Dear all,

I am planning to do a Ride to Ahmedabad and Back Solo. Has someone done this recently? I need some information on the road quality and caveats if any.

Thanks,

Atul

please refer to



did it this diwali..
watch out for 100 KM Vadodara to Ahmedabad stretch.. rest is good..

Hi all ,

I am planning to do a pune-->kanyakumari-->pune trip in coming month of march . . .. I have listed below the itinerary . . any inputs on same would be helpful. . The main issue is getting leaves and in total I have 12 days to spare . . . .

Day 01: (430 kms)
Pune -->Hubli
Hubli Halt

Day 02: (450 kms)
Hubli-->Bangalore
Bangalore Halt

Day 03:
Rest in bangalore and check up my bike

Day 04: (150kms)
Bangalore-->Mysore
Mysore Halt and G2G with old buddies


Day 05: (400kms)
Mysore -->Madurai
Madurai Halt

Day 06: (250kms)
Madurai-->Kanyakumari
Kanyakumari Halt

Day 07: (567 kms)
Kanyakumari-->Wayanad
Halt in wayanad

Day 08: (200kms)
Wayanad-->Hassan
Halt in hassan and have a G2G with college buddies

Day09:
Rest in hassan and check up the bike again

Day 10: (450kms)
Hassan-->Hubli
Hubli Halt

Day 11: (430kms)
Hubli-->Pune

Day 12:
Rest at pune and next day onwards lead the same old life of soft-ware engineer


More over some tips on must-to-cover places on the way should be helpful . I would riding on my Honda Unicorn all the way .

Some issues currently I am facing is ,

1. I am not aware of the road conditions in TN . Though in karnataka I am pretty sure that roads must be 50-50 !

2.Though, this would be my second long trip on my unicorn, first being Pune-->Hampi-->Pune (1400kms), I am very skeptical about are the stoppages and halts planned properly. Please throw some light up, I can do a max of 500 kms per day with stretching a little and 300-400 very easily.

3.Can anyone suggest, if we can do kanyakumari--wayanad at a stretch, I am totally unaware of roads, language and more importantly I see a sanctuary(Mudumalai National Sanctuary) in between while entering to wayanad , so I am unsure about the timings of entry if there are any .

TIA,
Kartik

Also it is advicable to take Mysore-bandipur-Ooty-Metupalayam-Coimbatore-Pollachi-Palani-Dindugal-madurai Instead of mysore-chamarajanagar-satyamangalam-Bhavani-Dindugal route.The second route is very boring. The first route is pretty scenic with good roads.

Thanks phanikar. I would re-consider framing my route. BTW what I am thinking of doing is instead of riding all the way back in tamilnadu traversing the same route, I was thinking I would do kanyakumari-->kozhikode and stay back there. And then enter the forest region in day time and cover up from wayanad till hassan One more thing , I got a different perception from one of the XBHPian that , riding in kerala is very difficult as its very crowded . Is that so ? Any idea. . Atleast I have ridden in TN and KA , but kerala I have least idea about

About 2 weeks back I returned from my an all kerala road trip , solo on my R15. Covered all 14 districts of Kerala and all i can say is really horrible roads. Nh17 and nh 47 are called Nh for no apparent reasons. Full of pot holes and uneven surfaces and thanks to heavy monsoons that kerala encounter every year most of the tarmac is washed away.

Worst roads in Kerala itself are in Kurnool, kasarcod and palakkad district. PS : none of the highways in kerala has a divider. Its a little wider than a single lane road with two way traffic and plenty of private buses who are always on speed runs. Be cautious and be safe. Good luck

Well my sole intention to ride in kerala was to cover , all the states of karnataka , tamil nadu and kerala . .Now I think I should plan my route again . .The private bus behaviour is the common thing that everyone in warning me about . . . Are there any alternative scenic routes in path way from kanyakumari to hassan(karnataka) ???

munnar - pollachi-coonoor-ooty-madumalai-bandipur-mysore

you should keep this route either while going or returning.Its very scenic.

I am not sure which route will be good to reach munnar from west coast
maybe you can ping some member from kerela to get exact details.

Lol lol lol.. they still haven't patched them up. We passed the aforementioned 'Worst Roads' stretch and I should really tell you, the roads were truly horrible. At the time we reached Kannur from Kasargod, I was thinking that biking is a big big mistake and I should stick to maharashtra for the rest of my touring . But as soon as we closed in to Sultan Bathery and later entered TN towards Ooty, All those thoughts vanished after encountering the best ghat for our 3000km South India ride (Sultan Bathery to Ooty)

Another suggestion.. Pune Bangalore can be easliy done in 1 day no matter if the distance seems too high. Do yourself a favour, halt somewhere further down south 1 extra day but try to cover maximum distance on day 1 itself. Halting in Hubli is useless as you can easily make it there before lunch if you start from Pune early around 5AM. Fatigue also wont be an issue as you as it is will be halting in Bangalore for a rest day.

Also, your bike is a F'in Unicorn! What can possibly go wrong in a Unicorn with all the fabled 'Honda Reliability' going in your favour! Give the bike a good service before leaving, switch to Fully Synthetic engine oil and Change over from stock spark plug to Iridium. Carry spare clutch cable, brake and clutch levers and a spare tyre tube (if running tubetype tyres) and then the only thing remaining for you to worry about are the notorious bus drivers you will encounter all over Kerela . The reason they are notorious because the hog up 1 lane out of the available 1.5 lanes in all Kerala NH and lean into corners as if they were bikes .

My suggestion would be to merge riding on day 1 and day 2 save 1 day here. And split up the day 7 ride into 2 days i.e. use up the saved day here. You don't want to fly past Wayanad because the surroundings are just too scenic to 'not stop'. And those are not the kind of roads which will allow you to do 567km in 1 day.

Valid points antz bhai . . . Would try to stretch a little on day one. . By the way fully synthetic oils are not of much use in 150 cc honda engines right .. ? Any specific reasons for suggesting , iridium plugs and synthetic oil . . I did read some articles on them but I see most of them are used in high performance bikes . . So just asking . .

And for the highlighted part
ROFL !

Regular plugs need to be replaced every 12k km. Iridiums last 4 times as much. By switching over to iridiums, you effectively eliminate 1 point of failure which can lead to an undesirable breakdown on a long solo tour. The sole reason I personally use fully synthetic is due to their longevity and better heat dissipation properties. As the drain interval typically followed by P220 owners is 2.5k km for semi and 5-7k km for FS, I use it for the peace of mind as I dont have to carry engine oil on a tour + not look for it in the middle of a tour as it rarely(rather never) needs a top up. My last FS oil gracefully lasted 8k under such grueling circumstances that the last 3k of those were done inside 8 days.. . So, in effect, another point of failure is practically eliminated.

Anyways, looking at the much higher drain intervals of a Fully Synthetic oil as compared to a mineral / semi it actually turns out to be a cheaper deal with much better protection to the engine. So, in the end, it doesn't matter what capacity of bike you are using. On a long ride, Fully Synthetic is always a much better deal for both the wallet, the bike and the (less) time spent in finding and changing oil.

And regarding the ROFL part, thats absolutely true .

One more general query , I use tuff up tube tyres in rear and normal tube ones in front. In case of puncture what do we need to do in case of tuff up tube tyres ? Do we get in repair kits as we get for tubeless one's or do we need to patch and run

Your avatar shows a Suzuki Intruder.. is that the bike you will be taking to Ahmedabad?

and when exactly are you planning on leaving because we might be heading that side ourselves.

@KP No idea bro about Tuffup tyres.

tuffup tube is just a marketting gimmick.. its worse than a normal tubed tyre. the tyre can be repaired like a normal tyre but that requires that you do not ride the punctured wheel at all.

Well rockerz I now remember that conversation we had about tuff up tubes that day in G2G . . . . . Need to do a little bit of home work. . Taking basic repair tutorials from my local mech . . Have told him to call me when any bike comes for puncture tomorrow