Thank you for the pictures!
Now, let me try to pen down my version of the story.
It all started with a breakfast ride on a fine Sunday morning in the beginning of 2015. A group of about 5 or 6 of us gathered to ride to have breakfast and spend some time at one of the thousands of dams we have around Bangalore. What started with a small breakfast ride gradually turned into a group of friends discussing motorbikes and everything under the Sun incessantly day in and day out on their mobile phones. The beauty of the group is that the riders are of all genres and ages and the riding coordination and understanding in this group is brilliant.
After doing breakfast rides or day rides on almost everyday weekend, we were all itching to do a bigger one soon. That's when one of our senior riders goandude came up with the idea of an overnighter and the place was unanimously decided as Yercaud due to the proximity and the beautiful roads. I volunteered to manage the logistics and soon we had Golden Nest Resorts booked for about ten guys with two being still tentative owing to their prior commitments.
At this last moment sammyboy just mentioned if we'll check with our friendly mod n_aditya if he's willing to ride and to our surprise, he said yes, even though we just had 3 days to go! He then pulled in IronH4WK and thankfully we had no issues with respect to last minute additions, thanks to the good rapport we had built with the big hearted resort owner. So finally, what started with only 5-6 of us, had turned into a significantly big group of 14 riders! More the merrier I thought!
Thus after multiple discussions, planning, to-do and not-to-do lists, things to carry etc., on Saturday morning we met at the designated meeting point. As I had expected, little delays here and there were inevitable with the big group. Soon, we were hogging breakfast and looking forward to the beautiful roads ahead.
After fighting through the weekend traffic initially, the ride up to Salem was quite smooth with us regrouping every 50 km. Almost all of us were riding at a similar pace or accommodating to ensure we did not drift apart too far. Enter Salem, the traffic mayhem started coupled with extreme heat. Since we had to take a couple of turns to join the Yercaud twisties, we had to ensure nobody missed the turns and had to wait for them. Standing still under the sun was torturous to say the least.
Here, we even witnessed an unfortunate accident of a two-wheeled commuter being knocked down by a Tata Sumo. Thankfully, he wasn't hurt and quickly started gathering his stuff strewn on the floor. Rest assured that he's fine, we moved on.
Soon started the ascent to Yercaud on those extremely scenic and technical 20 hair pins. Every biker's paradise I'd say. By the time I could pay the entry fee for 14 bikes, the 14 overexcited souls were nowhere to be seen
I was the last to move out of there and soon I started catching up with all of them. With an optimum mix of twisties-induced-adrenaline and the awareness to be safe, I rode at a decent pace and did some good lines on the curves. Soon I met sammyboy and Sojogator who had just stopped after the 20th hair pin bend. Here onwards, everyone trickled in and thus started the animated discussions on hair pins, the technicalities and lean angles, the analysis of chicken strips on the tyres etc.
From this point we were just a few hundred metres away from our resort and we headed straight there. We were greeted with good spacious rooms, with a living room and bed room in each and also a balcony with a view to die for! Soon, we all un-geared and our friendly mod managed to connect his helmet mounted SJ4000 to the TV. The uphill ascent video was a pure treat to watch.
A lazy lunch and a lot of
bakar-ing later, we were all set to do the loop road. But Lord Indra had other plans that sent a few of the riders skittling inside for cover. After a bit of dilly-dallying, 7 of us on 6 bikes decided to do the loop. And boy, was it an awesome decision!
We were treated with green, green, green and green and also rain, rain, rain and rain. Some of my co-rides were introduced to the
wet-chaddi ride I always keep rambling about. That apart, the canopy was so thick in some places and it was so dark that I almost forgot it was still 5 in the evening! We stopped for a moment to gain our composure as the rain was pelting down now! Those moments spent in the veranda of a small village-house will be remembered for a long time!
Soon, we reached the resort to be greeted by sniggers from the rest. All they could see was the water dripping from our gear but not the story behind it!
This was followed by a getting-to-know each other session and a long but blissful and unforgettable evening. I thought the boys were a revelation on the saddle until they let their true self come out in the form of words. To put it simply, it was even better than the ride - if that's ever possible!
A couple of our riders snehal.shekar and Shan_ned had to start early and they bid adieu after a quick group picture in the morning. The rest of us slowly got our posteriors moving by about 11 AM. The ride downhill was equally fun and the ride to Bangalore was too! Soon, it was time to close the curtains on the epic 2 days we had spent in the company of each other. As goandude put it, we reached home exhausted, but happy and content!
Reiterating what I said post the ride - The discipline while on the saddle and the camaraderie between us ensure we'll do many more such rides in the future. For now, this ride, I'm sure, will be talked about in many of the future rides with a sense of warm-heartedness that is impossible to be converted into words.
A few highlights I feel are worth mentioning.
1. Sammyboy and I had some lengthy conversations on sub-groups and formations before the ride with a lot of permutation and combination thrown in. But the boys rode like champs with excellent coordination in spite of the fact that a couple of guys were riding with us for the first time.
2. Shout out to Chida who's constantly introspecting his riding and trying to improve in every way and also to Shanenanigans who rode extremely sensibly in spite of not having ridden before on the twisties.
3. Special shout out to n_aditya for the way he shed his perceived 'strict moderator' image and gelled with the group. I'm sure we'll do many more rides in the future!
Cheers to all the guys for making this happen!