Ride to Manipal

Group: Smit, Sid, Prat and Jay

Bikes: Thunderbird (two)

Route: Bangalore-Hassan-Sakleshpur-Mangalore-Udupi-Manipal (NH48, NH17)
Distance: 430kms
Trip Meter: 1050kms

Average (my bike): approx 40kmpl

My bike (14th Feb '08) had just clocked 800km with the first service done over 20 days back. I had no intentions to expose the BULL to the highways before it does 3000km, but with the 3 days weekend ahead and no other holidays for days to come it was very tempting for me to decide otherwise. Finally i gave in after talking to my mechanic and taking note of his advice that I shouldn't be running the bike at any constant speed and keep it varying between 70-100kmph or else the engine might seize.

Initially I was a little apprehensive, it being my first long ride with the BULL, but at the same time there was a lot of excitement and an earlier two day stint with a rented TVS Star in the hills of Coorg cleared all the doubts.

From here on it was like we have to go come what may...and the first thing was to decide on the place. We pondered over Hampi first but the temples weren't too attractive for all...we know its not always the destination and the journey matters too...but still there isn't any harm to look for a better ending :) then it came to Manipal...well its the other way around this time...from what I have heard from Naveen (my friend from school) the place is great...but few sections of route ain't very good...especially the Shirdi ghat region....and the last place was Pondicherry...though we all had been to Pondicherry earlier (maybe except Sid)...we kept it as the default option if nothing else works out. Finally talking to people who have taken the route, we decided to head to the western coast line...eagerly waiting to encounter the 25km-30km dug out stretch after Sakleshpur.

Now with the place being decided, there were two other important things need to be taken care of before we could unleash the power of our TBs...one being the essential spare parts that could be required in case of the bike's breakdown and the other being the saddle bag and riding gears that were required to prevent my breakdown ;)

I got myself the regular Stallion saddlebags for Rs 2200/- from Cramster which are widely used on the RE bikes. I didn't have any particular choice for the gloves, Twist fitted right to my budget and so i bought it for Rs 1300/-. As for the jacket, i didn't want something too heavy and too expensive...the Breezer model looked good and i guess the lightest of all the jackets...it cost me another Rs 4500/-

I also bought the rain suit from Duckback for Rs 900/- and believe me this item was worth all the money.... considering that we rode the first evening in a heavy downpour.... if it hadn't been for the suit... my clattering teeth would have been nosier than the TBs toned down (fooossss) exhaust :P

Currently all thats missing in my kit is a good pair of riding shoes and knee gaurd...the search for the shoes is still on....I believe you can't escape noticing the twin effect of the bikes and the gears...can't help cos D already got the best ones in business :)

Later i went to authorized Royal Enfield store and got the following items in pair:
1) Clutch cable - Rs 156/-
2) Accelerator cable - Rs 50/-
3) Fuse - Rs 5/-

4) Headlight lamp - Rs 62/-

5) Link lock (chain lock) - Rs 25/-

Well..after this heavy build up...these is all what happened in the four days :)

Day1 - 04/04/2007 (Friday)

Ahem...looks like there was some devilry cooking up at some place against us...just when we were ready to move after a nice GP lunch...there was a huge cloud formation with thunder and lightening...but we were ready for it with our Duckback suits ;) except for Prat who used my cramster external rain coat. We started at around 2:30pm and the rain soon followed to be with us for the next few hours. It took us close to 2 hrs to reach the Neelamangla junction, all thanks to the bad Bangalore traffic and the rain. After that it was smooth sailing till the end of the day's ride, except for the ugly buses and trucks and of course the RAIN. 

Initially our plan was to make an overnight stay halfway at Hassan, beacuse of a delayed start and traffic jams, we stopped at Channarayapatna (trip meter:159kms) for dinner and eventually found a 'decent' hotel Kruthika (Rs 300 for a double room) with a restaurant and good parking space for our bikes. We stuffed ourselves with an okay northie meal and went off to bed setting an alarm for 4:30am.

Day2 - 05/04/2008 (Saturday)
Woke up with the alarm bells ringing and were once again on the road by 6am. The weather was awesome this morning and it was fun to ride in the dusk. 

[Now that this blog has been idle and incomplete for months, I have almost forgotten about most of the details :( ]

We stopped to fill our stomachs and to prepare ourseleves to come face to face with the famous bad stretch in the shirdi ghat area around Sakleshpur...then it was all fun with approx 25kms of

no road at all... but we all survived :)

After that we just cruised at 80-100kmph to reach Mangalore and visited the beach over there...well i am unable to recollect the name of the beach..i guess it was summersand beach....it was just too hot during that time of the day to enjoy much.

Somebody had mentioned about another beach...again don't remember the name....how could i forget this one which had been a bit adventurous...well we left behind the backpack here with all the wallets...but as luck would have had it, it just lay there on a pulsar without being tempered...and that gave us a sigh of relief...after running back and forth in the under construction highway...with trucks, tankers, buses running in all directions...

We stopped for lunch inside the city, ate at some regular south indian restaurant...one thing that was common at all the breaks was that we kept emptying countless bottles of cold drinks...it at least gave us a momentary respite from the humidity...Finally we made it to manipal sometime in the evening and after a bit of struggle managed to find a hotel room....quickly cleaned ourselves and headed to Malpe beach....and now it felt like everything was worth it! There is a pretty good restaurant just nearby, but the only problem is the service as the phirangis were given speacial treatment....this is one thing i hate about tourist places in india. Anyways we walked out of the place...and only managed to find some "filthy" restautrant in some corner...nobody complained as everybody was too tired (below pics are a proof :)

Day3 - 06/04/2008 (Sunday)

I have very limited memory about this day...all i can recollect is that we were excited to visit St Mary's Island...but the long wait, the hot weather and finally a disappointing island (may be it was too hot to cherish anything about that place) was all we had.

Then we moved onto see another beach and as you would have guessed it already i do not remember even this ones name...i think it was Kapu beach with a light house....we got into the water here...there were not a single restaurant which served good food/snack here...spent some time and then headed back to our favourite place...Malpe beach....this was the perfect place....nice breeze....very less crowded...clean and long stretch of sand....

On our way back to the hotel, we had our first good meal in the trip....it was some hotel on the highway...where there is circle and the diversion to enter manipal i guess...there were a couple of restaurants around here....reached the hotel...set up the alarms for next morning...and were soon fast asleep...

Day4 - 07/04/2008 (Monday)

Early morning around 6:30am...it was time again to get our BULLs roaring in the lovely weather...the smooth ride however lost the flow when we lost inside Mangalore and almost spent 45mins to get back on the highway....and then again we fought the uneasy terrain on the shirdi ghats...but our last outing had given us enough courage and once again we came out victorious...

stopped at the same place as on the 2ne day for a heavy meal....and with multiple stops we all finally made it back to Bangalore in one piece...

So, here ends my first long ride with the BULL, it was an amazing experience and I'm sure theres lot more to come...