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Old 21st April 2009, 18:06   #181
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hurrycane12 View Post
Agree with paragsachania on the
You can stop at Chitradurga A1 (i guess its still open)
This is ones closed down long back. So are the petrol bunks (Reliance)
15 hours to Mumbai is awesome timing buddy. What were you riding?
I did Blr - Kolhapur in 10 hours straight - no stops in 10 hrs (3AM - 1 PM).
I was driving a stock zen.
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Old 21st April 2009, 18:25   #182
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prince_pervez; I know the bunk is closed but we stopped there on our way the A1 was open. Anyway may have closed now.

I drove a stock Baleno VXI, luggage loaded also had my family; wife, kid and our pet Even I was as much surprised for making it in 15 hrs. We left Blr 5 AM and reached home at Gorai Beach at 8:15 PM.
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Old 21st April 2009, 18:44   #183
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I did delhi bangalore over this sat & sun (i.e. 18th and 19th April 2009), the road conditions, from bombay-pune expressway flyover where the old bombay-pune road and expressway deviates is as follows:

a. To pune on the bombay pune expressway - ok to good - while you can do great speeds on this stretch, the road surface is not the best.. There are some portions around khandala/lonavala where you need to slow down quite a bit - this does affect the average a bit, but otherwise it is still one of the better roads out there..
b. Pune bypass - essentially from end of expressway to the first toll booth on the way to satara - good road surface, but we did find quite a bit of city traffic on a sunday afternoon, I do not know how good/bad it would be on other days..
c. Pune to satara after first toll booth - the road surface is great and there was some light to heavy traffic - the kambakakta ghat (i do not know the exact spelling) was pretty crowded, but otherwise this stretch is pretty good
d. Satara - kohlapur - We did find some traffic, but not as much as it was till satara - good road surface but speeds > 140km/h not recommended on most cars on this stretch because of traffic conditions..
e. Kohlapur to Belgaum to Hubli/Dharwad bypass - Excellent roads and very mild traffic - we did speeds of upto 180km/h and averaged around 100km per hour on this stretch. In many parts of this road, you can see a few kilometers ahead of you.. Curves can be taken at pretty high speeds if you and your car can handle the speeds safely.. Also, while this road is essentially a 4 lane road, there are many 6 laned sections. All bridges and ghat sections are 6 laned. Just be careful about driving at high speeds as this section is not fenced unlike expressways, so there can be stray cattle, pets and humans..
f. Hubli/Dharwad bypass - this is a 2 lane single carriageway with quite a bit of traffic - speeds can remain restricted depending on the traffic
g. Post Hubli for around 50km (i did not note down the distance) - Great highway, light traffic on a sunday evening and we were restricted in terms of speed due to it being night time but I suppose one can safely do very high speeds.. Great road surface..
h. Around 50kms after Hubli to a few kms after chitradurga - road construction stopped, so bad roads, no lane markers, lots of diversions - we did not find much traffic on a sunday evening after around 8pm. Also there are 2 railway crossings, we got stuck in one :-( There are quite a few long 4 laned stretches, but there are way too many diversions on this stretch, so be careful.. Some big potholes were also there..
i. A few kms after chitradurga to around begining of tumkur - Excellent roads - I did see fencing around the roads and even at night time, we did great speeds.. We were limited a bit due to wet roads post rains on this stretch, but in day time v. high speeds should be possible during the day time.. Quite a few sections on this road are also 6 laned, but still it is mostly 4 laned..
j. Tumkur town - Road under construction, and I suppose pretty clogged up with traffic during the day - We passed tumkur at around 1am and did not find much traffic, but were limited in terms of speeds due to spead breakers and frequent diversons..
h. Tumkur to around bangalore - Decent 4 laned road, but not as good as the other roads..
i. After some point near bangalore to bangalore city - road surface is not so bad, but due to metro construction the road is pretty bad - if possible, use NICE road to get to tumkur road from within bangalore city.. I had to go to around yashwantpur, so I could not use the NICE road..

-- no1lives4ever
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Old 21st April 2009, 21:25   #184
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You did 180kmph in baleno? What are the Mods in the car?

Abhi
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Old 21st April 2009, 21:40   #185
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hurrycane12 View Post
Agree with paragsachania on the Chitradurga stretch and the drive from Blr city to Tumkur is painful as you are travelling Blr - Mum you can aviod the same by taking the Yelahanka - Dodballapur - Dabaspet route to exit the city its a faster way to aviod the major traffic you will reach NH4 just 20 Kms before Tumkur; any one who has travelled on this route in the recent past can highlight about the condition of the road.

You can stop at Chitradurga A1 (i guess its still open) for breakfast and lunch can be at Belgaum - Kolhapur depends on the time you reach; Belgaum has lot of good eateries, there is a McD at Kolhapur.

I did Blr-Mum in about 15 hrs in Oct 08. If you leave before 5 AM you can reach Thane by 7 PM
15 Hours is doable and possible only in case if you start the earliest.
I've done Pune Bangalore thrice and the Max I took was 14 hours when I drove through the night almost slowing down in that bad stretch due to visibility.
There on, I made sure it was always good to start very early in the morning and during my second stint it was 13.5 hours for a distance of 850 Kms.
The best was 12 Hours Flat, from Shinghad Rd (Pune) to My House is Bangalore (VR Pura) on the 2nd of October. We had started at 5-15am and reached Bangalore home at 5-15pm sharp.

I give credits here for a very early start and also for the fact that I covered up the best distance wherever the roads were very good.

On Mumbai - Pune expressway, only because I started from Ghatkopar at 11pm I reached my Shinghad Road house in Pune at 1am (2 Hours).

It always works to start early as you avoid city traffic while getting out and also that 9am-10am traffic in the small villages and towns that you pass by. Usually those 3 wheelers and 2 wheelers.....

All this was in my Wagon-R!
Hence, with a bigger and a better car, this is safely achievable.
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Old 21st April 2009, 21:46   #186
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Quote:
Originally Posted by prince_pervez View Post
I did Blr - Kolhapur in 10 hours straight - no stops in 10 hrs (3AM - 1 PM).
I was driving a stock zen.
Each of the following 200 km strech can be done in 3 hours -
Bangalore - Chitradurga
Chitradurga - Hubli
Hubli - Kolhapur

The third strech can even be done in lesser time depending on the traffic faced in Hubli-Dharwad bypass.

We have done till Satara from Bangalore in 10.5 hrs with two breaks for breakfast and lunch. Also done Pune to Satara in a little less than 1.5 hrs on the way back.

This is done in Safari, speed hovering between 100-110 kmph.

Last edited by arindamray : 21st April 2009 at 21:47.
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Old 21st April 2009, 22:17   #187
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Seems like i'm the only slow poke here!
Got to get a better ride. Enough of < 1 Ltr engines.
Anyways, Enjoy the pics.
Can someone find a swift in there (2nd pic)?
Attached Thumbnails
Bangalore - Pune - Mumbai : Route updates & Eateries-dsc00076.jpg  

Bangalore - Pune - Mumbai : Route updates & Eateries-dsc00077.jpg  

Bangalore - Pune - Mumbai : Route updates & Eateries-dsc00080.jpg  

Bangalore - Pune - Mumbai : Route updates & Eateries-image1092.jpg  

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Old 21st April 2009, 22:21   #188
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And the Babe who dun it!
Attached Thumbnails
Bangalore - Pune - Mumbai : Route updates & Eateries-dsc000971.jpg  

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Old 21st April 2009, 22:26   #189
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hurrycane12 View Post
Gorai Beach
Got some sweet memories of that place dude!
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Old 22nd April 2009, 04:26   #190
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Vow, this is more than what i asked for. Depth of all this info would put even Google and Yahoo maps to shame. Thank you, will share my experience of the drive.
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Old 22nd April 2009, 09:52   #191
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prince_pervez: good pics of the road mate; what was the swift doing there on the divider. I guess its a accident?

paragsachania: Kumar sir does Mum-Blr in 12 hours in his Scorpio; I agree that with a better car we can do a better time. I had my 1st trip in a Wagon R in 2006 and we did it in 18 hrs but we took 2 long breaks.

Anyways the thread is just to discuss the route and road conditions, lets live it there.

Last edited by Hurrycane12 : 22nd April 2009 at 09:59.
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Old 22nd April 2009, 10:31   #192
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hurrycane12 View Post
what was the swift doing there on the divider. I guess its a accident?
I guess so. but how did it get there still baffles me.

About the road. No matter how lovely the NH4 is,
you will have your patience tested when it comes to
long 18 wheeler rigs carrying those huge windmill blades
to Chitradurga. Better watch out for those. Can slow
you down by atleast an hour.
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Old 22nd April 2009, 12:20   #193
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I keep driving in this stretch often these days( three times in the last eight months ). I have tried the Yelahanka route as well as regular Yeshwantpur route. The first 80 kms invariably take around 2 hours. In both the instances I tried yeshwantpur route and it took around 1hour 45 minutes to cut across the city and reach Koramangala from the second toll gate. Not really bad.

My first instance took 13 hours to reach Pune( Warje, right in the highway ) from my home in Koramangala. Next time onwards it generally hovers from 11:45 hours to 12:30 hours in my Corolla( start around 6:30 AM ) with three stoppages each of 15 minutes. The long 18wheelers are a real pain in the butt near Chitradurga diversions.
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Old 22nd April 2009, 12:30   #194
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Quote:
Originally Posted by akroy View Post
You did 180kmph in baleno? What are the Mods in the car?

Abhi
Totally stock, except for some not so great 13" neo alloys and < 2k km old 185 70 R13 Bridgestone Potenza GIII tyres when we started with the trip.

This was from the data I saw in Nokia sports tracker after we crossed the bombay pune expressway. We found relatively empty stretches where we just had our foot on the accelerator in 5th gear and the speedo needle kept climbing till we needed to slow down.. No one was looking at the speedo at those speeds

-- no1lives4ever

Last edited by no1lives4ever : 22nd April 2009 at 12:37.
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Old 22nd April 2009, 13:51   #195
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no1lives4ever: I agree even few stretches I touched 175 at times was forced to backtrack by my spouse. The stock Baleno is pretty steady on those speeds too.
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