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-   -   A Fire run & meet with Hydeez - Group Ride to Kodachadri (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/193069-fire-run-meet-hydeez-group-ride-kodachadri.html)

A Fire run & meet with Hydeez

Some statistics of the ride before going on

Ride Date - 2nd December 2017
Riders from Bengaluru - CrAzY dRiVeR on Versys 650, Red Liner on Versys 650, dreamseller on CBR954RR aka Fireblade and Myself on Dominar 400
Kms covered - Approx 950 kms and my trip meter was 937 kms
Time taken - 22 hrs from home to home


I have always liked the day long rides on my bike, love the feeling of just being there on open roads, with me & my bike syncing in unison with the nature, ohh, it’s an irreplaceable feeling. I had done a couple of day long rides till date but the highest for a 24 hrs day was 690 km to be precise and wanted to see my endurance for a more longer ride and also to see if my bike would like to be pushed that much.

I tend to peep through all the Versys threads on the forum (no points for guessing I like the bike a lot for its stance clap:), be it the famous of the lot with ‘mobike008’s thread, detailed of the lot ‘CrAzY dRiVeR’s thread, the crisp & to the point 'Red Liner’s thread and the more recent 'Atul.ktm's thread. In one of such peeping’s, I just casually mentioned Avi, why don’t we have a twin city Blr-Hyd riders meet and being the way he is, Avi took it quite seriously and after exchanging a few PMs he started a thread for mid-way motorcycle meet and also got on board around 10 riders from the Hyd side, so it was for us Blr people to show strength with our entries. Leaving the long story short, all the riders opted out of the meet for various reasons and I was still missing the long ride & meet up with the fellow riders both from Blr & Hyd.

Soon, Avi mentioned that a couple of riders from Hyd were visiting Kodachadri for a two day stay and Blr riders can meet at half way on their way for lunch and I started seeing some silver lining on the ride meet. But then, the best thing happened with Ramana jumping on the opportunity to say, Koda is in our State and we will ride to Kodachadri and meet you. Oh yeah, the plan was made – no looking back. So, the riders from Blr were Ramana, Sujai & myself and Sourav joining the bandwagon soon in style with his Fireblade.

Now, the time was to plan the route and Ramana was the frontrunner, after checking with all possible sources, within the forum, friends & HVK forum, he came up with the best possible route which was a tad longer than the regular Davanagere route but it is definitely the most fun-to-ride route amongst all the possible ones and kudos to him for that. The route was loved by all of us and Sourav the most, for that he got to put his Fireblade to use in an otherwise not so interesting parts on the highways where he was made to ride at 100 kmph in his 160+ bhp monster. The route taken was Bengaluru – Hassan – Chikamagalur – Tarikere – Shivamogga – Hosa Nagara - Nagara – Kodachandri.



When the ride was two days away, rains started at Bengaluru due to the monsoons and I was the worried of the lot, as I didn’t wanted to start the ride when raining but I was fine with riding in the rain on the move. I think God heard my voice and though it was raining mostly the whole night two days prior, the night prior to the ride was clear without any hint of rains and I was relieved.

A selfie taken just before leaving from home at 3.30 AM



At the meeting point



On the ride day, we met up at 4 AM at Parle-G toll on the Tumkur road and were joined a little later by Sourav. After the greetings and quick introductions (I had met only Sujai in an earlier drive meet), we set out for the ride around 4.40 AM. We had decided to push the breakfast to Chikamagaluru Town Canteen and so stopped for a quick coffee break at a Coffee day enroute and I took a strong dose of black coffee and all of us had the sandwich.

At CCD



Ride on the highway was good with Ramana leading the pack and filled our first fuel for the day at Reliance pump at Hassan and proceeded to Chikamagaluru. The road from Hassan to Chikamagaluru is in the best shape and we started enjoying the ride. Next stop was at Town Canteen, Chikamagaluru and as soon as we stopped, while the Fireblade’s engine was still running in idling, it could be heard at some long distance and people started noticing and joining in to see all big bikes. I was spared with my tiny Dominar with Versys & Fireblade among.

See how the big bikes showed themselves at Town Canteen making people to gather around and ask all possible questions



Masala Dosa at the Town Canteen needs a special mention. It is a must have dosa and I literally was gobbling the crisp & tasty dosa and if not for the ride ahead, I definitely would have ordered another one of that.

Can you make out that I am eating Masala Dosa with my smile



The roads after Chikamagaluru were a continuation of what was left behind with twists and trees around, it a serene feeling of riding in these conditions. I didn’t realise when we passed Tarikere & also Shivamogga and we stopped for fuel after Shivamogga. At some point in the onward ride, I could see Sourav stretching his legs and sometimes arms, given the aggressive seating position of the Fireblade and also that it is most suited for the track than for the touring.

Somewhere on the way, see the size comparison - Dominar looks so puny with other big bikes






See the stance of Versys 650, I love its majestic looks - Its Sujai's bike









Closer to reaching Nagara, I hit the magic number of 12345 on my bike and stopped to capture it, see the time, it is just perfect at 12:39 (9 is total of 4+5 so aligning the Odo & the time), such a nice co-incidence.

My bike odo at 12345



We reached the destination Simha Farms, Kodachadri at 1.30 PM, which took 475 kms in my trip meter and a exact 10 hrs of me starting from my home at 3.30 AM.

This place Simha Farms is quite secluded and nicely maintained home stay inside a Farm and makes a good visit for a peaceful holiday. There we met up with Avi, DP Sharma (IDP Sharma), Haseeb, Sahil, Ashish, Ishaan with Two Versys 650s, a Z800, a Triumph Street Triple, a Duke and a FZ25.

A pic at Simha Farms with bikes and riders in background





We were there for just 2.30 hrs and the talks ranged from discussing on bikes, more of bikes and leg pullings and overall had a nice meet time with the Hydeez and a good, simple Vegetarian food at the Farms as cherry on the cake. When it was time to leave, we had a small photoshoot with the drone IDP Sharma was carrying and also some snaps with the DSLR. Now eagerly waiting for IDP Sharma to process his drone images and share it.

Simha Farms group pic



After reaching Simha Farms, Sujai promptly gave some feedback on my style of taking corners and guided me on how to better take corners, which was very useful and I tried to put it to use on the return leg.

We left at 4:00 PM with memories of the meet as we had to fast reach the highway. Unlike the morning ride which was mainly through the single twisty roads through slush greenery, for the return ride we wanted to catch the highway soon and took the Kodachadri – Hosanagara – Honnalli – Malebennur to reach the Davanagere highway. Little did we knew we would be approaching the wort of the roads tonight which can break bones off and kill the shocks of the bikes. The roads reaching to Honnalli and then till we cross Malebennur and reach the highway of about 25 kms were literally non-existent and we were only hoping not to hit any deep crater which can easily bend any bike rims.

Return route mapped



In these roads, the LED lights of Dominar was a saviour, but even then I was not able to see the extent of non-existent roads from a distance and was keeping my eyes wide open and a bit leaning to the front to clearly make out, as it was pitch dark without any street lights of any sort.

Once hitting the highway, we stopped at a CCD at around 7.30 PM for some coffee, snacks and mainly for a short break, and filled fuel too at IOC bunk next to CCD. After starting from the CCD, the unfortunate thing happened. Someone had left the large cement block on the highway (possibly a lorry driver has used and did a bad job by not removing it), which hit the front tyre of Ramana’s and Sourav’s bikes and both had a bad rim bend and Ramana even had a sidewall cut on his front tyre which luckily was a superficial one and not deep enough to leak the air. We waited for 15 mins to see if the rim bend is causing any air leak and then decided to move on at lower speeds after making sure both the bikes are not leaking air.

Further ride was uneventful and not so exciting riding at speeds of 90 tops on the highway and we took two breaks before dispersing and bidding byes somewhere near Dabaspet.

So, the rider’s day ended with 937 kms on my trip meter and 22 hrs on the road leaving at 3.30 AM in the morning and reaching home at 1.30 AM, making it my longest ride ever in a 24 hr day and the most enjoying ride.

Trip meter showing 937 at the end of ride



It was a ride to cherish with the company of Ramana, Sujai & Sourav and look forward to another one.

KK

Pic credits - I have taken only handful of pics in this, others are taken by other riders - all credits to respective owners

PS - If you want to read a better & more detailed version of this ride story then you should also visit Sujai's thread here

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/superb...ml#post4316159

Nice riding with you KK. Glad to have the previous plan postponed so this one worked out well as this ride was far more worth remembering than any short ride meets planned earlier. Infact, I need to apologize that I don't even remember our meeting during the previous short Team -Bhp meet.

You reminded me quite a lot about myself though! Rather silent and observant in person as compared to the amount of chatter we do on the forum. That's a remark I get very often and this time I could pass on that trophy to you. :D

Excellent choice with the Dominar 400 as I mentioned earlier as well. It was really impressive and a machine than can really go hyperriding as they claim. First up the lights were extremely impressive and initially both Sourav and myself were completely relying on your lights to navigate the roads. Midway stop - I was comparing the instrumentation and consoles on the Dominar and comparing just how much more premium stuff is on offer on the bike at a much lower price tag. Same goes with the performance which is very much useable as against the likes of RE etc. Never once did the bike feel out of place in the convoy - whereas I'm pretty sure an RE would have found it difficult to keep pace. Put on stickier tyres during the next change and it could be one hell of an all-rounder.

Glad to have metup with the Hyderabadi gang as well. All of them were a pleasure to chat with and cant complete a sentence without swearing and pulling each others legs. :uncontrol.

Hope to plan something like this again soon.

m


I agree on RE.
I did my best Pune to Goa return in 21 hours with a 3 hour halt in Carambolim, place little ahead of Old Goa. That was in 1998 though, fit like a raging bull to tame the RE. Tame the RE equals to absorb all those vibrations at 3 digit speeds for longer period of time.
RE has one advantage though, you can loose 3 kilos of weight on one ride like this and after the ride, feel there is no connection between hand leg body head, you just want to hit the bed.

However it struggled then n struggles now to keep pace, it's for leisure riding, as though there is no tomorrow.

I bet you enjoyed your ride and this memory will stay with you for a long long time.

Cheers n Happy ripping.

Nice thread KK!

Nice to see Dominar being used well. :)

Till last year, every superbike group would have atleast one ktm 390 in their convoy. After dominar launch, i see atleast one dominar too in each group.

Excellent VFM product it is!

Btw what was the trip fuel economy?

Wonderful travelogue and nice to see so many lovely bikes on a quick trip. BTW, since there is a mention of RE, i want to ask this question as I have a RE500DS and it nicely cruises at little over 80+. I have not done any long trips yet, but would like to do one. Since there are cautions in this thread on an RE, i really want to know, what speeds you guys were doing which RE cannot match up on a long ride like this. I want to place my bet correctly when a trip comes my way in the future as I do not want to take it and then struggle/put others into trouble as well.

Thanks for your guidance.

Swami

It was I who mentioned that first, and I have to clarify that we did not go to speeds that were beyond the capabilities of an RE. A cruising speed of around 100 - 110 kmph was enough, which an RE could manage, depending on the rider. But most of the riders I've seen prefer a more sedate 80 kmph or similar.

Also, for none of the occassions - be it twisties, bad roads, night riding etc - do we ever had to think of the Dominar as being a smaller bike of the group. It was easily keeping up with the others (And that could be because of our rider limitations too!). Like Prassy said above - Duke 390s and Dominars really throw a heavy punch when it comes to VFM performance.

Thank you. I could relate your points now - 100-110 cruising speed for a descent amount of time would be troublesome in an RE I guess. Probably, i should then look for an RE group who would suit the style of 80+ cruising over long distances :)

Swami

Thanks CrAzY dRiVeR, i reciprocate the same feel, learnt some better riding tips from you.

No problems at all, in fact we didn't even chat that day, it was just a Hi in the group that's it. It was during the Kolar ride whcih RSUDARSANAN had organised, you and Anil had ridden on the bikes and we people in the cars.

Nice to find a rare type character like me, its really hard to find people like me stupid:. When people remark and say what you have mentioned above, i again just nod and pass it off.

Thanks, I agree Dominar is a pure value for the money paid and we get all nice features, LED lights, Dual Channel ABS, Slipper clutch, so no complaints as of now, except small niggles which can exist in any automobile, which doesn't affect the performance or riding of the bike.


Thanks PrasannaDhana. Yes, you are right Dominar is making its presence felt along with the big bikes, happy to be riding along with biggies, unless they have reservation of riding with me lol:

Overall trip avg is close to 30.5, this considering the highways, twisties and a stretch of very bad roads. If I consider the highway run avg it is close to 33, in this trip.

Thanks swami69.

In the group rides I was part of we easily cruise between 100 to 120 on the good roads and speeds will reduce based on the road/weather conditions.

But whenever there were slower bikes (no, I am not referring to RE here, but general statement), the riders are generally considerate and manage the speeds so that nobody is left out alone.

KK

That's a good ride guys. Looks like you all had a lot of fun. But sad to see the pictures of the bent rims. Can't imagine someone just leaving something so dangerous on the highway! The bent rims will be covered under warranty right?

Next time do share the plan. I'll try to join. :)

Had shared the plan this time as well. Guess you missed to check my PM. :)

Oh sorry! Just checked my inbox and saw your message. Don't know how I missed it. Next time :thumbs up

KK : I didn't realize your travelogue is already up and running.

Fantastic details of the trip captured and some lovely photos to back it upclap:

It was lovely to meet the Bangy BHPian riders and loved every minute spent together even though it was for a very short time !!

Lovely crisp log.

That davangere route at night was the most boring ever. I just wanted it to end. Could also be a result of the fatigue we endured because of all the riding.

Anyway, night riding is properly off the cards as a planned event going forward. Just way too many possibilities of things going wrong, and on a leisure trip like this, its the last thing anyone needs.

Should have taken avi's suggestion, stayed back at that phenomenal property and ridden back the next day on the same route we took up via chikmagalur. Could have even seen the fort and a bunch of other things along the way.

Sujai, its all because of you! LOL!

That's some serious distance that you have covered in a day. My respects! It takes real passion to be able to do that and you guys sure have it in abundance.

Looking at the photo of the bikes parked in front of the Town Canteen, I can vaguely remember sighting them and asking someone there to tell the bikers to park them properly so as to escape the clutches (wheel locks) of the cops. It was the day of Id Milad and Section 144 was in force in the town. Hope I am remembering right.

Had I known that the bikes were of Bhpians, I would have come in search of you and said hello! Well, there's always a next time.

PS: The photo where you are purportedly enjoying Masala Dosa needs some photoshop. Your plate has Vada sambar :).

Thanks dailydriver. I guess you would have encountered our gang only. The Saturday we had visited there was an event on the Bababudan giri hills and there were enough police force. They were not allowing any tourist vehicles on the uphills. Would have been happy to meet you there.

Reg your PS, as soon as I got my Masala Dosa plate I gobbled it up without even waiting for Red Liner to join for BF and by the time I took pics only Vada was left on my plate lol:

Thanks Red Liner. It was good riding with you as lead and felt safe.

Even the ride back, especially after the coffee day stop till we said byes was a bit of boring ride that too in the night. But I couldn't have stayed back as I had already planned for something for Sunday.

Thanks Avi. I tried and finished as soon as I was able to, otherwise I would loose interest in writing and posting it.

Aside, I may probably ride to Hyd in Jan third week if everything goes fine for a friend's marriage clap:. Another long solo on the cards.

KK