[barcalad]

Originally Posted by Snehal Sekhar

This Sunday Shanenanigans and I are riding to Horsley Hills. We will be taking the Chintamani - Madanapalli route. The distance one way should be around 160 kms.
The rendezvous is at 6 AM in front of the ITI Gate in KR Puram (just after the Hanging Bridge).

You could ping either of us if you'd like to join.

Chief, here are my inputs for both of you.

1. Start earlier. The road from Hoskote to Chintamani is best experienced at night. You'll thank me later. I recommend a 5AM start. Because then, you reach by 7 and then can get the majestic early morning view of the hills.

2. Tank up at the BP petrol bunk at Madanpalli while returning. Will be a tad cheaper. It's Andhra Pradesh.

3. Watch out for the speed breakers that come out of nowhere. They have tested my ABS innumerable times.

Have a good one. Eagerly waiting for the photos.

[man_of_steel]

Originally Posted by barcalad

1. Start earlier. The road from Hoskote to Chintamani is best experienced at night. You'll thank me later. I recommend a 5AM start. Because then, you reach by 7 and then can get the majestic early morning view of the hills.

2. Tank up at the BP petrol bunk at Madanpalli while returning. Will be a tad cheaper. It's Andhra Pradesh.

3. Watch out for the speed breakers that come out of nowhere. They have tested my ABS innumerable times.

Give a count and locations of potholes along the route too bro!

[barcalad]

Originally Posted by man_of_steel

Give a count and locations of potholes along the route too bro!

Didn't I almost do that once in that infamous whatsapp rides group?

Not riding much, I see. Why don't you join 'em?

[man_of_steel]

Originally Posted by barcalad

Didn't I almost do that once in that infamous whatsapp rides group?

Not riding much, I see. Why don't you join 'em?

Lol! Yes you did!

Was planning a small one with the guys tomorrow but I have caught a cold! Will ride if I am feeling okay. Can't make it on Sunday though!

[Snehal Sekhar]

Set the alarm for 4AM since I had to be at ITI Gate (KR Puram) by 6. The alarm rang, got up, switched off the alarm and went back to sleep thinking I’d sleep for another 10 minutes. When I woke up it was 5:15 AM. Messaged Shane that I’d be late by 15 minutes.

Reached the rendezvous point only by 6:30 AM. Shane was already waiting for me when I arrived.

Horsley Hills is around 180 kms from E-city and from the ITI gate we headed towards Hoskote and turned left towards Chintamani. The roads are well laid and we were doing good speeds. The only fly in the ointment were the speed breakers at frequent intervals. The speed breakers were marked though and we didn’t have much trouble negotiating them. If we were on that stretch before day break we may have found it difficult I guess.
The only bad stretch of road we came across on this ride was at the “Road under Railway Bridge” in Chintamani and that too just a 100 meters or so.
Until Chintamani the speed breakers are marked, but past that I guess they just forgot to mark them and we had to be a little cautious since out of the blue you’d find yourself going over one.
We reached Madnapalle and turned left towards Horsley Hills. Since none of us were using our GPS, we stopped to ask directions. We were advised to head straight and we did just that. We rode on and on and along the way felt something was not right since we didn’t see anything like a hill on our way. We stopped again to enquire and got to know that we overshot our route by a couple of kms.

We traced our way back and eventually found our way to the Hills. We reached there at around 10 AM and just in time to have breakfast at the Andhara Pradesh Tourism Hotel called Haritha. They were only serving a buffet today and the buffet consisted of Idly, Vada and Pongal (worked out to Rs. 100.00 per person). After a scrumptious breakfast and a quick smoke, off we went to take some pictures at the rocky plateau. The view from there was great, You could see the towns / villages below. The weather was pleasant and there was a gentle cool breeze blowing throughout. We initially wanted to ride our bikes on this plateau, but were advised against doing this by the localites there. There was some kind of rule against doing this (it would have made sense for them to put up a board with the rule though, it would be very beneficial for the tourists). Another thing to keep in mind while walking there is that the place is littered with broken beer bottles and it’s not advisable walking bare foot or wearing thin sole footware.
After the photo ops session we decided to leave and this time round we wanted to come back via Kolar. We switched on the GPS on our mobiles and got the directions and off we headed.

We rode on and on but found out very late that we missed the turn to Kolar and instead we were back on the same Chintamani route. Since it was too late by the time we found this out, we decided to stick to the same route that we took in the morning. At Hoskote Shane turned off towards the Tin Factory route to go towards Hebbal and I was supposed to take the Malur-Hosur route to reach E-city. I never found the road going to Malur though and ended up taking the KR Puram – Indiranagar route to E-city.

A good ride it was and equally good company. The ride took us around 8 hours including 1.5 hour of breaks (fuel breaks, restroom, photo ops, breakfast, smokes..etc.)

The weather didn’t play spoilsport and it was pleasant and cool most of the way. The only grouse I had is that the speed breakers after Chintamani need to be marked clearly and the AP Govt. needs to put in clear boards marking directions to places.

All the attached photos are courtsey Shane's IPhone.

[Shanenanigans]

Originally Posted by Snehal Sekhar

*snip*

Yeah it was a great ride today. I was apprehensive about it earlier since it was a longish ride for me on a Sunday, with no extra day to rest and considering the fact that I had slept at 1am, I was wondering whether I'd need a Red Bull during the day.

When meeting up at ITI, it seemed that there was a Harley ride happening today, and when Snehal showed up, caught up with a few of the guys, and left with me, it was hilarious how it seemed like he was cheating on the Harleys with a CBR. Either way, roads were decent, and we managed to maintain road legal speeds except for the little bits of completely broken roads that Snehal mentioned near Chintamani. For reference, the speed breakers, while most were marked decently, from Madanapalli to Horsley hills, they could really use some paint. Just any paint would do. Doesn't even have to be reflective. More than once Snehal and me had to drop speeds like crazy just so we didn't fly over the speed breakers.

Didn't take too long, and we only had 6.5 hours of riding time today, what with the overshooting, thrice. First time was thanks to us missing a turn heading into Horsley Hills, second was missing a turn to Bangalore inside Madanapalli, and the third was missing the turn off to Kolar. In our defense, these were really not marked very well.

The weather was beautiful, and wearing my textile jacket wasn't bad at all. Except for the bits of traffic in Hoskote in the afternoon, and getting into KR Puram. Since I had to head back to Jakkur via Hebbal, I fully expected a jam at Tin Factory, but there were only a few buses blocking the way as opposed to the usual 6 buses blocking practically the entire road.

I must say that considering this is the longest single day run I've done ( around 330km to and fro ) I'm experiencing no aches or joint pains or anything, except for my right thumb, where the end was kinda dug in to my leather gloves, which had a bath in Friday's downpour and I didn't use them on Saturday to return them back into shape. I am exhausted, but that's thanks to the lack of sleep for the past five days.

I also learned a few things about my bike, namely that it sheds speed incredibly fast, probably thanks to the ABS and surprisingly, the contact patch of the ContiGos, the suspension is excellent, even with a pillion and tyres filled up to factory recommended levels and stock settings, and there's little to no fatigue while cruising at triple digit speeds. My pillion however, found the knee bend angle of the footpegs a little uncomfortable after the 6.5 hours of riding that we did, but she was fine about half an hour after we got home. For reference, she's 5'7" so a shorter pillion may have a better time with the footpegs.

I think Snehal covered the rest of the ride; pretty uneventful, except we had a great ambient experience at Horsley Hills. And the roads were lined with trees for most of the way, which frankly, is a way better experience for me than zooming along on a highway.

And I have to mention, no reckless drivers or riders on this ride today. Which was really good, because the previous rides to Avalabetta, Nandi Hills, and Yercaud, all had their share of supremely reckless motorcycles, trucks, cars, and well, zoom cars -.-

Here are some more pictures to try and capture a fraction of the scenic views we enjoyed today.

[Snehal Sekhar]

For the benefit of the group, I have attached the route map that we took yesterday to reach Horsley Hills. The route is simple enough with not too many deviations. Just be a little careful of our simian friends and dogs that keep scooting across the roads between Chintamani and Madanapalli.

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by goandude

Had a fabulous ride today to Avalabetta. No traffic, beautiful scenery, good roads, quite peaceful and a lovely view from the top

Originally Posted by Shanenanigans

Yes, it was beautiful.

Some pictures from the ride.

and here is the ze video of it. this just the climb, the complete video is in the works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdp90es4d30

[Shanenanigans]

Just a small update - Yesterday, Ironh4wk, shan_ned and me had a day ride to Chikmagalur, first to Preethi Canteen, which had pretty nice dosas, and then through the hills from Birur to Chikmagalur. It was an amazing ride. Finished up the evening with riding on the NH to Bangalore, and got stuck in massive amounts of traffic as we got here.

This is the specific route we took - https://goo.gl/maps/LQn4v

Excellent b-roads from Channarayapatna to Arsikere and even better ones to Birur. Neatly paved, some speedbreakers here and there, but what a great scenic ride.

From Birur to Lingadahalli, we rode on terrible broken roads, but once we got there, we were in for pure bliss. We had beautiful twisties from Lingadahalli to Kaimara some of which were recorded on IronH4wk's GoPro.

Got quite a few pictures and some nice video. The roads were well maintained, and it was curve after curve. Chicanes, long sweepers, very few hairpins, but it was well worth it. And greenery on both sides. After the twisties, we began to head back and stopped at a CCD on the way to grab some food and then we were on our way home.

All in all, an amazing ride, and great riders.

Distance traveled - 566 km for me. Total time for the ride, including breaks, traffic, pictures, videos, etc was 14.5 hours.

Will upload pictures later.

[Sojogator]

Destination : Lepakshi (around 250kms both ways)
Time & Place : 0615 AM, Saturday (12.09.2015) opposite esteem mall, just after the bus stop.
Riders - 2 as of now.
Route :
https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/13...8!2d13.8040549

There is no plan to stay at the temple for any considerable time.

Pm if anyone wants to join in.

[naveenroy]

Saturday lazy ride for me. Just wanted to eat parottas and an omlette at some random place after Krishnagiri (yeah I know). Went past Krishnagiri, didn't go all the way to Dharmapuri but made a U-turn and had lunch at "Hotel Mangalam Pure Veg" - https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/...1d792798546d20

And for a veg place, parottas were actually super! Satisfied, rode back to Bangalore

Thankfully they've laid the roads completely near Hosur - now with those flyovers, the traffic is way more smoother.

[schakravarthy]

Anyone at Adigas, Bangalore-Mysore road now? Big gang of bikers here.

[amansanc]

Originally Posted by Shanenanigans

Excellent b-roads from Channarayapatna to Arsikere and even better ones to Birur. Neatly paved, some speedbreakers here and there, but what a great scenic ride.

All in all, an amazing ride, and great riders.

Distance traveled - 566 km for me. Total time for the ride, including breaks, traffic, pictures, videos, etc was 14.5 hours.

Will upload pictures later.

Eagerly waiting for the pictures. Have a ride planned on the same route in October. Visiting the region for the first time and hence want to know how good/bad it is

[Shanenanigans]

Originally Posted by amansanc

Eagerly waiting for the pictures. Have a ride planned on the same route in October. Visiting the region for the first time and hence want to know how good/bad it is

It might be a little tight, but my hard drive just crashed, and it's not hooked up until I get a new one. The pictures are still on there and I have to recover them, but I'll upload them by next weekend.

[Ikoner_03]

Any ride planned for this Sunday, I would be heading out to BR Hills.

PS: Am running in the D390 . Cant fly along with fellow riders.