[sumanth_mk]

Nice to see so many things happening around bengaluru,great going guys,hope to join u soon

[kittigadu]

Ok, i have done the hills, i have done the forests and now its time for me and my jeep to do the rocks. I have never done rocks and i know this would be different and challenging. So started early in the morning to metro on the kanakapura road and popped in as a surprise. Later had breakfast at kadumane while the others joined in.
At Ramadevara betta, everyone assembled at the base for a brief safety instructions and other Do's and Dont's. Thats very very important and i was really excited, a few questions popped up and in an OTR there is nothing like a basic or a silly question. Its better to ask and get it cleared than end up turtle. Once the briefing has been done and the questions answered, we moved to the actual spot.

There is a big rocky facade of a hill which we were to climb. It looked scary. The photos do not show the actual incline nor the height. Slowly walked to the top to understand how the experienced guys do it. So, first comes a cj3B. durr durrr and a little durrrrr later, its on top. well. Lesson learnt on what path to follow. Second comes the gypsy and then the mighty safari and so on. One by one the machines started conquering the heights. Finally walked down to take my baby up.

Its not over yet. Then comes the descent. The path is different. Its
more steeper than the steepest steep i have ever taken my jeep to. "Engine braking guys, and absolutely no clutch" shouted dwarak and vinay. i got a hang of this technique in my previous OTR's. But i was a little hesitant about the incline. I thought the sheer weight would overrun the engine breaking and push the vehicle at far more greater speeds than the engine breaking could handle. But nothing of that sort happened. The feeling of dead slow movement in a 20degree less to a 90degree fall in a jeep has scared the hell out of me. Each and every strand of hair on my body stood on its heels till i came down.
Now its time to come back the same way up. For a good amount of time during the ascent, all i could see is the clear blue sky with clouds. No rocks, no other jeeps nor the guys. Only the sky. i was like an astronaut ready for take off in his jeep.

Then a few ups and downs later, the crazy 4x4'ers were not satisfied. They went on a survey for more action. Later they found out a challenging incline with a little dry path on the left and the rest of it was wet. It was a real challenge to do that piece of rock. Kiran was the first to try. He went half way up, wheel spin and was down. Tried again and wheel spin and down again. Having realized that the jeep needs some weight inside, myself and mjothi volunteered to hop into the back. Man, a little throttle later, the jeep went up. There was a huge applause and within no time, the others have lined up to do it.
This was real crazy piece of rock. one has to be extremely careful. when the safari lined up, everyone was placing bets at the gallery as to whether it would climb or fail and guess what, It did it. Today i have developed a new respect to the safari and the person who tamed it.

End of part 1-
Unfortunately i have no more pictures.
BTW, when is it aired on TV9. any idea.

Krishna

[rangan]

wow!!
too bad i missed it.
wondering if my bull could have done this if i had come.

[mjothi]

While my reports & pics comes later, i would like to thank Krishna for offering me a feel of OTR yesturday.
No no, not from the passenger seat but right on the driver seat
I have climbed ups & down, dancing left & right and bumpy rides etc in the OTRs, but never driven one since I had no machine of my own. But this time, my star was bright and lucky to have an offer from Krishna.

btw, I am still wondering what I was doing. Because, "no clutch, no brakes, no accelerator". Then what am i doing in there. Lol. yes, i was just sitting in there and the machine just took me up and ofcourse down too(not in reverse!!!). Only thing I did was holding the wheel.

Good no one noticed that I was holding it not to control the vehicle, but to get a hold for myself.

Again, thanks krishna.

[tsk1979]

Wow what a blast you guys are having.. Keep it up!

[dwaraka]

Hi,

The report has already arrived on team-bhp. So , I have nothing to add but photos.

Here is the link

Picasa Web Albums - Dwarakanath - Ramanagara-OT...#


Dwarak

[mansidea]

Great Report & pics khan. I never knew that you had interest in taking pics. Those gypsy pictures were amazing.

Its obvious that you had a rocking time & YOU TOO mjyoti.

I missed that safari in action as youtube is blocked here. If somebody has the pics, pls. post it here.

[Lukeskywalker]

Another OTR missed, was out of town. Anyway, you guys have had a blast as usual, great pics, really hair raising watching that incline that too in a photograph, can imagine what it would've looked like at the scene of action.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by dwaraka

...
The report has already arrived on team-bhp. So , I have nothing to add but photos.

Here is the link

Picasa Web Albums - Dwarakanath - Ramanagara-OT...#...

@Dwaraka,

A great set of photos over there! Thanks for sharing them!

One correction:
Photo number 38 is not our Kittu's ride. I think this got confused with photos 42, 43 or 44.

[mjothi]

Morning 5am, I get up and get ready for the OTR. No not for the driving, but for the ride.

I start at 5:30am from my house and reach National Games Village in Koramangala at sharp 6am. I call vijay and tell him I am in the gate. He guides me to his apartment and I park my vehicle in his place.

After the initial checkup, filling engine oil etc, the JEEP starts from there @ 6:15am. We head towards METRO and reach Metro around 7am.

We see a Gypsy and a MM standing there. Gypsy is of Dwaraks and other MM is of Girish.

After initial hi we see other jeeps coming one by one. Kittu came and gave a surprise. Probably he could not resist himself since there was 14jeeps participating in this and he dont want to be left alone.

If a Gypsy can hide a goat, a MM can also hide a puppy



Then Raj & Neil joins us. They complain that their Gypsy gives a strange noise. Dwarak peeps in the bay and finds that the tube from the air filter to the engine is broken. Also, one more pipe is out of its position. Then he puts in place and fix a tape to cover the broken tubes.

Dwarak in action


Goes for a ride and then comes back, parks it to a corner and asks the people not to take this to OTR.

What happen? It was a bad luck that the Engine mount got loosened and so all these happening. So, Raj calls his mechanic and we head for the Kadumane.

Raj & Neil waiting for the mechanic


During this time, we had Khan joining us. Also, Bhanu came in his Accent thinking that he can park in the Metro. But was denied since he did not had any membership card. So, we asked him to park it in Kadumane.

Then we leave from there and reach Kadumane. We had "thatte idli" and vada. Hrag and other guys join us for the breakfast. I hop in to the Safari and once we are done, we leave for the OTR. Once we reach Ramnagaram, we see Andhi standing in middle of the road and waving hands to stop. We moved to the left and found that we need to take a right from there into a Arch and reach the OTR place.

Then we get there. Not to mention about the villagers surprises when they see a dozen of the jeep going into the village.

We reach the OTR spot. Then Sunil and Dwarak request for the crowds to gather and advise what to do and not to do.

Behind this hill is our OTR spot


Wondering where Dwarak is pointing to?
This is where he points


One thing I heard more often is - "No braking, no cluth, no accelerator". After initial briefing, we start for the action.

We reach the other side of the hill and first to lead is Sunil's jeep.

Umm, first to climb - on top.


Watch the Dwarak's Gypsy climbing. It took 2 3 attempt to get to the top.

What's Khan doing outside his Gypsy?


Yes, his better half wanted to show she is no less than him and
here she goes



One thing I noticed is, Khan was so serious to take pics of the drive. Possibly lesson learned from the previous one.

Next to follow was our Kitty and Vijay


Kitty - No BIG cat


Vijay - Star jeeper


Now comes our Safari. You would heard about the betting and other stuff for this in the first post. But, nothing stoped his beast, bull or what so ever. Did a clean climb in the first attempt making everyone surprise.

Here I come


Kissing the rock before climbing


Go... go... go....


And on the top



Girish in action



Heard this is his first OTR. But never seem to be.

Others to follow,


Everyone is done


Contd...

[mjothi]

Once everyone is done, now Dwarak shows the next challange. Do you guys wanna try desending through this?


Even before he finishes, Sunil again start to decend. His brake was fully pressed and the vehicle was literally sliding on the rock. It did do a safe landing.

Sunil & his machine


Then the Bolero in action



Followed by Gypsy(s)



See, again Khan with his Camera.

In a ready to launch position - not to miss any single action from his wife.

Mrs.Khan, ready for the desend.


And she did it again



See, even after it came down, Khan dont want to stop taking pics

Then comes a classics.

This classic was so powerful that it was so entertaining seeing it in action. Those pics will follow soon.



Now our Vijay want to try the steep climb




And made it


Not satisfied, wanna try the opposite now


How long can our hero resist from taking the wheel, Yes, Khan bhai back in action. - Did you notice the "mission-accompalished" pride walk behind.




It was a easy climb and then he shouts - "My lockers work well". Yes, he did that in his 2WD.


Contd...

[mjothi]

Seeing all these, the tough climb seemed to be very easy for all, atleast i thought. And to show that its not as easy as you think, this Gypsy tried to climb and exactly on the top got stuck.

Starting to Climb


We convince him that nothing is to worry and ask him not to press the clutch or anything and switch off the engine.


Now, it was a tea break

If you notice the angle in which Khan and others are standing you can guess the angle of the rock on which Gypsy is "parked"

Our MODs see that the driver is morally motivated and relaxed.





So, the rescue team in action.





Then they brief on how to tow a vehicle.



Important to notice here is, the Straight line of the "D" shackle should be in the vehicle tobe towed and the curve of the "D" should point to the vehcile that is towing.

After the instruction, everyone moves aside giving way for the vehicle and it was pulled.




Nothing can stop our jeepers. After a brief stop again started to do shuttle service up and down.

Kitty again,




I guess it was this slope where Kitty was staring at nothing but the sky

Girish.


Contd...

[aamir567]

Nice to see so many offroading machines in action
I like the track, it was really very challenging.
One thing i noticed was the steel toe rope.It is very dangerous to pull from steel toe rope. If it breaks then can damage a lot what ever comes its way. So my suggestion is to use other ropes like nylon or other material ropes availabale in the market.

[Lukeskywalker]

Great snaps Mahesh and good captions too, where is the snap of you at the wheel?
Did you take along your son as you wanted?

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

Great snaps Mahesh and good captions too, where is the snap of you at the wheel?
Did you take along your son as you wanted?

I doubt if anyone took the pics when I was trying. Everybody was busy on their wheels

No, I did not take him since I dont know about the terrain. Next time sure.