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-   -   My Triumph Bonneville. EDIT: Sold! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/superbikes-imports/148232-my-triumph-bonneville-edit-sold-17.html)

Thanks Pawan for this link. Indeed seems like a dedicated website only for Bonneville spares and accessories. I will get some selected accessories in August:thumbs up

D&D exhausts are relatively cheaper than Arrows being quoted here. Just need to figure out if its free shipping to India with no customs issues and that it comes with a remap module as well.

Otherwise, i have compared rates of a few items like Center Stand ( cheaper in India), fuel cap, Skid plate which are almost same price as quoted at dealership here

Our groups riding scene is getting better and better with more Bonnie owners joining and expressing interest to ride almost on every weekend

Last Sunday, we went for another short ride of about 150kms in total and was joined by a new Bonnie owner. This time accompanied by wife and she is thoroughly enjoying the ride now and wants me to take out the Bonnie even for short city rides to which i politely and firmly decline as thats when my Maroon Marauder gets into action !!!

Next sunday is relatively a longer ride of about 250kms with TOG group

Also there is a plan in the works of riding to Bangalore on April 25th which will be a night ride with about 10 bikes (7 Bonnies, 3 Bullets) and 2 cars (women folk in the car) for a weekend trip clap:

That will be an exciting trip and those 1200kms will really test the Bonneville to its full extent

Here are a few pics from my mobile of last sunday ride !!!

Hey Avinash! Congrats on being a proud owner of the Bonnie! :) The classic looks coupled with an amazing performance makes it a very desirable bike.

I did Hyderabad to Bangalore and back on my Bajaj Discover 135 last month. It was my first ever long trip on 2 wheels. Took me 12 hours one way. I am sure that the Bonnie will cut that time by half! :thumbs up Once again congrats and wishing you many happy (s)miles on the Bonnie!!

Regards and Keep Revving,

Rahul Waghmare.

Thanks Rahul. Yeah, this ride will be one of the longest after many many years. Have been doing only short rides of a total of 300kms-350kms till date

Can you give more details about your ride to Bangalore. When did you start and how many breaks you took and did you face any issues while riding etc??

Finally, May i ask you if there was any compulsion to ride the Discover 135 all the way from Bangalore to Hyd considering its not a powerful bike which means long durations in saddle?

Last two days been seeing a lovely white and gold T100 being ridden in Pune by a guy who always used to ride a vintage Beemer. Can hardly hear the exhaust burble even when I pulled up almost alongside him and put the windows of my buffalo (Storme) down to try hearing.

Thats a cream and gold T100. I agree its a wonderful looking color and looks really grand. I know two people in Hyderabad who have bought the same color

T100 actually sounds even more subtle than the SE. Other than me already mentioning in my previous posts on comparison thread, This was also mentioned by Susan_3004 who owns the white and gold T100 which has those straight pipes against the upswept for the SE

SE when thumbed starts with a deeper growl and is overall a little more bassy than the T100

Its a very "proper" stif upper lip English classic/vintage color combination. Could easily pass off as a vinatage bike if you were to change the tyres to skinnies and ignore the disc.

It was definitely very pleasing to my eye.

Hi Avi, since its 569 kms and the bikes are allowed on NH 7, one should be able to cover the distance in about 6 hours of ridding time, even allowing a extra hour for the Bulls, you should be in 7 hours.

In my opinion, if you guys are the early bird types then my ideal would be to leave at 4.00 am do a 3 hour stint (with a 15 minute break if so complelled - Bonneys can handle 3 hours without a sweat) have breakfast the do the remaining in 4 bits of 1 hour each with water breaks. You will be in well in time for lunch in Bangalore - I can vouch that the roads are great from Ananthapur to Bangalore (did a quickie to Ananthapur and back in about 3 hours when I was in Bangalaore in Feb last - I live outside of the Bangalore traffic jams)

Best Regards & Ride Safe

Ram

Ram, thanks for the inputs. Sorry if I didnt make my query clearer. I wanted to know the typical challenges faced when riding a motorcycle for that long a distance as I will be doing 500+ kms one-way after possibly more than a decade

I have done Hyderabad-Bangalore atleast 8-10 times in 2-3 years in my Cruze and know the entire stretch of highway like back of my hand. Infact, last year alone did 4 road trips to Bangalore

Twice to Bangalore
Once to Coorg (Via. Bangy)
Once to Kodaikanal (via. Bangy)

I wouldnt want to quote the time took to cover the distance between Hyderabad to Bangalore in my car ( will leave that for our offtopic discussion):D

Lastly, this will be a night ride to beat the heat. Plan is to leave at 9:00pm from Hyderabad and reach Bangalore by 5:00am and needless to say, I would love to meet you if you happen to be in Bangalore that weekend.

Night ride - Avi - got to be really careful as on those roads you know how recklessly these Volvo's and other buses ply at night. Even at the cost of taking longer - my friendly advise would be to Ride more carefully than you'd ride during day time. :thumbs up

With the Triumph Bonneville, it will be an amazing ride! All the best!!

Avinash, here are details of my journey that I did on 15th March 2014 from Hyderabad to Bangalore. It took me 12 hours to reach Bangalore city limits. Another 2 hours were spent in finding accommodation. So I was on the bike for 14 hours!

Time Distance Details
07:00 0.00 Start from Hyderabad.
08:45 90.00 Breakfast at Hotel Yagnesh Viraat, Jadcherla.
11:30 230.00 Short break.
12:30 285.00 Lunch at A1 Plaza before Gooty followed by a 30 minute rest.
15:00 350.00 Refueling stop.
16:00 424.00 Tea break at a dhaba before Penukonda.
18:20 540.00 Final short break before entering Bangalore city limts.
19:00 580.00 Reached Bangalore city limits.
21:00 610.00 Checked into a hotel.

19:00 to 21:00 hours were spent in searching for a hotel at places like Hebbal and RT Nagar. Finally ended up finding a hotel in the heart of the city in an area called Majestic. Hotel booking was not done in advance as my decision whether to make the trip or not was not finalized till the last moment.

What went well:

• The bike’s engine never felt strained at all. There were no signs of overheating despite the heat and speeds of 70-85 kmph being maintained most of the time. The engine was capable of doing more but I did not push it further since it was my first long trip on 2 wheels.

• Excellent roads conditions!! No need to pay toll when you are on 2 wheels!! :D

• As the election dates were announced, I thought that there will be strict checking. Although there are check posts, I was not stopped for checking. They were mostly checking 4 wheelers.

• Since it was a proper day journey, there was very less traffic of buses and trucks. It felt good to see that the trucks that I came across were being driven safely and the drivers were giving proper signals / warnings whenever I showed up in their rear view mirror.

Challenges:

• Being a bike designed for city use, the Bajaj Discover’s seat is narrow and is not at all suitable for long rides. Before the journey, I was mentally prepared for challenges like shoulder and back pains. But I did not face these at all. The biggest challenge was the pain in butt! Especially towards the end of the journey i.e. after 400 kms or so, it was very uncomfortable. But since the last 2 hours were spent in search for accommodation, I was always stopping and getting off the bike multiple times. Hence when I finally settled down at the hotel, it was not a problem.

• The next challenge I faced while riding was cross winds. Although the bike weighs a decent 133 kgs, it used to wobble whenever there were sudden cross winds. I had to reduce the speed from 80-85 kmph to 60-65 kmph during periods of cross winds.

• The other challenge, well not a challenge but a disadvantage of this bike is the gearbox. Since my bike is a 2007 model, it has a 4 speed gear box. So the fuel economy figures went for a toss. In city I get a mileage of 48-50 kmpl. The mileage for the Hyderabad to Bangalore and back trip was 43-44 kmpl. Still I consider them decent figures since factors like the summer heat, wind resistance, cross winds, etc come into play at higher speeds.

When you do the trip on your Bonnie, I feel that the above challenges will not be there. (Except that you will need to do more refueling stops!) The seat will be far more comfortable, the bike will be very stable at high speeds and lesser number of breaks will be needed. The refueling stop itself will be a decent time for a break I guess! :thumbs up

Why did I do the trip on the Bajaj Discover 135? Because that is the only bike that I have! Although it is used regularly in the city and at times for short rides of 50-60 kms on the outskirts of the city, I always wanted to take it out on the highway for a long trip of 500+ kms. Just wanted to check how the bike would perform and more importantly whether I would be able to do the trip or not. Although underpowered for highways, the engine easily maintains decent speeds without showing any signs of overheating / stress. Need to check if the seat can be modified to make it comfortable for long distance riding.

And why did I go to Bangalore? Check out the these pages:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/post-...e-fcb-189.html

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/post-...e-fcb-190.html

Regards and Keep Revving,

Rahul Waghmare.

PS: I am currently writing a travelogue about this trip. Will create a thread sometime this weekend.

Shubz, spoke out what was in my mind.

Avi what is the compulsion to do a night trip ? Heat I can understand, but it will not be as bad as trips in 40+ temps, we do in summers in Middle East. Another reason could be that you are looking at a full day in Bangalore on Saturday as well (sorry I will not be in Bangalore on that weekend and will have to miss the opportunity of meeting you)

The biggest challenge you will face are the Trucks and Buses, and the silent ones are 1) Fatiuge and 2) Sleep depravation - as you will all be starting after an almost full day at work, and the 1) will set in quicker than you think and 2) is a function of the body clock and you will have to really fight it - even astride a bike :)

Then when you are riding in darkness, mind plays its own tricks on you and often you get fixated on lights in front etc and tend not to get the wider picture in - mind you our highways are not fenced and anything from rabbits to Bullocks/Camels/Elephants could stary in to the road at night. You really don't want to be surprised by them.

I think what you are planning can be acheived with an early departure from HYD on Saturday after a few hours of rest (4 hours) before you start.

In the reverse direction - leave Bangalore by 3.00 pm and you will be in to HYD before the real truck and bus movements set in

These are my thoughts - best of luck with the trip and as Shubz said be twice as careful than your day trips. Hope the Car drivers are experienced and have some idea about the behaviour of bikes.

Best Regards & Ride Safe

Ram

Rahul. Woah Woah !!! Thats a fantastic piece of information and appreciate your detailed inputs. I was looking at exactly what you penned downclap:

Shubz and Ram, Firstly I thank you for your thoughts and concern shared. I totally understand that riding/driving at night have its own peril

Some points to note :-

1. Why Night Ride? Obviously to beat the heat as riding at night would be much more pleasant

2. Convoy that is going is 5-7 Bonnies (Most probably no bulls) and 2 cars as some of our spouses will also be joining

3. Iam not sure if you have experienced entire stretch of Bangalore-Hyderabad highway.

It's 4-lane end-to-end and it can accomodate atleast 3 volvo buses side by side and still leave some gap (just to give you a reference on the width of the road, and this is all through the highway) and as you cross Kurnool, the road becomes even wider and having travelled on this road at almost all times ( early morning, late morning, late evening) this highway is not crowded at all by our indian standards

4. We plan to stick to left most lane and keep riding at a steady pace with the car keeping us company

5. Finally, we plan to do this in 7-8 hours with plenty of fuel stops ( which is anyways required), late night dinner stop and nature call stops

The only concern would be any stray object/animal crossing the path which we have to be extra careful of :)

Return trip starts exactly at time you mentioned ( 3pm in afternoon post lunch so we reach home by 10pm and will ahead of the buses and should be relatively traffic free.

Avi - Also ensure

1) Hi-Viz clothing / enough reflective on the helmet / some reflectives on the bikes.

2) Keep your eyes WIDEEE open for parked trucks/buses/Autos with no hazard lights.

3) Ultra bright headlights from oncoming vehicles.

4) Terrific wind blast from the big monsters (volvos) that'd pass by you at 10000 km/h (exaggerating)

5) Pot-holes/Speed breakers appearing from nowhere.

6) Untimely natures call for residents of small hamlets by the way, who'd stroll across and then do a Michael Jackson in the middle of the road.

7) Unmanned/Ownerless guard dogs of the highway - who'd jump/run after you folks. ( I remember on my drive (friends Honda city) to Goa sometime last year - night drive - a black dog came straight at me at full gallop - I was doing "highway" speeds - rammed straight into the car - and no prizes for guessing the end result)

A clean and streak free visor makes riding in the night very pleasant.

Avoid riding behind each other. Staggered formation is safer.

Two bikes riding abreast can complement the illumination available.

Wash the headlights with water and wipe clean. Dead bugs can seriously hamper visibility.

Do NOT use lane markings as bearing points.

I prefer using the road edge as my bearing point, keeping the bike approximately 3 feet away from it.

Try and do this on a full moon night. Carry a puncture kit or atleast a air pump. Costs just Rs 100 at decathalon.

If you are very very lucky it will rain. Nothing beats riding in the dark in pouring rain. :)