My Life on 2 Wheels

Short Ride to Devarayanadurga

2011-04-20T23:09:00.000-07:00

We made a quick trip to Devarayandurga in the month of March, we left by 7 AM and we were back by 2:30 PM. Its hardly 70 kms from Bangalore

Route: Bangalore - Nelamangala - Dobbaspetta (Take right, dont take the fly over) - Devarayanadurga

While coming back we took the NICE road for fun which made the trip quicker while coming back ;)

There was some Brahma rathotsava going so it was crowded but was good.

Main Temple

Colorful Ratha

Ratha

So much to eat

So much to eat [Adding Color] :D

Lone Tree

The Road

New Year Ride

2011-01-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to All :-)

What a start to the year, partying till 3 AM and riding 220 KMS to see nothing but still enjoying every bit of it.

The plan was to visit the unheard Dumuku Rallu / Kiagal water falls in Chittor district. This place is around 125 kms from Bangalore.

Route : Bangalore - Hoskote - Kolar - Mulbagal - Head towards Palamaner (Its around 25 kms from Mulbagal)

The plan was to leave around 9 or 10 AM and join my family members at Mulbagal who were starting from my native. Thanks to the New Year party, we over slept and could only leave by 1 PM :D. By than my family members had already reached the water falls, my dad gave me the directions to the place and hung up saying will see you in an hour :D. [because he thought I was already half way... you guys have any idea why he thought like that... ;) ]

It was full rip session for the next 3 hours, post Hoskote we hit the under construction NH-4 which was pretty empty, we stopped for small break some where before Kolar.

Flashback,2 years back on a special trip we had stopped here, the place was differentthan.

By now the time was 2:45 and Chetu was fuming on me for leaving late. As soon as we left Kolar got a call from Dad asking about our whereabouts, we said we will reach there in 30 more mins max but he asked us they had come back from waterfalls so better for us to meet them in Mulbagal on their way back.But we said anyways will catch them near water falls and hung up. After Mulbagal we hit some forest area, the roads were narrow but very well laid out, the ride was good but it was getting frustrating as it was almost 4 PM and we didn't reach the water falls.

Finally, at 4 when we reached the waterfalls we were invited by hundreds of people, we very quite shocked because we thought this place was not so famous so it would be pretty empty. It was like an fair , after some off roading we joined our family who looked very exhausted. Thought we will get mouth full but they were busy having lunch :D.

Later they narrated about their experience about the falls, the falls was around 2 kms trek from the parking lot through some tough terrain and with all the crowd it took them total of 2 hours to to go and come back. So us visiting the water falls was gone :-( Chetu gave me this stare which made me run for cover :D. My dad convinced her we can visit this place some other time and we had lunch and decided we will visit Kurudamale Maha Ganapathi Temple on our way back. After visiting the temple , we headed back to my native.

[ Quote from wiki:
Kurudamale Maha Ganapathi Temple: Situated north west at 8 km from Mulbagal. This place is famous for Lord Ganapathi Temple.the Idol of the lord ganapathi is made of single " Saligrama rock " and the height is about 21.Ft from the ground level , & This Idol as well as temple is told to be 5000 yrs old.
]

Now few pics

Kurudumale Temple

In Love again: Canon 500 D

2010-11-26T00:48:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my sister :) she gifted me a Canon 500D. Its been a while since I got it.

I am completely in love with it. Got it from Foto Circle, Bangalore. Will post few pictures very soon. Lot of trips in pipeline, stay tuned :)

Yamaha R15 Recall, replaced Radiator assembly

2010-11-16T22:23:00.000-08:00

Update on R15

Its been a while since my last posting.

Last month got a call from Yamaha asking me to replace the Radiator assembly as Yamaha was providing a free upgrade. Tried asking what exactly was the problem but the lady on the call had minimal or zero knowledge about the problem.

One week later surprisingly the over heating LED started Turing red, checked the coolant level, it was a bit low topped it up but the problem was the same. Thanks to my busy schedule was not able to visit the showroom for close to one month. With my friends help finally got the radiator replaced under warranty. Still unaware what exactly the problem was.

The problem is with some batch of R15 only, get it checked if you haven't yet. The problem may arise any time and Yamaha may have changed there mind by than to replace it for free. Radiator assembly cost 4k.

Ride to Somanathapura

2010-05-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

After a long time I got a chance to ride out, Thanks to Chetu :) she wanted to spend her Saturday outside Bangalore. I can't say no to her ;-) [Atleast when she say we shall ride out.]

Somanathapura was in to-do list for long time, thought will give a visit. We visited Talakadu as well.

And my bike completed 30k mark :-)

Route Details:
Bangalore - Maddur - Mallavali - Bannur [Take left before] - Somanathapura - Talkadu - Ballegere Mallavali - Bangalore

Total Kms: 290 kms

Roads are not good STILL between Talkadu - Ballegere, rest was Ok. [Not considering the Bangalore - Mysore highway which is Good]

For history on Somanathapura click here and for Talakadu click here

Few pics:

Somanathapura Temple

Somanathapura

Talakadu

Cauvery River

Talakadu

Very Shy guy, wanted a pic but refused to pose

30k and still in love with it :)

30k Done! 40k will come soon.

One more wonder full small trip, many more big trips coming this year post August :)

Going West Coast in search of Peace

2009-10-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

Frustration! Frustration! Frustration! This trip was born out of Frustration! Always had West coast in mind, chalked out a plan along with Chethan our very own bike baba and decided on visiting Wayanad, Muzhappilangad driven-in beach, Mangalore, Kodachadri, Sirsi[We couldn't visit this place, read on to know Y?]

Day 0 Sept 28th [Bengaluru - Kalpetta]:
Due to some unavoidable reason we decided to start around 2 PM, plan was to halt in Kalpetta so we could spent the next day around Wayanad. It was a smooth and boring ride till Gundalpet, time was already 5 PM, we knew after 6 we couldn't enter the Bandipura forest area. Started pushing a bit, we crossed the check post around 6:15 PM.

After Entering forest range

The roads were beautiful and very scenic, it was full rip session till the natural lights went out. There was a big traffic jam near Sulthan Bathery check post, we some how came out of it very quickly and took a small Coffee break. We hit Kalpetta around 8 PM, looked out for some hotels and finally checked in to The Woodlands hotel which had a private, secure parking. Ended the day with the following.

Energy Drinks :D

Yummy food

Route: Bengaluru - Mysore- Gundlapet - Sulthan Bathery- Kalpetta
Distance: 278 Kms
Route Map Link

Day1 Waynada

Today's plan was to visit the main places around Kapletta, lazy started around 9 after having the breakfast in the Woodlands hotel.

Places around Kalpetta

Places around Kalpetta and Distance

The first place we visited was Karappuzha Earth Dam

Way to Karappuzha Earth Dam

Dam from some distance

Dam

The other side of the Dam

Old hut near Dam

Next was Edakkal caves, here we want to take small jeep [roller coaster] ride which will take us to the base of the Edkkal caves from where we need to trek for 300 mts.

Want some?

Edakkal caves, trek

Inside Edakkal caves

Inside Edakkal caves, Chethan posing

From here we can again trek another 400 mtrs up and see the whole of wayanad but we were in no mood because it would take another 45 mins, so dropped the plan. We trekked down, and took the Jeep drive back to the place where we had parked our bikes, the jeep drive was very good. I have a video of it will, watch out for the video section.

Next we headed to Meenmutty waterfalls, the entry fee here is bit wierd, for 1-10 persons it 300 Rs with guide. Guide said it was 1 kms trek but guess it was more, this trek had everything from rope to no support steep slippery way.

Lonely tree

Getting down using a rope

First view of fall

Falls

This is way back up

One more

By the time we came back, we were completely drained, gulped a bottle of butter milk and rested for some time.

We continued to the next place, with no place in mind we were waiting for some board to show up, the roads were too good to stop.

Road

We got some checkpost, we paid a entry fee of Rs.7 and we crossed it only to know we were heading towards Ooty, turned back saying 'next time'. The roads were too good to stop.

We made a stop near some place which is very close to Chembra peak and refueled ourselves with 1 biryani and omlet each. We knew Chembra would be hard to trek considering what we had gone 1 hour back. So we headed towards Soochipara falls, we say a board which read Kanthanpara falls 3 kms, so we took a diversion to check it out. This is what we saw.

Initially we thought this was the falls

Kanthanpara falls

This place was uncrowded and kind of nice, after spending some time we headed back towards, Soochipara falls.

We need to walk 2kms or so to reach the falls, this is what we saw while we were on our way to the falls.

Chethan named it Double Decker :D

Falls from distance

Falls closeup

From here we headed back to hotel, it was 5:30 already, we saw a board reading Pookot lake 5 kms, we thought we shall give it a try but when we reached there it was already closed. So we headed back to hotel.

This was a very tiring day with so much trekking and we had covered 130 kms.

Day 2: Kalpetta - Vythiri- Banasura Sagar DAM [-Manthavady-Nedumpoyil-Koothuparambu-Thalasheri]

Today's plan was to visit Banasura Sagar dam via Vythiri, which rockkyy[Xbhpian] had suggested and head towards the drive in beach near Thalasheri. Thanks rockkyy the roads were very good and scenic. We checkedout of hotel around 9 and headed towards Vythiri.

First view of Banasura Sagar Dam

Beautiful Dams

We parked our bikes outside the entrance of dam and carried all our luggage hoping we can drop it some where and visit the place, lucky we dropped all the luggage in the ticket counter and waited for the jeep to takes to the Dam. The distance was not more than a Km but we were in no mood to walk, we waited for the jeep for 20 mins which finally came, we boarded the jeep along with a couple and kid. The place was very less crowded which made the place more beautiful.

Banasura Sagar Dam

Speed Boating

Banasura Sagar Dam

So our next destination was drive-in beach. Finally it started raining, than i realized i had forgot to get rain gear for my bag which I had tied on the pillion seat. Went to some shop and got two big covers which worked well through out the trip.

Bike all set for rain ride.

Traffic jam.

Finally around 4 we reached Muzhappilangad drive in beach, this is the only and longest drive in beach in Kerala.

Muzhapilangad Drive in Beach

Palm shore resort adjacent to beach

We dumped in all our luggage in the room we got in the resort which was adjacent to the beach and came back running to ride in the beach again ;).

Chethan riding

We could easily ride upto speed of 70 kmphr without any difficulties but if you stop the bike for more than a min this would happen

Tire got struck

Two bikes

Darmaland Island

We were in the beach till 6, later we went into near by town to get booze and some snacks as we had skipped our lunch. We came back by 7, order food and we spent rest of the day wandering on the beach, chatting with resort owner and his friend till 11. [Ask chethan more about this :D]. This place was very beautiful, we could hear to the wave even when we were in the room and this place is visited less by tourist I guess, as we saw only around 100 people many of them were locals.

View from resort entrance

Road to resort

Day 3: Muzhappilangad - Kasaragood - Mangalore
Distance: 170 kms

First thing in the morning we washed the bikes and lubed the chains. It had started raining, after a short while we stopped to have breakfast.

Breakfast for the day.

Next stop was at Kasaragod, the roads were pretty Ok here but it was raining non stop. When we reached Bekal fort it was almost afternoon. This place is beautiful, its a must visit place. Lets the pics do the talking.

Entrance of Bekal Fort

After entering Bekal Fort

View Of ocean

Me posing

Both posing

Beach we couldn't visit

This place was beautiful, Forts with greenery and ocean made it more beautiful. Spent enough time and left towards Mangalore.

Now rain started to pour down heavily, so did the average speed.

Divider

Roads got worse and to add to that the rains never stopped. We reached Mangalore by 4:30
PM but it took us 30 mins to search for the guest house we had booked for. Thanks to the locals, we were rounding the guest us but no one told the right location. Finally some school kid showed us the way. We decided not to visit the beach instead we shall go some nice place and have good dinner.

After riding through pathetic roads we decided not to take updpi road to reach Kodachadri instead go through agumbe. One of the many best decison (:D) we took in the trip. And we decided to skip Sirsi, as even if we had visited Sirsi we couldnt have visited many places. So Sirsi we decided to visit next time.

We had a heavy dinner came back around 10 and crashed for the day. We could visit only one place today but it was worth it.

Day 4: Mangalore - Agumbe - Kodachadri
Distance: 210 kms

D Day for me, had waited for this day for more than a year. The plan for the day was to visit beach in Mangalore and head towards Kodachadri via Agumbe. I would like to put up more pictures than text to share my experience, Hmm I would tell this was one HELL of a experience.

Morning 7 AM we headed towards the beach, it was raining but it did not stop us from visiting it.

Beach, rain, so all the gears still On

We came back to the guest house, packaged up things and left by 10 AM. It was smooth ride till Agumbe.

Some where before Agumbe and rain

Base of Agumbe

Some where in the Hills

By the time we reached the top it was around 1 PM but the view was like this which was hard to believe it was 1 in afternoon.

At the top. Isn't it Beautiful.

At the top.

Wish I could have spend some more time but the time was running out, we had to reach Kodachadri before sun disappeared. When we inquired about the route towards Kodachadri, to our shock the guy said it was more 100 kms. Left immediately and headed towards Thirthahalli, the rain had eased a bit when we reached Thirthahalli, had lunch and inquired about the route, was not convinced by what local guys suggested, called up Akhil and asked for the direction who was a great help in directing in the right direction. Thank you Sir :D.

As soon as we left Thirthahalli, we came across a board which read Kodachadri 68 kms, there was big smile on our faces, started ripping. Time 3:30 PM, Ok roads, raining lightly.

Finally reached the base of kodachadri at 4:45 PM. Locals there suggested us to take the jeep as it was too dangerous to go now and we came to know the guest house was under re-innovation and Battara mane was full. We had only two options either halt in kodachadri base and ride up early morning or ride up. But I was very eager to ride up, convinced chetan some how and we started around 5:15 PM.

Before the Hell-Heaven starts

Just after half kms of riding up

At this stage chetan asked whether we need to continue or head back. I said lets continue, even though my heart was pumping like mad. The rain had started, the fog started to cover us and the light was fading. Finally at 6:15 PM we reached the top. It was raining very heavily and the fog was too much to see anything.

I was thinking what made me ride up at this time, chetan wanted to ride down but I didn't have the balls to do that. It was very hard to convince him but I do the convincing very well you see. Finally spoke with the battarmane guys and got place for 2 of us to sleep.

Look at the fog and my tires :D

This is where we stayed for the night.

Warming up

Our bikes are right after the last pillar

Around 8 PM inside the house

Close up, can u see the devil

I should say, this is the craziest thing I had done so far.People were surprised and obviously shocked to know we had come in bike. The asked about our trip, we had nice dinner and tried sleeping but we could hardly sleep in the cloud.

We some how got the signal and were able to contact Arjun from XBHP, he had planned to come to kodachadri the next day, but hearing our story he ditched the plans and said he will wait for us in Shimoga so we can ride back to Bangalore. So we decided we will leave early around 6 AM and tried sleeping again but in vain.

We were awake before the alarm could go off, chetan asked to come out and have a look outside, hmm there was nothing to see as we couldn't see anything because of the fog and it was raining heavily. We thought we would wait for some more time and time was 7:00 AM and the conditions were same. Our mobile batteries were very low by now and even we couldn't get network coverage. Finally we decided hell with the rain and fog and decided to make a move. Payed the bill, to our surprise it was 150 Rs for stay and (super) food.

As we left, we were drenched in 5 mins and we didn't care about the rain or fog. We enjoyed the ride down very much. But I have to say it, it was the toughest, craziest thing I had done in a long while. My bike turning radius or the tires didn't help me a bit. Chethan looked comfortable riding his P200 but I had to consider the ground clearance, the slippery tires because of the slush.

Morning while coming back.

Chetan had enough of the rain by now.

Fog gone at one stage.

Green patch

Rocky ride

Look at the bikes

We headed towards shimoga, the roads were very bumpy and it was drizzling continuously. We wanted to catch the ferryboat at one place and head towards shimoga, this ferryboat saved us like 30 kms and more than 1 hour.

The batteries in our mobiles very dead by now and we 't contact Arjun who was waiting for us in Shimoga. Sorry a lot buddy.

We waited for the ferryboat for 20 mins, I was excited a lot because this was the other thing I had in my mind from long time. Travel in ferryboat with my bike.

Ferryboat arrives

Chetan bike

My bike

And we left

The ferry journey was for 15 mins but it was lot of fun for me. Me and chetan were at opposite ends looking after our bikes. It cost us less than 20 Rs. Cheapiest transport I guess.

We made one more stop at Shimoga at some hotel, recharged our mobiles and ourselves, dried up clothes as the sun was out finally. Left shimoga by 4 PM.

Drying up. :D

We were in Bangalore around 8:30 PM, tired, happy and wanted a very good nap.

Last Pic of the trip

What a trip it was, total 1400 kms, 700 kms of rain ride, Ghats, Beaches, Fog, Hills, ferry ride and a found a great friend in Chetan.

Anniversary Ride to Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta

2009-06-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

It was our[Me-R15] first anniversary, we wanted to celebrate it. Chose Himavad Gopalaswamy betta has it was in my to-do list for too long. Called Prof Nanjunadppa sir and asked if he was interested, he said he would join with his friend. The plan was to leave early and spend some quality time there and get back without switching on our head lights.

Prof said he would join me at Rajarajeshwari gate around 3:15, as I waited cops came and told not to stop their and told me to stop at Gynabharti. God know why they sent me there, even there was no street light but later realized there was a check post. As I waited in the cold, in a distant I heard some roar, in few seconds three RD's passed me, the 2-stroke oil smell and the sound brought a big grin on my face, I told to myself "someday I will":D. Prof came around 3:40, said initial hi's and hello's, introduced myself to Chetan and we left. It took us a while to reach Mysore as Chetan was sleepy, we stopped at few places. We went to Mylari hotel in Mysore and had the soft famous dosas.

Around 8:30 we were at the top of the hill. As soon as I started riding up the hill the temperature started to fall and the view was awesome. I will not be writing a lot in the log as the text doesn't justify the place. This place is a must visit, even though I missed the fog, the greenery made up to it. Some pic's.

Road to GS betta

First view

Green Green

Trying to pose :D

More Green Green

We found a good spot and decided to rest their for some time and enjoy the beautiful view, some guys over there asked us to see the elephants on other hill, tried my camera zoom but was not visible but could see something moving. So like a hero :D climbed down and thought would take a closer look. Again used my camera zoom yes it was some animal but it was the bison's not elephants.

Bisons

Now when I looked back I had climbed down more than a kilometer, thought climbing would be fun. The climb took out all the air from me. As soon as I came back the guys over there offered us breakfast, it looked yummy so had some kesari bath and palava. Those guys left to visit the next hill, thought I would join them but again I am too lazy you see.

Mysore Guys

While I was lying and looking at the beautiful sky heard a familiar voice , when I looked back Sunil sir had come with his family. Spoke with him for few mins and he left. For the next 2 hours we were sitting their and spoke from bikes to verappan :D

The Mysore guys came back and said, they saw elephants, I was disappointed thought to myself should have gone but it was too late by than. It was around 12, the time spent was very memorable. Came back near temple and saw a big Q, dumped the plan of visiting it, took few photos and moved out from their.

Temple and long Q

Chetan, Prof & me

Realized I had not taken any pics of my bike and did some off roading and took some pics.

Don't Shy :)

And now it was time for sunflower photo session, had always thought of taking a pic of my bike and sunflower but the sunflowers were too shy and were facing other side.

Shy Sunflower with my bike

Shy Sunflower

Sunflowers

Close up

Decided we shall stop after nanjungudi and started, but as soon as we left Gundlapeta they roads were smooth and I was very sleep. Thought would rip a bit and take rest by the time Prof and chetan passed me. After 30 mins found a nice spot, after some time heard some one honking, opened my eyes to see Prof passing. Asked them to continue and cranked up.

Place to rest

We stopped some where after nanjangud near some temple and rested there for some time.

Idols in center of the river

With one more stop a sivahalli MTR reached home by 6. As I was nearing kengeri it started raining, one year back same time almost same place I was their and it had rained. May be rain gods blessed us. Pulled out my rain gear and reached home. Was so happy, what a day it was away from chaotic traffic, going to a place where I could feel my lungs when ever took a breath in, it was amazing. The bike all along the trip felt great. Before I reached home said to the bike, we will do more things like this and I could hear a loud YES from it.

Route: Bangalore-Mysore-Nanjanjud-Gundalpet-GopalSwamy betta
Distance:0-130-20-50-20=220
Roads:Bangalore-Mysore --> super roads
Mysore-Nanjangud --> Ok roads with annoying road humps
Nanjangud-Gundalpet --> Good roads.
Gundalpet-GopalSwamy betta--> Bad/Ok Roads.
Total Kms done : 428 kms.
Mileage returned: 44 kmpl :P [I know this was not necessary but still]

Click here for more pics

Random Pics

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http://lh4.ggpht.com/_BYtLgBmzAnU/Skh5WoPd_CI/AAAAAAAAFMo/6bTGlxjMxPg/s512/Picture%20053.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="400" />

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_BYtLgBmzAnU/Skh5be6AlfI/AAAAAAAAFNA/R6IARKDST8I/s512/Picture%20058.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="400" />

Yamaha R15 one year ownership report

2009-06-25T04:46:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable, its already a year since I got the most priced, hyped and wonderful piece of machine in our country and what a year it has been. Let me give you a very abstract view.

Total Kms Done:18000+ kms
Total Services: Free- 6 Paid-0

Amount Spent on Service:
1st Service - Rs. 500/- [service]
2nd Service- Rs 500/- [service]
3rd Service- Rs 2000/- [Brake Pads + service]
4th Service- Rs 800/- [Oil Filter + service]
5th Service- Rs 500/- [service]
6th Service - Rs 500 - [service]

PS: service - Oil/coolant change, Chain lubrication.

Spent on Spares: Rs. 900 [Side fairing, some bugger had dropped the bike when it was parked]
Rs. 670 [Front Brake Pads]
Rs. 1000 [Rear Break Pads]
Rs. 450 *2 [Oil Filter]
Rs. 300 [Air Filter]
Rs.2000[Lubes, others]

------------------------------------------------
Approximate Running cost
------------------------------------------------
Total spent on Petrol: 25k
Total spent on Services and Spares: 10k
------------------------------------------------

Engine: [Rating: ****]
To recall, one year back all of us had expected lot from this mill and many of us were disappointed after knowing the specs, 17PS@8,500 RPM (I still remember how shattered I was when I got the message at 10 PM on 11th June from Akhil aka rossiter.) But to be honest 17PS from 150 CC mill is pretty good considering the weight and everything. After riding it for 1 year extensively every where (except track, very embarrassed to say this because this bike is built for track but cant help, I am not so rich to drive down to Chennai and ride on track each time I wish) this engine never disappointed me. Have done the maximum mileage in city and its not that bad. Forgot the 6th gear in city and you will enjoy every part of this bike in city. Never does the engine dies even if you ride in high gear at low speed even though it struggles a bit.Now lets talk about its highway characteristics, the 150 cc mill pump enough power to keep the bike in triple digits with no stress and not to mention the 6th gear which is a boon. More later.

Build: [Rating: ***]
The first impression i got was superb but this has changed now. The fiber parts are pretty good but rust, paint chipping are common problems faced by many owners this is not acceptable for a 1L + bike. Rating i am begin generous I guess.

Gearbox: [ Rating: ****]
Flawless, no false neutral post 1st service, at times it gets hard but I guess it something to do with the clutch adjustment.

Performance: [ Rating: ****1/2]
A lot has been debated on this I am not going to write more about this but I wish to tell, this is the best 150 CC bike in our current market, technology vise and the power and torque it generates for its CC. If you disagree, show me one bike which which generates more power in this category and please do consider the power to weight ratio.

Ride & Handling:[Rating:*****]
This part deserves a 5 star, best handler anything close which comes is a RTR everything else is blown in front of it. Doesn't matter who is riding the bike it handles the same, with a pillion of 80 KG I never feel taking a corner at 90+, the confidence you get is priceless. Many complain about the suspension but for some reason I am happy with it may be its because of my weight[:D]. And a lot have been debated about the sporty posture, with no second thought in my mind I can say if the roads are descent one can ride it for 450+ kms in a day without taking a toll on their body.

Breaking: [Rating:*****]
No doubt its a king in breaKING, this bike has such a beautiful brakes which stop where you want to stop not even a inch more than that. Trust me I am not exaggerating. Only pain you will get is when you are paying for the break pads :D

Tyres: [Rating: ****]
I still remember when "Yamaha officials had said, don't get disappointed looking at the skinny tyres, they stick like glue", this is so true but there is something missing there, slush. Apart from slush this tyre can take anything. Had three punctures till now but I am very happy considering the places I have taken it. And the MRF S can last more than 18k easily.

Electrical: [Rating: ****]
3.5 A battery which runs ECU, 1 60/55 w, 1 35/35 w and 1 5 w bulb. Helmets off to all the guys who have worked on it. No electrical failures till now, (yes no fuse problem :D). Lights suck for touring, a good upgrade would be to get HID's from here if you have enough resources else we always can install 60/55w on one side, which I have done. I will be soon upgrading to HID though.

Mileage:
In City - 38+ kmpl
Highway- 43+ kmpl
I have taken the average till date.

Service:
:D :D Ok, to be frank, Bangalore Wheels did pretty good job, big thanks to Akhil here without which my bike wouldn't have got those special treatments. Yamaha have give us a beautiful machine, it has not given a single problem till now, so far good but when I think about Akhil's R1 I feel pity about my self. But I have found a [secret]solution to it. :D But at times they have annoyed me a lot, its same with all the manufactures I guess.

A small tribute for my R15

The date was 28/06/08. Meeting the big brother

Click on image to read more

For more click here.

Many more trips to come :)

PS: I want to thank all the XBHPians who had me decide on this bike, special thanks to Akhil [After sales service support :D and for the initial ride report] and killer [Gave lot of feedback's which he got from his friend, which made my decision easy]

Anniversary Ride Pics and logs on the way :)

In search of water - Shivanasamudra - TalaKadu

2009-05-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

It was yet another lazy Sunday until my phone rang at 10:15 AM, hitesh was on the line asking for directions towards Shivanasamudra , before he just hung up he asked whether I would be coming, I said yes. He said he would meet me in 45 mins and hung up. Wait a second did I say yes. Thought for a minute and I made up my mind even before the minute was completed. :D

Met Hitesh and hemant (his freind at Rajarajeshwarinagar arch and started around 12, the sun playing hide and seek. It was the same Mysore road which I have travelled n times, lazily cruising around 80 kmphr we took a stop at Ramanagara. Had some cool drinks and started again. With 2 more stops on the way we reached Shivanasamudra (Bluff) around 2:30 PM. I was disappointed as soon as I say the falls, I knew it was wrong time to visit but still i expected something better because of the heavy rains from last one week in Bangalore.

Some where near Malavalli. Hitesh and Hemant.

This is all we could see.

Bluff in May

Hitesh was very knee in taking a dip in water, through locals we got to know that even in balamuri the water level was very low. So it would be waste visiting it. They advised us to go to Talakadu instead. It was just 23 kms from here so headed back. Initially i thought we could cover this distance in less than 30 mins but i was proven wrong completely. On the way back saw this place looked good for some photo session.

Nice place

My bike posing

Me posing

After taking a diversion from malavalli road towards TalaKadu, the worst part of the trip started, we took more than 20 mins to cover 3 kms, after which the roads got improved from worse to bad. Finally reached Talakadu around 3:30 without any delay we were in the water.

The boat ride we didn't take

Riding 150 kms considering the worst roads for more than 40 kms had taken a small toll on my body, dip in the kaveri water washed all the things away. Later we purchased a ball so we could play in the water, thanks for my great throw it was far away from our reach with in the 2 mins we bought it. The depth of the water was till our shoulder so we enjoyed a lot. At 5:30 we were out of the water, I had a quick lunch after this and we pushed off from there around 6. Couldn't visit the temple, will come again in rainy season for sure.

Stop some where after malavalli.

The ride back was bit painful till Malavalli, after which it was smooth. Reached home around 9:30. Missed F1 and a chance to see the IPL on big screen but dip in kaveri will compensate those things. Altogether one more nice ride.

Route Taken : Banglore - Maddur - Mallavalli - Shivansamudra - (12 kms ride back, take a diversion towards) Talakadu - Mallavalli- Maddur- Bangalore.
Total Distance: 290 kms (From to Rajarajeshwarinagar gate)
Roads: Till mallvalli good roads, than the nightmare starts (especially towards Talakadu).

For more pics click here.

A Special Pilgrimage(:D) Trip to Kotilingeshwara, Bangaru Tirupati, Avani

2009-03-10T01:56:00.000-07:00

This trip was totally unexpected and came as a surprise for me, the plan for Saturday was to got to a movie with a friend, on Friday evening got to know our friend can not make it to the movie, so Chetu asked me if we can ride out some where instead of going to the movie. First think that came to my mind was, finally i have influenced the most important person in my life :D , it took more than 4 years for me to hear this. So this ride is special one for me. So started looking for places which is not too far but not to close :D. Finally decided to visit Kotilingeshwara as its close 100 kms from Bangalore. And if possible visit Avani which is 20 kms from Kotilingeshwara but we needed to trek for 30 mins to visit the temple at Avani. I doubted it because, I knew chetu would be drained by then considering the heat and the kms travelled. The max kms she had done on the bike was around 100 kms :D, at the end of that ride she was completely drained. But I was proved wrong later. Planned to leave early around 7. With lot of excitement slept.

Saturday 7th:

Got up around 6:30 and called her to wake her up, to my surprise she was ready, damn I would be late again :D. Got ready and picked her up around 7, with one fuel stop at shell we were out of Bangalore by 8, took a divesion at Hosokate and from there it was non stop riding till Kolar Woody's hotel, took a breakfast break for 30 mins then headed towards Kotilingeshwara through Bangarpet. As soon as we entered the temple we were invited by 1 Crore shiva linga's

For history of this place click on the Kotilingeshwara, if you haven't clicked it still.

There are around 5 temple's over here and the biggest shivalinga in the world, 108 ft and 35 ft Basava.

Some Pics:

One of the temples

Basava

The biggest Shivalinga 108 ft

The Shivalinga line up

The place where you can beat the heat

We wandered around the place till 11:30 and we left to visit Bangaru tirupati, its just 9 kms from Kotiligenshwara temple. The narrow roads with minimal traffic was great to ride on as always. Bangaru tirupati has Lakshmi Venkateswara temple.

Some pics from Bangaru tirupati,

Wish there was some water

The small temple at the top

Opposite to this temple there is Lakshmi temple. It was still 1 PM and there was lot of energy left in both of us so decided to head towards Avani, even though the heat was much we were beating it by drinking lot of water and juices.

Avani is around 10 kms from this place again the roads were narrow with no traffic. We reached there by 2 PM. Asked her if she was ready to trek in this heat, it was pretty steep, with no doubt in her mind she said yes.  The  people at this place are very kind, we parked the bike in front of some house which was at the foot step of the hill and the lady was kind enough to keep our helmets, bag and my heavy jacket( which would kill me if I trek with it) at her place because it would be hard to trek with those thing, we went to shop near by to get some water,  we hired a local guide with low fare and with sipping butter milk we started climbing the hill, even though they have made step to make it easy to climb, the heat took out all the air in the first 10 mins of the climb :P but the butter milk and water helped us a bit.

Avani is where Sita gave birth to lava-kusha and the famous Ashwamega Udha took place. Then the guided started the story about the place,  more pics.

This was a site for me. Atleast people some where doesnt fight over caste.

Start of the climb

Whats your wish? 

There is belief that, if you pray something here by arranging the stones like this it will come true, ok i want to own a RD 350 and a nice place to park it. :D

The place where Sita gave birth to Lava and Kusha

 Histroy says, Valmika gave some sand to sita to drink it mixing with water so that stomach pain would get done, people usually do the same even now, the take out the sand from this place. From years they have taken almost a load of sand.

Place where Sita washed clothes,  and the mark shows the place where she used to keep the lamp. I wonder why she used to wash the clothes when it used to get dark.  But whom i to ask, its her wish.

Place where she cooked.

When Sita was thirsty, Lakshmana with his Bow and arrow(not the shirt brand :D)  slit the rock to get her water.

Our guide told, this stone had  all the ornaments of Sita, the small hole in stone is the key to  open it, they key to this is the little finger of our Hanuman.

Finally at the top

Urlu Bande (Rolling stone :D)

History again: Sita couldn't resist the stomach pain, so she rolled over the stone on her, but the stone got bent, this stone has ravu, ketu in it, people usually go through the stone crawling, it has again some history, but to much histroy will put you to sleep so skipping that part :D.

One more shot from the top.

Climb down part was bit easy, we visited one more temple which is very very old at the foot step, Ramalingeshwara temple.

Temple

Finally came back where we had dropped our luggage, by this time the heat had taken a toll on us.  We went to the shop near by to get some water,  the shop was a extension of the owners house,  when we asked for some water to wash our face, the lady at the place was kind enough to invite us to there place to freshen up,  as it was 3:30, rock band had started the concert by that time in my stomach, i inquired the shop guy where we can get lunch, the guy offered us to have the lunch at there place. These people are really nice. :)  We finished our lunch and then the shop guy told us to take a short route instead of going through Mulbagal.

Shop come home where we had our lunch

So we left the place by 4:30 and it was non stop till chetu banged on my head to stop seeing this place.

With one more stop at the coffee day at HSR layout we reached home by 8.

Route  taken: Bangalore - Hoskoate- Kolar (bypass, take right at the railway gate) - Bangarpet (take left after 5 kms)- Kotilingeshwara - Bangaru Tirupati - Avani - Kolar (Bypass) - Hoskoate- Take diversion towards white field - Silk Board - Back home.

It was a 250 kms ride, was very relaxed ride and special one for me(us),  after this ride my hopes of being a tourer even after 2 years came back. ;)

In the Woods of Madikeri

2009-01-27T01:15:00.000-08:00

The three day vacation had made every one to ride away from the chaotic Bangalore, I initial thought of riding to Ooty on Sunday and meet some of the friends who went there the previous day. But later it was canceled as the were returning on Sunday. so made some calls to the fellow XBHP buddies and at around 10 navnish called up asking me if i was interested to come to his friends place which was near Madikeri. Few weeks back he had posted some pics of the place it was very inviting. So i was in, so the plan was to leave early around 5 AM.

25th Jan

The plan was to visit Golden temple which comes before madikeri and head to his friends place spend some time in the woods. We met at Nice road junction around 5:30 and decided our next stop at Mysore, next 90 mins was rip session. Stopped just before Mysore for breakfast but it was still 7, too early for break fast so started towards Golden temple, the roads were awesome till Kishalnagar. With one stop we were at Golden temple. It comes just before Kushalnagar, its a TIBETAN temple and more than 300 monks reside.

Main Temple

The painting inside are mind blowing, it can only be cherished by seeing it, beautiful art work. Look for the video section i have some videos of the temples painting.

One more Temple

This temple had some strange evil paintings, its like some story narration.

Some thing like this.

Posing time

Later we did some shopping , geared up and headed towards Madikeri. After riding 10 kms i realized i had left my knee guards in the parking lot, so with my heart in my mouth rode with full force in the pot holed road praying the god it should be there, only thing which came to my mind was, damn i cant loose 4k :D. Luckily it was there, picked it up gave it a hug put them into the bag and we pushed off happily.

The ride till Madikeri was bumpy, around 11 we reached Madikeri. We had breakfast at Navnish friends place. The house was typical 5 step house, after heavy breakfast we visited Raja Seat, we decided to ditch Abbey falls as it would be more fun to visit it during rainy season ;).

View from Raja Seat.

This place will be beautiful in the time of rainy season because everything which is brownish green in the pic will be dark green. For sure will visit only madikeri again in rainy season.

The place we were going was called kalgundi was around 40 kms from madikeri, from kalgundi to the house it was some 7 kms.

Before we hit the Jungle.

Hmmm. Good roads still

Top View

Here we Goooo.. :D

The house was on the other side of the stream, we had two ways to cross the stream,

1st option :eek:

2nd option :eek:

So here we go,

Its me.. Its me.. :D 

After crossing

We reached the house around 3, we were offered coconut water followed by a heavy lunch, we later left to check out the place.

Posing time

In the woods

Rest of the day was full time pass, navnish friends mom was very friendly, all three of us were just talking talking talking. Later at 9 had heavy dinner and we crashed for the day.

Will upload more pics and videos of golden temple later.

PS: All my posing pics are with navnish :D

Next day plan was to visit navnish friends place spend time there and continue to Bangalore via Hassan.

26th, Monday

We were all set to leave around 9, bid good bye and we decided to take the second route to cross the stream this time, aunt send one of the servant to help us. As it was Solar eclipse, we had to listen to lot of things from every one for making the trip :D

So we need to cross this, looks simple but aint simple

:eek:

So here is how I did it,

Till kavu the roads were good with good view,

Small bridge

Road to kavu

We reached navnish friends place around 11:30, we had tea and went to see there estate, beautiful place they got. They stay very close to kerala border, the estate start in Karnataka and ends in Kerala. :D

Stream that separates Karnataka and Kerala 

The estate had all kinds of spices, the had rubber plantation and honey keeping.

Oops that's scary 

Navnish friend explained us how all this is done, man i was so much scared, we were told not to make any fast moments and don't wave hands at bees, so even if it bit we should not get rid of it very quickly we needed to do it very slowly. I got a video of this.

We had the chance to taste pure honey,

Ready? 

Rest of the part is my stomach :P 

And we had this 

Wandered around the estate for some time, we saw some unique species plant, one of them was "All spice plant" when i tasted the leave, it had the flavor of all the spices.

We had our lunch after this and left to visit some temple which was built before 6th century :eek:

Pineapple 

Navnish friends place 

We reached the temple around 1:30 PM by the time it was closed because of the solar eclipse, no one was there so it was all ours,

Temple entrance 

Temple 

Temple 

Who is inside?

Then navnish friend went back to his place and we headed towards hassan.

Beautiful roads

Want to off road

Look what two R15's can do :D

Next 70 kms was beautiful ghat section with beautiful roads, at one place we took a wrong diversion and headed towards Mangalore but we were just 10 kms ahead of the diversion. We hit the shiradi ghats which are the worst it took us more than 1 hour to cover the 20 kms stretch. Reached hassan by 5 PM, we stopped at the coffee day in the Bangalore-Hassan highway, spent some time there and left at 6 PM, reached home by 9 PM.

At the end what a ride it was, 750 kms which showed me everything from beautiful roads to no roads. 200 kms of ghat roads. Had a chance to see how rubber sheets are manufactured, tasted pure honey, spent two days with nature thats all i can say :)

Click here for pics

Ride to Kanva Reservoir

2009-01-11T00:53:00.000-08:00

It was the first ride of the year in XBHP, the destination was Kanva Reservoir, which is 70 kms from Bangalore. I decided to take my Shogun to the ride as it would be more fun for off roading ;). I told John i would be meeting the rest of the gang at Nice road junction on Mysore road, reached the junction at 6:20 where i was joined Saj, called up John, he said they will there in 10 mins. The next 20 min we were looking at the SBK which stop at the junction before they head to the Madur coffee day. John and rest of the gang came around 6:45, the turnout was good, there were 20+ bikes. After some intial hi's and hello's we headed toward our destination , met PKM personally for first time.

At Nice road junction.

Took the deviation from main road towards Kanva Reservoir, the next 8 kms very narrow pothole roads. As i was leading the pack turned around to see where the rest are, man it was a site to see the 20+ bikes in the narrow road, with a grin on my face continued :D. We decided to off road a bit and we went off into the lake making our own road..

Lake riding :D

Formation in the lake

All the guys headed towards the lake, some off us headed to check the reservoir, this is what we could see at the other side.

Bunch of biker. Who are they?

Brave souls :D

The lake

We came back from there and joined the rest of the pack..

Me and Asif

Guys having fun

Intro round

Kanva Reservoir

Johnny getting kicked

It was around 9:30 we decided to leave and stop near Kaadu mane for our breakfast.

Hungry wolfs

Whats this? No idea :D

Group pic

Line up

It was yet another great G2G with the fellow Xbhipans.

Link to Pics : http://picasaweb.google.com/mithun.08/KanvaResv#

VKIT@2009

2009-01-03T03:18:00.000-08:00

One of my friend(Avi) had some work in the college, so we all headed out to get it done :D. I was blown away as soon as i entered the college. Kudos to the management for bringing up the standards of the college. Let the pics do the talking.

The below picture is the Administrative block, this is in front of the parking lot. Yes this building is in our college.

Administrative block

Administrative block Entrance

Administrative block, notice board

Some fooling around

Administrative block, Corridor

Finally Board people have some place to sit :D

Expression says it all:D

New building for Library

Library Entrance

Library, Read it for you self

Library, Glass roof

Library, Books rack

Finally we have a Seminar hall, it was under construction.

Seminar hall

Seminar hall Front view

We finally have a separate sport complex, which have a concrete badminton court and a well equipped Gym to list some facilities ;)

Sport Complex

So we have everything what a good college should have, all we need now is some experienced, capable professors and lectures :D. Just kidding.

Some old memories

The room without which me completing BE would have been a bit tough :D

Hey who is this? Its our Girish sir place.

The notice board which we would hardly look at :D

Our 2nd year class room

Damn i miss this class, life

Our final year class room which i hardly attended.

If i attended, the place i would sit.

Posing for a pic

In front of the block

The canteen

Our (War) ground :D

Warriors :D

Kumbalgodu Entrance, Finally some roads again.

We stopped at a juice shop in Kumbalgodu to drink some special drink called GRM. When we asked the shop keeper what GRM stands for he refused to answer saying its a secret, after drinking it we came to know it stands for Grape Raspberry Milk. He don't know where we studied, we can figure out anything by ourselves :D

GRM drink.

Last pic

After this it was all street racing between us till Ajays place..

It was a great feeling to visit the college and to see lot of things changed.

Click here for pics

Day 5 (Salem - Bangalore)

2008-12-29T05:24:00.000-08:00

We started around 9:30 as we had not much to cover, only 200 kms with GQ complete we knew we would reach Bangalore by 2 PM. After one stop we reached the BPCL pump at krishnagiri, had our breakfast at Adyar Anandha Bhavan complex. Soon we reached Hosur where we were invited with bad roads with some stuggle with bad roads and traffic we reached Bangalore around 2. Stopped to say bye to Akhil took few fotos. Reached home at 2:30, and said to my sis with a grin on my face "Look i am back in one Piece".

Breakfast at BPCL Adyar Anandha Bhavan

Total Distance 1494(+165 kms Gps was dead)

@ the end of the trip

Day 4 (Trivandrum - KanyaKumari - Salem)

2008-12-29T05:16:00.000-08:00

D Day for me :)
The plan was to leave early in the morning around 4:30 AM, the water tank in the house had run dry and getting water into the pipes Akhil woke me up, it was around 4:30 then, quickly took a shower and we were all set to leave by 5 AM, Joe in mean time was waiting for us, he sent us off and we started ripping to catch the sunrise, when we reached Neyyatinkara there was a 2 kms jam, we did everything to get out of the jam, even the narrow NH slowed us down.. we knew we would miss the sunrise, around 7 the sun was hitting directly into our eyes which made worse to ride, the other factor was the wind, considering my weight and my bike weight the wind was easily throwing me off the road :D Finally we reached out destination, KanyaKumari, we stopped near some scenic spot.

Do i need to say more

The two R's

End of the land

One at the end of the land

Me posing :D

After spending enough time we reluctantly moved on has we had a long way to go back, next 30 kms were narrow, patchy roads. In this route we found some 1K+ wind mills for almost 10 kms, it was a sight to pass through these.

Wind mill surrounded road

After which we hit the GQ and we thought it would be a rip session for the rest of the day but we were wrong, after traveling for 10 kms we knew it would be hard for the rest of the day because of the deviations the road had every 2 kms. It was around 11, we found some decent restaurant and had our breakfast. We met with some elderly people there you were obviously surprised seeing a 12L bike touring and another exhibition started which went on for 15 mins :D.

Soon we were cursing on the GQ around 100 kmphr easily but every 2 kms there was diversion which made the road two lane, now this was pain. The roads were like this till Salem. Even though the road is completed dont know why they have not opened yet. To add to this there was a light drizzle. The R1 needed fuel badly so we took a detour to Kovilpatti, after some wanderings we finally got the pump with premium petrol, then left for Madurai. Reached Madurai around 3 , went in search of the famous 'GowriShankar hotel', soon found it, had full meals. Yummy food i should say. The owner was kind enough to get us a table at the entrance of the hotel so that we could see our bikes.

After one more heavy meal we started towards Madurai, it was not even 10 mins we left i was feeling very sleepy, so stopped and Akhil asked me to sleep for some time, i slept for good 20 mins next to the road :D. After i woke up we headed towards Salem, It was around 4:30 and we had to cover 220 kms, it was not the distance which was bothering us but the roads, we encountered at least 70 diversion, this took out all the juice out of us. I was bit ok but it was Akhil who was completely drained out. It was 6:30 and my headlights came up for the first time in the trip. We reached outskirts of Namakkal and stopped for refueling the One. The pump belonged to some local MLA, we came to know Namakkal had pretty good hotels, so we decided to halt there, it was 20 kms away. The MLA was insisting us to stay in Namakkal in his friends hotel which had 5-star facilities with 3-star prices, we were not so comfortable to stay after we spoke with MLA . So we started with two minds whether to stay at Namakkal or head to Salem. While i was leading with all this going in my mind and totally exhausted, one Innova zoomed past us, he was sure in some hurry. Akhil said if we can tail him we can manage to reach Salem. Next 50 kms was rip session for us, the Innova guy was making some unbelievable overtakes. It was dangerous but we had no other way. It was all fine till some Balero guy joined the rip session of ours, seeing Balero zoom past Innova the Innova guy went mad, he started belting more, so we decided to stop following him. Made a small stop relaxed for few mins and started, in 20 mins we reached Salem. Found some decent place to stay where there was basement parking. We even had no mood to have dinner, checked into the rooms and crashed :)

One of the many diversions :mad:

Look how clean the R1 is :D

Click here for Day 5 (Salem - Bangalore)

Day 3 (Aluwa - Trivandrum)

2008-12-29T00:55:00.000-08:00

The next days plan was, Aluva-Alleppey-a few kms on MC Road and back-Kollam-Varkala-Trivandrum(Kovallam Beach). So we started off around 6 after strapping the battery back on the R1, we went in search for the fuel, unfortunately we couldn't find pumps with premium petrol and the Crazy Kriega bags made us stop for 4 times in 20 mins. We final found some pump which sold premium fuel filled in and headed towards Allepye, next 60 kms we encountered bad traffic which slowed down us a lot, final we reached Alleppey and headed straight to beach. The Alleppey beach is very clean compared to other beaches, may be its because every one are more interested in the back waters, seeing the clean beach i got very excited and drove into the beach, damn riding in loose sand is very difficult, after riding through the loose sand realized its not even possible to park the bike, called up Akhil who was seeing me thinking what the hell i was doing and asked him to get some stone so that i can park the bike, but the water was soo tempting so could wait for him to get the stone, mean while i removed my shoe and pulled the side stand on it and ran into the water, after some time Akhil came and showed me some old stone jetty where i could have parked safely, Akhil asked me to get the bike there, taking out the R15 out of beach was a task, the next 1 hour for me was full fun playing in the water. We decided to ditch the M.C Road plan and headed towards Trivandrum.

Few pics:

R1 parked safely outside the beach

Do i need to say more :)

The super clean and calm beach

Some struggling act

R1 and the beach

R1, R15 and the beach :D

Riders and the beach

After leaving the beach we stopped at some hotel and finished our breakfast, the next stop would be Trivandrum, the road was 2 lane and i was surprised to hear it was a NH, damn states highways are better, again the traffic haunted us. When we reached Varakal, Akhil pointed towards the beach and took a deviation, it was about 20 kms from the main road and it was worth visiting. This place was beautiful, as soon i saw the place decided when i come to Trivandrum next time, will halt at this place. Let the pics do the talking,

the clean beach

R15 posing

Me posing :D

Joe was waiting for us at Trivandrum, so we left soon, we met some XBHP guys(Sreeraj and Anup) who invited us to their place, so it was 5 mins ride to their place, spent some time with them and headed back.

Joe and his RD

Joe took the led, after reaching the city we passed through some tunnel, it was soo pleasant to hear the RD, R1 and my silent R15 exhaust notes in the tunnel, i said to myself again, some day will own an RD :D. Some thing was not good with the RD, Joe was struggling to ride it, it was the clutch cable, the cable came of from the casing, Joe asked us to continue and said he would meet us later after fixing the bike. It was around 5:30 when we reached Akhil's cousin's place, we were quick to ditch all our bags and headed towards Kovalam on my bike which was around 10 kms from where we stayed.

Kovalam has two beaches, Eve's Beach and Grove's bea. We parked the bike and walked into the Eve's beach, as expected the place was crowded, we soon hopped into speed boat and went for a spin. After this it was all walking in the beach and playing with the waves for me as Akhil was working on his photography skills. The sunset was superb.. Some pics:

Sunset

Me getting washed away :)

After some time Joe called up and said he was at the beach, we met him spent some time and headed back home. After we had dinner, Joe and turbo came along to Akhils cousin's place, we spent some time speaking about bikes and the stunt teams of TVM. We decided the next day plan and crashed for the day. We planned to leave early to KanyaKumari spent some time their and try to reach Bangalore, so it was a long ride tommorrow, around 700+ kms :)

Click here for Day 4 (Trivandrum - KanyaKumari - Salem)

Day 2 (Vadakkencherry - Aluwa)

2008-12-26T03:32:00.000-08:00

The second day's plan was to reach Allepye, so there was not much to cover, thought of leaving around 8 AM, the route was: Vadakkencherry-Trichur-Athirapally-Vazhachal-Angamaly-Aluva-Kottayam-Alleppey.

After we hit the roads around 8:30 after having a heavy breakfast, traffic slowed down us a bit and 2 ZMA followed us for while, us means the One here, bugger they were coming b/w us and their way of overtaking vehicles in the traffic pissed me off a lot, after Chalakudy we had to take a diversion from the highway to Athirapally falls, we lost them there, the falls was 29 kms from the highway and i would say this was the best road we travelled in this trip, again following the R1 and keeping with it in the ghat section was fun :D There are two falls, one is Athirapally falls and other one is 10 kms ahead, Vazhachal falls, this place was less crowded as many head back after visiting Athirapally falls and it felt safe to leave our bikes here and we went to check out the falls, took few snaps and headed back by the time we came back the security personnel and cops were drooling around the bikes.. after some Q&A we headed back from there to Athirapally falls, seeing the crowd we decided not to go near the falls as we had to walk 1 kms leaving the bikes behind which was not a good idea, we stopped near some view point and took some pics, i was very tempted to go near the falls , never less this place is worth a visit second time ;). Initial the plan was to take a fery after reaching Athirapally to Angamaly but unfortunately the service had stopped couple of months ago, was a bit disappointed but the roads were superb, so that was good news :). So we headed back, i took the led from Athirapally falls, while i was ripping happily i noticed i couldn't see the One, waited for 2 mins and headed back, it was the Kriega once again which made Akhil stop, he was pissed off with that bag for sure :D. And there are 2 Water Theme Parks on the way to the falls if you are interested you can have fun there.

After heading back some 10 kms from Athirapally falls we need to take a diversion to reach the highway, man this road was tough for both of us, one thing was the heat which was annoying us along with the bumpy, narrow roads , after some drama with bags and hitting some huge craters we hit the Angamaly highway and soon reached Aluwa, Akhil had told me we would have lunch here so i was looking for a hotel, but Akhil took me to some home, i was like :eek: dude whats this, he said its man aunts place, i was again like :eek: this guy has relatives all over :D, then came to know it was Shyam house, i had met him when i went to chennai track with Akhil in his cage, we once again had heavy lunch, Akhil and his One were pretty overheated because of the temp, so we decided to leave around 4, and head towards Allepye which was 60 kms from Aluwa see the sunset and hit TVM if possible.

Now some thing happens which proved R15 is torquey, read on its fun, while i was gearing up Akhil called me and told his bike was dead, it was the battery again, the radiator fan and the new security system had eaten up the battery, so it was push start again for the R1, i think Akhil bike is getting used it now a days :D, so with my A'star knee guards on i started pushing the bike, how dumb was i right, i couldn't run while pushing because of the knee guards, so removed it and Akhil strapped to his elbows :D tried again but no signs and we tried again with me on the bike and Akhil pushing it but the R1 showed no signs of coming back to life, while we were doing all this in the closed road which was parallel to the NH, we had gathered a pretty good number of on lookers :D. Akhil proposed something which looked like a brilliant idea, he said, hey wait will bring your bike lets tow, i was like :eek:, towing a R1 with R15 cool let do it, he bought my bike along with a thread, we tied up one end of the thread to R1 forks and the other end to R15 grab rails and started towing, man it was a sight to see, I told to Akhil, who said R15 has less torque :D. Ok even this attempt failed, Akhil suspected it was some fuse problem and checked it but it was fine, there was some battery shop on the other side of the road where the bike had stalled, so Akhil went to get some help, the guys there helped a lot and checked the battery charge it was around 10.5V, so they got a spare battery and jump started the bike, the R1 roared back :)

It was already 5:00, so we thought it was waste going to allepye has we would go and halt there without seeing any places, so we decided to halt in Akhils aunts place. We went in search of a battery shop to get the battery charged, luckily we found some shop whose owner was very kind to give us the charger and asked us to return in the morning, we couldn't leave the battery there for charging has we decided to leave early the next day, we came back put the battery to the charge and that was the end of the day.

Mean while Akhil remembered the TVM Xbhpians and called up Wiz, he said he was in chennai but joe would meet us.

Now some Pics

Vazhachal falls

Fixing up Kriega

Athirpally Falls

R1 stalled

Click here Day 3 (Aluwa - Trivandrum)

Day 1 (Bangalore - Vadakkencherry)

2008-12-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Flash Back
After i got my bike in June couldn't ride out for many reasons, I always wanted to ride down to KanyaKumari. Mailed all the guys in October whether they were interested in 5 day ride.. obviously no one was interested. I had spoken to Akhil regarding the ride and he was interested, we(Akhil did all the planning though) zeroed in on the routes, places to stay and every possible thing in 2 days. He wanted to do the trip on his R1 but for obvious reasons it was eating dust in Bangalore Wheels for months.. He got the bike in mid November. We decided to leave in first week of December.

The plan was to take this route: B'lore-Vadakkencherry-Munnar-Alappuzha-Trivandrum-Madurai-B'lore.

For unavoidable reasons Akhil had to leave for US on 5th of December and he would come back only by 14th.. so we cut short the plan and we decided to ditch Munnar. So final route came down to this: B'lore-Vadakkencherry-Alappuzha-Trivandrum-Madurai-B'lore.

December 15th: Came back from my native. Sis and Chetu did the packing while they were doing the packing i was patient enough to listen again to all their "be careful, your are mad to do this on a bike and all", they got bored and stopped :D.. Called Akhil and fixed the meeting time 5:30 AM. Was a bit tired so slept a bit early around 11.

The above pic was taken while  i was coming back from my native.  

Day 1 [December 16th] : Got up at 4:30, was fully pumped up but many things kept on running in my mind like daemon processes, after listening so many things from every one.. Why am I doing this? was one of the daemon process.. Got a call from Akhil at 5:30, he told he will be there in 10 mins, so hooked my bag to the bike and my sis sent me off with a hug, i could see she was worried.

Reached arch in 5 mins and waited for 5 mins and i saw a twin projector light which came and stopped in front of me. It was the R1 which i would follow through out the trip, it was nice to see Akhil in his Alphinestar suit. We took few fotos and left for Mysore.

For the next 1:45 mins i was drolling around the R1 following it till Mysore. By the time i reached Mysore i had killed all the daemon processes running in my mind :D Reached Mysore around 7:45 Am, refilled the One and headed to Maylari hotel, a very good hotel which serves only two items Idly and Masala Dosa, had a plate each, both tasted very good and we hit Nanjagud road, we missed a turn and headed towards Sulthan Bathyre, then asked the locals and headed back to the Sathyamangala road, the roads were worst as we closed in on the Karnataka-TN border.

After the bumpy ride, the board read Welcome to Tamil Nadu and we could see the roads were super, started increasing the pace, Akhil at one moment ran over a Snake mistaking it for a cloth :P, as i was following him the snake started heading back, luckily missed it but my balls almost came to my mouth seeing a snake(its because of the fear i have towards the reptiles. ;) ) And then the Sathyamangala ghats started and we started using our bikes what they can do best , It was a sight seeing the R1 talking the corners :). How many get lucky to follow a R1 in twistes :P

One small foto session

Satyamangala Ghats

Reached Coimbatore refilled the One again and headed towards Vadakkencherry, we decided to have lunch in Akhil's place as the heat was taking a toll on us and even we couldn't stop the R1-R15 exhibition where every we stopped :D. We reached the narrow two lane NH and increased our pace after coming out of the Coimbatore traffic. We were 50 kms from the destination and the cops stopped us for the second time for the day, the first thing they asked was to switch of the R1 headlights which comes off as soon as the bike is started, we were held for over speeding but we were not fined, instead they killed our 20 mins time asking about the bikes. we had done close to 400 kms and the heat was talking a toll on me. Finally the cops told us to leave asking us to ride slow, we were doing 80's, they said these bikes are not for this roads, so ride slow :eek:. One of the cop asked to start the One, its started off with VROOOMM, the cop couldn't resist and twisted the throttle a bit and almost shit in his pants :D..

Finally at 3:30 we reached Akhils farm house, i was very much tired wanted to crash as soon as i reached his place but i was taken back by the place, it was very scenic and calm, got rid of my gears and had lunch. Later Akhil took me to see the estate, everything around the house made the place look beautiful the rubber plantation and the green paddy fields, the cool breeze. A liked the place very much.

Later Akhils uncle advised a different route to Allepye, this was the best route of the trip.. Later found a puncture in my rear tire fixed it, had a heavy dinner and i was fast to crash into the bed..

Now Fhoto's :D

Packing in progress

Morning 5:45 all set to go

Mysore

Sooper hotel Sooper breakfast

Bad roads, fixing my bag 

Satyamangala Ghats

Paddy fields in front of the farm house

Rubber plantation

End of the day, My max no of kms done in a day

Day 2 (Vadakkencherry - Aluwa)

Bangalore - KanyaKumari R1/R15 Ride 2008

2008-12-23T05:29:00.001-08:00

The dream ride for me, always wanted to ride along the beach, finally did it. :)

At the end of land :)

People called me crazy when i told i was making this trip on bike, when they heard about the R1 they said i was nuts, how can 150 CC keep up with a 1000 CC. . Yes i am crazy, for me riding is freedom, many can't/wont understand it and i have given up convincing them why i do this.

Summary of the ride:

Bikes - R1, R15
Riders - Akhil, Mithun
Kms Done - 1700 kms
Petrol - 39 Ltrs (R15) Mileage 43+
Route - B'lore-Vadakkencherry-Alappuzha-Trivandrum-Madurai-B'lore.

Day 1 (Bangalore - Vadakkencherry)
Day 2 (Vadakkencherry - Aluwa)
Day 3 (Aluwa - Trivandrum)
Day 4 (Trivandrum - KanyaKumari - Salem)
Day 5 (Salem - Bangalore)

Link to Fotos: http://picasaweb.google.com/mithun.08/R1R15Ride2008

Route Maps:

Bangalore - KanyaKumari

KanyaKumari-Bangalore

(Click on images for bigger resolution)

Bangalore-Anchetti-Hogenakkal

2008-09-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

30th Aug,
Desperately needed to ride this week so at 10:PM , messaged XBHP guys asking if any one were in for a ride, replies poured in asking for the destination, I just wanted to ride away from Bangalore, as usual JOHN replied back " Anchetti 70kms from Kanakpura, meeting point cool joint 5:30". I was happy that some one would be riding with me, didn't bother him asking what was the place famous for. Slept at 3:00 AM, me and santu went for a small night ride , he wanted a cigg :D, happy we went out as it was a while we went out at that time (around 1Am), we were going out lot when Pradhyumna was in India(Missed u buddy).

5 Am, woke up took a quick shower, reached BDA complex at 5:40, john joined me 10 mins later, we procceded to cool joint met Prof.Najundappa and his friend, got to know Manju had a flat tyre he said he will be joining at Metro. Took few pics at metro while waiting for Manju and Jasir.

Manju and Jasir joined after 20 mins, without any delay we left, took Jasir as pillon cruised at 90's and reached Kanakapura around 8:30, stopped for breakfast, Thanks Prof sir breakfast was good.

As we closed in on Anchetti, the view was sooper, we stopped at many places took some pics . Jasir took out my camera and became our camera man for the day. The place cant be described in words. so more pics.

Beautiful Roads

Water Splash

Loved this route

The last 2-stroke in production :)

Had a close incident here, but lucky me and jasir brought down our legs in time and avoided the fall.

My other half

Roads while going to hogenakkal

Roads while coming back from hogenakkal

Very close to Hogenakkal

At Hogenakkal

As hogenakkal was not in our plan and it was around 2 when we reached the place, we finished our lunch, i again couldn't eat fish :(. As it was getting late we skipped the boating plans, just went to some near by falls and and a quick dip and left from there. While coming back we took the Dharmapuri-krishnagiri route coming back.

Riders and Steeds
Prof. Nanjudappa - Unicorn
Mithun- R15
John- P220
Manju- P150(fastest)
Diwakar-ZMA.

First hand Pillion Report:

Wanted to know how good was R15 for pillion on long rides, here is a small review from JASIR
who was pillion for 250+(out of 350)kms. Thanks for the review JASIR

As I was lazily getting up from the ring of my phone I understood that I was being dragged for a ride for which I had very little time to be prepared about. My bike was not serviced so Manjunath had me pillion his bike till he got a puncture, however, we were lucky enough to get a shop open the wee morning hours to get it fixed and I needed change of bike since Manju was concerned about the reliability of the tire.

Mithun was kind enough to pillion me on his R-15 and I was a bit surprised at the seat of this thing, it was small and wasn't wide like commuter bike, the footrest was high enough to play drums on your knees :D. That being apart, I was more overwhelmed by the comfort of the seat being a sports bike. We started from 6.30 AM to 5.30 PM and I was on the back of the rider all the time. On a serious tone, the back seat was considered at the time of the designing of the bike, even on a long trip, no back or butt sores, it's like being bike chauffeured the entire trip, it relaxing cool and awesome. Once you have got the comfort zone of the seat, you can actually make an aerodynamic seating with the rider and experience pure speed or cruise (at 90 kmph). There was also a time where we had a slight slip on moss on a road bridge, and another great thing was the foot rest was kept at a right height for me to jump out and get my hands and knees under the bike before it fell on the sides. Unlike the other bikes your foot does lay on the other side way down, it just shrugs at the back of the bike for a quick dismount.

Thanks Mithun for the experience, not only was I in love with the R-15 before but also intensified it since I'm sure that it can give comfort to someone sit behind me.

For more Pics click here.

First 1k Kms On R15

2008-07-09T02:14:00.000-07:00

This is the intial review of R15 with 1000 kms on Odo.

Finally after a long wait got the bike on 28/06/08 from Pancahe Yamaha Showroom, got to know the bike will be registered only on Monday, so left the showroom after fitting the RVM's. At the end of the day the odo was reading 80 kms.

The Bike :)

As i had decided to mototune the bike, woke up early and headed to NICE road did a 30 kms run and couldnt change the oil as oil filter was not available and my mech adviced me to run-in atleast 500 kms and then change the oil.

At 11 Am headed towards my native for bike puja, took Lords blessing and headed back

The odo read 350 kms, so now i can comment something,
1.Bike feels under powered at lower RPM under 5k, post that RPM it does what it is meant to do.
2.6th is a boon in high ways, bike feels very relaxed.
3.Handling is top notch.
4.First gear false neutral occasionally.
5. Getting adjusted to the riding position takes times, say 3 days.

Completed 500 kms changed the oil, no oil filter was available yet(cleaned it though). Now thought of checking the mileage, bike came to reserve n a bunk luckily, so filled in 3 ltrs of petrol and reset the trip meter. The next 80 kms the bike was ridden in heavy traffic rode it in first 4 gears a lot and occasionally 5 th .(Forget the 6th gear in city.) Saturday was there so decide to go out of city for peace of mind, headed to Mysore road CCD, bike came to reserve and trip meter read 115 kms.
Mileage
So 75% of city riding and 25% high [speed b/w 60-90 kmph] - 38 kms

Filled in 2 ltrs again to test it in high ways and maintained the speed between 80-115 kmph, at 90 kms the bike came to reserve,
so 90 kms/2 ltr = 45/ltr

Not bad right. :)

On 6th went out with XBHP guys and had lot of fun, and to my surprise my dream bike was there FZ6.
Touched a top speed of 130 in 5 th gear the same day, dont worry R15 has lots of speedo error but was doing speed between 115-118 kmphr for sure.

Today '09/07/2008' Odo read 967 kms at the service station.

Review after 1k kms.
1. Feel in love with the bikes handling.
2. No vibe at high speed.[Fairing/Engine]
3.Bike pulls very well after 5k mark.
4.Its as got a smooth gear box.
5.Brakes are very good.

This weekend planning to do a proper speed runs, hope to get access to some GPS so that can measure true speed.

Accessories list

Trip to Kemmanagundi

2008-04-09T02:11:00.000-07:00

After ooty plan was cancelled because of the Hogenakkal issue, we decided to go to Kemmanagundi.

Route Taken:
Bangalore ---Tumkur---Gubbi--Arsikere--Banavara--
Kadur---Birur---Lingadahalli ---Kemmannugundi

Distance: 650 kms (Including roaming in and around kemmanagundi.)

Places Visited: Falls, Mulliangiri,Chikmagalur ,Z-Point,zoomed in Bhadra wildlife
(Few more place were left out because of the time constraints like Bababundengiri and some falls at the foot steps of the kemmangundi.)

Stay: The number is 08261237126, ask for satish and book Dattatreya bhavan if available.
Thats the best room, else ask for Virupaksha rooms (recently renovated).
Cost is pretty low, 200 and above for each room (+ 4% VAT)(Contact address taken from(XBHP).

Best Part of the ride -->
Road from Chikmagalur to lingadahalli were too good the curves ,the night ride made it more fun and bad road, full moon day ;) from lingadahalli to Kemmanagundi (20 kms) made it more adventureous :D.

Some Pics:

Z-Point

Things that moved me-->
1. The climate in and around kemanagundi, the cool brezze(that kept me alive inside my cramsters)
2. After talking with the localities we came to know that, kemangundi doesn't have good facilities, not even bus facility, only one private bus comes to that place once a day at 4:30 PM and the population of the place is around 300 now, 4 years back there were more than 1000 people working alone in mines which were closed down. All have left now and the people who were working in mines have registered a case for some compensation which is going on from 4 years.
More than 3 company's were taking out resources from this place and once all was taken out its almost abandoned now. If Horticulture dept need to do somethings then the forest dept guys will put some objections. The Govt at least should develop the place and make it a better touring place with some good roads and facilities so that the localities will be benefited better then now.

Was bit Upset about :
because it didnt rain :(, it was only raining in night and in morning the sun was coming out bright..

This is was my first long trip of 650 kms on bike, and it was a great one.

Guys who did it

Bhatta aka Santosh

Kashi aka Ashwin

Pachi

Pathye

Dadieya aka Elephant mari ;)

Group Pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mithun.08/Kemanagundi

Pics By Bhatta: http://picasaweb.google.com/19.santosh/Santosh

My Next Bike YZF R15 -- No compromise Bike

2008-03-24T01:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks for Bangalore wheels for such a wonderful video :)

In 2007 i was very much tempted to get myself a new bike, and came across the Yam's Gladiator which was displayed in 2006 Auto Expo and feel in love with the styling of the bike(was a bit fool than) and thought of waiting for it, and all went in vain and got my self a Shogun as 2-Strokes was always in my mind.

And CBZ Xtreme was launched, took a test ride and almost booked it as it was good in my dept, be it the handling or acceleration and yes the name CBZ. But for some reason my mind and heart didnt go in rhythm. i was happy with shogun so decided why go for same specification bike so dropped it.

The accident kept me out of action and 2007 almost ended and the speculation of Auto Expo started so decided to wait for it, Yamaha finally used there brain this time after 6 years after their 2-stroke era ended, there last performance bike was RX Z and no need to mention about it, it was priced 65k in 2003 i hope.

Jan 9 2008: Say the pics of R15 and FZ in XBHP and was very much intersted in FZ but after hearing the R15 performance figures claimed by Yamaha my wait for bikes ended.

Drawing on 10 years of YZF series development with a new fuel-injected engine and Deltabox frame The new YZF R15 invites you to “enjoy riding”

Engine type	Liquid-cooled, 4-stroke, SOHC, 4-valve
Cylinder arrangement	Single cylinder
Displacement	149 .8cc
Bore x Stroke	57×58.7mm
Compression ratio	10.4:1
Maximum power	17PS / 8,500rpm
Maximum torque	15 N.m / 7,500rpm
Starting system	Electric Start
Lubrication	wet sump
Engine oil capacity	1.0 liters
Fuel tank capacity	12 liters
Fuel supply system	Electronic fuel injection
Ignition system	T.C.I
Primary / Secondary reduction ratio	3.042 / 3.000
Clutch type	Constant-mesh wet multi-plate
Transmission type	Return type 6-speed
Gear ratios	1st=2.833, 2nd＝1.875, 3rd:=1.364, 4th=1.143, 5th=0.957, 6th=0.84

Frame type	Deltabox Frame
Caster / Trail	26° / 100mm
Tire size (Front / Rear)	80/90-17 / 100/80-17
Brake type (Front / Rear)	Hydraulic, single disc (Front / Rear)
Suspension type (Front / Rear)	Telescopic / Linked type Monocross
Headlight	12V35W / 35W＋35W

Overall length x width x height	1,995mm x 670mm x 1,070mm
Seat height	790mm
Wheelbase	1,290mm
Minimum ground clearance	160mm
Dry weight / Curb weight	120kg / 131kg

who doesnt love this

Bike will be launched in June for sure and Yamaha guys are very clear this time and mentioned this is a pure performance bike so (no)mileage guys excuse us and this remembers me of RD350 amd RX - Z and RX 100 the very best performance bikes ever produced by Yamaha in India.

The bike will be priced around 90k and its worth every penny..

Yamaha Rules again.

My Biking Life -- Real Life

2008-02-06T02:18:00.000-08:00

Yes i dream and live in this world..

Bikes are 1 thing in my life that stays forever...
The passion toward the bikes started when i was 10 when i used to ride my dads bike(CD 100), only think i knew at that time was holding the handle bar and rolling my right wrist ;) started riding my self by 14.

Then 1 day i was bitten by 2-STROKE bug, it was the Legendary
RX-100 it was easily doing 100kmphr within no time it was my friends bike so couldnt ride for more time or more days.

After some days moved to banglore, was commuting to the college daily by friends Blue CBZ(still didnt have a bike of mine) loved the bike but then the pulsar was released so he sold the bike :( and got P150 :(.. He then started missing the CBZ (what say AJAY)..

Ok let me cut the crap and yes i was missing every part of biking..
untill the day i rode Ajays brothers SHOGUN.. for the first time i was frightned riding the bike and i could hear my heart beat loud.. Was completely in love with the beast..

Then started commuting to office by Ambition(gud bike)..

After 18 months from the day i rode the beast (read SHOGUN) i brought it for myself.. April 4 was the happiest day of my life.

The beast was in good condition but was not taken for long time so wanted to spend some 3k and here is where my 2-stroke life started..
Gave back Ambition to my dad and started commuting to my office.. i was doing 50 kms daily and my beast was giving a mileage of 28 kmpl for the way i was riding...

Then my beast was introduced to Sathya, a very good doctor for 2-wheels.. he tuned it and brought back my beast looks to stock condition.. thanks for the fairing and side sheilds..

Many things happened with me and my beast for last 11 months from now, even broke my collar bone when i was doing a wheelie(yes i know i flipped no need to laugh though), nothing happened to my bike, that took me off to ride my beast for hard 45 days...

The 48th day i did a max speed of 105kmphr and again broke something but it was not my part but of my beasts.. i was reving so hard that the piston :( broke at 80kmphr and bike halted...

My mech was very upset because he had put so much time to get my bike to that state.. took back the bike and it was there for a week in garage.. sleepless nights for me.. :(

Then reconstructed the whole engine, it was first rebore for my brother bike.. :) then came the hardest time for any biker, the running in period couldnt go past 50kmphr, and the running in was 2.5k, i mech wanted it even longer.. did many nighouts and touring to near by place to complete it, even once i rode the bike for whole night..

My bike now is at its best condition, no hassels, thanks to my mechs and me :D(yes even i take care for it.)

One thing about the SHOGUN its a UNTAMED machine.. and no body can tame it..