[meetarin]

First of all, thanks to fellow BHP-ians who answered and guided me with my continuous queries. It would have been impossible without your continuous support and guidance!

When flight operations resumed in June, I flew home from Bangalore. In a month, I started missing Gulaabo (my bike) and thought of ways to bring her to my hometown. Initially, I planned to fly back to Bangalore, parcel my bike through movers & packers and fly back to Kolkata again. Meanwhile experiences and videos started pouring into YouTube and Team-BHP and I seriously started considering riding the entire distance. Soon, I was able to connect with two like-minded guys over Facebook who were crazy enough to embark on this adventure. We started discussing the plan, there wasn't much difference of opinions and I got a feeling, "this is happening!"

Day 1:
With Unlock 5.0 in place and a lot of restrictions being relaxed, we decided to start on the morning of 2nd October. I started from my home around 4.40 in the morning. Soon, we hit the highway! The morning was pleasant, the tarmac was smooth and the terrains were changing fast! We crossed over to Andhra Pradesh and there was no checking at the border. Soon, we reached Hyway Lounge (https://goo.gl/maps/9wTybeeZHdhcjs148), our breakfast joint near Anantapur by 9.30 am.

With the hunger gone, we started again. The road was so good that I could consistently ride between 85-90 kms/h! In fact, that’s true for the whole of day 1, barring some diversions near Kurnool. I could literally count 15 potholes in the entire stretch till Hyderabad, that too after nitpicking! We stopped for tea in between and later, stopped for lunch at Rainbow Continental Stop and Go food plaza (https://g.page/sngrainbow?share). We reached our hotel (Radisson Blu, Banjara Hills) at 6.30 pm and called it a day. Needless to say, we were hungry as hell and biryanis from Paradise were befitting replies to our hunger pangs!







Day 2:
The plan for Day 2 was to reach Vizag. The Hyd-Vijayawada highway was silk smooth except for the stretch of Toopranpet-Malkapur which is approximately 40 kms in the outskirts of Hyderabad. I could maintain a speed of around 90 km/h until Vijayawada. After a nice breakfast at 7 Food Courts, Suryapet (https://g.page/foodseven?share), we started cruising again. At the Telengana-Andhra border, police stopped us to enquire if we were carrying booze. Rest, they were very impressed by our plan to reach Kolkata on a bike!
We lost a bit of coordination in Vijayawada, Google asked me to take the Vijayawada bypass and I blindly followed. What a mistake! The ordeal that followed was a super bumpy ride all through the traffic of Vijayawada. Lesson - never leave NH 16, even if God insists! The wheels started rolling after lunch at Garuda Food courts (https://g.page/garudafoodcourts?share), I kept on following Google and landed in bigger soup now. It took me through Prathipadu-Nidadavolu road. Horrible is an understatement for the roads and the potholes were the size of craters!! The only upside was a nice stream flowing along the road. I was still off NH 16 and entered Rajahmundry at about 3 pm. The sky was a bit overcast and it was quite a beautiful scene. I kept on crossing the bridges over Godavari soaking in the beauty, it was drizzling and I was absolutely loving it. I was almost entering Dowleswaram bridge when it started to rain moderately. I put on my rain covers and decided to move again. 200 meters into the bridge, Gulaboo stalled. Try whatever but she would just refuse to start. By now, it started pouring heavily, the winds were strong and there were lightning strikes every now and then. I waved for help, no one stopped. All drenched, I kept on pushing the bike, but remember what Bajaj refers to RE bikes as! The strong gusts of winds were shaking the entire bridge, I have never been so scared in my life and felt I wont be able to see my loved ones again. Finally when the sky started getting clear, I could gather the courage to call my co-rider who came to my help. It was already 5 pm! The third guy who was on a car didn't leave NH-16 and was quite far from me. After some more suffering, the RSA guys came and "fixed" the bike. It was 7, We decided to move again and Vizag was still a far cry. But wait, the rain God had other plans and I witnessed one of the worst downpour in my life. I quickly took shelter and when the rain stopped, Gulaabo wont start again! After some repeated attempt I could start her on choke, literally begged the RSA guy to send a mechanic again. By this time, we had decided to spend the night at Rajahmundry and spoke to a hotel called Jetty Grand. A mechanic came to the hotel and now fixed the bike for good. Turns out, it was an Air Lock. I thanked my stars for the horrible day being over!



Day 3:
The thought of covering 600+ kms amidst the forecast of heavy rains was pretty haunting for day 3. It was a compulsion for the two of us to reach Bhubaneswar and reunite with our third member, who had already reached Vizag last night. All our clothes including the riding gears were damp and it wasn't a comfortable start to the day. We started riding at 6 am under overcast conditions. Fortunately the highway was amazing till Vizag and we crossed Vizag by 10. I must highlight here that there are very less food options in this stretch, in fact all the way till Bhubaneswar, so if you are planning to do this route, please plan to eat at Vizag. After Vizag, there were lot of diversions, but overall the road quality was good. By 4, we entered Odisha and again, there was no checking. It was just about dusk when we were crossing Chilika and it was mesmerising. I wished I could take a detour but we had a mission to accomplish. Soon it got dark, and the quality of roads started to worsen. Add to that, plenty of diversions, wrong side driving, dogs, cattle, cows on the pitch dark roads and it was a nightmare to ride! Our struggle ended with reaching Ginger Hotels, Bhubaneswar around 9 pm. We were finally able to reunite and it called for some "cheers".





Day 4:
We started the last leg of the journey a bit late around 8 am. I was personally happy that I almost pulled this off and only the last 500 kms were now left. Horrible roads, cattle and dogs, wrong side side driving continued throughout Odisha and I could barely go beyond 75 kmph. The rains also kept on reminding its presence and it was quite annoying, to be honest. From Jaleswar, the roads started improving and the stretches in Bengal were quite good. Again, there were no checking at Bengal border. Unfortunately, there was dearth of food options and by the time I reached Kolaghat, the urge of reaching home overtook the urge of eating delicious food. I was home finally at 7 pm where Gharwali chai and mutton kasha in dinner was waiting for me!

Recommendations:
I am a novice and there are too many experienced people in this forum from whom I learn everyday. But still I will go ahead and add my two cents. Given a chance, I will do this route over and over. However, unless you’re too adamant on riding solo, you should plan this at-least with another person. Another major consideration is the time of the year. October isn’t the best time in my opinion and the on and off rains could be pretty annoying. Also it’s the time of the returning monsoons in the east coast so you could just get lashed at like me! I plan to test this out but in my opinion, winters could be a good time to ride this route. Rest, plan your food stops wisely and you should be good.

Until my next travelogue, drive and ride safe!

Video:

https://youtu.be/GipAwZGg6WE

[thepilgrim1424]

That must have been an awesome experience! Nice writeup as well. A few questions on the bike
1 how was the vibrations when you were cruising at 80-90 kmph?
2 was it able to cruise comfortably or were you pushing it at that speeds?
3 what did the guys do to repair the bike and how easy/ difficult was it? How helpful were the RSA folks were?

[meetarin]

Originally Posted by thepilgrim1424

That must have been an awesome experience! Nice writeup as well.

Thank you! To answer your questions:

1 how was the vibrations when you were cruising at 80-90 kmph? - Honestly, the vibrations were pretty manageable till 90. Once you push past 100, you kinda feel it in your head! Another weird thing I experienced is - the mirrors are shaky at 80-90 kmph but at the topmost speed (110 kmph), the right mirror was eerily stable and I could see everything crystal clear!!

2 was it able to cruise comfortably or were you pushing it at that speeds? - It was very very comfortably cruising till 90. No stutters, no shaky feelings. In fact, in most of my trips, I choose this range as a cruising speed

3 what did the guys do to repair the bike and how easy/ difficult was it? How helpful were the RSA folks were? - So I encountered different RSA guys twice on the same day. First time, I had to call up the Royal Enfield RSA number (it took some time to connect though) and the Customer Care person was very empathetic. Since my RSA validity expired, I had to pay upfront online (700 bucks) and the person assured me that the RSA guys would reach in an hour. However, the RSA guys took 90 mins to arrive. Surprisingly the bike started this time before them doing anything and they said "the bike is fine" and it happened due to overheating of the engine. They gave me the weirdest suggestion - "Ride for an hour, give 30 mins break" which made me question their diagnosis ability. Apart from this, language was definitely a problem. They didnt understand Hindi/English much and I dont speak Telugu.

When I was stuck for the second time, I contacted the main RSA guy. It was late Saturday evening and the guy denied sending anyone before Monday and also highlighted that language is an issue! I was stuck in the highway and literally pleaded him to send someone. Fortunately I could reach my hotel which was 10 kms from the place I was at (all through running the bike on choke). Different RSA guys now came to the hotel. This time, one of the guys understood Hindi and it was easy to communicate. They immediately diagnosed the problem, suck out the petrol from the air pipe and it was all up and running. The entire job took less than 30 mins!

[thepilgrim1424]

Originally Posted by meetarin

Thank you! To answer your questions:

Another weird thing I experienced is - the mirrors are shaky at 80-90 kmph but at the topmost speed (110 kmph), the right mirror was eerily stable and I could see everything crystal clear!!

Well that's customary RE i guess On my Himalayan BS IV, the range is about 70-80 kmph. The mirror is automatically rendered useless because of the vibrations at any speed above that! I hear its much better on the new Meteor. Hope they do something to rid their bikes of these vibrations.

Surprisingly the bike started this time before them doing anything and they said "the bike is fine" and it happened due to overheating of the engine. They gave me the weirdest suggestion - "Ride for an hour, give 30 mins break" which made me question their diagnosis ability.

When i was touring on my Rx135, I was able to ride continuously for more than 2 hours! I guess they were just being evasive.

[meetarin]

Originally Posted by thepilgrim1424

When i was touring on my Rx135, I was able to ride continuously for more than 2 hours! I guess they were just being evasive.

Exactly! They were not interested to find out the root cause. I ride my bike for 3-3.5 hours at a stretch while on trips. Not sure till what extent it is capable of running without a stop, but by 3-3.5 hours I feel tired and take atleast a 10 min break.