The Passion Reignites- Dream comes True & The Journey Begins.

The Passion Reignites:
Between all this the itch for biking started to grow and my wife could sense it as I spoke to her about bikes all time. One day she said let us get a bike. I was like what are you serious? My fund for the bike had come down and there was no money to invest in a good bike. But she said what is wrong in checking out some bikes and maybe we can plan for your next birthday the 35th one. We then checked out almost all the available bikes in the range of 8-10 lakhs. We checked out Triump, Benellis, Ducatis, Hondas & finally settled for the Kawasaki Versys.

Just before test ride of Versys 650

My Best Half Checking out the Versys

Younger one checking out a few bikes


Youngest one too wanted to check out one


Dream comes True:
We finally picked up the one with 'Best bang for the Buck' and as we planned to use it often, and keeping the pillion comfort picked up The Kawasaki Versys a tourer cum city rider on my 34th Birthday!!
The ladies checking out the new family member.

Happy Family

Pooja time at Ganesha temple

Happy happy with the new addition

Babe joins the stable.

Before buying the bike itself we made a promise that we would never keep the bike parked in our garage come what may. The deal was that wherever I would go, she would be going with me and I would not go alone anywhere.

Our first long ride. The weekend of 13-14 Aug 2016 we went from Bangalore to Mangalore and Back covering almost 850 kms. The bike was serviced on 16 Aug 16.
Ready to Ride

Breakfast time.

At Shettihalli Ruins

At my Alma Mater with a schoolmate

Meeting an old friend after almost 2 decades

At Kudla

On the way to Mullayangiri Betta

Off road.

Smuggling mud into Bengaluru

Loads of mud. Just before the first service on 1st weekend from buying.

Bengaluru-Alike-Kudla-Mullayangiri Peak-Bengaluru


19 Aug 2016 I went to Yelagiri Hills for work and was back by evening.

Shall we try climbing the wall? Rock climbing wall in the background

At a client's place in Yelagiri Hills. Official+Pleasure Ride. 

A view from atop the Hill.

After conquering the Yelagiri Hills.

Bengaluru to Yelagiri & back.

20 Aug 2016 We did our first group ride with the same group of Wanderers I did my ride to Agumbe- Gokarna to Masinagudi.
Posing post breakfast




Group selfie en route

The Big Gang.


Click here for A short video of a part of the ride.

Beautiful skies

Elephant with mud on its back

Muscular bisons

Timid deer

A perched peacock

Majestic looking wild elephant

Theppakadu elephant camp

Elephant being fed


Beasts resting at Masinagudi.

The next morning, we went on a guided trek to one of the smaller hills
All ready to trek to a hill 



Crossing a stream

Group pic after conquering the hill on foot.


Lost in nature's beauty

Posing Penance


Some storytelling

Titanic pose 




After coming back from the trek, we had a sumptuous breakfast, freshened up and headed towards Ooty through the 36 hairpin bends.

Breakfast time at Masinagudi

At Ooty we went to Dodabetta Peak & from there we rode through Coonoor, took the longer route from Avinashi, Krishnagiri, Hosur and Bangalore. We could have come back from Masinagudi via Mysore road which was almost 200-230 kms less but the Crazy Rider in me said you can not come so close to the 36 hairpins and not do it. We came back 22 Aug 2016 early morning totaling almost 850 Kms in 2 days.

Somewhere before Coonoor 


The ride map


The journey begins:
.I woke up the next Morning and told my wife that I wanted to do an All India Trip!!! She was like
"GO". I was are you serious and she was like "This is the first & last time I'm going to say GO, if you ask one more time the G will become a N".

This to me was like Amrish Puri's dialogue in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, "Ja Simran Ja Jeele Apni Zindagi".

Catch a glimpse of it. https://youtu.be/XRtpBdyIcdo

That's when I started to pick up things and plan for my All India ride. I then spoke to & met quite a few bikers and started collecting information about who has done the trip in the least amount of time as  I will not be able to leave home & kids for more than a month. This gave me the idea to do 29 States Capitals & 5 Union Territories under 30 days (29 under 30).  I also named this ride a #RunToEndReservations / #OneNationOneRide as I am against the existing Reservation system in India.





Comments

  1. Anunoy Samanta10 September 2017 at 18:34

    Hmmm let's see how and where did Simran go 🤠

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown11 September 2017 at 19:45

      Simran's train has left the station. Do check out the next posts.

      Delete
  2. Unknown10 September 2017 at 22:57

    Nice Pradosh !!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rotten Ronnie10 September 2017 at 23:20

    I'm a fellow Versys rider.

    I laughed when you were warned about the "G" in Go.

    Think about adding some maps for your story telling. I find it is so much easier to visualize the route. Mymaps.google.com to plot then use the snippet tool to screen capture the route.

    I enjoyed your report.

    Cheers from Canada!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown10 September 2017 at 23:50

      Sure Ron shall do it. Thanks for the feedback. That's something that helps me improve. Yeah that G to N was quite a warning ;)

      Delete
    2. Rotten Ronnie11 September 2017 at 07:53

      Your first day was quite the butt burner! I used to ride 1800km in two days, but now enjoy about 600km as I find it lets me take more pictures and enjoy the view more often.

      Delete
    3. Unknown11 September 2017 at 19:45

      Yeah if on a non time targeted ride, then 400-450 kms a day is a good target. Off course depends on the road conditions. It gives you loads of time to explore places & take snaps.

      Delete

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