[tigerranch]

Dear Friends

After my saddle sore test in October I am planning to ride the Golden Quadrilateral in the month of November

I need guileless on the highway, I will start riding from Pune to Bangalore to Chennai to Kolkata to Delhi to Ahmedabad and back to Pune.

I need to know the difficulties I may face on this route.

I would also like to have details of all the McDonald on this route.

Are there any by-passes on this route to avoid entering the city.

Any other suggestion is welcome

I will appreciate all the information

Cheers

[aargee]

Sir, first my hearty wishes & good luck;
Here're some of the threads that might be of help
1. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...s-6000kms.html
2. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ll-almost.html
3. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...al-run-ii.html

Get the route info from HVK sir & you'll nothing else; the first thread is really an awesome source of information.

[hvkumar]

tigerrranch, that would be another awesome ride, I am sure.

A friend of mine just completed (today) the GQ drive in 13 days, expecting fresh updates from him on road conditions.

November could be a bad month since it starts getting foggy by then, which means an entire region starting from RJ-HR border all the way down to Calcutta gets shrouded in fog, making riding conditions difficult.

OR roads are in devastated condition all the way from the WB border till the AP border, slowing you down considerably.

Let me elaborate on each of the sectors:

Pune-Bombay: No problems, use the Belapur-Turbhe-Airoli-Mulund-Thane to bypass the city to Ghodbunder on NH8.

Bombay-Manor: Expect heavy traffic at all times of day and night. Some bad road sections will be repaired by this month-end.

Manor-Vapi: Not a bad stretch

Vapi-Surat: Road widening in progress, lots of flyovers under construction, some deviations, but good roads.

Surat-Baroda: Heavy traffic, but spectacular 6-laned road

Baroda-Ahmedabad: Great expressway, but are mobikes allowed? The conventional NH8 is a messy road.

Ahmedabad: Bypassing the city from e-way is easy. If you have to take NH8 from Baroda, you can still take the Sardar Patel Ring Road and bypass easily.

Ahmedabad-Udaipur: Fabulous run, except for some messy traffic for the first few kms out of Ahmedabad on the way to Himmatnagar, depending on the time of the day. Aravalli ghats are fantastic after you enter RJ. Sections where you can easily do 160-180 kmph.

Udaipur: Bypassed, but on a narrow 2-laned road

Udaipur-Chittorgarh: NH76 is surely the fastest of the lot, 110 kms in under 60 minutes

Chittorgarh-Kishangarh: Bypas Chittorgarh, make some supersonic speeds via Bhilwara to Kishangarh

Kishangarh-Jaipur: Despite being a e-way, the highway to Jaipur can be troublesome with lots of truck traffic

Jaipur Bypass: is awesome

Jaipur-Delhi: Can be bad traffic conditions, depending on time of day - bad times being evening hours.Expect traffic jams in RJ-HR border. Road widening going on. Road most rough of the highways so far. Unruly truck tarffic. Gurgan-Delhi e-way great

Delhi: No problem

Delhi-AGra-Kanpur: Upto Agra can be messy at least till you cross Palwal, but opens up after that. However, each of the small UP towns can slow you down in gridlocking crossing traffic, espaically Sikhandra and Agra. After Agra, road is good all the way via Etawah to Kanpur. Beware of miscellaneous traffic when you cross villages. Kanpur is bypassed via a fantastic 25-km elevated road. Take care, there is no petrol pump.

Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi: Good ride all the way, including the long Allahabad bypass. Problem is only in Varanasi bypass, especially the inefficient toll booth where you can lose lots of time

Varanasi-Aurangabad-Durgapur: Great roads through Bihar, becomes better in Jharkhand, may be inadvisable to ride through the night, but safety not a serious issue. After entering WB, speeds reduce, too much of messy traffic.

Durgapur-Calcutta: But for the narrow Panagarh bazaar, the Durgapur e-way to Calcutta is surely one of the best. Expect to do some superfast speeds here.

Calcutta: Durgapur e-way merges into Kona e-way to Kharagpur without getting affected by the large metro. You will not notice you have gone past.

Calcutta-Kharagpur: Kona e-way is very fast.

Kharagpur-Jaleshwar: Complicated interchange to connect with NH60 to OR. Great roads in WB. But once you enter OR, roads are in very bad condition, even the 4-laned roads

Jaleswar-Bhubaneswar: Several sections are still being widened, roads broken up, high speeds possible on and off. Cuttack-Bhubaneswar frustrates you thanks to heavy urban traffic.

Bhubaneswar-Behrampur-Ichchapuram: Bad, bad and bad. Road widening on. Slows you down considerably. You enter Ap at Ichchapuram

Ichchapuram-Vizag: Superb

Vizag-Vijaywada: Superb, except that Vizag is messy on NH5, but you can always take the 2-laned bypass from near Bhimunipatnam all the way beyond Vizag till Anakapalle, slow but helps avoid the urban tarffic. After that, smooth fast run till Vijaywada where the bypass is now part of teh city and you cannot malke great speeds.

Vijaywada-Madras: Superfast, no problems anywhere

Madras: No true bypass, but there is a sort of Ring Road which will take you fromn NH5 to NH4. Expect to lose at least 1 hour. Plan to cross at night.

Madras-Bangalore: No problems, fast

Bangalore-Pune: You know it better.

McDs - they have a wonderful web-site with locations of each McD outlet.

Please check out my log book, which aargee has been kind enough to refer to, but here is a direct link:
http://groups.google.com/group/hvkumar/web/GQ-6D.xls

aargee, thanks for remembering me and putting the old links together.

You can maintain speeds in excess of 150 kmph in at least 50% of the route (except OR).

[prince_pervez]

Just be extra cautious at the village crossings and and gateways as there is every possiblilty of a negligent person/cyclist/bullock cart crossing the road w/o giving 2 hoots of what speeds you are doing.

Take sufficient breaks. Try to cover the good stretches in the nights.

Carry one more spare tyre would be my advise.

Tank up before dark at the first bunk you get, to avoid panic in the night.

Do not let your partner sleep at night

And lastly go through the HVK GQ log or request him for it.

Have a good run mate. Best of luck.

[hvkumar]

Best taken at night:
Bombay bypass, Delhi-Agra, Asansol-Calcutta, Madras city

Avoid at night:
Jaipur-Delhi, Varanasi-Durgapur, Jaleswar-Ichchapuram

I just realised that you are planning to do the drive anti-clockwise, I have detailed it clock-wise! Any specific reason to do it that way? Your chances of making up for lost time are best on the AP-TN-KA leg in the fag end of the drive than the other way round.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Madras: No true bypass, but there is a sort of Ring Road which will take you fromn NH5 to NH4. Expect to lose at least 1 hour. Plan to cross at night.

@TRanch sir - Do not worry about this part as I'm living close to the links between NH4 & NH5; with the new semi constructed bye-pass & fly overs you might hardly need an hour to cross. I'll be more than happy to ride along with you & help crossing this link without having to worry an inch.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

aargee, thanks for remembering me and putting the old links together.

Pleasure is mine Sir; those posts are treasures

[tigerranch]

Originally Posted by aargee

Sir, first my hearty wishes & good luck;
Here're some of the threads that might be of help
1. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...s-6000kms.html
2. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ll-almost.html
3. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...al-run-ii.html

Get the route info from HVK sir & you'll nothing else; the first thread is really an awesome source of information.

@Aargee Thank you, it would be a pleasure riding with you.

@ Hvkumar, you have made the travel so simple, Thanx a ton. I am planning to do the complete ride in 4 days, ride about 15 to 1600 kms on average everyday.

@ Prince I am riding alone no partner, the bike is new and the tyres too, being tubless will carry the puncture repair kit and the compressor along. Thanx

will chalk out the riding plan in the next few days and put it up.

Cheers

[aargee]

Originally Posted by tigerranch

@Aargee Thank you, it would be a pleasure riding with you.

Thank you ; I'll be looking forward & hope I do not slow you down.

Originally Posted by tigerranch

@ Hvkumar, you have made the travel so simple, Thanx a ton. I am planning to do the complete ride in 4 days, ride about 15 to 1600 kms on average everyday.

GQ is totally about 6000 Kms & with 4 days your average is right of about 1500-1600 Kms a day. Are you planning to combine a bun burner along with GQ?

Not that you'll be tired or doubting your capabilities, my suggestion would be take a relaxed ride for about 800-1000 Kms a day & enjoy taking pics on road side attractions & meet people.

Originally Posted by tigerranch

will chalk out the riding plan in the next few days and put it up.

Looking forward to it.

[deky]

1. Just be carefull after Udaipur to Himmatnagar in the Ghat section. After doing high speeds prior to this section people still continue to push and sometimes the curves can be deceptive leading to accidents. I remember someone from this forum itself had a bad one here.

2. Delhi to Jaipur is getting better by the day. 50% of the 6 laning is complete and the roads are in much better condition except the bottle necks at Behror and Kotputli due to fly over construction and also at Manesar. But yeah the traffic still sucks.

3. Kishangarh to Chittorgarh (NH79) is not as good and as fast as it used to be. This is because the alternate route NH8 is in a bad shape in between Ajmer and Beawar. So all the traffic is taking NH79

[ranjitp1]

For North & East India

McDonald's India

For South & West India
restaurantlocator

CCD Outlets Locator

http://www.cafecoffeeday.com/index.p...ion=com_search

Type HPCL as the search string as CCD outlets are attached to HPCL outlets on the highways

[LongDrive lover]

Originally Posted by deky

1. Just be carefull after Udaipur to Himmatnagar in the Ghat section. After doing high speeds prior to this section people still continue to push and sometimes the curves can be deceptive leading to accidents. I remember someone from this forum itself had a bad one here.

Very true indeed. Needs to be taken care of. Infact that stretch is a beautiful landscape and a pleasure to drive in medium speeds. Above reported accident happened to Shiva and arindam ray in Shiva's Swift during GQ drive II.

I also feel attempting whole GQ in 4 days will be too tiring! Six days seems a realistic (still very hectic) target.

Anyway, best wishes for a safe and happy ride.

[tigerranch]

Originally Posted by aargee

Thank you ; I'll be looking forward & hope I do not slow you down.


GQ is totally about 6000 Kms & with 4 days your average is right of about 1500-1600 Kms a day. Are you planning to combine a bun burner along with GQ?

Not that you'll be tired or doubting your capabilities, my suggestion would be take a relaxed ride for about 800-1000 Kms a day & enjoy taking pics on road side attractions & meet people.


Looking forward to it.

@Aargee
@long driver lover
@Ranjitp1
@Deky

you right I am planning to do the burn burner along, I do believe I am 51 years old young man but while doing and after completing the saddle sore
I was comfortable in doing 1600 kms in 15 to 16 hours

At the bottom of my heart i want to break the earlier record GQ of 102 hours, I am planning to do it in 96 hours, I know i will be stretching my self but no harm trying.

I am speaking to a media group, who will track me and witness my ride. McDonald as their receipts are authorized by the IBA, Also they accept credit cards and the service is fast

I will have no time to waste, as for Pics i will look for a camera which can be fitted on my helmet or the handle.

Need good wishes

Cheers

[hvkumar]

tigerranch, I think the current GQ record is 88 hours but that is relay driving, not solo.

I had contemplated doing it in less than that driving solo, and the way I had planned was as follows:

D1/2: Bombay (early morning)-Delhi (evening)-Kanpur-Allahabad (morning)-Varanasi-Calcutta (late afternoon) - first stop for 2 hour nap

D2/3/4: Calcutta (evening)-Bhubaneswar-Vizag (early morning)-Vijaywada-Madras (early evening)-Bangalore (late evening)-Bombay (morning).

The basic hypotheseses behind this plan were:
- Early morning start from Bombay always gets you best results
- Traffic on Jaipur-DElhi can be messy but till then, road is superfast
- The entire HR/UP stretch is a pleasure to drive in at night, no pedestrian and miscellaneous traffic
- The so-called unsafe stretches of BR/JH by day, approaching Calcutta before peak hour traffic between Durgapur and Calcutta. First and only break in Calcutta after approximately 35-40 hours of non-stop driving
- Little messy to do the under-construction OR roads by night, but they are OK to do so
- Crossing Madras before peak hour traffic in the evening, and bypassing Bangalore after peak hour traffic

[Judemayne]

Hats off to you guys-HVK,Tiger ranch and all you road crazy folks??? HVK you mean to say no breaks after a 2 hr nap at Kolkata?? I know to set Records one has to push the limits?? but what about safety??-Tiger-will you be alone?? Man my wishes are with you-I really mean it-all the best.
Col J H Mayne

[aargee]

Originally Posted by tigerranch

you right I am planning to do the burn burner along, I do believe I am 51 years old young man but while doing and after completing the saddle sore

Oh!!! Boy!!! you're talking serious business!!! Then I'll check out the route this weekend positively & post you a result unless they force me to work this weekend. I'll post an update by Sunday evening/Monday morning.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

tigerranch, I think the current GQ record is 88 hours but that is relay driving, not solo.

Sir some links pls? But 88 hours by two-wheeler & not by car right?

Originally Posted by hvkumar

I had contemplated doing it in less than that driving solo, and the way I had planned was as follows:

Initially I thought it to be an unrealistic one, but then it sounds good on paper because 6000/87 = ~69 Kmph average which is average for Saddlesore too. But only difference being this is a 3 days & 15 hours affair & not a 24 hours one; and with a 600cc Fazer its more of practical.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Crossing Madras before peak hour traffic in the evening

When the NH5/NH4 connecting bridge is completed, one has to expect only lorry traffic & nothing else.