Bangalore to Chikmagalur
Total Distance – 600 km’s
Duration - 2 days
About 9 of us had planned this trip forever. Most of us just wanted to ride our bikes not caring where we should go. Just one empty highway and our bikes zooming!! Others, however, were particular about where to go and what places to visit. All in all, we decided to leave early Saturday morning. I was so excited I couldn’t sleep. I was up at 4 since we all planned to meet up at 5. As always, few of us managed to meet up at 6 and everyone else slowly (but thankfully) turned up finally by 6.30.
Mode of transportation –
1 Comet, 1 Apache, 1 Pulsar 150, 1 Pulsar 180, 1 Thunderbird, 1 Indica. (Sum these up = funnn :) )
So we begin - destination Chikmagalur. Off we go and we are yet not even past Yeshwantpur, and our fastest bike break down. Well it’s a bike trip! The clutch wire snaps. Seven in morning we are looking for a place to fix it up. Thankfully we find an auto mechanic. We had this easy clutch installed that is connected to the clutch lever with a wire of about 5 inches length. We have a cable too. All we need is to cut the cable exact length and fix it on. Dear mechanic cuts the cable but refuses to touch the bike. Big deal, it’s not that big! We fix it up in about 20 min’s. Probably he would have done it in 2 min’s. But anyways, while we were fixing up the cable some curious onlookers enquired about the bike. Asked for the mileage we told it might return a 25 per litre. And his response “what’s the point?” His question was enough for us to not even make an effort to reply. Guess the guy has not sense of bhp.
Already few hours behind schedule we hurry. In the excitement most bikes just zipped. And the car followed. Roads were very bad on this Yeshwantpur stretch. Sadly only people in the car knew the route :) . You should be able to guess what happened. Few kilometers ahead we were suppose to take a left. We missed it. Next we found a road going to Belgaum, it was a toll road, and it was a beautiful to ride bikes. We went 25 km’s before realizing the blunder. And the car went about 20kms in the perpendicular direction. So we all had to turn back and catch up with the car.
Next stop CR Patna. Our pulsar 180 refused to above 40kmph! We knew something was wrong. One mechanic we found. After few minutes of him inspecting the bike, he took the whole engine apart with absolutely no results. A day before the bike was given for servicing. We also figured out that the bajaj guys had removed the old engine oil but they had filled it half!! Blunder of the century. Obviously engine had seized. We spend some 4 hours in CR Patna, to our entertainment we had a local volleyball match girls vs. boys. Finally the mechanic gave up on the bike. We had some contact in the local police station. We put the bike there and off we go. Next stop Hassan.
On the way we stopped for lunch at Kamat. The food was good. After some 2-3 hours of continuous riding we reached Chikmagalur. It was too late for us to visit any of the main attractions. Right before we entered the main city there was a dam. It’s a nice place, really breezy and calm. The water levels were quite high since it was October. After spending about half and hour we came into the city. It was a really small and sleepy city (probably how Bangalore was few decades ago). Found a decent lodge to stay. Cost was about 800 for a big bedroom, were 5 people could stay. It was just perfect for us. We didn’t want luxurious place anyway.
After dinner we decided we would leave the place at 4.30 am and watch the sun rise from the Mulayangiri hills. Being really energetic about the whole trip we woke up at 4 and were ready by 4.40. And next surprise, our car has 4 cars parked in front of it which made it impossible to steer our car out. With 9 people and 4 bikes. :( . we decided to let go of the sunrise. By 7 we wake up the other cars’ owners to take out the cars. And we were off that place in like 10 min’s!!
We start the climb of the hill. I have to say the best part of the trip was this. The silver oaks, the plantations, the really scenic locations all were just breathtaking! It was a beautiful morning. Mulayangiri is about 15 km’s from Chikmagalur. There were three other spots. But we had a time crunch. We had to keep in mind the fact that on a Sunday we had to figure out a way to send the pulsar that was lying in CR Patna to Bangalore.
The view from the top of the Mulayangiri was out of the world! What was difficult for me to believe was that it was in this very world-a beautiful other side of the planet. There was a short trek too. Most of us managed to do half of it. And then we decided to leave. On the way back I got to ride the hyosung comet. It is just such an amazing bike. 250 cc 26 bhp. I guess that’s as good as it can get as of now. I rode it for about 25 km’s. The bike is so stable at high speeds and in mid range in the 3rd and the 4th gears the bike has so much acceleration. Rest of my trip was spent on the thunderbird. It’s a perfect touring bike. We rode back 300 km’s on the second day with out lot of breaks. But I was not tired. All through the trip I would got excited with the fact that we had so much more to ride, just wished it would not end.
We got to CR Patna managed to find VRL office that was open on a Sunday! We booked the pulsar transfer and next surprise hit us. We didn’t have diesel in our Indica :) and the area petrol bunks seem to be short on diesel. Yes it was a trip with no plan. But we were lucky we found diesel very close by. Finally we start 145 km’s from Bangalore. And we are greeted by very heavy rainfall. 15 min’s it rains cats and dogs. And finally after that we ride back to Bangalore with out any more surprises.
“World needs more roads” - From the heart of a bullet lover
