hiwayREBELS

3 days of adventure – Ride to Kakabe and Bisle Ghat

2012-02-10T18:58:00.001+04:00

I have always wanted to camp In the wild which never happened. My friends used to go on trekking In the Western Ghats where they camp over night pitching a tent. But my priority is always been travelling on my motorcycle. So here comes an opportunity to ride free and camp with the star lit night sky as the roof.

My brother Rubert and I have been researching on which place to ride and which will be ideal for our camping. Kudremukh has been in my mind. The first thing comes to my mind thinking of Kudremukh is Gangamoola and the beautiful waterfalls Hanumangundi. But after hearing from couple of friends about the safety issues in Kudremukh to stay in tent, we had to drop off the idea. We have not finalized on where to go but our saddle bags are packed, tent and camping stuff is packed, our bike is filled with fuel to the brim, but where to go is still a question.

All Packed and ready. At my home.

8 hours before our journey begins, the plan started to flow well as we discussed. We decide to camp in Kakabe, Coorg on day 1. We also planned to ride to Bisle Ghat on day to and camp there for the night on day2. On the third day we start from Bisle and ride back to Bangalore. With the plan looking good we went to sleep, hoping to catch some sleep.

Day 1 of 3:

Ready to roll. At my basement.

It’s the Ride day, in those lines of Race day or Track day! We got up early in the morning, 5AM on 26^th January. Starting the day with Bible reading and prayer, we got ready to roll. Carrying all our luggage, camping and biking gear to the basement itself a mammoth task!. Saddle bags are fixed on the bike, camping gear is tied to the rear seat, riders on their saddle, ready to Have A Good Day. Happy Republic Day!

On the way to Mysore

The day is pleasant, with the Sun shining and the wind breezing and our pulsar 220s are doing good. We wade through the Mysore highway traffic to Channapatna to have our breakfast. After having Masala Dosas and a tea we continued our ride towards Kakabe via Hunsur. The two lane highway after Mysore towards Hunsur is very scenic and deserted. I was thinking we can even pitch our tent one of these places!

The Road towards Hunsur from Mysore

Enjoying the landscape we missed the road to Gonikoppal and we took the road to Siddapura. This route happened to be just 10km longer but went through the woods and small villages, which was nice. We had a number of breaks for munching energy bars and of course to record our memory in our cameras.

On the way to Siddapura.

We reached Siddapura around 12pm. Siddapura is a small village on some hilly landscape. Its a very small and beautiful town. We noticed people talking in Malayalam! We had some snacks and some nice tea from a local shop.

On the way to Siddapura.

The roads were winding through the hills with greenery everywhere. We had to pullover at every junction to check the GPS if we are on the right track. Google Maps seemed to be more usable that the Nokia maps. Nokia maps is very cumbersome to scan through as you have to zoom in close to see town names and then you have to zoom out to see the route end to end. When you zoom out you loose where you were looking. Hope Nokia fixes these minor issues soon.

Rubert Jack, at the hotel in Kakabe.

On Entering Kakabe, we were so hungry the first thing we did is to find a hotel. We found a village style hotel. Chicken curry, Chicken fry and Ghee rice were our choice for lunch. Food was really tasty and purely village style. We liked it. The hotel was basically run by a villager and his wife. They were very hospitable.

Our Lunch – Ghee rice and Chicken curry.

After having a satisfactory meal, the next important thing is to find a place to camp. Its around 3pm now and e have till 5pm to find a place and pitch the tent before its dark. When enquired about where we could pitch our tent for the night the guy who runs the hotel suggested couple of places nearby.

Rubert and Hubert after a good meal.

We left the hotel to explore the places around. It was fun riding around these twisties. We found couple of interesting places to pitch the tent, but since we wanted to have more choice, we wandered around some more.

In search of a place to lay our heads.

We were told that there is a government museum nearby where there is a good lawn where they allow to pitch the tent. We thought that might be a good option and went there. But the people at the museum were not allowing us to do so.

Challenging roads!

As we roamed around further it was getting dark. And then i had a fall in one of the dirt tracks. There was nothing to worry thought. I was climbing the uphill in the first gear and as i shifted to second the bike stalled all of a sudden and there was no traction. The bike started to slide and i lost my balance.

She got tired!

I tried to lift my bike myself, but the more i tried to lift, the front wheel was slipping and i had no way of lifting it. Rubert was still behind me and he was waiting for me to come back as we had planned. Then i called him on his mobile phone to come and help me out. Finally he arrived and we got the bike on its wheels again. phew.

Can we tent somewhere here?

Its dark now, thanks to my fall and Rubert’s bike running out of fuel we have no options but try to tent in one of the estates there. There is this Kings cottage where they allow people to tent. We found it out from a guy on his jeep. We went there and enquired if we could camp in their estate. Thank dear God, they agreed and finally we got some place to rest for the night. God is Good all the time.

Petrol first!

The worker in the estate helped us to find our way in to their land that is basically on a hill. The stars are already out, a billions of them. The sky was so beautiful i could lie down and gaze at it all night, thanking the wise creator. Now the big challenge is to put up the tent! we got our bikes on with their lights on. Now we have to figure out how to pitch the tent. In the dark it was hard to find even which side is up. We are engineers right, so we were confident the manual wasn’t necessary. Finally we had to resort to the one page manual, but by then i had screwed the tent enough for the manual to be less useful. At last the tent was up. phew.

Where do i start? Hubert pitching the tent.

Time for the campfire to be lit and the chicken be barbequed. Earlier in the evening while Rubert had gone to the petrol station in the next village, I had bought chicken from the Kakabe village. Rubert mixed the chicken and the masala powder that we had brought with us while i was making the campfire.

Rubert. He know how to do it.

Finally the campfire is on its own and the chicken pieces placed on the heat. While we waited for the barbeque to be done we started our dinner with the rice and sambar that we packed earlier in the village.

Our dinner. It better get cooked.

Rubert got the barbeque done really well. His experience from making his steak and sausage dinners back in his home in Bangalore helped!

Yummy! Thats a first.

Now its time to empty all the snacks we had as we chatted about this and that. Once in a while I will be awe stuck seeing the innumerable stars on the black sky. Unfortunately our cameras did not capture this beautiful sky at all. God must have really enjoyed when he created all these beauties. Allow me to quote from the Holy Bible here:

“God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.” – Genesis 1:16

Good job, camp fire.

Its getting close to midnight and the campfire did a real good job keeping us warm. Time to say good night to it and hit the tent for the sleep. The tent was just enough for the two of us and only for our valuables. Anxious about the next day, we got decent hours of sleep until 7AM next day.

Soon to come, Day 2’s report…

Pulsar 220 Rear brake pad change – DIY

2012-01-15T20:14:00.001+04:00

Researching over the internet on this topic i didn’t get any information. Fed up with searching, finally decided to try it out anyway. It took me an hour, to figure the right way and do it. But the next time i do this, i can change the pads in 10 minutes. Knowledge is wealth.

Please try this at your own risk.

Tools required:

1. Size 12 spanner
2. A small screw driver
3. a jumper or a rod and
4. a hammer

Procedure

Here’s how to replace your disk pads on your Pulsar 220’s read disc brake pads.

1. Remove the clip that secures the “pad retaining pin”. Note the location of the clip in below picture. The picture is taken from the drive chain side. (pardon the dirty bike)

Below is the clip that got removed.

2. This is the step where you remove the pad retaining pin. The pin wont come easy. It has to be hit from the drive chain side using a rod and a hammer. Use mild force. Then the pin starts to move out.

3. Remove the two bolts, marked red in the below picture, that fixes the calliper to the swing arm. You will need a size 12 spanner. Use a ring spanner so that you will not damage the bolt.

This step may not be necessary but removing the calliper helps cleaning the insides of the calliper and piston using a old tooth brush.

4. Now remove the pin with hand and the old pads will drop.

You can see the parts removed and the new pads in this picture. (The clip removed in step one is not in this picture)

4. Now place the new pads in the same way you removed and put back the pin.

5. Fit back the clip that you removed in step 1. This will secure the pin. That’s it. Its a pretty simple job and would only take 10 minutes.

I realize there could have been more pictures to help understand the last step but since you are removing the pads, fitting the pads back would be the reverse of removing the pads.

God bless you!

Horsley Hills ride

2011-12-27T11:53:00.001+04:00

Madurai Ride

2011-12-27T10:45:00.001+04:00

Nowadays am not taking the train to visit my parents or in-laws. This time I took my pocket rocket to Madurai. The onward journey is solo, i was very excited about it. After the trip I realized solo long ride is not that interesting though i could reach madurai in a little less than 6 hours. On the return journey my wife accompanied me as pillion.

Here are a few snaps from my ride for now. Will add some snaps latter.

The Shade of a Banyan Tree.

On reaching my In-laws at Madurai

At Simmakkal, Madurai

After a rain - Attibele, Bangalore.

My Pulsar 220 - Fully Loaded

DIY - Changing the Disk Pads

2011-10-01T21:57:00.002+04:00

Last time i had to change my disk pads of my front disk brake in my pulsar 220 I ended up paying 150 bucks for the disk pads and 150 bucks as labour charge just to change the pads! Then I thought why not I myself do some work and save some bucks. With some little clues from the internet I was able to do it myself. So here is the procedure to do it yourself.

Note:

This method works perfectly on the Pulsar 220 front brake. The procedure may be similar for other brands.
Please do it at your own risk. I did the disk pad change twice so far and I didn't face any issues though.
Click the images below to view a larger picture.

1. Remove the bolts, marked red in below photo, that hold the caliper. You would need a size 12 spanner. A ring spanner would not damage the bolts so try buying one if you dont have those.

2. Now slide out the caliper off the disk smoothly.

3. Now remove the clip that retains the pin shown in the picture. You would need a plier to remove the clip.

4. Pull out the pin that holds the pads in place.

5. Now the pads will drop out freely. Disk pads have grooves that serve as an idicator about the usable life of the pad. In the below photo the pad on the left is a new pad and the pad on the right is the old one. Notice the groove is almost vanished on the old one which means its time to change the pad.

6. Clean the caliper insides using a brush and keroscene. Dirt usually gets clogged around the pistons(marked in the photo below) and it could affect braking. So cleaning it whenever changing pads is recommended.

7. In the above picture the pistons have almost come out. The pistons need to be pushed in to make room for the new pads. To do this keep one of the pad on top of the pad and push against the pad so that the pistons retract. I dont have a photo of the retracted piston.

8. Now position the new pads in the caliper and put back the pin that you removed in step 4

9. Now put back the clip that you removed in step 3.

10. Now slide the caliper back on to the disk, by gently positioning it such a way that the pads are on either side of the disk.

11. Bolt the caliper back on to the fork.

Thats it! Hope this helped. By the way, thanks to Rubert for allowing me to take the photos while he did the work.

God bless you.

KTM's 125cc street bike!

2011-09-26T16:51:00.003+04:00

Finally its on the magazines that KTM DUKE 125 will be made in India! Its a great news that Motorcycle manufacturing gets outsourced to India aswell. If you are wondering when this bike will be available for the indian biker to buy, the aswer seems to be no, atleast for now. KTM has made this bike for the European market, news say. Motorcycle market is booming with new models with international quality every now and then. I wonder why this Duke should not be sold in India.

Coming to the Specs of KTM 125, the bike has 15PS of power and torque of 12NM @ 8000RPM. Now thats sounds like a fun bike to me.

Now coming to intresting part for the Indian bikers, is that a KTM 200 would be made in India and be sold in the Indian market aswell. This would be a naked street bike. Im guessing this would be a good competitor for other bikes such as the Pulsar 220, Karizma, R15. From the price point it would be a good competitor for our CBR 250R and the Ninja 250R.

KTM bikes are expensive. Hopefully making them in India would bring costs down. Its very exciting to see more options in the market now. Hopefully we'll have more motorcycle models would be made in India and made for India.

We're commin back - Ride report of Day 3

2011-09-09T18:20:00.003+04:00

Click to read about our Day 1

Its Independance day today! Lets celebrate by riding free. Its 8am, 15th August 2011. My brother and myself are at our parent's place at Trissur. Having had a sound sleep we are now ready to get back to bangalore on four wheels. I wish we had another day to spend with our parents. Anyways time start back to Bangalore. For the return we have chosen the route via Guddalur. We also wanted to ride up to Ooty, but since we cant fit it comfortably in a day's ride we left Ooty for another bike trip.

We waved bye to our parents, we started off. Rubert, being familiar of the place, took the lead towards Shoranur. The roads are narrow and almost always there are houses on the highway everywhere. Slowly the civilization ended and the ghat sections started. Wow, the twisty roads are everywhere here.

As always we had kept our head lights on. We got a billions of hand signals from pedestrians, people in the car and everywhere saying that our head lights are on. Why are they so concerned that my lights are on?

Being the Independence day, we thought we should wear the flag. We searched for a shop selling our national flag and finally found a shop in a village. We bought a few flags and stuck them on our motorcycles. We also gave away some flags to the children in the village. After saying Vande Matharam, we started rolling. Just as it was on day 1 of our ride there was no rain today. Its amazing our silly prayers are answerd by God. I thanked God for a rain free day as I rode through the lush greenery filled twisty sections of the hills God created.

Our mom had made a litre of black coffee. Time to drink some. Ahaa hiwayRebels Cafe. Anywhere any time. After enjoying a refreshing drink, Rubert checked up with the locals for the route towards Guddalur. Did I mention Rubert speaks good Malayalam! We still have about 70 km to Guddalur.

Typical Kerala houses show up regularly on the way. Another thing seen everywhere are coconut grooves. Our eyes are filled with green. Iam in love with the places. Ideas of owning a farm house popped up. If God willing let that happen! Suddenly I realized i have left my saddle bag open. This is the third time i left it open. But thank Jesus nothing had fallen off any of the time i did forget to lock it.

Its 12:30 Pm and the tramac improved. I was wondering why such a Race track quality road in the middle of the forest. But least did we thought there is a awesome section of twisties that is going to assault us. The roads reminded me of the Isle Of Man TT. We were totally enjoying each and every curve on the road. I wish they close public traffic on these roads and conduct races on these roads just like the Isle Of Man TT.

Its been a while I rode these kinds of twisties. I realized I need to brush up on my skill on knee scrapping. The roads are soo for the bikers who want to scrape their foot pegs. At times there were coffee(or tea?) plantations that feasted our eyes. We stopped for some snaps here and there. After having some coffee and energy bars we rolled off again towards Guddalur.

At the junction near Guddalur the road going left takes you to Mudumalai and then to karnataka. The road going right takes you to Ooty. After having lunct in Guddalur took the left turn and continued towards Mudumalai.

Soon we were at Mudumalai. We encountered a herd of elephants on the road. Man thats scary. But the beautiful beasts were as calm as a baby. I wish I have taked a few snaps of the creatures. We also spotted deers. I wish they weren't endangered. Then we could make a barbeque in the forest!

Now we are in Bandipur part of the reserved forest. Mudumalai part was more green than the Bandipur. Why? Is it because Veerappan kept Mudumalai free from civilization? After a quick break for some more coffee and photo shoots we rode as if there is no tomorrow.

As we came near Mysore the traffic on the roads started growing. Mostly cars. Like us many people are returing to the concrete jungle after their weekend vacation. On crossing Mysore the highway is packed with cars. Thank God the traffic is moving at steady 90-100 km/hr.

As we were coming close to Bangalore, I knew this is one trip to cherish though its a short one. We have done too many things in just 3 days. We got a chance to surprice our parents. They were having one of the surprises of their life time? Dad did joined us on his motorcycle to Chavakkad. Above all its was a time for brothers' time to bond.

We reached our homes by 9PM with a feeling of contentment of doing a good trip and thanking God for taking care of us all the way. What could be next? May be a trip to Kanyakumari and return back through the coastal kerala? May be.

Read: Previous Day

We're home - Ride report of Day 2

2011-09-02T22:05:00.003+04:00

Here I am, Rubert, posting my 1st blog. Thanks to Hubert who gave access to post about Day 2 of our ride home.

Church Alter

I setup my alarm at 6 to wake up and get ready. Because it’s Sunday and the mass is at 7.30 am. Looks like I was so tired that I didn’t even hear it screaming. Then someone was calling my name and I opened my eyes and it was Hubert waking me up. We all got ready and took dad’s car and went to church.

The actual plan is to go to church on bikes and then from there leave directly to Chavakkad beach. But we went grocery and meat shopping and went home as it was late. Mom was preparing amazing lunch and Hubert and I went to fix my bike. I learnt how to change the front disc brake. Thanks to Hubert again. By the time we finished it; it was lunch time and had delicious lunch. Thanks to mom for all the effort which she put in making it.

Installing Front Disk Pads

Now it’s almost 2:30 pm and we decided to leave to Chavakkad beach. We all got ready and we started rolling. The best part is my Dad was on Avenger and my mom was his pillion. This is the best part because after 12 years I’m seeing mom as pillion.

Dad riding Avenger. Mom Pillion.

BTW, above is not effects. Thats how my mobile took when riding!

As soon as we were off the HI way, the roads became awesome, curvy and the nature put-up its best display. Lakes were overflowing (due to recent rain) and the roads were slightly covered with water between lakes.

Lake behind our mean Machines!

Another Lake View.

BTW, I managed to click some pic’s using my mobile while riding (please don’t hate me for doing this when riding. I did this coz I wanted to take pic’s of my parents when on bike). Also I was careful enough not to harm anyone or myself (man, it’s time to buy a helmet cam which I’ve been planning for some time now).

The ride lasted for an hour if I’m right and we reached the beach. We parked and entered and it was awfully crowded which we didn’t like. We sat there and took some snaps and had chats.

At the Beach

Mom Tryin to take her own pic!

Some serious talk???

Then we decided to ride a little further and find a peaceful beach where no one or less people gathered. As we rode we saw wall rising at the edge and we stopped by at a place and asked people around to know whether any beach is available somewhere around. Bad luck! they said there’s none other than Chavakkad. But still we rode about 2 km and below is what we found - Thottapoo (thank God).

Found the right place. It's on the other side of the road

This was a peaceful place where we saw few huge fishes surfacing to gasp air, no one around and the water slamming on the wall of rock. Latter we were accompanied by few youngsters who were playing around.

Can't get to the water as these rocks are slippery.

Mom brought few snacks and we had it while watching the awesome display of the Arabian. Then we took some pics of our bikes and with mom and dad.

Covering mom with his Camera

Mom ridng Avenger!

The 3 Bajajeers

Me on the slippery Rocks. Man it was scary.

Now the sun started to settle down and we though we will leave home. After 15 mins or so we had to turn on our lights as it was becoming darker. The traffic was very less until we reached the HI way and then we were home. Thank God for bringing us back home safe. All the way dad topped 60kmph and I loved it.

It was dinner time when we reached home and had parottas. It was a good family get-together. Off to sleep.

The Making of "The Parotta".

Read: Previous Day Next Day

Photo Gallery - Slideshow

2011-09-02T20:49:00.002+04:00

We're goin home - Ride report of Day1

2011-09-01T21:06:00.008+04:00

I've had only 3 hours of sleep but am already late by an hour as per plan. Where am i going? I ’am going to meet my parents in Trissur. Oh don't leave the blog...read on, its a bike trip to Trissur. My bro Rubert, co-rider of this trip, is ready already and now am guilty of sleeping a little extra than him.

Its 4:30 in the morning now and I’m setting up the saddle bag on the bike as the engine is warming up. All set time to roll. Rubert and I had agreed to meet up near the petrol bunk at BTM. Gave a call to Rubert that am starting and started off. The feeling of leaving on another trip is awesome. GOD! What a feeling. Waved off hand to Wife and left our building.

At the BTM petrol bunk now, watch showing 5:10 AM. Met Rubert and started off the ride. We took the Hosur – Salem - Coimbatore route. This is the quickest route so we decided on this one on fear of rains in Kerala. Yeah, it rains heavily there. The Forecasts predicted rains from all the way from Coimbatore to Trissur. But we are praying it shouldn't. Faith on God.

There are few more riders on the road today going various destinations. From pulsars to CBRs bullets, all dressed up for the ride... its Bikers Day out on the highway today.

It’s time for coffee. Rubert had brought a liter of black coffee! What an idea sir ji. The coffee was reeeallly refreshing. Kudos to Roobs! After cleaning our helmet visors off all the bugs that died on the visor, we started rolling. Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’...keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’.

We've now reached the outskirts of Salem and its only 7:50AM. Yeah, we were keeping up with time well. It’s time for breakfast. Our requirement is a drive-in restaurant, may be a ride-in restaurant. So we settled on a road side hotel where the lorry drivers stop by. We had a few parotas and omelets and resumed back the ride.

A week before the ride we were brainstorming on the route. One of the dream routes is to go through Guddalur. But because of the weather forecasts predicting rain and also that we might be in the forest area late in the day, there is even more chance of getting caught in the rain. And by that time we would also be in the Mudumalai and Bandipur reserved forest area. Hence we compromised on the scenic route and took the quicker route.

The salem-Coimbatore route is little dry. Because of the highway road widening all the trees on the sides are chopped off. So there isn’t much to take pictures of. Soon we were on the bridge that was over the Bhavani River. There was good amount of water flowing in it, because of the rains, probably. The Sun wasn’t out all day. We took some pictures over here, Gulped some black coffee, and energy bars and then the throttle is wide open again.

Pulsar 220 is a good bike to enjoy on. The power is good and usable. I love the roar it makes when the throttle is wide open. I’m even thinking of installing the K&N air filter that would directly fit on the pulsar's stock air box. But it costs RS 2.6k. The Bajaj's air filter element is just under RS 100. I wish the visor on the bike is a little taller so that it would help block some wind off me. This would make the p220 a good Sports Tourer.

It’s 11:20 AM now and 50 km to reach Coimbatore. Now Rubert finds that his front brake's bite isn’t right. May be the pads worn out? We decided to enter Coimbatore city and get the disk brake pads. We got the pads a Bajaj dealer and then Rubert suggested we make a visit to our old neighborhood Meena Estate, Coimbatore as it is nearby. So we headed there. The house where we stayed was empty but it pretty much remained the same as it was about 10 years ago. We were in high school back then.

We met few of our old neighbors. They were surprised to see us. After some chit chat with them and exchanged phone numbers, gulped some coffee, ate some energy bars and we were back on the saddle again.

Its 1:00 PM now, we are at the Kerala border. The roads are bad because of the heavy rains. Though the sky is overcast with black clouds, there isn’t any rain yet. Praise the Lord. Am having a rain pant in my saddle bag, but i don’t want to wear it now. I want to simply believe that God answered my prayer and that rain would not come. 100 odd km to reach Trissur.

We are near Palakkad now. This is the longest leg of our ride today. The road is full of trucks and cars piled up on either side of the road and the pace is just 10km/hr. At times the traffic grinds to a halt. Praise the Lord we are on two wheels. We still have gaps to squeeze through. Now the Kerala's trademark humidity kicks in. It’s sweating like taking a shower. Its cloudy and dark, but there isn’t a rain. The pace is 5-1km/hr through the gaps. I'm lovin it.

It’s time for a break. Coffee break. Man, the lush green is thick and everywhere here. No wonder Kerala is called God's Own Country(The whole universe is God's own though). After some coffee, lots of water and energy bar - not in any particular order, we rolled on. It’s 2:00 pm and 50 more km to Trissur.

Our parents didn’t know we were coming as we planned to surprise them. We were hoping they are at home when we reach there. In all our breaks Rubert was on his phone. Only later when i checked my Facebook, I realized he has been updating his status throughout the ride! Cool techie.

We have finally entered Trissur officially at 3:00PM IST. Trissur is a small typical Kerala town. It’s called as the Cultural Capital of Kerala. We just reached our parents place. I was knocking on the doors and my Dad opened up the door. For a sec there was a pause and its totally worth it.

There ended our Day1.

Read: Next Day

Thottapoo and Chavakkad beach - day 2

2011-08-17T19:52:00.008+04:00

Church altar

Church backyard

Dad on his avenger. Good job Rubert on taking pics while riding.

Water in abundance in kerala

This is the second or third Elephant we spotted today.

On the way to Chavvakad beach, scenic.

Water everywhere... i love this place.

Say cheese

A relaxed sunday afernoon at the beach

Any comments ?

Bat like kite

pleasant

the waves shaping the rocks

Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)

The sea is His and He made it.

children picking snails

Family photo. Im taking the photo :)

Bikers

I'm starting to oversee its imperfections :)

how to make kerala parota

Oscar making a huge splash

Independence Ride - Bangalore to Thrissur - day1

2011-08-14T12:23:00.005+04:00

Flies on the visor.

Somewhere in nowhere

Me, Hubert

He, my bro rubert

waiting for the breakfast

unfortunately this wasnt breakfast :(

Wood furnace even in these days!

Breakfast - parota (spelling is correct) - curry. omelete not included in picture!

Bhavani river

mean machines?

the 220R - R for red

420

Nice to see water in a river, instead of sand miners

Coimbatore- we stayed in this house until 11 years ago.

Our neighbours from the past. Nice to meet them after a looong time

Guess where ?

AAH... Reached Kerala

100 odd km to go

Finally we reached trissur by 3PM. but no photos. Next? REST.

Riding to work made fun!

2011-07-31T19:38:00.003+04:00

Last week i tied my laptop onto the back seat while riding to office. It was a great relief! sigh.
Plus it gave me a feel that i am going on a bike trip!

My Old and New Ride

2011-07-15T17:33:00.003+04:00

One of the rarest photos in my album. My old and new motorcycle together in one photo. Though the photo is not good interms of image quality or angle(the 220 does not look good in some angles!) this is the only photo i got them together.

Yelagiri and Vanyambadi ride

2011-07-01T19:45:00.026+04:00

Here is my ride report of another weeked ride of ours. Last saturday we ventured out to yelagiri a small hill station on the way to Chennai from Bangalore. The things to do and see were kept very simple. Ride and Eat. Also take snaps!

We enjoyed the ride on the superb highway all the way to krishnagiri. From there on we took the Bargur -jolarpet route to reach yelagiri. This route was scenic than the national highway that went all the way to vanyambadi. We were enjoying the ride and the scenic beauty that we forgot to take good snaps. (as if i had taken better snaps earlier!)

We were really blessed with good climate throughout the day. We were 5 of us. There were two cruisers on the gang, making their presence of felt all along with their beats.

Over time i had started liking my p220. May be i have started to not look at its minuses. Just look at it, even when parked it looks as if its doing a 12o km/hr. No seriously. Rubert and myself let our 220s on loose on the highways and we acheived 153 km/hr on the speedo, crouching behind the fairing.

Taming the beast?

Fun was part and parcel of any ride, that to when everyone talks the same language tamil the fun is ultimate, cracking jokes about Vadive's Dubai Adress to actor Vijay's Dr title.

On the base of the the yelagiri hills there were few small scale Brick manufacturers. Its time for a crash course on the subject. No but we ended up taking photos. Now starts the main agenda, ride the hill sections. There were 9 hairpin bends on the hill, if i remember correct. We made chappathis with our motorcycle as Rubert named it. Its been quite some time riding on the hills. And it was really pumping adrenaline.

Four years back i had rode these same roads. That time i was onboard a Pulsar150. Now on a 220 cc Pulsar. What a world of difference! The bike was leaping on the uphill, with reserves of power. I wonder if a 21 bhp motorcycle can be this fun, how much fun to be onboard a Ninja 250R or even a CBR 250R!

The climb up was pretty quick. We explored the small village on top of the hill, riding here and there. I wish we had more. But Yeagiri had very little to offer ideal for a short ride like ours. Its time to plan for something big. May be a Bangalore to Kanyakumari ride. Talks were already on. But its in God's hands what our next trip will be to.

By now we were all hungry. Its 1pm now. Time to fill up our fuel tanks. As planned we headed to Vanyambadi for the infamous biriyani. Vaniambadi is about 20km from yelagiri. A small town on the Chennai - Bangalore highway, is a stop for all Buses crossing the town.

When took our seats in the hotel, the waiter placed the plates for biriyani. He knew what we would order. The food was very good and colourful. I even packed a couple of biriyani for the wife back home.

Having filled our stomachs, its time to roll. Now its time to feed the bikes. Petrol sells in Tamil Nadu for Rs 67.50 about Rs 4 less than that in Bangalore. So why not fill up our tanks full and save a few bucks. Nothing much on our way back, as we took the super highway. I wish trees be planted on the sides of the national highways. We kept good pace uptill Bangalore. It was a good ride, good food and above all good company. So guys where is our next ride?

-hiwayRebels

Bike Ride to Yelagiri and vanyambadi on this Saturday 25th june

2011-06-21T19:06:00.001+04:00

-- VIA EMAIL --

We would leave bangalore early morining (say 6AM) towards yelagiri, which is 220 km away.

Enjoy the ride on hills have breakfast, have lots of chit chats on the road sides.

Then have lunch at vanyambadi (the famous thalappa kattu biriyani). The come back to bangalore in the evening.

Anyone in? Drop a comment with your contact.

So far 2 bikers confirmed till now.

-hiwayRebels.

http://hiwayrebels.blogspot.com/

Flashback!

2011-06-21T18:07:00.007+04:00

Here is my dad's ride from the past. On the right extreme in the photo is me!

My bro and myself learnt to ride on this 250cc 2-stroke.

my Pulsar 220's RVM gets more length...

2011-06-04T19:49:00.009+04:00

Hey guys, Long time! no posts. Anyways, this is my "do it yourself " project that i had to do to improve the rear view on the RVM on my pulsar 220F.

If you are a P220F owner you will know that the RVM's are next to useless. So here is my idea that gets a little more use of it...see the traffic at the rear. However the vibrations in the mirrors did not vanish.

Below is the photo of the mirrors with the lenth of the rod extended:

Here's what i did to get the extra length in the rvm:

1. For the left side mirror (from the rider's position ) i bought a 2.5 inch length bolt that fits correctly in the grove where the mirror gets fitted.

2. Now i removed the left rvm and got the bolt welded to the edge of the rvm's rod.

3. Now to extend the right side rvm, since the right side rvm's thread in its rod is in the opposite direction of the regular clockwise direction on the bots available on the market, i had to buy a stock right side rvm from bajaj and cut its rod. The rvm costs rs 150 approx. Trust me its worth it so you could just buy one!

4. Then weld this rod got from cutting the stock rvm to the end of the right side rvm.

5. fit both the RVMs to the bike.

In the "After" photo above, you would have also noticed the rubber cover also got its length extended. To do this if you have a old tire's tube you could cut and make the extension. But recently i removed the rubber covers altogether and got the whole thing painted in matte black. And it looks great. I'll post the photo of that soon. Thank Jesus! Now my bike has better rear view mirrors!

Below is the "Before" pic for a comparison:

Stay tuned for more DIY.

Backyard Ride in Jan 2011

2011-03-07T20:25:00.003+04:00

It was a pleasant saturday afternoon, my bro and myself explored some roads less travelled in our backyard!

Yeah that's me... again.

Black and Red

BTW, If you have'nt yet noticed, I have increased the length of my bike's RVM( the red one) by 1 1/2 inch. Now I could have a lot better view of the rear traffic. Pulsar 220 owners who wish their RVM's are more useful could do this simple welding trick to solve this problem!

Mad Saturday

2010-10-15T16:13:00.003+04:00

We explored a place called Bilekkal Betta near Kanakapura. The landscape so was beautiful i had to stop everywhere to click a snap.

We were on 5 bikes. The route involved village roads, uphill and downhill roads and no roads also!

Kanakapura state highway

Kanakapura

somewhere on the way to Bilekal betta

Bilekal Betta

Bangalore Salem Ride - Photos

2010-07-01T17:54:00.007+04:00

Here came an oppurtunity to ride to Salem for a friend's marriage. Here are some pics:

Botanical garden at Yercaud

Yercaud Lake

At a petrol bunk on the outskirts of Salem.

My Sports Tourer

2010-07-01T17:51:00.001+04:00

This is my new ride. 21PS...good enough for now.

Bike Accessories

2010-04-14T09:14:00.001+04:00

http://www.planetdsg.com/dealers.php

Planet DSG
Orion Motors, 518, Bhoovanappa Layout, Opp. Forum Mall, Hosur Road.
Tel: 080-25524747, 9945009749. (Preferred)
Brands: Alpinestars, DSG, Keiti.

Does'nt this look nice?

2009-10-19T09:51:00.003+04:00

Sutmbled on this beautiful looking motorcycle. Could this be the new Pulsar being spelled out by Bajaj recently?

Sure this looks great...Resembles the KTM's Duke motorcycle though. If u notice closely on the side panel below the engine, it reads "200" !!

Bikers, this could just be a rendering of a bike enthusiast. So lets not anticipate too much :)

Writeup: Muthathi

2009-10-17T11:10:00.004+04:00

After a long time of break we finally did a short one day ride to Muthati. We were four of us on 4 motorcycles. We had bikes from 150cc to 220cc and beginner to expert riders in the group.

Pops the PRObiker

Once we crossed the town kanakapura, the landscape started changing, full of lush green fields on hilly landscapes. Goats,sheeps and cattle are everywhere. What a scene change between bangalore and kanakapura! From sathanur the ghat section starts, the winding roads come to with absolutely no warning.

The Lineup

The winding roads prooved to be serious fun for us. But its tough for a beginner to enjoy these roads. Pops would agree with that :-). I would want to ride again on these roads agin, just for the sake of riding.

On the winding roads towards Muthathi

Route Information: Bangalore - Kanakapura - Sathanur - Muthati
Distance: 110 km

NewRide: Muthati Ride - Plan - Route

2009-10-09T14:04:00.000+04:00

Date of Ride: 10-10-2009 Saturday
Agenda
We officially start rolling from Jayadeva flyover 6:40 AM . Lets stick to the timing please. Do remember your meeting points!

6:30AM BTM 16th main junction - Partha, rajan, hubert, Rubert & co
6:40AM Jayadeva flyover - Varun, Ankur, Nag, vinay + rest of the gang
7:40AM Kanakapura - Breakfast + snacks purchase
9:00AM Muthathi
Visist Bheemeshwari, Sangam, chunchi falls, Mekedatu as per time
4:30 PM start back to BLR
7:00 PM BLR
Details of Destination: MUTHATHI 100km

Route 1 : BLR, Kanakapura, Sathanur, Muthathi.
Route 2: BLR, 2km before Kanakapura, left deviation to muthathi

Meeting point(saturday morning):
Partha, Rajan, Rubert, Hubert - 6.30AM
your meeting point is BP petrol bunk, Outer Ring Road 16th main junction, BTM.
Ankur,Varun - 6.40AM
your meeting point is Petrol bunk on left side, JayaDeva Flyover. We will also join u guys there.
See u guys at the meeting points!
Wanna Join? email to hubertgodfrey@yahoo.co.in
Or Join hiwayrebels@yahoogroups.com

Skandagiri Trek!

2009-10-07T15:24:00.002+04:00

Hey Guys!

How about a Bike ride to the base of Skandagiri( 70km from BLR) and then treck to the top of the hill?

The trek takes 3.5 hours to the top and. Normally people start the treck early as 2AM and reach the top by 5.30 am to see the beautiful sun rise.

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandagiri

Cheers
Hubert

New bike ride planned!

2009-10-06T10:29:00.003+04:00

We're gonna have a bike ride this Saturday, 10-10-2009. Place not yet decided yet. But it could be either:
Savana Durga ( 70 KM from BLR)
http://www.chennaitrekkers.org/2009/02/savan-durga-june-2008.html

shivaganga(60km from BLR)
http://nithinkamath.info/archives/2008/12/shivagangeshivaganga-betta-trip/comment-page-1/

Muthathi (80 km from BLR)
http://content.msn.co.in/MSNContribute/Story.aspx?PageID=98a816cb-8c39-489f-8318-eea436547564

YOU are Invited :)
To join us in the bike trips, please join our Yahoo Group!

Click to join hiwayrebels

Karizma ZMR

2009-10-05T17:29:00.006+04:00

Dear Indian Bikers!
NEWS! Good or Bad depends on you :) For we indians got another Fully Faired motorcycle! Its the Karizma ZMR!

TADA...here is the ZMR...

What it's got?

1. A full fairing
2. A new head light assembly
3. 17.6 bhp (wasn't the same as the Karizma R)
4. PGM FI
5. rear disc brake
6. Few other useless stuff

I say, isnt this bike looks 20 years old? Even the 80' have seen beautiful sports bikes(definitely not in India, though).

What's missing?
1. the Karizma is still in its teens - 17 bhp
2. An good looking fairing. Hey HH how about going naked with the ZMA like the ducati monster? that would look lot bettter!
3. Mono suspension on the rear
4. And many other stuff

I would only blame the Media(especially the bike magazines) These guys seriously OVER hype each new bike. WHY? Do they get paid for that by the motorcycle manufacturer or what? We poor bikers in India are already tired of waiting, please dont use words like "Back with a Vengeance" to describe this bike. Sure this bike has what it has: 17.6bhp, air cooled, fuel injected, 223cc single.

Okay, your thoughts please!

Yamaha YZF250 R4

2009-09-15T15:59:00.003+04:00

Seems yamaha is planning to launch a 250 cc YZF!! Not in India rightnow though! The specs of the motorcycle is not yet out. The R4 resembles the R6 more. The R4 seems to have more aggressive sporty riding position compared to the Ninja250R.

Now thats gonna be a serious competition for the little Ninja.

Ninja 250R - with modifications

2009-09-05T15:45:00.002+04:00

Here is a Ninja 250R fitted with performance parts and a dual tone paint job. Looks stunning isnt it ? Did you notice the swing arm and the slip-on exhaust?

Coonoor - pictures

2009-07-10T14:11:00.004+04:00

Coonoor is a small sleepy town about 30 km from Ooty. The town spans across 3 - 4 hills. The hillscapes are full of coffee plantations.

There are some beautiful view points that one could visit which are Lambs rock, Dolphin's nose, Droog, Law's Falls and a beautiful and big Sim's Park.

2009 Pulsar 220 DTSi - What its missing

2009-07-01T17:32:00.004+04:00

Watta hype!

There was too much hype around the "Fastest bike in India' thats to be launched june 23rd 09. Bike enthusiast all over India were too anxious whether the new bike from bajaj is gonna be a 250cc or a 300. Plus sites like bikeindia.in kindled the curiousity of the poor bikers over their forum.

Now that the "Fastest production bike in India" is anoounced, did it deserve that much hype?

Well, the new pulsar 220 DTSi has one more horse power, and the FI is gone and the carb is in. What else great about the bike? Anything to boast of ? Of course this new Tweak is 10k less on the bill. Somebody tell these guys there are amazingly performing machines available to the world (minus India). Either our bike makers grow up to build more powerful bikes(we are not asking much, a inline 250cc t0 400 is great) or stop hype it up killing our passion.

The new 220 DTSi is great on the value for money factor. But isnt this premium segment value performance than 10k more?

The new 220 DTSi could've sported atleast a 4 valve per cylinder, international styling, mono suspension on the rear. Say wat bikers ?

Carburetor Tuning Tips

2009-06-23T14:11:00.001+04:00

Checkout: http://www.floheadworks.com/Articles/carburetor_tuning_tips.htm

Bike trip being planned!

2009-06-15T12:03:00.004+04:00

Looks like we'll soon ride on the highways!

It could be a 2 to 3 day bike trip. Places we are considering are:
1 Ooty-
300km from Bangalore
2. Gopalsamy betta 210 km from Bangalore

Wanna join? Leave your email id in the comments!

The Way to Heaven

2009-05-18T11:14:00.009+04:00

Dear readers!

I have started another blog recently. Its also about a journey, a passion that's more important than anything else. Its about our very existence and more importantly its about THE way to heaven.

In biker terms "Route information to Heaven!".

Let me introduce you to the Way, the Truth, and the Life...
Read: http://hiskingdomreigns.wordpress.com/

Some links about bikes and stuff

2009-05-16T11:47:00.001+04:00

bikeindia.in
bunnypunia.blogspot.com
http://www.indiaon2wheels.com/
http://www.dancewithshadows.com/autoindia/category/motorcycles/

Riding Gears

2008-11-27T09:52:00.001+04:00

I came to know about Cramster having a store in bangalore, near mekhri circle. They have the whole range of riding jackets, gloves, saddle bags, laptop backpacks with helmet pouch!! etc.

For more information visit: http://www.cramster.in/

Jog Falls

2008-11-14T10:40:00.003+04:00

Mysore in a day

2008-10-17T14:21:00.004+04:00

Sangam - A detour just before Srirangapatna town

Lake near the base(or on the way to) of chamundi hills...forgot the name!

chamundi hills

Sivasamudram

2008-09-16T14:19:00.001+04:00

Trissur - Pooram Festival Decoration

2008-09-16T14:12:00.004+04:00

Ninja 250R - with sporty makeover

2008-09-04T15:14:00.002+04:00

WOW!

My Birthday Cake

2008-09-04T12:38:00.002+04:00

My friends Rajan and Partha got this cake for my Birthday! All they can think of is as a Biker. hmm...

Guess, with a single candle they meant I've been a better rider for a year ? Or a lone rider ?(which am definitely not)

Nilgiris - Travelling on the Toy Train

2008-09-04T11:14:00.005+04:00

It sure brought out my childhood memories of going to Ooty on the toy train twenty years ago. Not much of a change this time around. Many Coffee (or Tea?) plantations all over. The place seems so beautiful. I'll post those photos latter. But here are some photos I've taken from the Toy Train. The good old steam engine pushed the 4 tiny coaches up the Nilgris allthe way up to Ooty. The Railway charges just Rs 7 for the ride up.
With steep rocky cliffs on one side and deep and scenic valleys on the other, the train huffed and puffed all the way up. One could feel jerks when the engine ramming the wheels with power!

Here you could see the engine being loaded with coal in one of the stations before coonoor.

Steam Power! Water being filled into the tanks to make steam.

One of the stations before Coonoor(name of staion i dont remember). Great views of valleys nearby. Also south indian snaks like vada, bhajji, masala dosa ... all fresh and hot were available at the stalls here.

One of the shots from the train.

After reaching Coonoor the steam engine is replaced with a diesel engine thats more smoother than the good old Steam engine.

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T10:43:00.000+04:00

Happy New Year all Bikers

May the good Lord God Bless this year, a safe one for us and a bless us with great bike tirps and nice bike be available in India :)

Ninja 250R - Spec

2007-12-12T09:40:00.002+04:00

Engine 4-stroke Parallel twin, DOHC, Liquid cooled, 8-Valve, w/ counterbalancer
Displacement 248 cc
Starting Electric
Bore x stroke 62.0 x 41.2 mm
Compression ratio 12.4:1
Carburetion Keihin CVK30 (2), Constant velocity, diaphragm-type
Ignition CDI (electronic advance)
Spark plug NGK CR8HSA, CR8HIX, CR8HVXoption CR7HSA, CR7HIX
Transmission 6-speed, Constant mesh, Return shift
Clutch Wet, Multi-disc, Manual, Cable-actuated

Max horsepower 36 bhp (27 kW) @ 12000 rpm
Max Torque 24 Nm @ 10000 rpm
Performance 0-100 km/h in 5.75 s
1/4 mile 14.6 s @ 88 mph
Maximum speed 160 km/h
Fuel Efficiency 28 km/l

Frame Tubular Diamond design
Rake/trail 27 degrees/84 mm
Suspension, front Hydraulic telescopic fork
Suspension, rear UNI-TRAK system with single shock
Wheelbase 1400 mm
Wheel travel, front 140 mm
Wheel travel, rear 5.1 in 130 mm
Tire, front 100/80x16
Tire, rear 130/80x16
Brakes, front/rear Single hydraulic disc
Overall length 80.1 in (2034 mm)
Overall width 28.0 in (711 mm)
Overall height 43.1 in (1095 mm)
Ground clearance 6.1 in (155 mm)
Seat height 29.3 in (744 mm)
Weight dry/wet (138/161 kg)
Max load 154 kg
Fuel capacity 18 l
Fuel type Min 91 Research / 87 avg. octane unleaded
Oil capacity 1.9 l
Oil type SE-SG Class SAE 10W40-20W50

Aquilla 250

2007-12-12T09:37:00.000+04:00

Today I spotted a Aquilla 250 on the outer ring road here in bangalore. Looks like a Harley and sounds like a sportster instead of being a thumper.

The bike has a V twin 25o CC. The guy has imported the bike. It had costed him Rs 2 Lakh.

I wish I could get Ninja 25o ;)

Nandi Hills - Photos

2007-06-29T19:20:00.000+04:00

Kakabe Trip

2007-06-26T17:36:00.009+04:00

Kakabe - Bangalore trip
date: 13th May.
Days 2.
Activities: Biking, Trekking the thadiandimol hill

Route: Bangalore - Mysore - Virajpet - Kakabe
distance: 260km

Gang: Addi, Hubert, Kokil, sha

Its been a while since we did this trip. And my passion for biking(real biking) is slowly bein killed Im wondering when i would have my next bike trip. I dont want to do a 2 day trip...not even a 3 day trip...I want little more. Meanwhile I dream of a perfect bike trip let me blog my last trip not yet documented here.

Back to the subject: We started from bangalore on 11th of may 2007. We were 4 inall. Kokil the new biker in the gang rode on his 180cc. We reached Virajpet at midnight and stayed there for the night.

Saturday 7AM with 40 odd km to ride we started towards Kakkabe. Kakkabe is a beautiful place with all mist covered valleys and beautiful town. We stayed at one MR Ashok's homestay. It was Rs 1000 bucks a day. Its damn expensive for the place but no other go. Ashok does homestay as a parallel job while he manages his farms and stuff. Not to mention his food is tasting real good. simple but great...esp for us bachelors whose tongue were murdered by the hotel food.

The agenda for saturday is to trek the thadiandimol hill there. Sha brought a copy of the BIKES mag. all of us were admiring each bike piture in the book forgetting all about the trek. 12pm we had our lunch and started towards the base of the hill on our motorcycles.

There was a jeep track that goes up through tough way which i wanted to climb and so i pursued it. But after a few meters the rest of the gang were not intrested in riskin on that track parked their bikes and started trekking. Poor huez the biker also followed their idea. huez was thinking probably after the trek he can climb the track on his bike. [tamil]Aanal avanoda kanavulla yaaro mannu alli pottutanga da. Rain screwed the track which became muddy and slippery and huez's pulsar had no grip on the track. Dejected and tired of the scramblign on the dirt returned back to the camp.

Sunday is nice time to go back(no other way...) to the freak crazy city. I wish i have a farm in this place and settle up there.( my dad wont sponsor that though).
We started around 12pm after Ashok's nice meal towards bangalore. Here huez decided to ride nonstop towards bangalore. But soon he stopped at virajpet for tea and to sync with the rest of the "slow" gang. Again he stopped as he lost sight of these guys for a long time. Assuring that they are on the right track started again.

We met 10 odd enfields creating noise like hell(they call it thumping) on the way...poor guys they donno to ride faster than a 60. As I over took them(10 in row) at 120km/hr on my Pulsar(mind u it has DTSI) they might've cursed themselves for their slowness. I wish i have a 4 cylinder bike to rock more. Dont recomment a 350cc chunk of metal..u kno wat i mean ;)

huez's dream of nonstop riding kinda worked out for him. He had only stopped for lunch and to pee...ofcourse. And we all reached bangalore safely by 6:30 sunday.

My sincere thanks to:
All bikers of this trip
special thanks to Varun who helped me with vocabulary.

Disclaimer:
No hard fealings...And no Regrets.

Now iam back dreaming about my new multicylinder bike(GOD im waiting)... And a "real" bike trip.

hiwayREBELS is 10,000 km old!

2007-06-12T10:57:00.000+04:00

Hey Bikers!

Congrats! As our bike club crossed 10,000 km mark.

be a rebel…be a highway biker.
HRMC.

Kakkabe - Thadiyandimol Trip - photos

2007-05-18T18:15:00.001+04:00

Need more grip on the tyres to climb these roads!

Thadiandimol Trek

Typical Kakkabe Road

Huez Gazing

One more track we rode...Beautiful ups and downs

A village Hotel where Shash and bikes pose

View from inside the hotel

Falls - from elevated view

From another angle

What an Indian Bike enthusiast want

2007-05-09T16:15:00.002+04:00

News from ET says Bike manufacturers are tracking blogs, online forums, discussion-boards of bike enthusiasts for reviews, user experiences and and other such details!!! (Click here for More) So I thought why not we also post some of our likings on "to be ours" bike...

Here is the list of some of the important characteristics which our bikers like to see on premium bike: (considering Indian road conditon as well ;) )
1 250cc inline twin engine
2. Fuel injection
3. 6 gears and top speed 160+ ;)
4. Radiator
5. Monoshok with nitrox
6. Full Fairing
7. Under seat exhaust
8. 25+ bhp (more is always welcome)
9. Good handling and smoother and quick engine
10. Projector head lamps (dual lamps like in CBR is great)
11.Good finishing and quality paint job

Better stuff appart from this list is always welcome :)

Readers, have any other feature you like? Add as comment!

Ugadi Odyssey (Udupi)

2007-04-17T18:07:00.000+04:00

If you are looking for pictures click here

Finally I got the "green signal" call from by Addi at 5:20 pm on friday I started from my office took the outer ring road towards tumkur road. The rest of the gang are coming through the outerring road from the mysore road side. Addi, Ankur, Huez(me), Imti and Varun are the bikers for this tour. As I squezed and zipped through the tumkur road traffic I spotted Ankur with his luggage tied to the bike. What a sheer excitement it was for me when I caught the gang! We continued our ride at good speeds and reached chicmagalur with couple of breaks for tea and dinner.

Day2: The next day early in the morning we started towards Agumbe where we would be seing couple of falls. Agumbe always fascinated me since our first visit last year during monsoons. I was very anxious and wondering how the place would be at this time of year. We reached Agumbe by 11AM. The vegetation was almost the same except for the green grass thats missing now. We had our lunch at the Taj of Agumbe, they serve very good food that it even tastes better than our bangalore food. The hotel people recognized and greeted us. We went to keep our bags at the hotel at the bus stand and the hotel guys there recognized us too. We kept our bags there and rode to the falls.

The ride throught the narrow roads through thick vegetation was very intresting and makes one to sing. The falls is tucked inside the forest just 15 minute walk from the road. The falls was reduced to a stream this time of the year which was glorious during the monsoon last year. After some play in the water we rode to the other falls nearby. Its Barkana we had to trek for like 4km. Its was sunny and since we had to reach hebri that night we returend once we reached a viewpoint of the falls. After a good chat and photo session we returned to our bikes. Our attempt to wathch the sunset from the sunset point at Agumbe failed even this time due to colouds and mist. We reached hebri that evening and hit sack after dinner.

Day3: Early morning we left hebri to the Kudlu theertha falls which is 15 odd km from hebri. We rode about 7km on dirt track through small hills and valleys through dense vegetation. It was a very intresting ride. We parked our bikes at the point where the track narrowed down to a foot path and started to climb up through rocky hill. We hiked up to the falls, the climate was very pleasant. The falls was amazing at this time of year. We had a quality time there taking bath under the water falls. We had the whole falls just for ourselves almost till we planned to leave.

While returning we did some eco cleaning of the place. Once we reached our bikes we found that our fuel from all our bikes have been stolen and my helmet missing. With our fuel pointer barely rainsing up we rode back through the dirt track praying to God that we should reach the fuel station without problems. we reached the fuel station and latter we found out from the locals that the villagers near the falls steel fuel all the time there. So people venturing out there especially on bike beware of this.

We left to Udupi that afternoon. Riding in the noon without helmet was a lot of pain for me. My skin felt baked up. I could buy a helmet only in Udupi. Imti's carburreter leaked fuel but luckily it didnt leaked when the engine is running. After reaching Udupi we went to the Malpe beach and St Marry's Island. Both the beaches were well maintained. Be the boat ride to the St Marry's Island was very enjoyable. It even brought the intrest on sailing in me. The island looked like a oasis amidst the ocean, full of coconut trees. Varun and I started collecting shells on the shore. Looked like Varun is an expert with shells. reached Udupi and stayed there for the night.

Day 4: Early morning we headed to Koradi beach. Seing the Kinara Beach resort right there on the beach we decided to stay there. Both the beach and the village was very beautiful. A very peaceful place to be. We spent the whole day in the ocean waters playing water ball and doging tides. Evening we rode to the Maravanthe. Maravante is a beach, the speciality being there is beach on one side of the road and backwaters on the other. Its a very beautiful place. We went boating on the backwaters. The sunset on the beach was beautiful. Unfortunatey the colouds didnt let us watch the sun diping into the ocean waters. We came back to kinara resort spent good time on the beach couting the ships on the horizon and the stars above.

Day 5. Our summer vaccation is about to end today and most part of the day will be on riding back to bangalore. On the way we went to dharmashhala where Addi, varun and ankur went to the temple while Imti and me roamed around. On the way back to bangalore we went through the shiradi ghat section. This is a beatutiful and scenic route. This time the road was good and was enjoyable. I got my bike foot peg scraping on the curves while the heavily loaded lorries find it very difficult to take these curves. We reached bangalore with our bodies tired and our hearts satisfied and our bikes worn out!

TripMeter: Overall distance 1250km Days: 4 and 7hrs

Places: Sringeri, Agumbe, Kudulu Theertha, Udupi, Malpe, St Marrys Island, Koradi Beach, Maravanthe

Route: Bangalore - Chicmagalur - Sringeri - Agumbe - Hebri - Udupi - Mangalore - Hassan - Bangalore

-huez the biker
hiwayREBELS Motorcycling Club

Ugadi Odyssey(Udupi) - Photos

2007-04-17T17:47:00.000+04:00

while riding towards Agumbe before Mudugere

Trek to Barkana falls

Barkana Falls at Agumbe

Kudlu theertha ride

Kudlu theertha Trek

The Kudlu theertha falls

Eco cleaning at the falls

St Marrys Islands

Rebels pose

Rebels at Koradi Beach

Imti At Maravanthe

Maravanthe beach sunset

View from Souwparnika River(while boating)

Sun setting at Maravanthe

Ready to leave Koradi beach

Outlook Dosa at Udupi

Near dharmsthala

Bikers pose near Dharmsthala

Maravanthe Sunset

Baba Budangiri - Photos

2007-04-17T17:32:00.000+04:00

Beautiful Ride: Sha riding down hill

Curvy roads and dense vegetation around

Dense Vegetation around Baba Budangiri hills

Dill Chatha hai!

Cloud 9

Dont know what to say about this snap

Simply beautiful

Baba Budangiri range

More BB Trip pics >>

Igglur and Kanva Reservoior - Photos

2007-04-17T17:21:00.000+04:00

Mudit the climber

Huez is posing

Cranes are fishing

Sun is Setting

Sun Rising

Trying hard for a camp fire

The sleep less night at Igglur courtesy Mosquitoes

Kanva Reservoior

Skidding and scrambling..im lovin it

Why do we Ride?

2007-03-30T14:35:00.000+04:00

Here are some of the bikers talk on their intrest and passion for bike touring:

Aravind Says:I feel riding bikes for long distances is not just enjoying the beautyof nature but also a way of rediscovering your inner self...
After a few miles of deserted highways and dry vegetation around...all one can think of is his life,his sorrows,dreams,his acheivements...
and it longer remains a ride to the get away place you wanna reach but a ride for free your mind from all the pains and frustrations...

Huez Says:Some of my excuses for riding a bike are:
Its primarily because of the rush of adrenaline it gives when the wind whistles in my ears. The sheer excitement it gives when I overtake a long trailer. The feeling it gives when suddenly my shoes scrape the road while taking a corner. The feeling of owening the road when zooming past cars. One gets more interaction with the sights and the sounds of the place you visit. The smell of a paddy field or the smell of spices brings dejavu…
Bikes Rule... Bikers Rock!

Vinay Says: a poem...:)
I know where I have to be...
I know the way,
With life in my hand I leave,
To see the world in an open way,
I control my destiny,
I control the speed,
All the cars envy me,
Since I define gravity indeed.
I leave the roads burning,
I am in par with Mother Earth,
If only people stop worrying,
to things that never occur.

Addi Says: I had written a whole article on this. Click here to read it :)

Have your own thoughts on this topic? Post as comment to this article. Your comments will be included in the article latter.

Baba Budangiri - Photos

2007-03-07T17:35:00.000+04:00

Near a Stream on the way

Partha the Pillion

The Mountain Ranges

Apache Rider -Shash

Half way up BB

A lake(or a tank) somewhere near Baba budangiri

Huez the biker

While riding up Baba Budangiri

View Of the Plains from Baba Budangiri

Ugadi Odyssey - Agenda

2007-02-23T08:24:00.000+04:00

There is a 4 day bike tour comming up during the Ugadi Festival this March 17 to 20 2007.

Intrested can join for the trip. Leave your Name, email id and contact number as comment to this article. Or join hiwayrebels Yahoo groups and mail us.

About the Trip, from Addi:

Open ocean, charming Hiways, scenic backwaters, lofty hills, gurgling streams, roaring waterfalls, dense jungles and delicious food. If these can't inspire a man's soul then nothing in the world will….welcome to Ugadi odyssey..

It is time to celebrate Ugadi...HiwayRebel style. Get ready to burn some rubber and set the tarmac on blaze. Let the action begin…

Saturday
1) Winding ghat sections from Chickmangalur to Aagumbe will certainly blow you out. Quick twisting of the bike on S chaped curves has enough punch for the biker in you.
2) Trek in the dense rainforests of Aagumbe to reach Barkana waterfalls. Aagumbe is the land of highest rainfall in K'taka and is the abode of King cobras.
3) If you survive the above trek then reward yourself with hot and delicious lunch at our fav Taj Hotel. One of the best experience HiwayRebels had in all their trips was at this hotel where the owner served us food with such personal care and attention that it could put some of the finest restaurants in Bangalore to shame.
4) Reach Udupi in time to watch the sunset at Malpe beach.
5) What could be more rewarding then having Udupian dinner at nowhere else but Udupi. Satisfy your taste buds with the cuisine that had made it's name all across the globe.

Sunday
1) Start early morning and enjoy the 40 odd km ghat ride to Hebri. Driving early morning in the mist covered hills, riding pass few sleepy villages is a unforgettable experience.
2) Trek to Koodluteertha. I am sure that the attached image can't do justice to it's natural beauty but it is just an eye opener of the glory of mother nature.
3) Reach back udupi to go to St Mary's Isles. The first point where Vasco Da Gama dropped his anchor before entering India at Kozhikode.
4) Checkout from Udupi and drive on NH17 to Maravante. The hiway runs beside the sea. At some points it is sandwiched between Sowparnika river backwater and the Arabian sea. A national highway nestled between sea on one side and a gorgeous backwaters on the other, while the sun sets into the ocean rendering the wide open sky with beautiful light golden colour is a view to behold. Park your bikes at such a junction and watch the sunset in the backdrop of arabian sea. The image will linger in your memories for long
5) Dig into Kundapuri style dinner with Bangda(Mackerel) curry and Kane (ladyfish) masala fry. For more adventurous mussels and squids are on the menu. Veggies will have lot options in Neeru dosa, Kori rotti, Kottes and never to speak about 101 dishes a typical udupian waiter will throw at you to choose from.

Monday
1) Day of fun, frolic and play in the water. Spend your time lazing out and relaxing your tired senses at the beach
2) Let loose on the wild waves at beaches of Koradi and Bijadi.
3) Let's go boating into the open ocean. Feel how it likes to be in the middle of nowhere, the huge intimidating ocean around you.
4) Facilities of snorkelling and scuba diving into the coral reefs are available. (Might be expensive and left to personal interests).
5) Venture into backwaters of sowparnika river and visit few islands there.
6) Udupian dinner and hangout at beach for late night party.

Tuesday
With 465 km to cover to get back home there is nothing much to do here except a short stop at Ullal beach near Mangalore. Having Mangalorean food and watching Mangalorean girls will set the Romeo inside you….back on tracks. For the less knowledgeable: Aishwarya Rai is from Mangalore.

HiwayRebels will cover Udupi, Maravante and Managalore and addressing some unfinished business at Agumbe (Barkana and Koodluteertha). Trip involves Biking, trekking, boating, waterfalls, beaches, backwaters, islands and loads of fun.

-Addi the Baddy
HRMC

God's own country - Waynard Photos

2007-02-14T17:58:00.000+04:00

Bandipur Forest

Guys at Bandipur forest

Cave Inscriptions at Edakkal Cave

Waynad Heritage Museum

Beautiful Mountain ranges

on the way up to chembra peak

Exhausted!

At Chembra Peak...Still remember the chill breeze there

Soochipara Waterfall

Return from the falls

Phantom Rock

Morning Beauty!

Lillies in Pookot Lake

At Pookot Lake - 1bhp engines & heavy payload!

At Banasura Sagar Dam - Ready for the speed boat ride

Route Archive

2007-02-14T16:53:00.006+04:00

This is an archive of all the routes we had rode through. Contributions to this list are most welcome. Please add the route information with the distance as comments to this article. They will be made part of the article later.

Baba Budangiri
route : Kollegal, Hassan, Chicmagalur, Baba budangiri
distance: 290 km

Bheemeshwari
route : Kanakapura, sathanur
distance: 100 km

Bilikal Batta
route : Kanakpura
distance: 60 km

Devarayan Durga
route : tumkur road (30km) then take right turn under the flyover
distance: 60 km

Coorg
route1 : Bangalore – Ramnagaram – Maddur – Mandya – Srirangapatna – Yelwal – Hunsur – Periyapatna – Sidapur - Madikeri
distance: 235 km

route2 : Bangalore - Kolegal -HASSAN – Gorur – Arakalgud – Ramanathapura – Bettadapur (Right Turn) – Kushalnagar – Sidapur - Madikeri
distance: 350 km

Gokarna
route1 :Bangalore - Shimoga - Honnavar - Gokarna
route2 :Bangalore - Shimoga - Sagar - Sirsi - Kumta - Gokarna

Hoganekkal
route : hosur, krishnagiri, dharmapuri,
distance: 170 km

Kakabe
Route: Bangalore - Mysore - Hunsur - Gonikoppal - Virajpet - Kakabe
Distance 260Km

Kemmengundi
route1 : Bangalore, Thumkur, Tiptur, Belur, Lingdahalli, Kemmengundi
distance: 310 km

route2 : Bangalore, Kollegal, Hassan, Chicmagalur, Lingdahalli, Kemmengundi
Distance: 290

Kodaikanal
route1 : Bangalore, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Toppur, Salem, Namakkal, Karur, Dindugul, Vattalakundu, Kodaikanal
distance: 480 km
route2 : Bangalore, Mysore, Chamaraj Nagar, Sathyamangalam, Thirupur, Palani, Kodaikanal
distance: 520+ km

Kudremukh
route : Bangalore, kollegal, Hassan, belur, mudigere, kalasa, Kudremukh
distance: 360 km
Kumara Parvatha: route : Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Kukke Subramanya - 12 km trek to KP

Kodachadri
route : Bangalore - Shimoga - Sagar- Kollur - Trek to Kodcahadri
route2 : Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Mangalore - Udupi - Kollur

Maravanthe
route : Bangalore - Chicmagalur - Sringeri - Agumbe - Hebri - Udupi - Maravanthe
distance: ~420km

route2 : Bangalore - Hassan - Mangalore - Udupi - Maravanthe
distance: ~440 km
Around Maravanthe: Koradi Beach

Mekedatu
route : Kanatpura, sathanur distance: 100 km

Mysore
route : bidadi, chana patna maddur, Mandya, srirangapatna, Mysore
distance: 144 km

Nandhi Hills
route : Bellary Road, Hyderabad highway(NH 7) and then a deviation on the left after 40 km from bangalore.
distance: 58 km

Shivana Samudram
route : bidadi, maddur, malavalli, Sivana samudram
distance: 130 km

Ooty
route : Bangalore - Mysore - Nanjangud - Gundlupet - Bandipur - Mudumalai - Theppekaddu - Masinagudi - Kalatti - Ooty
distance: 300 km

Trissur
route : Bangalore - Mysore - Chamrajnagar - Sathyamangalam - Coimbatore - Palakkad - Trissur
distance: 450 km

route2 : Bangalore - Mysore - Nanjangud - Gundlupet - Guddalur - Nedungeri - Nilambur - Perunthalmanna - Ottapalam - Mayanoor Kadavu(not sure)- Trissur
distance: estimated 420km

Yelagiri Hills
route : Hosur, Krishnagiri, Ponneri, Yelagiri
distance: 180 km

Yercaud
route : hosur, krishnagiri, dharmapuri, salem, Yercaud
distance: 220 km

Waynad
route : Bangalore - Mysore - Nanjangud - Gundlupet - Sulthan Bathery.
distance: 290 km

1st Anniversary Trip - Baba Budangiri

2007-02-14T16:44:00.001+04:00

11th Feb is the Club's first birth day and what else is the best way to
celebrate than a bike trip? Pops and I were having a chat on bike trips
and it enthused us for a bike trip. Not decided where to go and how many
days to spend we decided to assemble at Rajan's place. We met Shash
there packed all our stuff and tied our bags on to Shash's bike. We had
Shimoga and Chicmagalur in mind. Having heard about some riot may occur
in Shimoga we chose to visit Chicmagalur.

Normally we spend a week gathering information about the routes, places
to visit, activities to do, book the accommodation and so forth. But
this time the whole planning was just 10 minutes! 5PM on 10th Feb 2007
we started from Bangalore, Me (huez) and Pops the pillion on my Pulsar
and Shash and the luggage on his Apache. It's been usual that the gang
gets lost in the Tumkur highway traffic within city limits. We met each
other once the traffic got lessened. We were doing good speeds about 110
km/hr but still our frequent chai breaks slowed us down. We reached
Chicmagalur around 12AM and took a good rest in a decent lodged until
Pops woke us up 8AM the next day. We checked out by 9 and ventured out
to Baba Budangiri after a good breakfast.

Baba Budangiri is a mountain range near the Mulayangiri peak. It is 35
km from Chicmagalur and is famous for its shrines for the Hindus and the
Muslims. There are trek routes as well which spans across the hill
ranges. There is a water falls too. This trip was only of motorcycling
and sight seeing and we didn't have plans for a trek.

It was Shash's turn to take the heavy load (he isn't that heavy though)
and I to carry the luggage. As we started riding up the hills there as a
dirt track detour from the main route. We decided to take this road
that's less traveled as there is either a bad road or no road at all.
The scenery was beautiful; we came across a couple of small villages
peacefully tucked in dense forests. Here the trees had leaves in many
color, violet, purple, brown, yellow...Probably it's because of the
season? Dunno. As we rode we saw a huge lake (forgot the name, It was
tank actually) We had the whole place for us as no one was around. We
spent a quality time enjoying the gentle breeze and taking snaps here
and there.

We continued the ride wondering what nature has on our way and where the
route actually leads to! There were steep climb ups and steeper slopes
and curves on sandy tracks making our bikes to wobble. The ride was
worth it all. Pops had no worries; he was happily sitting behind
enjoying the nature. I wish I get to ride as pillion some day. But that
way I would miss my favorite part of biking. Hm one needs to loose one
to gain one.

Suddenly our adventurous dirt track ride lead to a tar road which
continues to climb up till the Baba Budangiri. The road was bad.
Actually there no potholes on the road, it's the other way round! We
didn't get to zoom on the ghat section. We took a break on a small
stream that cascades near a bridge. We had some snacks and continued our
ride. Finally we reached the peak from where a few beautiful view of the
forest in the valleys below and a falls. Pops decided to shout each of
his girl friends'(girls who are his friends) names and was ecstatic when
the mountains talked back! His list was huge with 18 names. I guess Pops
can pursue selling his mantra to guys as his primary career for living.
Having seen lots of falls we decided to skip the falls to save some
time.

There was this remains of a very old building on the hill where we took
photos the Dill Chatha Hai style. After a pleasant chat we decided to
roll. Its time to start towards Bangalore. We took the route through
Hassan as this route is better than the Tiptur-Tumkur road.

The ghat Section till Hassan was a breeze. We raced with another pair of
bikers on their pulsar. There was a super duper curve near a lake where
I took a very lean turn at about 90-100km/hr scratching my right shoe on
the road. Wow what a wonderful stretch of road it was. Its time our bike
manufactures build bikes with better ground clearance.

We reached home that night at 11PM. We had covered 640KM in 30 hours,
riding through dirt tracks, colorful forests and ghat roads. That's all
for our Club's first anniversary. Enjoy biking!

huez -the Biker
The hiwayREBELS Motorcycling Club

God's Own Country - Waynad

2007-02-14T16:42:00.000+04:00

Having planned this trip in December 2006 itself it had built a lot of excitement in us. Finally when the big day came half of the guys dropped off. That left 5 of us Addi, Ankur, Huez (me), Imtiaz, Varun made up the gang. We had done a lot of things apart from bike riding this trip. Seriously...a lot!

Okay this is yet another motorcycle trip of ours managed by the baddy of hiwayREBELS, Addi. We started from our office by 6:15pm on Friday 12th Jan 2007, took the bypass from Kanakapura road to Mysore road. A little on the route we took: Bangalore - Mysore - Nanjangud - Gundlupet - Sulthan Bathery. The distance was close to 300km. Our dinner was in a dhaba on the highway just before Mysore. The food was good but it came to our table an hour after ordering. Probably the food came from Bangalore! We reached Gundlupet that night and slept in a cozy lodge there.

Early morning on Saturday we rode through the mist in the Bandipur forest. The whole scene was very beautiful as the sun came out. It was too cold that our ungloved hands almost froze that it felt nothing. Sign boards here and there warned not to stop in the forest in fear of herds of elephants roaming across the roads. In spite of the warning we stopped for a quick photo session. We stopped at the Kerala border check post finding some deers roaming on the road side. I couldn't believe we missed to take pictures of the deers! There was a roadside eatery somewhere in the Muthanga forest where we had puttu and chai, Kerala style. Addi and myself test rode Imti's cruiser, I loved the riding posture and the feeling it gave.

We checked in chakalakal lodge in Sulthan Bathery, freshen up, had appam for breakfast and went for sight seeing. Saturday's agenda was to visit Edakkal Caves, Waynad heritage museum and Meenmutty falls. Edakkal caves and the museum was like a peek into the history of Wayanad, saw hand carvings on rocks in the caves, the tools they used in the olden days
(don't remember the numbers).

Meenmutty falls is the next target. This falls is tucked into a valley about 7.5km from the road. About 4km of the distance we rode on bikes through dirt tracks as we enjoyed the forest and tea/coffee plantations on the steep sides of the hill. The route was very bumpy but beautiful scenery around is worth it all. We reached a point bike cannot go and the trek down to the falls starts here. Few guys coming back warned us not to venture as the falls is unreachable and the trek is painful through dusty slopes. In spite of that we went down. And yes the slopes were indeed steep and dusty, slips here and there. We are almost there but we need to jump down a huge distance to reach the falls! After few trials and errors the though guys Addi and Varun went to the falls. The rest of us took rest in the shades. Meenmutty falls was a mission unaccomplished for some of us.

We rode through the ghat sections with plantations everywhere till dusk, went back to our camp. That night we had a pleasant moonlight walk in the neighborhood talking about lot of things, especially Varun with his insights on constellations. We also designed next generation motorcycles with redundant pairs of engines with different characteristics and two handle bars ect. A real crazy idea it was! And lots of other interesting stuff was discussed too.

Sunday is the big trek day, the day to conquer the untamed Chembra peak. This peak is 6900 feet high, standing taller than Karnataka's tallest Mulayangiri peak. After a good breakfast and packing snacks we road towards the base of the hill. Again the ghat sections were beautiful
with coffee/tea and pepper plantations all over. The whole trek till the peak is 3.5km through three steep hills. There is a track of foot path most of the time and it doesn't require a guide. The trek really made me realize I need to start my exercises again. A stops here and there, while we gazed at the splendors all around. Gulping lot of water we continued climbing the hills. Our Varun had some funny incidents with the nature here...can't write them here. Contact Varun!

Reaching the peak finally was like "what a relief!" The whole surroundings were beautiful. Had a good chat as we enjoyed the beautiful sight. We had our snacks, finished all the water we had, took some photos and climbed down the peak. Boy... the climb down is also killing.
It's easy on the lungs but puts a lot of pressure on the knees. After the trek we visited the soochipura falls for a bath. Now comes my favorite part, riding the ghat section. It was really a beautiful ghat section full of curvy roads, some are S type, and some are like a coil! The road was super windy all the way from the falls till Meppady. I loved each curve of it! We rode through the section at foot peg scraping speeds till we reached Meppady.

We reached our favorite restaurant The Green's at Kalpetta. Everyone like the food here. We ate like hell that night. Any place we visit in waynad is scattered and we have to travel about 30km through ghat sections to each place. So a lot of bike riding was a part of every day in this trip. We rode almost 300km like this in wayanad itself. We loved it!

Monday arrived, the black day of the trip as we have to return to Bangalore that night. Our list had phantom rock, Pookot Lake, Banasura Sagar Dam and a ride through a 12km ultimate ghat section from Lakidi towards Kozhikode. The speed boat ride in the Banasura Sagar dam was my first time! Time to go back to Bangalore, the part we hate. Anyway there is always the next trip that keeps us sustaining till then!

We had very less time before sun goes down. We decided to cross the forest in daylight so that we get to see the forest in day light again and also avoid any encounters with mad elephants. Here is where I hit a damn speed breaker that wasn't much visible at speeds around 80km/h and my chain guard came off. We fixed the situation ourselves and continued the ride. We rode overall 900km this trip in which a pretty good length was on ghat sections. I am confused now on which is my best trip, Agumbe or Waynad. We reached Bangalore that night realizing that Wayanad is really Gods' own country.

For photos click here.

huez -the biker
The hiwayREBELS Motorcycling Club

Happy Birthday hiwayREBELS!

2007-02-07T17:21:00.000+04:00

Coming Feb 11th hiwayREBELS becomes a one year old! Happy Aniversary to all the bikers!! Thanks all you guys for being part of the trips last one year. Whithout you we might not've come this far and loads and loads of fun we at during the trips.

I came across a quote on life that was really good:
When we travel life's roads with those we love, the point of destination is always secondary to the quality of the journey.

This quote very much relates to our motorcycle tours. It’s the truth indeed, when it comes to a trip at the end of the day the whole point is the gang and not the destination.

Happy Biking!
The hiwayREBELS Motorcycling Club.

I am not a crazy traveller

2007-01-12T13:10:00.000+04:00

Triggered by Huez a few weeks ago, I started to wonder as to why I became so crazy about travelling? Why I had been doing so many trips continuously for almost a year? Here is my search to find the answers.

It is not only the rush of excitment and joy in a trip but almost everything associated with it. Right from deciding the place, gathering people, planning, servicing the bike, waiting for the D day and most of all the moment when I tie the bag on my bike and start it.

It is the start of a journey. A journey through places, people and culture. Most of all, a journey through moments.

Moments spend riding the bike, zooming on the hiways, twisting and curling on the ghats, bending on the turns and zipping past other wheels.

Moment spent on roads, T shops and local dhabas. Moments spent inside a dense rainforest, on the peaks n above the clouds, under a waterfall or just beside a stream. Moments spent at a campfire, listening night time stories or gazing at twinkling stars on a clear moonlit night.

Or just a moment of utter peace. Sitting and watching the rains in Aagumbe. Everything around is so clear,calm,peaceful and pure. No doubt, Nature in it's most beautiful form can cleanse the soul.

Moment to last a lifetime. Moments which make up my journey and my life. So guys, I am not a crazy traveller. I just live the moments. After all life itself is a journey.

I would like to thank Hubert for giving all these lovely moments. Thanks for starting it all and always being there buddy.

Why you ride?

2006-12-28T14:43:00.000+04:00

Being a passionate rider myself, sometimes I could not answer my dad when he asks me why im so crazy to ride for long distance instead of touring on a car.

So what makes us to ride for long distances. Surely touring on bikes is not a comfortable mode. Put your thoughts on "Why you ride?" as comments to this post.

All comments will be latter consolidated as an article and published.

Mission God's Own Country - Invitation

2006-12-19T14:24:00.000+04:00

Its time to announce our next bike trip. We are going to Kerala this time! Lets go and findout if its really a Gods own country or not. We will be visiting Wayanad. Major activities will be Trek Chembra peak and a bike ride to Lakidi, a picturesque scenery.Wayanad is a district in North east Kerala spreading over the western ghats. It’s the least urbanized district in kerala. Expect nature in its glory at wayanad.

Quick Facts:
Where: Wayanad, Kerala
When: 13 - 15th jan 2007 (3 days)
Distance: 290km
Route: via Mysore

Intrested? Please register yourselves here.

Bike betta..... Bilikal Betta!!!

2006-12-12T13:54:00.000+04:00

It’s with great respect and appreciation I am writing this blog of our trip to Bilikal Betta. It all started with me discovering the hiwayRebels blogspot during one of my google searches. I was quiet impressed by the blogspot and the places that the Rebels had visited over the past few months. So with approval from Huez (Hubert Godfery) I became a member of hiwayRebels. I had not met any of the rebels before neither had I spoken to any one of them. On Thursday morning I had received the mail from Addy ( a person who is well planned ) from my point he had everything sketched to the last bit about a biking trip. The trip was to start off from Bangalore to Harohalli to Konalludhodi and finally to Bilikal Betta.

There were eight of us Huez the biker, Addy the baddy, Mudit, Captain Suresh, the focused Imtiaz, Hari from Hyderabad, my brother Vinod and myself. So there we where eight rebels on their way to conquer the roads, trek the hills and to define speed. You could call us as the “Fellowship of the Bikes”. With high octane from the exhaust pipe and the wind blowing across the face at 80Kms/Hr we breezed through the road like hot knife on top of butter. Fuelling our bikes and packing some food for our journey we ripped apart the road when disaster struck; my bike got punctured.

Why the puncture shops are always available when there is a puncture is either a mystery or a conspiracy by all the mechanics in India. They are always within a walk able distance from the point of puncture? My bike was punctured the mechanic knew exactly where the puncture could have occurred and within few minutes Huez, myself and Vinod caught with the rest of the rebels for some photo shoots with the bikes. We reached Harohalli @ around half past 5.
Had a cup and tea and rode the bikes to the reach the base of Bilikal Betta. The shear size of the hill gave me the chill and of course the villagers warning us of the wild elephants. With courage in our hearts and torches in our hands we began the climb up the hill. It took us 1 hr and 45 mins to climb the hill. The forest was dark with no well defined path to lead the way we had to make one. Each time we climbed the city lights looked like stars moving away from us like an expanding universe. With celestial stars above us and man made stars below us it was a collage of nature and humans living together.

The Rangaswamy temple was located below a mammoth size boulder. Few yards away from the temple there was this small home for the caretakers of the temple. The temple was undergoing a renovation for the forthcoming Jathre an occasion of joy and celebration for the villagers. The caretakers offered us with food to eat and some shelter. The view from the top of the hill was breathtaking the moon looked reachable and the stars seemed to be closer to us. So we all decided to start a bonfire for some reason there was more smoke and less fire so each of us where getting woods even a tree branch to get some fire going.

After the fire was up we where invited to join the caretakers for dinner. With ragi balls and saltwater on the plates the caretakers served with whatever they had. Oops few fresher’s in the field of eating ragi balls. With our bellys growling any food is good food. We came across an interesting character called Prabusamy. He is a multitalented person with knowledge on Vedas and Cinemas. He was an entertainer he could converse in thamil, kannada and telghu elegantly and even a bit of hindi.

A stroll on top of the hill was exiting the moon seemed to change its position at each point was it because the earth rotated anticlockwise or was it because the moon rotated around the earth? Finally reaching on a logical answer reading the position of the moon few of the rebels hit the sack while few hung around to hear Prabhusamy’s bonfire stories. The night was getting cold and finally I slept at 1 am in the morning. Few rebels got up at 6am to view the sunrise unfortunately the fog had engulfed the entire sky. So with few more photo shots without the sun we bid farewell to the caretakers and to three trekkers (Viswas, Murli and Sandeep) just like us who we met on top of the hill we began our descend down the hill. It took us 1 hr to reach down which was reasonable when compared by the time taken to climb up the hill.

Time to let the tea shop lady know that it’s not 30mins it takes 1hr and 45mins to reach the top (probably she must have been a marathon runner!). So finally we reached at the place where our bikes where parked. Handed over some parking fee and hit the road back home. It was a gr88 journey with g88 people. It was a trip to remember and for me it was the opportunity to become a “HiwayRebel”.

Regards,
Vinay

Trekking on Bilikal Betta - Photos

2006-12-11T11:54:00.000+04:00

On Kanakapura Road

Near the betta

Bilikal Betta

Trekking up the betta

Camp fire

The Stars of hiwayREBELS

Moon in its glory

Captain Suresh Leading through the dark

On the rocks

Captain Suresh rescues Vinay

Rangaswamy temple

Treck down the hill

Reaching the base

Unwind @ Agumbe - Photos

2006-12-08T11:25:00.000+04:00

Sam and Huez

The Sunrise

A Beautiful Morning at Agumbe

Agumbe

View From Onake Hebbe falls

Addi After the Trek to Jogi Gundi Falls

View from Kundardri Betta

Huez crossing the river for fun

Mission Yercaud - Photos

2006-11-07T16:38:00.000+04:00

On the way to Hoganekkal Falls

At Kauvery Peak

Near Kauvery Peak

Way towards Hoganekkal Falls

Kummalam @ Kodaikanal - Photos

2006-11-07T16:00:00.000+04:00

Huez enroute to Kodaikanal

hiwayREBELS at SilverCascade

The Kodai Lake

Woods in a valley

Who's this monkey!

Enroute to Palani while returning to bangalore

Unwind @ Agumbe

2006-10-17T17:50:00.000+04:00

Agumbe, the name sounded very familiar at first to me. The place where the famous drama 'Malgudi days' was shot. It rains heavily and records the maximum rainfall in karnataka. No wonder its called the cherrapunji of karnataka.

Friday 5PM arrived the hiwayrebels are ready to rock and roll. This time the gang included Rajan, Addi and ofcourse me(huez). As usual when we crossed Bangalore city limits it was 7:30pm due to heavy traffic(this is the painful part of the whole trip!). The plan for the day is to reach chicmagalur and stay there for the night and start towards Agumbe the next day morning. The 250km odd ride was very good especially as we drew near Chicmagalur the weather got colder. We reached the town by 12pm and hit sack in a local lodge.

Its Saturday, 7:30AM in the morning when Addi's moblie blew its alarm. We refreshed ourselves had a cup of hot tea and left Chicmagalur. At Mudigere town we had breakfast in a small village hotel run by a family. They treated us with the best hospitality which reminded me of my mom, that I would never forget. The roads from here are very bad. Our speed was 20km/h on these neck breaking roads. We were praying for a better road. All of a sudden the vegetation got thicker with green lush everywhere. Its time for a photo shoot. From here its all full of ghat sections with thick vegetation feasting the eyes. We had a stop in Sringeri where our god fearing Rajan and Addi went to the mutt for a darshan.

From here the greenery got all deser and bright green everywhere! As we entered the Agumbe town rain started to pour heavily welcoming the bikers. Luckily Addi found a shelter in a village house's verandah. We shared the shelter with a few cows in there. After an hour the pour stopped, we went out in search of a place to lay our heads. We got a village house for a rent of 100/day. The house had two bedrooms with attached toilets. It rained again till evenning as we had some snack and tea in the tea stall which is the bus stand for the village. Visited the sunset point that evenning and then rested for the night.

Sunday arrived, time to trek to the Onake Hebbe falls its a 3km treck to the falls. The way was all filled with leaches which we anticipated. Rajan freaked out when he saw the blood thirst crawlers sucking his blood. He called the trek off and decided to go back. Latter we learnt that the leaches had sucked lots of blood from him(courtesy Rajan). Addi and I continued our trek through the woods. There were streams crossing the path. At one point there was a huge tree that collapsed on the way there was no clue of the route. However we figured it out around the mess. As we went closer to the falls the sound of the falls was inviting. We had a bath in the falls to refresh ourselves. On the way back we had few photo sessions inspite of the leaches climbing our shoes. The overall 6km trek was very enjoyable.

Post lunch we planned to visit another falls there Jogi Gundi. This required no trek. This falls was also great. Unfortunately it was raining we didnt spend much time there. The next place to visit was a view point in Kundadri Betta. Rajan and I raced through the beautiful windy roads of the ghatsection and missed the left turn which Addi recognized. Addi went to the view point and we reached a Thirthahalli where the river thunga runs. Though we missed the viewpoint we had a nice chat with local kids and ofcourse not to forget the foot peg scraping ride through the ghatsection. It started raining again, we went out walking in the dark equiped with rain gear in the dim moonlight. Agumbe one of the best place to unwind! Gumbe Gumbe Agumbe!!

Monday 6AM we rode our bikes through dense fog towards jog falls 140 km from Agumbe. By 7AM the fog got lifted uncovering the beautiful hillocks, the dense trees all around. The road were bad in few places which was a pain in the neck. Once reaching the highway it was a blaze till jog falls. The final road leading to Jog falls was amazing. it was very steep and windy. To make things tough its raining heavily. The trek to jog falls was rally testing the stamina. It was 1km steep down through the rocky steps which disappear occasionally. The falls was breathtaking. There were a huge crown in the base of the falls. At 4pm we left Jog falls. The ride back to bangalore was great through the rural karnataka. I love Biking, I love nature, I love Karnataka.

Onward Route: Bangalore, Nelamangala, Hassan, Chicmagalur, Mudigere, Sringeri, Agumbe Distance: ~450 Km

Route to Jog falls from Agumbe: Agumbe, Sagar, Jog falls
Distance: ~ 100km

Return Route: Jog falls, Sagar, Shimoga, Birur, Arsikere, Tiptur, Tumkur, Nelamangala, Bangalore
Distance: ~490km

Mekedatu - Pictures

2006-09-21T16:53:00.000+04:00

The Gang at Mekedatu

Trek @ Kemmengundi - Photos

2006-09-20T16:39:00.000+04:00

While trekking to Hebbe falls

Near a Pond

On the way to hebbe falls

Crossing the river during trek

Hebbe falls

Ride To Hebbe Falls

Z Point

Mr. Hercules!

Ride down the Mulayangiri peak

Trek @ Kemmengundi

2006-09-14T17:58:00.000+04:00

The energies have risen again, this time our destination of choice is Kemmengundi. Our plan is to Trek up the Mulayangiri peak. Four guys, Varun, Ankur, Mudit and myself(huez) on four bikes started from bangalore on friday evenning squeezing through the crowded city roads till yeshwantpur. Its 7PM now and no time to waste as our plan is to reach kemmengundi before midnight and trek the next day. Our onward route was Bangalore, Nelamangala, Tumkur, Gubbi, Nittur, Kibbanahalli, Tiptur, Arsikere, Kadur, Birur, Lingadahal, Kemmengundi. By 1AM we were climbing the mud road up the hill. It had been raining and the mud track was very slippery. I spotted a rabbit on the bushes as we rode, Welcome to kemmengundi! As we had already booked two rooms in the Horticultural guest house we went straight up there and sunk in our beds.

Its 7AM Saturday, time for the Trek. None in the gang understood or spoke kannada and had tough time is speaking to the guys there. We couldnt get clear information about trek in Mulayangiri or in Baba Budangiri. After taking advise from Yogesh over phone we decided to trek to the Hebbe falls 9KM from the guest house.

After a quick breakfast and packing our backpack and water we headed for Hebbe falls on foot. The local guild demanded 150 for taking us through a shortcut through the woods. Our budget was so tight for 150 bucks. But the guide was kind enough to reveal the secret trek route to us! Deciding to take the route ourselves after Varun showing confidence went through the woods crossing small streams of water. Right from the start of the trek there as a dog following us all the way till hebbe falls. This dog sometimes ran ahead of us to show the route when we got struck!

The route was soo good, we took lots of snaps as we climbed the hill. We lost the route now luckily there was a small community of people living there. With their direction our climb continued. The two litre water is over now, our biscut packets are over too. The dog ate lot of biscuts than we had them! Now we are on a peak and the route is not seen. Noone to ask too. Taking Mudit's sense of direction we climbed down a steep hill...oh man this trek is worth the pain! Loosing the route again we stopped near a stream. The thin stream gave some water for us to drink. The weather was so pleasant with a light drizzle. There seemed to be lot of small falls here and there and one sounds nearby. Through the hills we heard something, its message from God!! A gang of trekkers are coming down the hill through a mud road! They were led by a local guide. We followed them from then till the falls.

We came to know that this gang or 8 or so is from bangalore and are trekking freaks. They were thrilled that we had come on bikes from bangalore. Soon we are on a mud road only a jeep could go. We were fighting with leaches all the way. The worst thing about leaches is that we dont feel the pain when they bite suck our blood. We were shaken or surprised to see a coupe of them on our legs when we pulled up our pants! The wounds dont clot as the saliva of the leach make the blood in the area not to clot so that it can suck blood. The guilde advised to carry a pack of salt which will keep them off.

The whole way to the falls was full of dense trees and beautiful landscapes. Few hills were dense with trees while the rest were "clean shaven" style. Crossing a couple of streams again as we came nearer to the falls. The dog which came with us crossed even the streams. It waded through the streams, jumping from one rock to the other. We missed to take photos of the dog crossing the streams beautifuly. We saw few small houses, seing a tap we rushed to replace the lost body fluids. Atlast the falls is here! its a magnificient one. Very rocky to bath under the falls, we plunged ourselves in to the cold water. It was so refreshing after the hectic trek. The cool breeze and the spray of fine drops of water from the falls was making the whole experience wondefull. After the refresh we started to trek back. The trek upward is very tough especially when the backpack was with me!

Varun made friends with Sreekanth the guy from the other gang. He gave lot of info regarding trekking destinations in karnataka. Agreeing to keep in touch with each other the two gooups split. We trekked without stopt till our breaking point. At one point i couldnt even take one step further. Again a message from God! As we were on the mud track, Varun who was leading the gang had sighted a jeep and arranged our transport till the guest house. Ohh what a relief...sigh! Over all we had trekked 15 km for the day. Our light breakfast and skipping lunch and not carrying enough water with us made us to abort the trek and take the jeep.

Reaching our rooms Varun and Mudit sank into their beds and slept. Ankur and myself kept talking about how beautiful the trip was so far. We regained our energies, took our bikes and headed to Z point. Z Point is a view point couple of kilometers from the guest house. This is one of the most beautiful viewpoints I've ever seen. cursing ourselves for leaving the camera in the room we walked quite some distance till we could. The colouds came towards us. It looked like white ice cream flowing from the hills. We then roamed on our bikes on the hill just for biking sake and got drenched heavily by the rain. It rained cats and dogs. We went back to the guest house canteen and having a cup of hot coffee we had lot of fun talking. Went early to bed with plan to start early the next morning for sight seing.

We had quite lot of time this trip, went to the Z Point again , took few snaps and planned to go on bikes to hebbe falls. We took the jeep track this time with our bikes. The views around were soo good. Its really worth going again to this place. The track is really tough especially after the heavy rain the earlier night. At one point my rear tyre stuck in the mud and wont come out. The track was steep and noway to come out. Ankur lifted the rear of my bike enablimg me to ride out of the mud. We went around 5km and couldnt continue further due to mud. Finding a nice view point we laid down on the grass, enjoying the abundant beauty of nature. Checked out our rooms by noon leaving for Mulayangiri the tallest peak in karnataka standing 6000+ feet above sea level. The ghat road from lingadahali till chikmagalur is a real treat for a biker. Best quality road with lots of twists and turns tailor made for a biker. Climbing Mulayangiri peak was very intresting. As we rode up the hill the temperature dipped by a degree after every hairpin bend. The peak was amazing the gentle breeze was sweeping our minds away.

No one wanted to leave the place but we are now running out of time as the guys wanted to reach bangalore by 9PM. Our return route was Kemmengundi, lingadahali, chikamagalur, Hassan(nh48), Kunigal, Nelamangala (nh4), Bangalore. The road was very good. The views all around us were good especially the sun setting on our right side. I love to overtake lorrys. We rode like crazy this time also having few stops then and there for tea and snaks. Ankur and mudit were so exited with the trip as this was their first Bike trip. We reached our houses by 10:30 PM. This was one memorable trip for me and for the rest too.

A Trip to nowhere.

2006-09-01T13:11:00.000+04:00

A Trip to nowhere.

Call it obsession or crazy I couldn't pass a weekend without doing a bike trip. That too since our last trip was an one dayer and that too three weeks ago. So why not hit the highway alone? My aim was to break Biru's top speed which was 124. Having identified a cause or an excuse i decided to break his record on saturday.

Saturday I couldnt sleep after 3AM. I was waiting for my alarm to ring at 4:30AM. Atlast the clock decided to ring and next thing is to get ready and leave the house at 5AM. My plan was to take hosur road and ride on till krishnagiri or till i bean Biru's record and come back. As I drove out of the city towards hosur road I was reminding myself that Im riding alone so I should play safer. Reached silk board junction where the road is dusty even at this time of day due to trucks.

The sky was cloudy and was dark. It was little risk to ride faster with all the dust hence stuck with 80km/h till electronic city after which the sun's morning rays started to appear. Its now time to test my machine and put it to its limits. As my bike is clocking 115 km/hr im totally leaning on the tank and all Iam thinking is will my bike go faster. It slowly crossed 120. WOW its 121 now…Yahooo. The road is getting steep down hill with lots of curves. This the perfect time to gain more speed. As I was concentrating on taking the turns without slowing down the speed has gone 128 km/hr which I noticed latter. I screamed like anything as I couldn’t control my feeling of breaking the record. I could nt ride more because of joy. So I stopped to celebrate. The place I stopped looked like a Tamarind Tree groove and its called Sunam Kuttai on the chennai highway. I just hung around in the shades of the trees. It’s a beautiful day. I was sitting alone on the grass and thinking how much more fun it would be if the rest of the hiwayREBELS were with me.

After the break I continued the ride just for fun as the morning was so pleasant with good breeze and calmness all around. It’s a surprise that this chennai road is so deserted. There were few cars that over took me which made me to feel like zooming and wanting to over take them. The three cars were going one behind the other. As I overtook the last two cars the first car started to speed more. This car is speeding at 120km/hr. My bike is now at 120 and just behind the car. As my bike very slowly gaining grownd, I saw a police barricade on the road. I started to slow down a bit. I was surprised that the car didn’t slowdown. I thought that may this guy is a skilled driver and going to go zig zag past the barricades. But I was wrong, the driver slept it seems! He rammed the barricades and one of the barricade flew past me just missing me by a couple of feet. Thanks to God nothing happened the people in the car.

I was checking my fuel meter which shows almost in reserve. So its time to save some fuel and reach home with the fuel left. I found a small roadside hotel and thought to taste the village food. Had a few dosas and an omelette. Now ready to go home. As I was driving back home I saw tea stalls where we had tea during our trip to yelagiri. Remembered the places where we had taken photos. Also saw the place where Biru was happy that he clocked 124 km/hr speed. It was all like a recap of the fun we had during yelagiri trip. I was doing 70 to 80 km/hr. Didn’t feel like zooming as I was so satisfied with my 128km/hr !!

Bangalore welcomed me with dust and polluted air, and bad roads. As I entered I thought I will share my joy with Rajan and partha. Biru was dying when he heard that I have broke his record and did even more. YAHOOOOOOO...

Kummalam @ Kodaikanal

2006-08-24T16:12:00.000+04:00

"Yeh dostii ham nahii thodenge..." was I singing as we were tearing through the dark highway. Suddenly I heard a scream from Biru from my side. Well he is shouting the same song! We were three of us on three bikes with loads of passion for biking. We started earlier that evenning around 6pm for kodaikanal. The members of the crew were Varun, Biru and myself (huez).
We were determined to do this trip inspite of fewer bikers, and my bad cold. After resetting our trip meters to zero we headed for the big trip. We crawled through the city traffic untill a few kilometers before electronic city praying to God that it should not rain as the clouds were threatening for a heavy shower.

Our plan was to ride most of the distance as much as possible before 1am and stay at the place we reach that time and then to start towards kodaikanal the next day morning. The destination is 480km from bangalore the farthest hiwayREBELS had attempted till date. We just crossed Hosur and we didnt have track of each other. I was thinking these guys were ahead of me as I stopped for water earlier but to my surprise Varun and Biru were behind me. I stopped just before dharmapuri to call them. But their mobile phones were dead. So I waited helpless for 20 min praying that these guys would either call me. Atlast they arrived. Then we had nice food at dharmapuri. We met a Cab driver who was very frienldy. He cleared all our worries about the weather in that route.

Its 9pm and we still need to cross Salem and stay either in Namakkal or in the next town Karur. We made to Namakkal around 1am deciding to rest for the night there. The next day it was 7:30AM when we started from Namakkal and reached Karur where we had our breakfast in a nice hotel. Being a tamilian myself i was happy to be in tamil naddu and have pure tamil food. Especially to lead the gang when the rest of us dont know tamil! Any way we loaded our camera with film role and started towards Dindugul planning to have a meeting point at Aravakuruchi about 40km from Karur.

At Aravakuruchi Biru was speeding like a demon not listening to my Bike screaming horn. So i thought well catch at the next stop. But Varun stopped at Aravakuruchi without knowing that we sped. By the time i caught Biru i started zooming so we did quite a lot of distance without a stop. The climate is very hot this time around and we were desperate to climb the hill.
Atlast we reached the hill base where we refreshed ourselves with lots of tender coconuts. The venor was so happy with the business with us that he gave a coconut free! Meanwhile our machines were taking good rest cooling themselves, and getting ready for the climb. Once we crossed 2 hair pin bends we could feel the cool breeze and sudden change in the vegetation.
Kodaikanal welcomed the bikers with a mild drissle of rain. Wearing the jackets for the rain, enjoying the dense vegetation around us we rode with a smile in our faces. Silver cascade falls was the first attraction in there one would notice as its on the way well before we enter the town. We had hot coffee and roasted corn and few snaps to cherish the memory. Next stop was at our Lodge.

After a quick refresh we went to Coaker's Walk this one ultimate view point. One gets to walk around a hill with a deep valley on the other side with amazing hill backdrop. But this place has been commercialized now and very crowded. I had been there at the same place around 15 years ago. This place was amazing at that time. It has lost its original glory these days. Green valley view was next in our cards. Unfortunately it was very foggy and all we saw was a white wall. piller rocks, pine forestes were other places we visited. Upper lake view really knocked us down with the splendid view of the lake surrounded by dense vegetation. Devils kitchen (alias guna's cave) was the place where the famous Tamil movie Guna shot. It was very slippery through the steeps of a hill in the end was a huge cave like a slit. It was heavily foggy not allowing us to enter the place. We took some snaps and left for our next place.

We went around the lake 3 times, once on foot and twice on bike. Damn Kodaikanal is very cold than I expected freezing the hands. We visited a park, a falls ame Vatakanal falls (disappointed after seing the falls ). Had a nice treck around the pine forest nearby. The ride to the Dolphins nose (a view point) was unforgettable experience as there were no road just a rocky way on which the tourist buses go. We were the only crazy riders going by bike. At one point we had to park our bikes and treck down through a stepp slope on a hill. The climb down is easy but was so tough to climb back. Anyway the view point was amazing. We sat there for quite a lot of time admiring the view sharing our experiences about the trip so far and stuffs like that. It was here that Biru revaled his love for dogs! He fed a wild dog with as much as 6 breads till the dog was satisfied.

It is now sunday evenning we were in high sprits we went all around kodaikkanal just for the ride sake. We again went to all the view point locations. There was a tree very old as much as 500 years! A forest officer going that way to his resiednce stopped by and gave us some insights about how to calculate the age of a tree. He is a research person in horticulture. His gesture was so warm made us feel at home in the forest. During dinner Varun met a travel agent who gave us the complete route info. The route was through palani. Biru had earlier given a hint about the existence of such a route but we didnt have exact route. The speciality of this route is that it goes thorugh palani and then through sathyamangalam ghat section and to chamrajnagar. This route is little longer than our earlier route but this is challenging and also through the forests. So we cancelled our earlier plan to visit Berijam lake and Mathikettan forest for monday. Because for hiwayREBELS the ride gives more high than anything else.

The risk through this route is that wild animals would come on the road especially it is notorious for mad elephants often comming to the road and cause lot of damanges. So we had to cross this stretch on day light to avoid animals on the road.

Next day after breakfast we started from our room around 11AM had a good breakfast and headed towards palani. This section of road was amazing with around 20 hairpin bends. The road was windy and a treat for a biker. we had a lot of snaps in these sections. We loved every section of the road till palani. Had a short break just before palani for tea. Our next will be for lunch. We were running out of time as we had to cross sathyamangalam ghat section in day light. To our trouble there was a very strong wind from the east(our left) The wind was so strong it almost pushed us down. But inspite of the heavy wind we sped our way at 110km. We stopped at Tiruppur at around 2:30 pm for lunch at a punjabi dhaba. There was a guy who made us panic about our plan to go throught sathyamangalam and suggested a different route. But we were determined to do this route and no turning back at this time. But we were alert after this and didnt wasted our times in frequent stops. We had a goal to reach sathyamangalam in an hour which was 55 km from where we started. And we accomplished by riding like hell! No slowing down in the towns. Especially in Avinashi where the traffic in the town was bad. I loved zip zapping through the traffic there. Even though we topped speeds of 110km/h we could only cover 55 km in an hour as it could involve the slowing down at traffic.

Now its 4:30PM and it had been raining in sathyamangalam. We had nice tea and snaks and were really enjoying talking about the drive so far. It was here that Varun was happy as his bike passed 2000km mark. The roads were wet that slowed us down a bit as the ghat section began. The roads were so slippery that I almost slipped. We saw a truck upside down in a hairpin bend that sent alert signals to us. The view of the settting sun amongset the hills was amazing. There seemed to be a Car Rally happening at this section as we saw a few red coloured rally cars comming from the opposite direction. we had few photos there and headed towards Chamrajnagar.

The road from chamrajnagar to mysore is the worst section that we had seen in the past 1000 km. Our average speed became 25 km/hr in this section. Atlast we reached Mysore. We had food in a dhaba and started towards bangalore. The have been a heavy rainfall in this area. The roads were very slippery and didnt allow us to drive more that 105km/hr on mysore road. Mysore road used to be our top speed test zone. We had done speeds of 124km/hr in this road earlier. Ofcourse that time the road wasn't wet. The trip is about to end now as we crossed Bidadi. Had our last cup of coffee for the trip we left towards bangalore. After 40 minutes we are at Delmia signal as Varun left us to his house and Biru and myself going to our house.
We rode almost 1200 km this trip, through more than 50 hairpins and few more lessons learned. Lots of head turns and few people really called us crazy when they saw us on bikes. This trip is over leaving us with lots of roads yet to be conquered.

Route:
Onward: Bangalore, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Toppur, Salem, Namakkal, Karur, Dindugul, Vattalakundu, Kodaikanal
Return: Kodaikanal, Palani, Thirupur, Sathyamangalam, Chamaraj Nagar, Mysore, Bangalore

Maintainance Tips

2006-07-21T11:09:00.000+04:00

It is tempting to start a motorcycle and to ride off, but a few minutes of routine maintenance will go a long way in taking you the full distance of which your machine is capable. You do not need to tick off items on a sheet as jet pilots must, but a short mental sequence of things to check and to do will add to your enjoyment and safety as well. Remember to schedule your day, especially awakening in the morning, so that you have the time to do a thorough job, preferably at first light. It is a bit like looking after a baby and for many, every bit as joyful.

Step one: Check oil levels and quality in your motorcycle’s engine. Things can slosh around a bit by the time you get to a fuel station and you do not want grime from an attendant’s cloth getting on to your piston. Check levels before the machine has been moved and spot changes in color and fluidity as you look after the machine day after day. Run your fingers or a cloth along lines to check for leakage and the check the ground under where the machine has stood all night, to look for tell-tale stains and pools of oil. Please collect spent oil and have it disposed off safely and in an environment-friendly way at the nearest certified facility.

Step two: It is no big deal, but run a cloth all over and wipe away dust and dirt. Polish is great twice a month or after every tour, and a little water and even mild detergent are welcome. It is a motorcycle bonding thing; do not expect love and enthusiasm from a machine for which you do not care.

Step three: Work both brakes to ensure that they are in good order. Your life and that of people who share your road could depend on it! Check the linings for width and surface after long tours and rides in traffic. Do not wait until the very end to change linings. Check the gear shift as well and rotate the handle bars through the full radius of their movement, to make sure that it is all smooth sailing on that front.

Step four: Check water levels in and terminals on the battery and switch on power to see if lights are all in order. You will not know if the headlamp is set correctly until dark, but turning and brake indicators as well as the tail light are all important for your safety. Check tire pressure with a calibrated gauge and keep manufacturer ratings in mind or on a piece of paper in your wallet. Remember that readings can be misleading when the wheels are hot, whether due to air temperature or a ride. Take a look at the tread and for sharp edges lodged within them.

Last: Switch on and let the engine idle so that oil has a chance to line piston and cylinder. After a minute-or two if it is winter-check the throttle to ensure that it will not let you down when you need to accelerate in a hurry.

Check the settings of your rear-view mirror, the clutch and the brakes one more time, before you set off for the day. All this is so basic and simple that riders think it macho to overlook them. This could be a recipe for expensive repairs at best and a mishap as well, God forbid! So get your thinking gear on, enjoy great rides and get the best of the motorcycling world with a dose of maintenance every morning.

FAQs

2006-07-19T16:05:00.000+04:00

1. Membership - Anybody intrested in bike travel can join us. Having a bike to ride is the entry pass for hiwayREBELS!

2. Membership is free. Expenses in the trips are paid by the biker for himself

3. Destination - A less commercial destination is usually preffered. All members will vote on destination before every trip. Most voted destination will be finalised.

4. Riding distance per day depends on the trip. So far it has been a maximum of 400km a day.

"Mekedatu" conquest by hiwayREBELS

2006-07-06T15:14:00.000+04:00

Weekend was around the corner and as always, there came a zeal to satisfy our quest for adventure. This time our destination was Mekedatu, a place 90kms from Bangalore towards Kanakpura. This place is famous for the gorge, where river Cauvery can be seen passing between the two huge rocks and the water sqashing against the rocks with a great current.

We started off early morning at 6.30am on Saturday, 1st July 2006, to avoid the sun, from Bangalore, with our bike tanks full and with some basic necessities. The weather was clear and Kanakpura road was not that busy, except for a few trucks. On the way after driving for around 30kms, we came across a place that had a lake surounded by lot of coconut trees.

After having a small break, we headed towards Kanakpura which was our next stop. We had breakfast at Kanakpura and after getting ourselves refreshed, we moved to make our final stop, "MEKEDATU", which was just 40kms ahead. The road was not very comfortable except for some patches, as the way lead us to a quite remote place, remote enough to make our phone signals go off.

We had to park our bikes in a place, as we had to cross a river and from there we had a trek of 4 kms to reach the place we had started for, or we could have taken a bus from the other side of the river to reach the spot. The river can as well be crossed on foot when the amount of water is less, in summers. The trek was inside a jungle with no proper road. Alongside we could see the Cauvery flowing with its current. After reaching the place, we could see that there was Cauvery flowing with a great speed between two huge rocks.

We were tired and felt hot as now the sun was on its peak, we spent some time in water, we could not go too much in the water as the current was enough to take us with the flow. Then after spending some time on the rocks near the river, we decided go back, where we had identified a place that was good enough for us to take a dip in the river.

We returned back to the place where we had parked our bikes and had some food in the shops that were there. We then moved towards the Chunchi falls, that were around 20kms from Mekedatu. After reaching the falls, the first image that i got was not what we expected. It was a steep slope without water to be seen anywhere. We parked our bikes and decided to go down and see, as we went down, we could see a waterfall, between the rocks.

There was not much water, but the place is not suitable for water games due to marsh and Crocodiles in the ponds. After spending some time there we started back towards Bangalore. We stopped for some snacks and tea in Kanakpura and drove back, with the memories of the places we had visited. Yet ready for another conquest.

- Varun
For snaps, checkout our photo gallery

Contact Us

2006-07-04T18:24:00.000+04:00

To join us in our trips please contact via email hubertgodfrey@yahoo.co.in. Kindly mention HIWAYREBELS in the subject.

Or you can directly join hiwayREBELS' Y! group clicking Join.

Mission Sivana Samudram - Photos

2006-06-27T18:59:00.000+04:00

Sivanasamudram - 6th May 2006

mAsTi @ CoOrG - Photos

2006-06-27T17:56:00.000+04:00

mAsTi @ CoOrG

2006-06-23T13:56:00.000+04:00

After being postponded several times finally we are going to COORG. It was 6 PM 16th friday 2006 and we are waiting for Yogesh to wind up work and come. Rains threatened us as we were filling fuel at a nearby fuel station. Despite all odds we were determined to conquer COORG no matter what. Atlast Yogesh met us at the fuel station we went to pack Yogesh's stuff. Finally it was around 7pm when we actually started. As we started rain pour out, we were totally drenched well before we crossed city limits.

At 8pm ewe are at Yeshwantpur where Yogesh had to collect some stuff from his house there. Meanwhile the rest of the gang Addi, Biru and me(Huez) had a nice dinner as if we wont eat the next day! Yog arrived half hour latter and we hit the road towards Hassan. Our plan was to reach Hassan that night and sleep the night away there and the next day morning to start towards COORG.

Yog was our Route manager for this trip. He recommended Bisle Ghat, BIdalli which are on the route from Sakleshpur to Madikeri. Our plan was to visit these places on saturday before reaching madikeri that night. On sunday Talacauvery and Abi falls and possibly a treck were on the cards.

By this time the rain had stopped taking pity on the bikers. The road was amazing with not even a single pothole! but the road was little wet that gave us little concern on our speed. But that didnt stop our Ace biker Biru from zooming at 100 km/hr. Biru always tempt me with speeds and I decided to over take the master blaster. The sky was still cloudy and no stars were seen scaring us with signs of rain again. We had a break at Bellur cross near a medical college to energise ourselves. Biru as usual didnt miss this chance to talk to his girlfriend over phone. As the lover boy is neck deep with his sweet nothings we were having lots of tea and chips. I really like the breaks between the bike journey. This is the time we share about the best section of the road or ones top speed so far or plan for the next break!

Hassan was 200 km from bangalore and we reached there aroun 1pm. We found an affordable lodging and soon we sunk on our bed. As usual I had a no sleep night, rolling on the bed waiting for the alarm to ring. Atlast it was 5.30AM I was so relived and tried waking up the boys. Soon we refreshed ourselves had tea and started towards Sakleshpur. The credit goes to Yog for choosing the route. The road was winding, foggy and was very cold! We were tempted to race our bikes but the amazing scenery slowed us making us linger over the green landscape all around. No words can explain the beauty. No wonder the place is called Scotland of India.

We had our breakfast at Sakleshpur. Yog asked me if i remember the restaurant. Innocently i told it looks like the restaurant we had food on our Kudremukh trip. To my surprise it was the same place! Biru was again stuck to his mobile phone. Damn Alexander Graham Bell and his invention, i was thinking. Meanwhile we took some snaps, did some adjustments in our bikes, tightened the luggages. Our journey continued on the ghat roads admiring the dense forest on either side. We stopped on every good view points and took lot of snaps especially Addi who is intrested in marriage photos, wallpaper photos! We ended up taking for everyone in the group. Not to mention our lover boy wanted photo in every pose! Anyway afterall photos are the ones that keep the fun we had in memory.

This section of the ghat was full of lorry and trailer traffic. The heavy locomotives were screaming in their first gears to pull the load on the steep roads as our pulsars and a disky taking the road with ease. This was the place where I lost track of the rest. As we tried to squezee through the lorry traffic I went too far ahead and so I waited for the rest. After some time a lorry driver signaled me that three other bikes had passed already. So I teared through the traffic in fear that i may loose them. As i drove around 40 km there was no signs of the gang. There was no signal in any of our mobiles. After around 20 minutes the guys came to the checkpost where i was waiting praying to God that these guys should come there. Biru and Addi scolded me and I knew how much they might've worried about me.

Anyway that was the streach of the beautiful ghat section that nobody was able to enjoy. As we went towards Bisle Ghat we found a river and stopped to have a dip. The water was cold, shallow and was very refreshing after the bike riding. We had a good chat as we enjoyed the gentle massage the water stream gave us. As Addi and Yog's were taiking wallpaper photos Biru and me took our bikes into the water just for fun. It was great. The water current was pushing the bike as we crossed the river.

We reached Bisle around 3pm. We had a late lunch of bananas and tea. Then we climbed down the ghat road of Bisle. Soon we reached the second destination in the list BIDALLI. After travelling a distance of 5 kms to left of the main road we reached a small house. We hired a guide to take us to Bidalli falls. Once we climed the steepest road we drove so far we realized that its worth the strain we took! From that spot we could see the amazing water fall surrounded by other peaks on westerghats. We felt as if we had conquered the western ghats! Since the rain clouds threatened us we started from the place around 6pm.

My bike suddenly grapped the whole gangs attention. My bike drank almost 12 litres of fuel in 400 km and is now in reserve. It would go another 60 km with the 2 litres in the reserve. My bike was the worst fuel drinker in the group. Our next stop will be at madikeri. We started to climb towards madikeri. The winding road was a pleasure to drive a bike. You need to use your bodyweight to take tight turns. Biru who is a ghat road expert took his bike to 90 and 100km/hr! As we climbed the roads fog settled on the roads and the visiblity got reduced much to a 3 metre. This was the first time to drive this way for most of us. We reached madikeri at 8 pm. We drove around 250km of ghat road that day!

We had a heavy dinner and settled on our beds with plan to visit Talacauvery around 6:30AM. But all of us gotup by 7:30 and missed the amazing place. Abi fals is the next in the list and we didnt miss that. It was just 7km from madikeri. The falls was great. Bigger than Hanumanguni falls in kudremukh. We met the other gang of friends there. They were 10 of them speniding a amazing time in the falls. Addi and biru took a short treck into the forest nearby when I went to enjoy the cool water of the falls. We had a nice time admiring the beauty of nature.

Our next place was Nisagadama a Nature camp on the way to mysore. The place was around 50 km from madikeri. The ghat section was again a feast for a biker. Our lunch that day was in nisagadama. Addi and Yog had a short slumber on the grass as Biru again with his mobile phone and me thinking about all the things we did in that trip. We also had Elephant ride around the nature camp. Around 4:30PM we fasterned our luggages on the bike and headed towards Mysore. The road from here was so bad that we could only drive on 3o or 10 km/hr. We had a long break on a grass lawn on the way. Lying on the grass talking about each others experiences in the trip was fun.

Mysore road is one of the dream road for us. Once we reached mysore road Biru and me tempted to test our top speeds. Yog had to pick up his friend from mysore who will be comming with us till bangalore. The rest waited for Yog's arraival. Biru and me teamed up and overtook every other vehicle on road. We have to live up to the name of the club, right? ;) Yog clocked 115 km/hr and Addi pushed his disky to 105 km/hr. Biru and me did 119 Km/hr
We reached bangalore around 10.30pm. As usual we had loads of memories about the masti we had with the nature and not to mention a lot more head turns this time!

huez - the biker
(for photos check out the Photo Gallery)

Travelogues

2006-06-15T16:50:00.002+04:00

Nadthi Hills - Feb 11 2006
Bheemeshwari - Mar 4 2006
Kudremukha - Mar 11 2006
Nandhi Hills - Apr 15 2006
Devarayan Durga - Apr 8 2006
Mission Yercaud - April 29 2006
Mission Sivana Samudram - May 7 2006
A trip to Mysore - May 20 2006
Destination Yelagiri - June 3 2006
Masti at Coorg - June 16 2006
Mekedatu - Conquest by hiwayREBELS - July 1 2006
Kummalam at Kodaikanal - Aug 11 2006
Trek at Kemmengundi - Sep 8 2006
Unwind at Agumbe - Sep 30 2006
Bilikal Betta Trek - Dec 9 2006
God's Own Country - Waynad - Jan 12 2007
Club's 1st Anniversary Trip - Baba Budangiri - Feb 11 2007
Igglur And Kanva Reservoior - Mar 3 2007
Ugadi Odyssey (Udupi) - Mar 17 2007
Kakabe - May 13 2007
Mysore in a day - Oct 2 2009
Muthathi - Oct 10 2009
Bilekka betta - MaD saturday - Oct 9 2010
Yelagiri - Vanyambadi for Briyani - June 25 2011
BLR to TCR- Independence Ride - Aug 13 2011

A trip to Mysore - Photos

2006-06-13T16:02:00.000+04:00

Mysore - 20 May 2006

hiwayREBELS - The Bikers Club

2006-06-09T14:23:00.000+04:00

Who are we?

We blaze through the highway all its lengths. We take every hair pin curve with a tight turn. We adore the serene nature. We are the men with hearts of steel. We are hiwayREBELS.

We are a bunch of like-minded and disciplined motor bikers who want to be away from the heck of the city and roam in solitude in a deep jungle or on a hill. Our passion for bikes and biking take us to a not so crowded or commercialized destination where we could be ourselves and enjoy the mother nature in its best.

How it all ignited?

February 11th 2006 the day the club was formed by two like-minded bikers Addi and me (huez). That time Addi’s bike was just 1 week old and was ready to climb Nandhi Hills! We geared our first step towards the highway and was a big leap for hiwayREBELS.

Soon Biru joined the gang for Bheemeshwari trip. We also had guest rebels Yogesh and Gowtham for the trip. Then Yogesh took the rebels for a trip to Kudremukha in a cab. That time kudremuka was too far for the just born hiwayREBELS to ride on bikes.

At this point we decided to christen our club. Addi, Biru and me brainstormed and came out with hiwayREBELS(though Addi is still in love with his suggested name, HiWAYBlazer). This was more appealing since it reflected the passion we have for biking. And that’s how the gang got a name.

Soon the rebels kept doing trips every other weekend to places like Yercaud, Yelagiri, Kodaikanal, Coorg, Kemmengundi, Agumbe... making the club strong.

These days the hiwayREBELS are in full swing now doing trips regularly and we anticipate our first anniversary!

Contact us:

Active/guest rebels are welcome to join us for the trips. You can subscribe to hiwayREBELS at yahoo groups (Click Here) or email me at hubertgodfrey@yahoo.co.in with subject line as hiwayREBELS for queries.

-huez the biker

Masti @ COORG

2006-06-09T10:39:00.000+04:00

Destination Yelagiri

2006-06-08T13:38:00.000+04:00

So this time it was Yelagiri. The first time I heard Yelagiri I mistook it with mighty n misty Nilgiri. But only till I found out from my book(50 great weekends from Bangalore) that it is nowhere related to Nilgiris.
Thanks to Rajan who I believe has proposed the place initially and Huez to sticking to the place in spite of initial debate on the worthiness of the place for a bike trip at this time of the year. We were having a second thought about the place as we believed it would be completely dried out after summer.

So after deciding on the place we had a number of tea time meetings where only thing which we discussed was need for a bungee chord(Which anyway half of the members will be forgetting for the trip), time to start(which unfortunately wasn't going to be met in reality.) and places to see (which there were not many.).

So it all started on the Saturday morning. 4 bikes and 5 Hiwayrebels (one of them was a pillion rebel ofcourse). Huez,Biru, Rajan and myself. The credit of being a pillion Rebel goes to Partha.
I had a sound sleep and got up early as I had to fill up fuel and withdraw the cash (Yup guys, I was the finance manager. I knew that I looked like P.Chidambaram). I am not sure why I always predict the time so badly that I finish up these tasks fast and reach the meeting point so early. I am bad at prediction but anyhow It gives me a good image of being ahead of time (Allright Rebels, I confess that I reach the place ahead just because of my bad prediction and it had never been my intention to reach early).

I called up Huez\Biru, Rajan. All of them were just bathing. I was amazed to hear that except me everyone was so pious about bathing before early morning trip. I told them to make it fast. Biru\Huez came on time but then it was a long wait for Rajan and Patra. I think it was almost 4:45 when Rajan landed on his 180 CC pulsar. The biggest and best bike of the gang. It's red body with black engine looked like a monster. Though Rajan is doing a good job in keeping the monster on leash for first 2000 km.

After the whole group arrived we didn't waited and started towards Hosur. I was supposed to accompany Rajan on his first trip. But after a long wait and seeing a nice hiway in front of me, I was in no mood to ride at 65 kmph. I met Huez after few kms but soon he disappeared in darkness of the dawn. So there I was on the Hiway racing my bikes with small cars and other lesser bikes and getting this feeling of a F1 racer. aah I know I am nowhere near to those pulsars which Biru and Huez were riding but no need to bother as they were nowhere near sight.

Our first stop was few kms before krishnagiri where we took some rest and few snaps. Next stop was at Krishnagiri. We all had a nice breakfast in a local hotel. Just relaxed a bit before racing our bikes on Chennai hiway, without doubt The best hiway we rode on till date. The four lane road with no vehicle in sight, the atmosphere was right to push my bike to it's ultimate test. For the first time I gave full acceleration and my bike touched 3 figure mark with a top speed of 105.

After some time I overtook Huez on my Disky. (Aah allright I concede that he had halted his bike when I overtook him.). Biru was out of sight and I reached a place where we were supposed to take a right turn to Tirupattur. It looked like a village road. I stopped n waited for huez and Rajan. Rajan came after some time and we decided to take the hiway itself till vaniyambadi.
Soon we all reached vaniyambadi. From here Yelagiri is 10 km to right. We have to go to a village called ponneri. From here a left toad will take us to yelagiri ghat road. The road was good with nice twists and turns.

After reaching the top there was little confusion on accomodation. We wanted tented accomodation which doesn't seems to be available. So we went for YMCA. They provided dormitory and charged 60\- per head. The place was really good. It was a decent accomodation and food was also delicious.

We reached at around 10:00-10:30. Took some time to refresh and relax. Took our bikes out to go to a waterfall. There were two ways to reach it. One involved trekking and other was to go down the hill and reach waterfall on bikes itself. We took the second option. So we went downhill and reached Tirupattur from where a left was taken to reach waterfall. Though the road wasn't good enough but it went through small villages and we had nice views on both sides of the road. Driving on village roads is a nice feeling as long as roads r not too bad.

Soon we reached waterfalls (falls with no water actually). There was a small temple. Atmosphere inside the temple was very good. The temple itself was in shape of shiv linga. We had a photo session and finished our prayers. We reached Tirupattur again and headed for ice cream parlour (V never forget that we r a bunch of s\w engineers from a big city). After icecreams and juice we planned to go to observatory. No one realized how far it actually was. AFter travelling to vaniyambadi it was found that the observatory is 45 km ahead. At 6:30 PM there was no way we could have made a gruelling journey of 90 km. Hence we dropped plans of visiting the observatory. I got my engine oil checked at local bajaj showroom. Huez got his chain cleaned and Tachometer set (his tachometer was not working since morning). We bought some drinks (allright just beer and wine) for night. So we headed back to Yelagiri.

Climbing up the hill in night is a good experience. I liked it very much. Through out the climb Rajan was following me and I felt good to have a company. Huez and Biru came after we reached the YMCA camp. We soon fell on dinner tables as we all were tired and hungry. The chicken was ordered for night and we ate to our hearts fill. Our tummies were full and atleast I didn't had any place left for booze. I had few sips of beer before falling on the bed. Huez,Biru and Patra spent quite some time on the green grass outside before joining us.

All in all the whole day was spent on biking with very little activity. I had never really been able to drill in the importance of the place and schedule in the HiWayRebels team.

Next day we woke up by 5:00 as we were planning for a trek at 5:30. Every one assembled by 6:00 and we began our trek. We went on a hill near to the camp. Though the hill looked small, the route was curvy and tedious. We did small rock climbing on top of the hill. The wind on top of the rock was amazing. Thankfully it din't blow us away from the rock. But it was very fast and just standing on this rock was a amazing feeling. We took lot of snaps during trekking and quickly came down. Just relaxed a bit after taking our baths.

Biru went to talk with his uncle for quite some time. It must have been a long conversation as we felt that the wait was tooo long. Once he was back we paked our luggage and started towards boating. The lake was a man made lake and boating was a pleasant experience. After finishing this Rajan wanted to visit the flower show. But me, Biru and Huez wanted to go downhill. So we went down and waited for Rajan to come back. Took a few snaps before starting our long way back.

Biru and Huez went ahead and were racing their bikes with any fast vehicle they can put there eyes on. Biru touched an amazing speed of 124 only to be beaten by Huez for a 126 kmph. Apparently Huez rear wheel produced flames (may be sparks, but I was paid 5\- to write flames). I claim that Huez n Biru r the star bikers of the gang. (apparently I was paid for this too).

After a number of mini stops we reached Bangalore safely. We were full of excitement and joy of accomplishing a gr8 biking trip once again.

I believe there are only few things which will last long enough to be proudly narrated to our
kids when we grow old. Surely recent biking trips will be one of them. Telling our kids (and may be their kids) that how you used to take your bike out and travel an amazing distance of 550 km just to have fun, adventure and that spark in life which gives you your identity. A feeling of just being yourself. A being in harmony with nature and the supreme.

-HiWayBlazer

Destination Yelagiri Hills - Photos

2006-06-07T17:17:00.000+04:00

A trip to Mysore

2006-05-30T10:34:00.000+04:00

This weekend 20-5-2006 our choice of destiny was Mysore. We had planned for a trip to Mysore earlier but somehow we had to drop it. This time we actually wanted to visit Coorg but one of us(that was Biru) dropped out for some special reason! To meet his imaginary Uncle. But latter we found out his whole uncle story. Though I had been suspecting him from yercaud trip, he confessed it only now as he had to drop out from the team at the last minute.

Anyway this time its Mysore the historic place. Its been raining for more than a week and the climate started to be cool and made us enjoy the trip well. Addi and I(huez) started from Bangalore on 4 AM Saturday 20 May 2006. The hiway was deserted almost till we reached Mysore. As the time closed to 5AM sunlight started to brighten the sky slowly. As we drove we saw blue and green shades in the morning sky. May be the sky is always beautiful like this every day but who knows we guys get up by 8AM or even 9! We stopped for a while to capture the moment in our eyes and in our camera as well. The morning was glorious especially with the whole green paddy fields all around us.

We've been having a lot of stops as we were going. It was like the whole highway is ours. Infact we had taken photos in the middle of highway too! Every time we saw a scenic view we stopped and took snaps. Then We had our breakfast in Srirangapatna and reached Mysore by 9AM and found a decent hotel to lodge. As I couldn’t sleep the night as soon as I lied on the bed I had a deep sleep for around 2 hours. Addi was curious about the places to visit and started to read his copy of "52 great weekend trips".

After relaxing and refreshing ourselves our first choice was to see the Mysore Zoo. We had a quick tour around and left for the Palace. The Wodayars palce was stupendous! It showed how much power and wealth they had those times. It was so disappointing that we cant take any photos inside the palace. I guess this kind of stupid rules should be removed. Anyway as we came out of the palace we had a photo session around the palace.

Now the time was around 4PM we left for Philomena's Church. The church was magnificent standing tall infact we were able to see it as we were riding from the far showing the way towards it. There was a worship service going on that time and so went in. The service was in kanada so I just made a short prayer and a thanks for our safe journey to God. Then we had a few photos taken outside the church and sat outside admiring the evening sky.

Around 7PM we had some food in a small typical mysore hotel. The food was very good and cheap too. We roamed around the streets admiring how different it is from our bangalore's all time busy streets. Then we reached our hotel room around 9PM and soon we are fast asleep.
Sunday 5: 45 AM my biological clock woke me up and its now time for Chamundi hills. Waking up at this time of day without an alarm is a historic event for me!! But the visit to chamunid hills is the magic. In 15 minutes we are on our bikes heading towards the hill. The roads were very good till the top. The view of the Palace from the hill was great. The hill was not even as tall as nandhi hills but it was all green. We spent a lot of time roaming around the hill, taking snaps.

8:30AM We climbed down the hill towards the room. On the way I lost the way and went all around the town. The best part was I don’t know the name of the hotel we were staying, the name of the area and the ultimate thing is Addi left his mobile in the room itself and I can't call him! Addi is good at keeping the routes in mind but im not. I had no idea what I have to do. I remembered suddendly the route from Philomena's church to our room. So I asked for route to philomenas church and then recollected the route we took last night and somehow I reached the room where Addi was waitning outside as the room key was with me. Fortunately Addi didn’t kill me for that.

We groomed ourselves and checked out the room and started towards Bangalore. Our plan for the rest of the day is to visit Tipu Sultan Summer Palace in Sriranga patna, Sangam, Gosai Ghaat, Kariaghatta. We had a pleasant dip in Cauvery at Gosai Ghat. The water was cold and was surrounded by dense trees and the whole view was breath-taking. We left Srirangapatna around 2PM after having our lunch there.

Our next stop was at Kariaghatta, a small hill on top of which is a temple. By the side of the hill is cauvery flowing with all its charm. We climbed the hill by stairs without knowing that there is a road till the top! But the view of cauvery from there is worth it. The road uphill was winding and was tempting to me that I told Addi that I want to climb the hill by bike. There was a film shooting was going on for a Kanada movie called "pandavuru". They were shooting a dance sequence for a song. Then I took my bike and climbed the hill. The road was narrow and steep and I loved it so much I rode down and climbed it again with Addi sitting behind me.

Around 6PM we started towards Bangalore. I touched 120km/hr zooming past all vehicles except an Accent who was driving at almost my speed just at a visible distance. We had a few stops for tea and snaks and for dinner in Bidadi. And reached Bangalore around 9:00 PM Sunday. This trip was a mix of historic monuments and a visit to nature. We were more happy that Biru missed the trip!

Mission Sivana Samudram

2006-05-26T18:20:00.000+04:00

I was going to the pool when I felt something vibrating in my pocket. Allright guys, it was just my mobile. I wasn't able to attend it as I was riding in heavy traffic. I reached the pool and called back the guy who disturbed me earlier. As usual It was Hubert. He told me that 2moro we r going for Nandi hills. Soon after I reached home the plan changed to SivaSamudram. It was surprising as Sivasamudram was planned for next week. Anyhow I said OK for this too.This was my first long trip after doing mini trips like nandi hills and bhimeswari.

I was excited as I was told that there will be total 5 bikes. I was not worried about putting alarm as we were supposed to assemble by 8:30. So it was pretty outside my nocturnal timings.That night I slept at Suresh Gade's home. Next day I got up early and reached the assembly point(Bigbazar--koramangala).

As usual I was the first one to reach there. I called hubert to come. Soon he arrived and we came to know that there will be three bikes and total 4 people. Dinesh and Biju joined us in a short while. We fuelled our bikes near big bazar itself.

Then we started looking for roads which could lead us to Mysore. It took sometime as none of us knew about the route to take. Biju and Dinesh started to lose patience before we hit the correct road near city market. We gave away the throttle once the road turned into a Hiway. So soon we turned into Hiway Rebels. As usual I was leading the pack from the start, everyone was making unsuccessful attempts to catch up with me (Just kidding--- It was the other way around.)

The road was too good and we gave full air to our passion for driving. We stopped at few places to take snaps. After couple of hours we reached Maddur. After crossing Maddur we have to take a left to reach Sivasamudram. This is a 30 km stretch. Most part of the road is good and the view of the landscape around too. We stopped in a small town to pack our lunch. We bought fruits and bakery items.After this we planned to reach Sivasamudram without any breaks.

I reached speeds upto 95 on my disky. I could have touched more but didn't want to push my engine.After travelling a distance of 30 kms we reached a gate where we have to take a left. We stopped under a banyan tree for a small break. It was cool place with few kids playing around. Sivasamudram was 1 km from that place.

After reaching there we had a glimpse of the waterfall. Since this was a summer season the fall was reduce to a small stream. This was quite different than the picture of the place we have in HTSL calendar. We soon realised the better place to enter into water would be from the other side. We were told that we have to travel another 20 km to reach the other side. So we had lunch under the same banyan tree and soon reached the other side. The site was full of rocks with small ponds in between them.

There were quite a few people playing in it already. The water looked dirty, so we dropped any plans of entering into it. So we reached for a rock and planned to spend some time in the shade. Being an adventurous guy (Thanx to NGC and Discovery channels) I ventured out in search of good place to enter into water. After doing all kind of gymnastics on the rocks I found a miniature version of Niagara falls (It must be a microscopic version of Niagara). I called other guys to join me and soon all of us were in water. The feeling was really good. Standing under waterfall in the scorching heat of mid may. Water was cool and we had a nice time. After dressing up and coming to the solid land me and Huez had a fish fry. Freshly caught and fried in front of us. It was one of the best fish fries I ever had. Then we started back home. We stopped to have water at a hand pump. Soon Biju and party were out of sight. Huez and rode together for some time only to get separated later.

In mid way it started raining forcing me to stop at a marriage hall. Wished to go inside and wish the bride and groom. But rain stopped before I could collect the courage to go in. So I was on my bike and my next stop waould be sweet home in Bangalore. I called Huez to check if he is back. Nice to know that he was back at the same time. All in all nice break from City and good trip. Like to go back after monsoon to see Sivana Samudram in its fullest.

-Addi the HiWayBlazer.

Photo Gallery

2006-05-16T17:31:00.000+04:00

Yercaud - 29 April 2006

SivanaSamudram - 7th May 2006

Mysore - 20th May 2006

Yelagiri hills - 3rd June 2006

mAsTi @ CoOrG - 16th June 2006

Mekedatu - 12th July 2006

Kummalam @ Kodaikanal - 11th Aug 2006

Trek @ Kemmengundi - 8th Sep 2006

Unwind at Agumbe- 30th Sep 2006

Trek @ Bilikal Betta - 9th Dec 2006

God's Own Country - Waynad - Jan 13 2007

1st Aniversary trip - Baba Budangiri - Feb 11 2007

Igglur And Kanva Reservoior - Mar 3 2007

Ugadi Odyssey - Mar 17 2007

Kakkabe/Thadiyandimol - May 13 2007

Do a wheelie

2006-05-06T09:49:00.000+04:00

Yo bikies,

Here is how you can perform a wheelie. Its not that hard. Note im talking about lifting the front wheel and not the rear one. I havent done a rear wheelie. But if you wanna know about that you can get that stuff from Biru as he had done that in Yercaud infront of a speeding bus!! Thank God nothing happened other than a wheelie!

Ok now back to business. Sit comfortably on the bike and start the engine and shift to gear 1. Hold the clutch and rev the engine. I tried it in pulsar 150 dtsi. I reved it to 6000 rpm. (at this rpm my bike would go 70km/hr in 5th gear) . Now release the clutch fully in one shot. Your front wheel should've lifted a few inches!

If this didnt work ask your friend to sit on the pillion seat and do the same trick. Using a pillion puts weight on the back wheel thus making firmer contact with the road. It should work now. If it still didnt probably your bike dont have the power for a wheelie.

With a Yamaha RX 100 or Pulsar 180dtsi you can do this with ease. But be careful to do on these bikes as your bike may swing out of your hand!!

A bit of caution when you are trying this for the first time try in lower revs and and then go for higher ones.

Go nuts guys...
huez.

Wheelie performed by a professional.

How To...

2006-05-06T09:42:00.004+04:00

Tune your bike for power or mielage

Do a Wheelie

Maintainance Tips

Tune your bike for power or mielage

2006-05-06T09:28:00.000+04:00

Hey bikers,

Here is the procedured to tune your bikes power. As a matter of fact when you tune your bike for power you will loose a bit on mielage.

Here is the procedure: Put your bike on center(or straght) stand and start the bike and leave it to idle on neutral gear. Notice that a screw will be mounted on a screw on the carburetter. This screw adjusts the bike's power or mielage. Turn this screw to the right for more power(less mielage) or the left for less power. Only by experience you will be able to perfectly tune for your requirement.

As you turn the screw to right the engine will rev more. If your bike has a rev meter you could see it or you could hear the engine making more noise. While tuning for less power make sure its not too less otherwise the engine will stop during idle.

There are other means of improving engine power like free flow exhausts or hi performance spark plugs but they are not recomended as they will affect the engine's life.
Huez