Chasing Mad Bulls to Kodai

My first ride… The ride to salvation, my baptism as a rider... Thanks to "precious, my precious new thunder bird"

The ride was for the Madras bulls 7th anniversary in Kodai. Registered with RTMC for the ride and the D day was here before i could realize. Did my packing the previous night and got my bike checked from the service station. all seemed to be fine and the only thing i had to do was get some good sleep so that i can wake up early but in spite of hitting the bed at 9 30 i couldn’t sleep very well because of the anxiety and anticipation of the ride. Well i decided i couldn’t sleep anymore and got up at 3 and got ready.

The decided time to leave was at 4 shell petrol bunk from hosur road i reached shell bunk and 3 45 and no one was to be seen. After about ten mins the cavalry started to arrive first to come were Trishul and Ratish... then one after the other people started coming in one by one... And we were ready to leave at 4 30...The feeling of doing 500kms in a day on your first ride felt a daunting task but with my precious i thought 500kms that would be easy... ;) The route decided was hosur-Krishanagiri-Salem-Dindigul-vathlagundu-Kodaikanal.

Well that felt easy till the sun came out... managed to cover about half the way till it got real hot... Reached Salem at about 8 and had breakfast there and hit the road again… By this time the sun was high and it was getting real hot… After it got sunny nothing was happening around you everything was stand still, I was doing good speeds of about 80 to 100 and hitting 110 at a few stretches... Was feeling a little tired and almost dozed off a couple of times because of the heat took a couple of breaks result of which i got separated from the group also bike needed a fuel so got it tanked up and reached dindugal... was asking the way to vathlagundu from dindugal when abhi found me... then found out
Where the group was and joined them… Then half of them went to have lunch at veni biriyani and the other half left towards Kodai i went with the 2nd half thinking they were going to have biriyani missed the biriyani.. :(

Anyways we hit the road and reached vathlagundu in half an hour and had a light lunch there before hitting the Ghats... the Ghats were a real thrill ride... the twists and turns and a few hair pin bends the reducing temperature were such a blessing after the long hard ride in the sun... was maintaining speeds of around 60 and 70 in the Ghats i thought i was doing well when suddenly 2 bikes just buzzed past me like a bazooka it was prashy on his bullet and anand on his bmw never seen anyone do the stuff they were doing with their bike incredible riding guys... would love to learn a trick or two from you guys…

Reached the venue (Cliff Top hotel) in Kodai at about 3 30 had a bath and came down to the city with Ashish only to find out that it was a bad idea.. The city was packed with people as it was a long weekend and we got stuck in traffic... somehow managed to get back with some bhel puri for the drinkers and that’s how i got my nick name BHEL PURI now that’s an interesting way to get a name.. ;)

Everyone was chilling around drinking and i was having my drink too coke on the rocks... ;) Then hit the bed after a tiring long day...

Woke up in the morning and got ready and wanted to go do some shopping only to find out that one of the clamps on my silencer was broken… :( now had to get it fixed got it welded from a guy nearby and then did some shopping... Rest of the day was just chatting away and listening to people experiences was a first timer i was getting so much of gyan from the riding gods... :)

That night was party again had some good food and danced after a long time felt real good... :) Had to leave early the next day there were 2 batches one of them had decided to leave at 2 30 and the other at 4 30.. My roomies Ashish and little john wanted to leave at 2 30 and my sleep got disturbed and when i hit the bed again to wake up only at 5... :( missed the 2nd batch of guys…

So I and the other roomy Mr. Anbumani decided we will take the route we came by and catch up with the bunch in krishnagiri… Managed to leave Kodai by 6 and were doing great speeds... decided not to have breakfast just had some water with electral powder and it kept us going till we were about 40 kms from Salem when disaster struck...

My silencer clamp broke again... :( Then our momentum dropped and our speeds dropped… Somehow managed to tie up my silencer and ride again was just managing to do speeds of 90 because of the leakage in silencer… Then another disaster struck the heat was getting to me and i lost concentration over a curve i turned late and thanks to the gravel on the road i skid and went off the road… The crash guard saved my bike and the riding jacket and gloves saved me managed to get away without a scrape...
Managed to ride with the broken crash guard and reached adyar anandh bhavan just outside krishnagiri and had lunch there… Then bumboo and party showed up at the same place for lunch we said our good bye after the lunch and hit the road… After that it was just hard core riding with just a couple of breaks and before we knew we reached hosur at about 3… Another chai break there and I and Mr. Anbumani said our good byes...

Reached home by about 4 with a sore and numb body... All in all a great experience for a first timer... But something was telling me this is just the start there is still lots of kms left on the bike and in me of course...