I messed up right wrist further by playing beach volleyball, I knew I had to something about it otherwise the return home would be gruesome. Promised that I would put some Iodex on the wrist before I sleep… which I completely forgot.



Then came Sunday morning… and it was time to go….
More pics coming soon….