Silver Bullets Bangalore - The maiden ride

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The first things in life always have great importance - the first love, first bike, first job... & first ride!

My first group ride was a real special affair - 270 kms Bangalore - Madikeri ride was 400 kms odd, don't ask me how! All sort of things happened on that ride, all new riders riding in every directions possible and with an erratic coordination & communication on the ride. In spite of all the mess ups it was a great experience and a great insight to what we were lacking! Some of my friends here, who are now seasoned bikers and who were there in that ride, can vouch for the great experience we had on that ride!

Silver Bullets Bangalore chapter had 10+ members for quite sometime and it was decided in our first meet in cafe coffee day that we should ride as often as we can. So this ride happened!

By the time the proposal to ride was posted by Anup on group I had got my transfer orders to Gurgaon! I was sad! I have great friends here, not to mention anyone in particular - everyone has been so good. All my biker friends, and this place Bangalore - Oh my gawd! I'll miss all of them! Anyhow, this sense of loss lasted till I had a couple of beers!

Its life! We move on, with the good memories. I'll cherish the time I had here, and will remember my friends & the brotherhood I enjoyed with these wonderful guys. At the same time its time for me to make my parents happy and mebbe time for me to become a Royal Beaster!!

So, I joined the ride :) - Even if its my last ride with these guys Let us make it to the fullest. So the other riders joined in!

Almost all the guys were on time at the meeting point - a rather good foundation for future rides ;) - Punctuality! Shashi lead the way and all of us followed to Magadi with me being the sweep ;) - A calm, slow & peaceful ride to magadi. We had our breakfast there and then we headed on to our main destination - Savandurga. Combination of good and bad roads.

We trekked up to the first wall, luckily it was cloudy then. As we were resting under a rock the clouds disappeared and we thought not to waste our energies in the hot sun.

Down the hill and on our way to Manchinabele dam. A ride through newly laid roads going through forest areas - buzzing with tons of butterflies. Two of them banged on my visor... sorry!!

This was my second visit to Manchinabele area & the first one to the dam water.
I bet this would be a great ride for pictures if done in early morning time! I think I have seen some of Srikeerthi's pix - which were real good!







It was afternoon time and was pretty hot there. Kartik and I decided to take off our shoes and take a walk in the shallow waters. That was a good experience.

I shot an introduction video there ->


While coming back we got divided in two groups - LJ, Anup and me on an offtrack and Shashi, Ajey and Kartik on a smooth track! Finally we met at Kadu Mane and had a great lunch over there.

These guys (Ajey, Anup, Shashi) had Tatte Idlis.. However, being a north Indian this thing always sounds funny to me! ROTFL kinds.. only if u know what that means :P!! Hehe

Whats there in a name! Lo - all these guys are tatte idli fans!! :P

A peaceful ride home through BMIC smooth roads - no land speed record this time, my Bull needs servicing, tyres need truing and air filter needs a replacement!

Don't know when I'll ride with SB Bangalore again, I just know that we had a great time today & I hope that these guys will keep on riding :). May the SB Bangalore chapter increase!

We'll meet again guys.. the roads never end.

Ride Stats:
Pix @ http://picasaweb.google.com/kamlesh.sanwal/SBBangaloreFirstRide
Route:
Bangalore - Magadi - Savandurga - Manchinabele dam - Kadu Mane - Bangalore
Distance: 165 kms (Approx.)
** Photo credits: Love Joshi and myself

Caman da Coorg!

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It was this friday that I got to know that I was getting transferred to Gurgaon.. Felt sad and bad to leave Bangalore & I know for sure that I'll miss my buddies here.

And the RIDES :((!

I rode to Cloud Valley resort in Coorg with RTMC & enjoyed it fully.

In the morning it was time for some sight-seeing-riding in which a stream crossing also happened - here is a video I shot ->



That was one cool but eventful ride. I will be updating this blog after a while, tired a bit now so gotta get some rest.

Galibore: Offroading through jungle to Cauvery

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It was almost a year since I did any good offroading. Oh no! I am not counting in the near - offroadings on the broken roads! Otherwise I did ride on pretty bad off roads in my ride to Goa last year, blame it on the rain Gods there were only the remnants of the roads in some parts of the highways (NH included!).

So this time I was expecting around seven eight people to join in. However in the morning time when I tried to give wake-up calls only Amit and Jumbo picked up. Others were dead-in-sleep!

The previous evening I had finished installing my sigma speedo computer on my motorcycle and I was excited for testing it on the roads. Before this ride, we had left punctually on the time but this ride became an exception. I reached the meeting point to find nobody there. Waited till 6.20 when Jumbo arrived. After that it was a long wait for Amit. We decided to wait for him as otherwise he would be riding all alone to catch up with us, otherwise we do not wait for the late comers - they are expected to know the route from the posts and catch up later. In the waiting time I clicked a couple of snaps. Here is sooper-wide-angle shot by me at the reflection in Jumbo's pulsar visor:

Amit reached a couple of minutes later and we pushed off.

Kanakpura road was pretty open at this time. And soon we covered a few kilometers and stopped for breakfast. Tasty but spicy idlis followed by a tasty dosa/tea. After the breakfast I opened up the throttle, I had to see the difference between the stock speedo and the sigma speedo, could not reach the max speed though. The highest recorded on sigma was 98.4 kmph and at that time the stock speedo was showing 104 kmph. Mech errors!

I reached Kanakpura and stopped for the others to reach while using another function in the sigma - stopwatch ;). Amit reached after 7 minutes and jumbo reached after 10 minutes. We bought some fruits and water in Kanakpura and after that Mutatti was the destination.

We reached Mutatti from the halgur side. Unfortunately I had not known that Mutatti was the same place referred to as Bheemeshwari by us :D!! That realization occurred when I reached Cauvery fishing camp, Bheemeshwari! It costed us riding in very bad roads for around 10 kms.

Another interesting bet was that we pronounced "Galibore" in a 'Galley - bore' firang tone which the locals had never heard of! I thought I would call up PKM to ask for directions; but no network coverage!! What to do now? Shall we relax at some place near Cauvery? Or shall we ride to some other place? The disappointment was building up as it seemed our offroading programs were ruined... Almost.

Bingo! Amit knew Kannada and shortly afterwards he found out from the guards in Cauvery fishing camp where Galibore forest was! And to our discovery the world Galibore is pronounced as "Gaadi boray" and that is precisely why we were not getting any signs of recognitions from the locals! So we went ahead of Mutatti, confident this time, and there it was! By the way some very nice roads between Mutatti and Bheemeshwari Cauvery fishing camp.

The offroad began with the three of us and a couple of biker boys ahead of us having pulsars, splendor, Kinetic (!! Yeah :D), and one scooter! Well it was hardly 300 meters in these roads that the kinetic enzgine sputterred, I overtook.. and then Amit.. and jumbo.. Soon we overtook the leader of the biker boys crowd who was on a pulsar.. After that the ride was a bit peaceful, else it was all gung-ho in the jungle! Needless to point out - these guys were least bothered about anything - No helmets!

We reached Cauvery fishing camp in Galibore soon.From here one can keep on going to reach Sangam. However we didn't do that. Pretty happy with the off-road so far we decided to take the detours to reach Cauvery and ride on some sand ;). In this process we turned back to take the first detour. Taking our bikes as far as we could we parked them there in the sand amongst the trees and went to the Cauvery.

Some peaceful moments here, relaxing by the river side and having those grapes, bananas, water and oranges was good indeed. The only thing lacking in this place was some shade so we decided to move on and take the second detour to find a suitable spot near Cauvery and have our lunch.

Getting the steeds out of that sand was really gruelling and when I had taken it out to the main portion of the road I heard Amit's honking! I stopped and got off my bike and went to check the situation.. As hopeless as he gets when I tease him, his bike was in the same condition with the sand. Both the tyres stuck deep in sand. I got on his steed and used his bike's power and a bit of twisting the front tyre to get the bike out and rode it out of that damn sand to where my bike was. Jumbo clicked a picture when I rode Amit's steed back to firmer terrain in the mid of the Galibore jungle.

The second detour was an ideal one and we got shade for our steeds as well as for ourselves.
The lunch was a quiet affair with the bread, cheese spread, jam, milk, cold drink, biscuits, namkeen and water. After having all this we lied down there on the stones ;) and had a good rest. The place was very quiet, not a soul around apart from the three of us!

Peace.. And relaxation..
By the time we checked our watches it was already 1.30 PM so we decided to head back home. The only tough portion was the off-roads in the mid of the day. It was damn hot riding with all the gear in the daytime! Morning time it was a fun ride, come daytime and the same ride becomes an ordeal!

Soon we were done with this portion after having clicked a couple of teaser pix for those who didn't make it to this ride ;) - R u one of those and reading? :D just take a look at a couple of pictures, we toiled hard to capture what you missed ;):

The ride back was good. This time no broken roads ;)
When I reached Sathanur I saw a couple of bikers in the side of the road and I spotted Mr. Goop, an RTMC fella, there. So I stopped to meet him. He was with his company biking mates back from a ride to Bheemeshwari. I moved on to clock some more miles in the smooth roads.
I waited at the Kanakpura entrance to catch up with Amit and Jumbo. After this Cauvery garden restaurant was the next and last stop.

We had tea and omelets there. Amit's footrest had got bent in a minor shake in the offroading so I did some 'kickwork' to make it straight and then it was a peaceful and cool journey back home.

I stopped my bike at my place at 4.30 PM!
Another great ride and a good off-road!

*****Ride stats*****
===============

Route (While going): Bangalore - Kanakpura - Halgur - Mutatti - Galibore
Distance: Around 120 kms.
Not recommended though. After Halgur bad roads for around 10 kms.

Route (Coming back) Galibore - Mutatti - sathanur - Kanakpura - Bangalore
Distance: Around 100 kms
Take this road, mostly in good shape. And most of the portions in Kanakpura road are ultra smooth now. Relaid recently.

Photo links: Click here to see my pictures & click here to see Jumbo's pictures.

**Photo credits: Kam/Jumbo

In search of those clouds

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Good things in life start with mails :)


Well, not in general, but this time the ride to SkandaGiri got the spark from a forwarded mail. It had a couple of pictures of skandagiri in the morning time, and a small description about the place. As soon as I checked out the pictures the trip was on the charts!


I dropped in the invitation to ride to a couple of friends, bulleteers and non-bulleteers alike.
Here is a part of conversation between me and Chandra, when he confirmed in the last hours that he'll join the ride:

Me:
Welcome Chandra! I knew u wud come ;)
Chandra:
Dude... be prepared to face some tough time ;) The photos you sent will put you in trouble... enjoy
Me:
:)) To get the best picture out of a place depends on the photographer also ;) so in case of any discrepancy I am not entirely to be blamed :P
Chandra:
get those nice looking clouds... u'll be spared ;)
Me:
Kamlesh: The lotus God (not the clouds :P)
P.S.: Now don't start asking for the lotuses :P

It was an early morning ride, we met at MG road, refuelled and rolled on to Hebbal flyover. We had to wait for some 10 minutes for Chandra and Jobin.

Well, this was my chance ;) I told Chandra "Itna late kar diya! Ab mujhe ye mat bolna ki clouds nahi dikhay!!" to which all Chandra could do was just stare hard at me looking lost for words and after a while gulped down all his expressions! Aah!

By 6.30 in the morning we were on the road, engines roaring high.
NH7 is a 6 laner highway till Devanahalli and I maintained good speeds in the morning.

I had donned my leather riding jacket and gloves and even after that it was chilly beyond all the expectations. As time progressed so did the chill factor and before we reached Chikaballapur I could feel the hairs rise all over my body!

That did slow me down!

At Chikaballapur we stopped and with shivering hands and body I managed to put the side stand on my bike. Next 10 minutes were spent in shivering and discussing about the cold with others.

Seeing my bike loaded with cramsters PKM was a bit surprised

PKM:
Yaar itni choti trip ke liye cramster kyo?

Me:
Yaar, ek main garage hai our doosre may kitchen :D

Other riders were riding slowly and it was around 20 minutes before the last thumper i.e. Chandra reached.

We had our tea (For warming up our hands), breakfast. Followed with another round of tea, this time for drinking!

Almost an hour long break. No point in hurrying it up when the sun was already high, clouds were nowhere to be seen and more than that the destination was only a short while away.

PKM wanted to ride my bull, so I gave him my keys exchanged his keys with Jobin's bull (Std. 350) and we started for our remaining 5 kms. Around 1.5 kms of this part was an offroad track, it was a breeze on Jo's bull.

On being asked his experience of riding my bull, his comment on the maneuverability was "yaar meine kuch nahi kiya, jaha bull chalta gaya mein bhi wahi ho liya!"

Of the 10 riders only 2 went uphill for the full trek. The rest of us just went up a small distance, only to relax, chit chat & consume the eatables brought in by me and Sachin.


After spending enough time there we thought to head back to Bangalore. The return journey was rather a relaxed one. Couple of other bike exchanges between Cast Iron - AVL bullet/ Bullet - Non bullet and we reached Devanahalli.

Lunch there and not so remarkable but relaxed journey to Bangalore.

I could not find those clouds, but I found some relaxation and a well deserved break from the routine city life and had a wonderful company. Those clouds were missing but I believe I would find them.. one day!

Ride stats:
Destination: SkandaGiri (KalavaraHalli betta)
Route: Bangalore - Yelahanka - Devanahalli - Chikaballapur - Skandagiri
Directions from Chikaballapur: Take a left turn, reach the market circle and take a right turn, follow the road and there u reach at the SkandaGiri foothill.
Distance: Around 65 kms from MG road, Bangalore.
Stop-overs: Shanti Sagar @ Chikaballapur for breakfast and some punjabi dhaba in Devanahalli for lunch.
Recommendations: Try to be there in early morning time, thats when there are clouds and you will have a good chance to witness a fresh sunrise.
**Photo courtesy: Chandra/Ajey

Serene Hessarghatta

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It has been a year full of rides for me. I did lots of touring on my CBZ and then I upgraded to my long time due dream - Royal Enfield Thunderbird.


For the past few days I did not do any of the long rides, even when I had long weekends because of the pain in the upper back - Thanks to the weeks of hectic schedules at work!

But I thought doing a small ride on sunday won't hurt much. What followed was a relaxed ride to Hessarghatta lake, Nrityagram and on a very very beautiful road to eco resorts just before Nrityagram was what made the last day and the last ride of year 2006 a memorable experience.

Main purpose of this ride was to break away from the hustle and bustle of city, relax and click some photos and when I saw a number of people in the main entrance of Hessarghatta lake I decided to move further and take another entry. It was a beautiful ride in that area - roads were broken but the surroundings were excellent. I moved on to Nrityagram - the dance village founded by Protima Bedi which takes only 24 students a year in four dance disciplines.

Before we could reach this dance village I saw a road which prompted me to take a detour! Any other biker would have done the same thing, it was too hard to resist. And I am glad I did not resist it! Vast land of grass with this road in the middle, and nobody around for miles! That was beautiful! I clicked a couple of shots and moved on slowly on this road. Further ahead there were three girls pushing there cycles coming from the opposite side. They smiled - I reflected, that smile :). When you see another traveller in a deserted place, which is as beautiful as that a smile is what comes without any efforts.

I carried on and parked my bike in the woods. Mayank started his morning walk and I just relaxed. And clicked a few shots.

Mayank came back after some time, after touching the horizons! Time to move on, Clicked a few shots of the road, so as to go back there sometime with my biker friends, or may be alone.

Nrityagram was open to visitors only after 10 AM. So I took a U turn and came back to Hessarghatta lake, did some off roading and reached the bank of the lake. Sitting there relaxing was absolute fun.

This was the last ride of the year 2006, it was short and was a great experience.


Adieu 2006!