[FURY_44]

Day 2: Coonoor - Kodanad - Catherine Waterfalls - Doddabetta Peak

I woke up to single digit temperatures, the weather at Coonoor was just excellent throughout.



Breakfast was served at around 9:00 AM, idlys, piping hot sambar, vada and tea, no complaints at all, it was delicious, geared up and my 1st stop for the day was Kodanad. I keep repeating this, but the roads were just brilliant, 15°c with a little bit of sunshine, I was grinning inside the helmet, end to end. To my surprise again, little to no traffic at all anywhere, maybe I expected too much for the new year weekend?. Kodanad view point turned out to be the best visit in my trip, there were clouds moving at the stretch of my hand, I was literally awe struck, it was a surreal experience, had to video call my mom to share my excitement. My pathetic phone camera could not capture anything, I did manage to click some pictures and videos a little far away from the view point.

https://youtu.be/esLl8w9bxhg

https://youtu.be/ySQJACN4XxE

https://youtu.be/16dTEbmAJgg

Spent a good couple of hours at Kodanad taking some photo's, video's and also tried hands on recording a very unique birthday wish for a very special person , which turned out really good I guess?. After this antics I visited Catherine waterfalls, which involved trekking into tea estates to reach the falls location, it took me about 15 mins to reach the falls and it was nothing to write about, the pictures on Google deceived me, it was very short in terms of height, similar to Abbay falls in Coorg, you can skip the visit to Catherine falls. Kodanad had spoiled me, whichever place I visited next were just meh, finished off the day out with a visit to Doddabetta Peak, this is where I saw the holiday crowd, the parking lot was full and there were so many people at the restaurant near the peak, any thoughts of having lunch there were wiped off.

I returned back to the stay at 5:00 PM, where I made a couple of friends who were also travelling solo, we were just chatting about ourselves and killed sometime. Strolled out in the evening to visit Tiger Hills which was at a walk able distance from the stay, sadly we couldn't see anything.

Tiger Hill



A customary visit to Moddy's, Coonoor for some chocolate shopping and there was Vishal Marketing right next to Moddy's which was suggested as the go to place for Tea and Spices, packed a bag full of chocolates and spices before heading back to the stay for dinner. The moment we returned, it started raining and it rained until 2:00 AM, I couldn't sleep at all for some reason, I shut eyes maybe after 2:30 AM and woke up at 6:30 AM, I had no idea how 2 days went by, it was over in a giffy but I did have the best of time on this trip, no regrets at all.

Day 3: Coonoor - Ooty - Gudalur - Mysore - Bangalore

It was pack up time and my bags were heavier and bulkier, thanks to the chocolates and spices (this is for you mom ), Sunday's breakfast menu was different, a few cheese toasts, fruit bowl and tea, I was missing the maid's cooking already, gave my thanks to her, settled my bills, clicked a few pictures, the plan was to start at 10:00 AM.


Credits: Madhu





Filled up fuel at Ooty, the planned stop was Mysore lunch at 1:00 - 1:30 PM, I had my navigation on, but after the fuel stop at Ooty I switched off since I saw few signboards showing the route directions to Mysore & "Gudalur", I simply followed it, completely forgetting that there are 2 routes to reach down to Mudhumalai, surprisingly I could see KSRTC buses, KL buses and heavy inflow of cars, oh so everyone prefers travelling to Ooty on a Sunday?, what a dumb idiot I have been, only after halfway I realized I was on the longer route to Mysore and it turned to be a pain. I decided not to turn back, since that would mean loosing more time and thought what could go wrong and wrong it went, stuck behind slower vehicles kms together, road constructions, at some point I hit a pothole in high speed as well out of frustration, I did hear a loud thud, immediately stopped and checked out the alloy and forks, thankfully no damage.

My arrival to Mysore was delayed by over an hour and a half, reached at 2:30 PM as against my planned 1:00 PM, met up with a friend, spent sometime over lunch at started my journey to home at 3:40 PM. Sunday evening, long weekend, Mysore Rd, what could possibly go wrong?. It was a race track right from Columbia Asia signal, I just ripped the bike, since a delay of 10 mins anywhere on Mysore Rd could mean an hour more to reach my home. Traffic hotspots were Channapatna, Ramnagara, Bidadi and Kengeri, I did not look back, passing through and zipping past whatever gap I could find between the cars, I generally don't ride this way, since this was Mysore Rd I was sweating a little. Google showed an ETA of 7:02 PM, I made it home at 6:30 PM with both me and the bike steaming off like crazy.

And finally, a picture which beautifully portrays all of my 3 days in The Nilgiris.

[RPRIME95]

Originally Posted by FURY_44

I decided not to turn back, since that would mean loosing more time and thought what could go wrong and wrong it went, stuck behind slower vehicles kms together, road constructions, at some point I hit a pothole in high speed as well out of frustration, I did hear a loud thud, immediately stopped and checked out the alloy and forks, thankfully no damage.

Such nice picturesque locations to visit in the new year

As far as your incident quoted above, I feel you. Same thing happened to me over the Christmas week. Hit two "Gouges" back to back.

But credit where is it due. TVS's quality components came through and no damage was done. To be frank, I still check the forks and rims everytime I have some spare time. The memory will never fade, that's for sure

[clementw]

Congratulations on the bike! Great review. The name reminds me of the Zundapp Fury which fascinated me during my school days.

[neil.jericho]

The motorcycling world is a very small one. While returning from a weekend stay at Valparai, with TBHPians shaikhmimran, karthikk and ebmrajesh, we had stopped to buy some tea. A motorcyclist on a black RR310 stopped by to say hello. It was none other than FURY_44 with his Apache RR310, who had seen us pass his group of Apache RR310 riders, recognized the bikes (how he did, we have no idea!) and quickly came to meet us. Though we have all interacted on whatsapp groups, this was the first time that we were meeting FURY_44 and it was a wonderful surprise to meet a fellow enthusiast in the most unexpected of places.

Here is to more such fortunate meetings and hopefully being able to ride together some day.

[FURY_44]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

The motorcycling world is a very small one. While returning from a weekend stay at Valparai, with TBHPians shaikhmimran, karthikk and ebmrajesh, we had stopped to buy some tea. A motorcyclist on a black RR310 stopped by to say hello. It was none other than FURY_44 with his Apache RR310, who had seen us pass his group of Apache RR310 riders, recognized the bikes (how he did, we have no idea!) and quickly came to meet us. Though we have all interacted on whatsapp groups, this was the first time that we were meeting FURY_44 and it was a wonderful surprise to meet a fellow enthusiast in the most unexpected of places.

Here is to more such fortunate meetings and hopefully being able to ride together some day.

Attachment 2232788

I was elated to see you guys and was just blabbering to Imran trying to introduce myself, I guess he took a few more seconds to recall who I was until Karthikk managed to chip in with "Hamilton", ah that was just wonderful.

The biggest surprise was you yourselves Neil saar, I never expected you to be there, since I only saw the 3 bikes earlier, that was a full circle for me.

After returning to my group, they were like "Woah, you know the big bike guys"

[AtheK]

Nice coincidence Indeed, Here we struggle to meet Karthikk Saar in Bangalore itself, and see where you bumped into him.

Must have been a nice moment indeed, a toast to many such more random meetings!!

[FURY_44]

It's been 11 months since I had last updated this thread, the 2nd wave of Covid19, WFH, and sheer laziness had restricted me from updating about FURY and our adventures over the past few months in this thread. With lesser work to deal with due to year-end, it gives me an opportunity to end 2021 with all the updates which were long due.

So after my little "escapade" solo trip on the New Year of 2021, the boys were seemingly miffed about leaving them out of the trip. We decided to quickly meet over for lunch and discuss all about the solo trip I had been to. (Ehh guys, it was just Ooty for a couple of days)

We decided to have lunch at Malgudi Mylari Mane (https://goo.gl/maps/DTsbVsCsgkpiSQQA6) one fine afternoon after hearing rave reviews about this place. I for one was excited to have lunch, but it turned out to be a not-so-good experience, it felt like we were at a totally different place compared to the reviews. The food was cold, bland, and tasteless, maybe it was due to a non-peak weekday and they decided to chill down on the food, I will give this place a second chance and try it once again on a weekend.

Here's a picture we took of the bikes opposite the restaurant.



I also ordered a set of Rolon Chain Sprockets since I had some extra cash in hand and the feedback from the SVC was the chain is starting to show signs of wear and tear, I haven't changed it yet, the odo is at 27,000 kms. The other reason was that Rolon had launched their own e-commerce store and wanted to give them a shot. Here's the website link http://rolonpremium.co.in/, the overall purchase process was smooth albeit they don't have an integrated payment system, you will have to do a bank transfer and share receipt with them to confirm the order. Bummer! anyways the shipment took around 4 days to reach my place. The set costed me around 4100 Rs.



FURY also went through a midlife Covid crisis cosmetic change, I never liked the RR310 and Apache stickers on the side fairings, replaced with a custom FURY nameplate. Apache nametag gone away altogether. Tell me this doesn't look way better.





Something a little subtle for the Republic Day ride to Rocky Ridge Cafe, did the loop route through the forest, it is a lot of fun, unless the off roading tracks aren't covered with slush. Could not click any photos of the roads, one, because the photos wouldn't any justice to the gradient, two, I was immensely concentrated not to have a broken fork seal.



I also had a wonderful track experience with TVS Racing in the month of February, completed my Level 1 certification, it's on a dedicated thread I believe https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...ol-2021-a.html (Riding an Apache RTR 200 on the race track | TVS Racing Training School, 2021). The 2nd wave hit right after this and we were under covers until July 2021, monsoon ride updates coming up.

[hungrygamer]

Stumbled on this lovely thread today, first of all thanks a lot Fury for sharing all your experiences here

Have a Bangalore specific question, any service center you can suggest south side of the town, saw that you had done service in Prakruthi tvs but being near mtahalli that's a tad bit far

Also fellow Bangalore team Bhpians gents and ladies anybody knows a good service center this side of town for rr310 , please do suggest

[FURY_44]

Originally Posted by hungrygamer

Stumbled on this lovely thread today, first of all thanks a lot Fury for sharing all your experiences here

Have a Bangalore specific question, any service center you can suggest south side of the town, saw that you had done service in Prakruthi tvs but being near mtahalli that's a tad bit far

Thank you for your kind words hungrygamer.

Your closest option would be Dimple TVS near Tin Factory (https://goo.gl/maps/qK4A9bsDy75Zxx5V7), they are new and a few guys from the group have availed service from here. The others are Bharath TVS Jaynagar prone to bad reviews and Neo TVS Bannerghatta road is much more sensible.

Mr Shashi from Prakruthi TVS Ganganagar is the best, usually some people block a whole day (weekends) for service and get it done here. The SVC is relatively free on the weekdays.

If you are not worried about the warranty, you can also go to Highlander HSR, they do a good job.

[hungrygamer]

Originally Posted by FURY_44

Thank you for your kind words hungrygamer.

Your closest option would be Dimple TVS near Tin Factory (https://goo.gl/maps/qK4A9bsDy75Zxx5V7), they are new and a few guys from the group have availed service from here. The others are Bharath TVS Jaynagar prone to bad reviews and Neo TVS Bannerghatta road is much more sensible.

Mr Shashi from Prakruthi TVS Ganganagar is the best, usually some people block a whole day (weekends) for service and get it done here. The SVC is relatively free on the weekdays.

If you are not worried about the warranty, you can also go to Highlander HSR, they do a good job.

Thanks Fury, dimple is the place I got my bto bike delivered to. Looks a bit new tbh and wanted a more experienced place for my 1st service,

[hungrygamer]

Finally gave it to Dimple for first service , good enough only I think. They provided pick up and drop and also intermittent WhatsApp videos of oil being changed, quite prompt though

Have a general question , has anybody installed a radiator guard and if yes and in Bangalore - please do share

[FURY_44]

Monsoon Ride - July 2021
When: July 16th - 18th
Where: The Western Ghats
Stay
Day 1: Trippr Chikkamangaluru
Day 2: Friend's house at Sagara

Day 1 Route Map: Bangalore - Chikkamangaluru - Baba Budangiri - Mullayangiri - Panduranga Coffee - Trippr Chikkamangaluru

The plan was to start at 5:00 AM and reach Chikkamangaluru by noon. After a quick get-together at Nelamangala Toll Plaza, we made progress and stopped for breakfast at Anagha Grand Restaurant, Channarayapattana at around 8:00 AM, an hour later we proceeded towards Chikkamangaluru, the weather was holding up well with the occasional slight drizzle. We reached our stay, Trippr Chikkamangaluru at around 11:30 AM, it's a budget-friendly Zostel kind of setup, since we were staying only for the night, this would suffice.

Preparations for the ride by my friend.



At Anagha Grand Restaurant, Channarayanapattana. We had a Benelli TRK 502, who recently upgraded from the RR310 and a GS310, new additions to this ride.



Reaching Chikkamangaluru





Lunch was not available at the stay, we were in two minds whether to head towards town to have lunch or skip it and ride towards the Baba Budanagiri and Mullayangiri. Ride triumphs over lunch and after a break for freshening up, we left for the peaks at around 1:00 PM.

On the way to Baba Budanagiri





Hunger started to sneak in after reaching the peak. Tea and biscuits to the rescue.



This was my first visit to Mullayangiri peak, after parking the bikes, my friend suggested we take the steps leading to a temple and a viewpoint, it's a small trek of maybe 10 mins, but that friend did not suggest covering my head and ears with a protective layer of clothing, he had his helmet on and I was quite puzzled. 5 mins into the trek I realized my mistake, the wind was something I had never experienced in my life before, the wind was so cold and gusting at around maybe 40 - 50kmph, it pierced through my ear hole causing a needle pinching pain, I was immediately searching for cover, covering my ears with my hands was not working, I couldn't balance myself on the wet steps as well. Looking at my tantrums, the friend was gracious enough to lend his helmet, finally giving me respite from the relentless winds.

Lesson learned, listen to the locals.

All of us after trekking down the Mullayangiri peak.

Closely look at the pic, every one of them either has a balaclava or a jacket which has the headcover thing, except the daredevil, me.



The rains finally lashed while descending down, as you guessed everyone else had their rain gears on, except me, and I had to wait down the rain at a bus shelter somewhere mid-way. As you guessed again, this was Malnad, just like in the movie Tumbbad, true to its name, the rain did not stop and I had to ride back completely drenched to the hotel . The icing on the cake was, I had the rain gear in the back pocket of my jacket, it was too late to stop and wear that thing.



Bought some customary coffee powder at the famous Panduranga Coffee Works, Chikkamangaluru had dinner at the hotel and called it a not a good day.

Day 2 Route Map: Chikkamangaluru - Mudigere - Kalasa - Kudremukha - Sringeri - Thirthahalli - Sagara aka The Epic Ride Day

Today we were really heading into the forest, the main ride day, all of our planning, efforts were put into this day only and the rest of the trip was planned around it and it did not disappoint. Unfortunately, it rained throughout the day, which means I do not have many pictures to justify the experience we had. If you are looking for an offbeat experience in the Western Ghats during the monsoon, please consider the route I have mentioned above.

Ready for departure from Trippr.

PS I was ready with my rain gear today, in the background. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. snip:snip



And again there was no breakfast available at Trippr, it was a very neutral experience for me, but hey for 500 Rs a night for a bunk bed in a shared room, I cannot complain much. The only pro for me was the gated community and we could park our bikes safely inside the property.

We stopped for breakfast at Athithi Pure Veg Restaurant, Mudigere, which I think was the only mainstream restaurant in all of Mudigere, the locals pointed to that restaurant and the place was filled, the food was good though.

Our initial plan was to ride through Karkala - Agumbe Ghat, but the plan was dropped, due to one of my friends feeling sick, it was not of major concern, but he was under medication and we did not want to risk it.

My happy place kinda roads.



Our Decathlon rain gears held up really well throughout the day, there was little to no water ingress from the rain jacket. FURYs performance was flawless, the RR310 gives immense confidence during cornering, the bike just hugs the road like a magnet, I had no trouble at all pushing it to the limits even on a wet road. But I do believe the Michelin Pilot Street rubbers had met their limits during this ride, there were moments during hard downshifting and braking where I felt the back tire slide out on me, on multiple occasions, not having a slipper clutch made this worse I believe. I might consider upgrading to a slipper clutch when the current set wears out.

Intense



After fueling up at Kalasa, we reached the Kudremukha forest check-post at around 2:30 PM, there's a time system in place just like Tirupati where you will have to exit the forest within a specified time. The cops register your vehicles number, name, mobile number and issue a QR code-based entry card which needs to be returned during exit, the cop at the exit will scan the QR for your entry time, if it's over the specified time of 1 hour, you will have to pay a fine. The Kudremukha forest route was just very intense and raw in nature, it had natural streams, lush green mountains, the system put in place by the forest department ensures the public does not abuse the forest by stopping unnecessarily for a photo break or for a roadside drink break. wink,wink.

One beautiful picture inside Kudremukha.



Ok, one more



After exiting Kudremukha, we stopped for a quick tea break at Thirthahalli before reaching Sagara at around 8 PM. In total, we had covered around 290 kms in 12 hours, taking it slow, enjoying the serene nature around us, and most importantly having fun, this ride will go as one of my favorites and close to my heart.

Day 3 Route Map: Sagara - Jog Falls - Bangara Kusuma - Bangalore

We are home, a friend's home, a relief for all of us, after riding through the rain for the most part in the last couple of days, a chance to..

Dry our clothes.



Since we were riding back to Bangalore the same day, we decided to ditch our bikes for my friend's Ford Fiesta, it couldn't fit all of us, so we also had the Benelli in tow with a couple of us on it. This also gave me the opportunity to test ride the bike, first impressions, the sitting position is much higher than the RR310, I am 5'9" and I couldn't really flat foot. It's heavy, fully loaded with panniers and top box, it was an effort for me to even lift it off the side stand with a pillion behind me. Upgrading to an ADV seems not so straightforward now, I would definitely crash it or any other big ADVs in Bangalore traffic without the needed experience to manage and handle a big bike.

Ah, some respite from the rain.

Rain gears inside a car mean only one thing, yes you guessed it, RAIN!!



Jog falls was filled with tourists, the parking lot was full, we paid an entry fee to see mist instead of the falls and returned back within 5 minutes, bummer. We instead had breakfast at Mayura and headed towards the hidden gem Bangara Kusuma which is around 30kms from Jog Falls. Bangara Kusuma is well aware and famous among the locals, I am sure a normal tourist will give this place a mess, chances are one might even not know this place, like me. The road to Bangara Kusuma from Jog is just fantastic, it's a bikers road, its winding, twisting nature, and not-so-hard corners are a hoot to ride, guess who was grinning on the back seat of a Benelli

To reach Bangara Kusuma falls, one needs to park their vehicles on the main road and walk through the forest for around 20 mins to reach the falls, this is highly not recommended if you are alone, with a family, or a couple, visit this place only if there are a considerable number of locals around and are family-friendly. The walking path also gets tricky at places where you will have to climb up steep rocks and also descend into inclines, the rocks are slippery when wet, not to mention the leeches present in the bushes. Again, we could not capture photos, as we were experiencing all of the above in real-time, hehe. One big pro to reaching the falls is there are no govt officials around or any kind of restrictions to this place, so you can enjoy getting into the water.

I leave you with one photo which does not do any justice at all, thank you.



We returned back to Sagara at around 4 PM, our original plan to start to Bangalore was 12:00 PM, since that was out of the window now, we were contemplating for an early morning start on the next day, a Monday at 4:00 AM, with a plan to reach Bangalore by 10:00 AM. This plan did not materialize, since a few of us had offices to attend. We decided to start the same evening at 6:00 PM with assurances that the rains would have subdued after Chitradurga, it wouldn't be as tough to ride in the night, since it's a 6 lane highway after Chitradurga.

An anticlimax

Everyone was prepped up, with bikes ready, luggage tied, and geared up. I had a weird gut feeling that something was not going to go right. My bike was inside the compound of my friend's house with another bike behind it, in a way that I cannot push it back onto the road. Until the last minute when everyone started their bike and was ready to leave, I had not started and warmed up my bike (queue gut feeling). So I push the bike back onto the road and put the key in the slot, switch on the kill switch, and press the ignition button. The odometer blinks and the stator motor whizzes for a couple of seconds and the bike does not start.

I immediately knew that the battery was dead due to the cold weather and it being almost 3 years old and alas my gut feeling was right again. I was sweating profusely now even in cold weather, I am a guy who follows time to a T and now the whole ride was delayed solely because of me. A couple of us tried to push start it, but could not get the speed required to crank the engine, I pushed the bike in full gear with luggage on the back to a nearby petrol bunk only to find out that they had no jumper cable. All the battery shops were closed due to Sunday. Finally, a couple of hours later a local mechanic came to our rescue and helped us to start the bike and we were on our way to Bangalore at 8:00 PM, a good delay than originally planned.

After the bike warmed up and the battery got recharged due to the ride, I had no problems later on, I fueled up somewhere close to Chitradurga and reached home at around 3:00 AM. The first thing I did was get the battery changed and order an Amazon jumper cable.

I hope I have made justice to this ride by penning down my experience, there's more to come.

[FURY_44]

After the monsoon ride, it was again hibernation mode until the last week of August 2021, I was grateful enough to be allotted a couple of special darshan entry tickets at TTD, as a practice every year I would travel by the afternoon train from Bangalore, reach Tirupati by 6:30 PM, have dinner and proceed to Tirumala via the Alipiri steps and get 1st darshan the next morning. The SDE tickets were booked for 10:30 AM and a friend was tagging with me, so I had to skip the customary practice of climbing the steps and take FURY along with me to TTD, this would be FURYs second visit to the temple.

Before the trip, it was time for the 25,000 kms service, a customary visit to Mr. Shashi at Prakruthi TVS, Ganganagar which has now become a ritual of sorts, visiting him before any longish rides planned. General service was carried out, replacing engine oil and oil filter, he suggested the air filter was still clean, we decided to skip replacing it with a new one. I had also changed the front brake pads which was still running on stock, a life of 25,000 kms was great. The service bill including labor was Rs. 1550 and the pads cost me Rs. 2087.



The start of the TTD ride at 5:00 AM after heavy rains lashed Bangalore all night.



One of my friends was selling his Rynox Magnapod tank bag which was used only a couple of times at a 50% discount, I was quick to latch on to it. It was relatively comfortable compared to the bungee cord set up I had earlier, I had the convenience of storing and removing stuff from the tank bag with ease, highly recommended.



The Chittoor - Tirupati stretch is a boon to ride now, thanks to the newly constructed 6 lane highway. I reached Tirupati at around 8:30 AM, we had a room booked at Madhavaram TTD Guest House, Tirupati, I had time to refresh and have breakfast before we could climb up Tirumala.

Look at the drastic improvement in speed between Chittoor - Tirupati



I and my friend proceeded towards Tirumala at around 10:30 AM from the guest house, 40 mins later we were at the top. We parked our bikes in a safe colony of houses requesting one of the residents to take care of the bikes and our gears, they gladly accepted. This was my 1st visit to TTD after Covid struck and there was a vast improvement in people management, I could not believe I was in TTD or my friendly neighborhood temple. Covid appropriate behavior was followed everywhere except for when in the temporary waiting halls (aka jails) where we were seated for an hour maybe, overall in 2.5hrs we were done with darshan and exited the temple complex. We had lunch at prasadalyam and descended down to our guesthouse by 2:00 PM.

Always ready to visit TTD



Wonderful click by my friend Hemanth, two things I love the most in one picture.



During our return, we made a quick stop at Heritage's factory outlet https://goo.gl/maps/rZLQ4hAbXRxAxYBZ6 for packing some ghee packets, the selling price here is 20-30Rs lesser than MRP, they also sell ice creams, it's a popular outlet on the route. It started raining heavily on our return journey after Palamner and our progress was slow, eventually reaching my home at 9:30 PM, a good 5 hrs after our departure time.

A small breakfast ride to Sabanahalli Lake Viewpoint with the boys to end September 2021s quota.

[FURY_44]

The Cyclone Ride - Nov 2021
When: Nov 12th - 14th
Where: Valparai
Stay: Monica Garden Bungalow - https://goo.gl/maps/fWiHk5Q6f7faPpTw9

As a Formula 1 fan, I love wet races, as a biker, I love wet rides. As much as I love wet rides, this trip was not planned as one. The itinerary was prepared in the mid of October hoping for a winter ride. What put a spanner in our planning was the cyclone that hit the coast of TN for most of November, the cyclone was harsh, the rains were intense, Chennai was battered, with the trip dates getting closer, we were seeing and hearing news of landslides in prominent places like Ooty and Kodaikanal. Not one in the group mentioned anything about canceling the trip, we wanted to get this done.

Day 1 Route Map: Bangalore - Coimbatore - Pollachi - Valparai

The plan was to start at 4:00 AM, since I had bashings from my mom due to it being unsafe and "Ippo idhu dha mukkiyam" (Is this necessary now?), I was going to start a little late after dawn, so she could at least not say "Indha irutule enga da pore?" (Where are you going in this darkness). I started from my home at 7:00 AM, hoping to catch the guys before the planned lunch break at Pollachi. It was still drizzling when I started from home, wearing rain gear would trigger my mom, so I had to ride for a few kms away from home before I could wear the rain gear. The skies cleared up after Krishnagiri since the cyclone likes only the Chennai - Bangalore highway, I could make quick progress after that. I reached Salem at around 10:00 AM and called up the pack to enquire where they were, to my surprise they say we are ahead by 10 mins at a petrol pump. They had a breakfast break at Krishnagiri, whereas I did not.

The original lunch break was planned at one of my favorite restaurants in CBE. Cock Ra Co at RS Puram https://goo.gl/maps/S9BPiBtBfp6dSZhU7, due to everyone being grumpy cause of the rain, they suggested we take the bypass and have lunch at Pollachi instead of entering CBE city, they assured me, we will have lunch during the return journey. The traffic on the bypass was chaotic, with lots of truck traffic, it cleared only after we passed a couple of junctions. We had lunch at this quaint little place called Ashok Hotel https://g.page/ashokhotelpoy?share, it was crowded with a wait time of 15 mins, the food was unbelievably amazing, only non-veg, little did we know this place has been there for more than 60 years, a surprise find.

We were at the Annamalai Tiger Reserve entry at around 4:30 PM, entry tickets for ourselves, bikes, as well as any camera equipment. With fuel prices touching a century, I had made up my mind to be gentle with the throttle to eke out as much as mileage from the bike. The idea had gone overboard and I had increased the tire pressure from the regular 32psi to 34psi front and rear. I was cautious up the hills, the road was wet, slippery, and narrow at places, I gently chugged along, with no hard inputs of the throttle. Let us see if this gamble worked out at the end of the thread.

Overseeing the Sholayar Dam





We reached Monica Garden Bungalow at around 6:30 PM, it was pitch dark by then, I was told Valparai shuts down by 5:00 PM. All of the mobile networks had weak signals, we couldn't connect to the map and it was a tense few mins, as we also couldn't find a soul on the road, not to mention the persistent rain which made matter worse.

Our tents for the night

I was skeptical about staying in these tents, some reviews mentioned rats entering the tents and not to mention the rains. The tent was sturdy and warm enough to get through the night's rain, we did not have any problem with rats, in fact, I did not see one in all of the property in the 2 nights we stayed, maybe they have resolved these issues from the reviews, definitely recommended.



The staff at the bungalow were gracious enough to prepare us hot tea



Had dinner at the property, played UNO, and called it a day.

Day 2 Route Map: Valparai - Balaji Temple (Inside Karumalai Estate) - Vellamalai Tunnel River - Nirar Dam - Sholaiyar Dam

Early morning at the property - Maintained excellently



Our rides - a 390ADV, CBR250R and a D400 new additions to the ride



But first breakfast, we had a MAP plan included in the package, their food menu was extensive, mostly veg, apart from the last dinner on day 2 which had non-veg items. An à la carte spread, they did not shy away from our requests like podi dosa, ghee podi dosa, plain roast, hehe excellent!



The first visit was Balaji temple inside a tea estate, vehicles are restricted, one has to walk for around 10 mins among the lush tea plantations to reach the temple, a good thing if you ask me. The temple has a parking lot inside, but the road is quite narrow, broken, and steep, creating traffic, which may be the reason for vehicle restriction.

Views from the walking trail







Up next was Tunnel View Point, which is a couple of kms from the temple, I am told these are cleverly designed water ports to ration water from one dam to another, instead of letting the excess water from the dam flow through to Kerala.

My happy place kinda roads.

En route to the tunnel



The tunnel was not in action, unfortunately, with only a tiny stream flowing.





Upper Nirar Dam was closed for reasons unknown, we were only let through to Lower Niram Dam which was abrim, an elderly runs a small shack at the lower niram dam preparing lip-smacking noodles and tea, do give a try, there are no other shops around apart from hers for food.





Bikes parked at lower nirar dam

We had a friend join us from Palakkad on his newly acquired i20.



At nirar dam



Our plans to visit Nallamudi viewpoint and Sholaiyar dam flopped, we were on our way to Nallamudi when a biker group returning informed us it's fully covered in fog and it's no use riding further. We quickly made our way to Sholaiyar dam, it was late evening and turned dark very soon, we still made it to the dam only to see visibility to a maximum of 400-500 mtrs, for another time. We made it back to the hotel to have dinner.

JBL boom box for the oomph - We were lucky that there was no one else who booked the property apart from us.



The next day we were deliberating options to visit Athirapalli Falls and ride to Bangalore via Palakkad. The group was splitting from Valparai, not all were returning to Bangalore, some were heading to their hometowns like Palakkad, Nagarcoil, Trichy, and Nagapattinam, please do not ask how we all managed to get together at Valparai . The plan to ride to Athirapally was dropped eventually, we did not have RT PCR test to enter Kerala, didn't want to risk it at the border.

Departing shots at Valparai - Also had the privilege to meet DBHPians neil.jericho, shaikhmimran and karthikk











Made quick progress to home after that to reach home by 9:30 PM, the ride was uneventful, took around 8hrs for 450kms, in time to catch the Brazilian GP. Coming to the update on the increased tire pressure, on the return, due to it being dry weather, I could really notice the difference in ride quality. The bike was flying, at the normal pressure 32 psi I could feel the rolling resistance being a little on the higher side when I let off the throttle, with 34 psi the resistance was lower and I could coast a lot more than usual. I do not know if this was a dangerous practice, but I was comfortable and in control of the bike. I was also not easy going during the descend from Valparai to Pollachi, cornering was easy as earlier. The bike returned a healthy mileage of 36kmpl over a 1000 kms ride, which is the highest to date, I usually average 32-33kmpl on such rides. I will try this again on a different ride, to check whether the increase in mileage was attributed to increase in tire pressure alone.



Adios to 2021, with a ride to Yelagiri Hills on Christmas

[FURY_44]

The 1st ride of 2022 was a good one, last Sunday we planned on visiting an unexplored Ukkada Waterfalls in Chikkamangaluru district which quickly became an impromptu ride with us hoping between Bangalore - Shakleshpura - Bhadra Tiger Reserve - Ukkada Waterfalls - Chikkamangaluru - Bangalore. What was planned as a one-day ride, quickly became a 20hr one.

The final route map



Hassan highway was covered with dense fog but with much less traffic, maybe people weren't warmed up yet with the weekend unlock, we usually skip the early breakfast stops at Swathi, Kicchana Mane, or Dhruvathare and head to Anagha Channarayanapattana, more miles under the belt before the rest of the crowd catches up with us.

Between Sakleshpura and Mudigere we found this beautiful spot



Clicked some beautiful pictures









FURY & ME



We spent a couple of hours at this spot, before heading for refreshments at Ibbani Cafe, their Neer Dosas were delicious as were their akki roti, french fries, cheese veg sandwich, and cold coffee, we lost count on the number of plates we had .

We had to ride through Bhadra Tiger Reserve to reach Ukkada waterfalls, the roads were excellent inside the reserve, corners with a view, I had lots of fun pushing the bike, the cornering capabilities of the RR310 is one thing which stumps me every time and holds me back from selling it, a grin on my face every single time.

Inside the Bhadra Tiger Reserve



We reached Ukkada Waterfalls at around 4 PM, the falls is located inside a private coffee estate, there are no restrictions as such, we could see a lot of locals around, the catch here is, one has to trek inside the coffee estate for around 30 - 40 mins to reach the falls, with no network, GPS and signboards it's extremely difficult to locate the way to the falls, we were roaming aimlessly for an hour inside the estate and had to give up. It's a good place to visit if you are going with a gang. We didn't have the time to find the path, it was already 6 PM, we plan to visit this place some other time.

Some photos at the entrance of the coffee estate, it was a picturesque location







On the way back we stopped for coffee at this place called The Estate Cafe, which had a wonderful view while we were sipping on delicious coffee and some crunchy onion pakodas.

The Estate Cafe



The view opposite to the cafe, sipping coffee watching your rides is pure bliss



Us



It was already 7:30 PM when we reached Panduranga Coffee, Chikkamangaluru for the customary parcels, the night curfew kicks in at 10:00 PM, we were not alone, there were loads and loads of Bangalore registered cars on the highway, the police were nowhere to be found en route, maybe the rules are just an eyewash or we got lucky.

The roads made sure, I was excited throughout the day

PS: Edited for after effects