Daytrip ride to the Nilgiris (05.02.21):
A ride to the Nilgiris was on the cards ever since TN eased restrictions on their hill stations for visiting travellers. Single day trips to Ooty were a regular affair for us up until the pandemic struck, with us frequently visiting Ooty, savouring some delicious continental food, picking up some fresh veggies and dairy (cheese) and returning home by night. This was almost always by car though.
This time around, I decided to take the bike and was doing it solo (without pillion) on a weekday. Since the elder sibling Ninja just had its share of highway trips over the past two weeks, and because my office commutes are still yet to start, I decided to give the Interceptor this exercise. BHPians
ebmrajesh and
rbp decided to join me on their Ninja 1000 and Ninja 650 respectively.
The original plan was to use Mysore road for onward journey and Mettupalyam - Mettur - Thoppur single lane highway to reach home. Unfortunately we got delayed owing to traffic in the hills when descending, and so we decided to take the Avinashi - Salem expressway to make up for lost time with higher average speeds. The road was good for most part after Mysore. Bangalore - Mysore road is in tatters and is extremely annoying to ride on. I won't be hitting that highway anytime soon, thanks to the authorities for the condition it is in now!
Route map
Waiting for
ebmrajesh to sync-up at 4.30am on a chilly winter morning, before we headed out to join
rbp who was waiting at Mysore road
Stopping at Kamat Madhuvan, Mysore for some steaming hot Idlis and Vadas in the morning cold
Another short break at CCD, Gundlupet after some lovely single lane roads
Mid-day snack - we carried along a Chocolate Hazelnut cake loaf to add some sweetness to the ride, literally!
Stopping for a break after the Bandipur - Mudumalai forest checkpost. For those of you wondering if we need an E-Pass to enter TN via the Masinagudi route to Ooty, the short answer is yes. We were asked for the E-Pass and asked to sign at the border checkpost register with the E-Pass details. There is no mobile network in the forest so don't try to rely on ad-hoc E-pass applications at the border. It just takes two minutes on the phone and it is better to keep that document ready while approaching this border. I had fortunately taken a printout along.
Ninja guru
ebmrajesh and his widely travelled Ninja 1000
rbp's immaculately maintained Ninja 650 which is almost a decade old now!
The Interceptor reiterated on this ride once again, on why it is such an enjoyable motorcycle to ride no matter what the riding conditions are. It is so simple, compact, chuckable and agile in the twisties with tons and tons of low end grunt for all those hooligan overtakes, and the wind-in-the-face feeling just plasters a smile on the face after every ride. It is an epitome of simple, retro, unadulterated motorcycling sans too many complexities. Of course, I cannot say this bike is the best tool for long distance expressway cruising at very high speeds and for long durations, owing to the wind blast, the bouncy rear suspension and the narrow seat which take away a bit of fun, but it is still so much of a fun bike for 90% of use cases one can put the bike through, and come out on top. Coincidentally this weekend the Interceptor completed 2 fun-filled years in my garage, with many more to come.
Stopping at a picturesque point en route to Coonoor
We stopped for lunch as planned, at
The Culinarium, a place famous for some incredibly tasty continental food and gourmet desserts. Since it was a weekday, we were the only ones at the place. We must have spent a good 2 hours here! This picture was from the parking lot though.
The tables here have such a pretty view of the valley
The view from the table
If you look closely, our three bikes can be seen from the table as well, lol!
Being a hardcore foodie, I'm going to spam some pictures of the lovely food as well, on this post
Their signature pot-pies were to die for
Desserts anyone? These were addictively delicious too!
After a sumptuous lunch, we descended the Nilgiris onto the Mettupalyam - Annur - Avinashi single lane road and then took the Coimbatore - Bangalore expressway to hit home by 9pm almost. It was a warm afternoon / evening after the hills were over and didn't even feel like winter.
Motul chain lube Art!
All thanks to the RE service centre folks who sprayed this much-hated (for me) stupid chain lube, in spite of me telling them not to mess with it. It splattered this horrible tar-like sludge all over the rear wheel which took me 1 full hour to get rid of!
A closer look at Motul’s chain lube Art!
Motul chain lube versus Turtle wax quick detailer!
A wash and wax session later, followed by a chain lube with Putoline's DX11 non-fling chain spray fixed the rear wheel mess, plus brought the bike back to original shine levels. Ready for the next ride!
710 km of riding on a mix of bad roads, single lane highways, twisties in the hills and flat out expressways, in under 16 hours, including 3-4 breaks. With the narrow seat and the excessive wind blast of a short naked bike, this was pretty neat to pull off and I wasn't even cramping too much at the end of it. I also got to test the Maddog LED headlights very well this time on the highway return journey, and I am impressed with how easily I am able to keep good speeds in excess of a ton thanks to the improved visibility in the night. More riding to follow in the weeks to come.
Until my next update, ciao!