Kindly note: This trip was in first week of May 2013.. finally found time now to log it 🙂

Best buddy Walter had come to India for the first time and he decided to land in Bangalore instead of Hyd. Duh, work 🙂

Chances of him coming to Hyd after that were doubtful; although he wanted to come.. but work could want him to fly back sooner due to his busy schedules.

So, I told him that I’d come to see him in Bangalore. He booked a really nice villa suite and we were gonna have some geek time together 🙂

However, I didn’t tell him that I’m gonna drive my bike there all the way from Hyderabad 🙂

But he figured… apparently he knows me quite better than a lot of people who claimed to be ‘close to me’ 😀

The plan was to start at 1830 hrs… and guess what.. I ended up starting at 2245 or so! -_-

First stop was 3.5kms from my place.. for Irani chai 😛 .. because I knew that sleepy attack was coming.. I didnt get rest the whole day.. was working on stuff that also required physical strength.

Drove away, .. mostly a speedrun. Didn’t carry my GoPro with me. No pictures while going there.

But, here’s the interesting part:

I had to drive the first 40kms on the service lane beside ORR (since bikes aren’t allowed on ORR …. thank you all amazingly stupid showoff drivers who screwed reputation of bikers on that expressway)

So I was driving, doing my thing 🙂 .. and there are these nasty 16 set speed brakers on the service lane…. at one of these, a Jeep swiftly dodged me … fulltoo bollywood estyle … and rammed brakes right in front of me!

Then 3 cops got down from it.. surrounded me! and said “Go, Sir is calling”.. and here’s what happened.

I went to the Copboss sitting boss-style in jeep, while the 3 cops continued to check my bike .. trying to figure out WTF is happening with the luggage, discussing about whether it is a sports bike, its top speed blah blah.



Me: Yes Sir, any problem

CopBoss in Jeep: Where are you going to race? (authoritative)

Me: ??? !!! $#^@&%$*&% WTF (in mind)

Me: Race? No Sir... I dont race on streets.

CopBoss: Then what is all this? (indicating my ATGATT - All The Gear All The Time)

Me: Ah, this is for protection if I crash.

CopBoss: Really? (sarcastically)

Me: (in mind) Trying to control any outburst .. I remember ravi@17bhp's advice not to pickup argument with cop even if I was right. Happened twice already (once in jungle and once in city.. when some cops tried to show off their power) .. but this guy was okay. So it helped :)

.

CopBoss: Where are you going?

Me: Bangalore

CopBoss: ??? !!! o,O .. w00t!!!!

CopBoss: Hyderabad? to Bangalore? on bike? Are you serious?

Me: Smile

CopBoss: Why are you going at this time? It's dangerous.. go in morning

Me: Work Sir... have a meeting in morning in bangalore.. I missed Bus so taking bike (tee hee :P)

CopBoss: Okay okay... you know you are speeding?

Me: ??? !!! .. umm.. sorry Sir.. I didn't notice.

CopBoss: Yes, .. you were on 100+.. and this is a 40 road

Me: Sir, how do you know I was on 100+?

CopBoss: We had to cross 100 to catch you!

Me: -_- :P tee hee ;)

Me: Sorry Sir, I'll drive in 40.



He then, super surprised me by driving his jeep exactly on 40 till airport right in front of my bike.

If I had to overtake his jeep, it’d mean I crossed 40!

Think of all the frustration of holding the throttle at 40, and temptation to zip past and not be visible 🙂 .. but I obliged to 40. 😀

+1 good citizen points on HeartBrokenBiker? 😛

Darn, that first hour (40-45 kms) of the journey made me drowsy enough to put my next 550 kms in trouble.

As soon as the cop jeep detoured, and I crossed that initial hyd border highway traffic, my throttle opened full, rpm needles on max and the bike was at 131kmph .. I was crouched under the visor… my vision was through it and it was AMAZING.

I’ve never done continuous crouching for so long.. gotta thank the highway for it.

Couple that with the “Isle of Man TT”, “TopGun” and such similar tracks playing in my helmet. WooHoooooooooooooooooo!

Some car folks provided me entertainment by trying to show off their speed… I wasnt interested in any race.. but I was doing speedrun of my own pace.. so some very few cars did succeed to run past me… BUT when the road takes a curve.. their brake lights come up.. mine DOESN’t.. and you know what happens then… there is a knee out, there is an angle, and there is a bike that zip zap zooooms 🙂 ;),

then some by driving close enough to me to catch a glimpse of “who the hell is this”.. ,

dangerous part is when I overtake cars and they are busy looking at me with a jawdrop rather than looking at the road 😦

I found the lorry guys to be very good drivers on this road.. sticking to lane and using indicators… and at parts where vision became glary from opp high beam, I used one car guy who was good driver by following his tail. Thank him, whoever it is.

Took couple of tiny breaks in between.. needed a bit longer break at Kurnool when I topped up fuel… but something about that place hurts me (some old memory that has mentions of that place).. so I kept pushing.

Reached Bangalore border at 0630 am.. AND then.. thanks to awesome directions by people (and the stupid fact that I wasnt carrying GPS) .. it took me 1.5+ hrs to reach the hotel.

People, I tell you.. instead of telling me that they “dont know”.. they “try wild guesses” -_-

Two people giving me direction at the same time, showed 2 opposite directions.. I looked at both of them in “punch in face” mood.. and they looked at each other and walked away.

After reaching hotel, the receptionist is more busy looking at me top to bottom and then my bike and thinking “What in the world!” rather than giving me the keys.

Had fun time there.. will blog that in separate post 😀

Coming back to Hyd, I took a bit of ‘slower’ run.

Again night ride, again no rest prior to ride.. was in meeting hall for 7hrs and then driving around Bangalore traffic and confusing one ways…

Met up with 2 more friends… 1 geek+biker=Sudharshan or sup3rkidd0 as on IRC (also met his girlfriend for the first time – A Chilean who moved to India.. for him? Now that’s cute 😀 .. lucky kid 😉 ) and other geek was ‘Kingsly’ whom I had known for 10yrs+? on IRC.. but met him in-person for the first time. Nice conversations on tech, society and human creature specific.

He helped me find way to a spartan store.. picked up a new lid for touring (SOL SF1)… had super tasty “real” chinese cuisine.. and then drove off…. Walter brought my old lid on flight to Hyd (Yup he did come to hyd haha :D) …. Finally I started 0100am -_-

Super sleepy….kept my helmet light on flashing warning. Wanted to sleep on ground (wasnt carrying tent).. but there were huge size ants.. plus the fact that any lorry losing control could run off the road and run over me.

Luckily, in middle of nowhere I saw this hut.. locked from outside.. with a bench outside.. I said to myself “Whatever.. this is luxury right now 😀 …and if someone comes I’ll have to deal with him”

(I had my laptop in saddlebag)

Parked bike, dozed off for a nice hour…before taking a pic and riding off again.

When the sun started coming up (~0500 hrs), I took a break and observed sky patterns in AWE!

They are so so so amazing.. I never had seen such beautiful colors of morning. (pics below)

Took some pics… and rode again.. with stops at dhabas for hydration and engine cooling.

The bike clocked ~1300 kms when back home (includes some kms from in-city driving in B’lore.. restaurant and helmet hunt)

Total driving time for this was around 19.5+ odd hours (including in-city driving).. which kinda makes me wonder if I am too slow for the international SaddleSore challenge 😦 … OR I need a faster bike? 😛 🙂

Ok, too much text.. now pics 🙂