26 replies to this topic

[arn]

Silver Phantom, on 21 February 2012 - 11:51 AM, said:

. Why have you removed the Fairing?!?! Anything to do with better Cooling?!?!

Nothing like that. Some mod work is on, Already have to remove 10 fasteners to check fit. Do not want to remove 10 + another 40 odd, which is a PITA. No matter what the condition, the gauge stays pasted to 3 bars on the display (normal)

udayanchan, on 21 February 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

Isnt the Outer ring road  "ORR"  ready - my guess was it could bypass the entire city- if i remember right even beyond patancheru?

Uday

The GPS map did not show any MAJOR road going around the city and I was not in the mood to take the only one which seemed to do that (on the east) and discover that it was as full of traffic, only 30 km longer. I took a path straight through the centre of town, on the eastern border of Hussain Sagar.

Grub done with, it was now decision time. I'd been riding for close to 18 hrs and could either call it a day and go to a hotel for some rest, or keep moving. If going via Nagpur, I had about 1300 km to cover, take it as about 18hrs of ridng, or about 22 hrs before I hit the pillow on my bed, inclusive of  meals and the inevitable catnaps which I knew I would need once really tired. If turning into Maharashtra from Adilabad or thereabouts, I would cut at least 400 km off the distance, but it would still take another 16 - 18 hrs, as I knew the rural roads could be pretty iffy and I'd probably be averaging only 40 kph till I hit the main roads where I could again pick up speed. Both ways, a 12 hour hotel halt would mean that I'd reach home in the morning, no earlier than 8am at the earliest - and I had to be at work in the evening.

The hotel stop obviously was a luxury that was not worth it.

North of Hyderabad, the road was again a fast dual carriageway for about an hour and a half, then progress slowed down as construction activity led to numerous diversions for the next 60 km or so. No off road excursions, but the road was narrow and traffic had to keep switching from one side to the other. Finally, I decided to scrap the plan to carry on till Nagpur, and turned towards Maharashtra from Nirmal.

[pulsurge]

Doc, I run out of breath when I read your quotations of distance and time

[rahul_rn]

pulsurge, on 22 February 2012 - 11:49 AM, said:

Doc, I run out of breath when I read your quotations of distance and time

Time of riding required doesn't run me out breath, but the tiny amount of rest after all that riding does..

[NikhilB]

arn, on 22 February 2012 - 01:08 AM, said:

The hotel stop obviously was a luxury that was not worth it.

Holy $#%@!!

Are you serious??  

[parimal1981]

Flying doc at his best. Fabulous

Regards
Parimal

[arn]

There was a an interesting episode though, before I turned off the dual carriageway into Maharashtra. 2 hrs out of Hyderabad, I started to feel a bit sleepy. As I had already made the decision to  skip Nagpur and head back by the shortest route, I was in no big hurry and decided to stop for a short nap wherever suitable. There was this barely complete dhaba Open shed like structure, fresh paint, cooking and seating areas separate, no furniture, which seemed a good candidate as it was some distance from the road, and fairly clean. There was also a groundsheet on the floor and one of those small plastic jars containing chewing tobacco. I waited a couple of minutes, called out, but there did not seem to be anybody in the vicinity. I lay down on the groundsheet and shut my eyes.

Suddenly there was this huge racket close at hand, a metallic noise  like the sort of sound you might hear while trying to unlock a jammed padlock which is holding a couple of links of chain together. I turned in the general direction (towards the kitchen area) but the noise stopped and all was peaceful again save the distant hum of traffic, the stars twinkling in the sky where the corrugated iron roof ended. I did not get up but stayed alert, expecting to hear footsteps/voices - there weren't any. Again the racket, this time a bit longer, again nobody there, I was half expecting to hear a keychain being shuffled. Anyways, this time I got up to see whoever was there and I went towards the kitchen area. There was a 4 ft high door, sure enough, and judging from the exterior, a small cramped storage space, but here did not appear to be anybody in sight, and neither was a chain or padlock visible. It did not make sense to me that somebody would lock himself up in that space. Nobody could have got away from there without being seen by me, and I saw nobody.

Well, I had to get to the bottom of this and meet whoever was causing the racket if I had any intention of getting rest there. I waited few a few minutes. It was cool, there was a nice breeze blowing, in the distance there was traffic belting along the highway, serenity and peace all around. I was in the kitchen area, leaning on the cudappah counter behind me, an eye on the door when there was this thunderous rattling once more.

[pulsurge]

^^^Creepy that Doc!

[Silver Phantom]

So Doc, Did you meet any Candle Holding, White Saree Clad, Beauty, Who would lure wayside Charectors for a Heveanly Rendevouz?!?!... And did you have any rendevouz... Please Unfold thou Holy Mystery...

[pulsurge]

I think that creepy thing was running away from Doc

[arn]

The clattering, clanging racket was right above my head. The breeze was lifting up a loose corrugated iron sheet which was then flapping around for a few seconds before there was peace and quiet again. It explained the abandoned groundsheet and tobacco.... the watchman had heard this and run for his life

I went back to sleep, but the racket every couple of minutes or so was disturbing, I got back on the bike and moved on. Finally I got my short nap at a school building just off the highway. It was time to head west now into Maharashtra. I had an older version of the map on the GPS, and since the map had been made, the road had changed. As such I wound up doing an unecessry circuit of almost 40 km before rattling around on side roads towards Washim. Even better, my GPS guided me onto a side road full of potholes, where I had to keep stopping to ask for directions. Apparently I'd have to do an off road excursion over a kuttcha road (not on the GPS) to get across a newly  completed bridge (not on the GPS) to join what was supposed to be a newly completed road (not on the GPS) heading towards Washim. This opinion was echoed by at least 2 people, so I decided to give it a try.

For a change, the directions were accurate - I left the road and traversed the path, which led down to a bridge across the river.A fork oil seal was also on the way out, but there was little I could do about that till I got back to Mumbai.





Dirt road ends and the fast concrete road across the bridge begins here






The "road" to the bridge - for bikes only....




Ready to roll





Surprisingly, the road on the other side was as promised, somewhat narrow, but newly laid and from there on progress was fairly quick till Washim, where I stopped fro breakfast.

[arn]

Brekker was chai and mix pakodas, something roadside stalls make rather well. Cholesterol top up done, it was time tomove, but I started to feel more and more sleepy once again, I had no option but to get off the main road and take a nap under a tree for some time. This time though, that nap got me fully rested, an no further sleep breaks would be necessary for the rest of the trip. Aurangabad came up around 3 in the afternoon, and I made he discovery that the sole CCD, and some of the other fast food eateries that I'd visited previously had shut shop. From there till Nagar is a fast dual carriageway where you can simply whiz along at speed.

I knew the horrendous traffic that I'd find near Shikrapur and Chakan so I decided to return via Ale Phata and Malshej. Unfortunately, the connecting highway has had some very poor repairs till there. The repair material has been dumped in a layer 3" above the surface of the road forming mini speed breakers. At least one can skim over potholes - these - you bounce. It was dark once I reached Malshej Ghat, so I decided to latch onto an indigo which seemed to be moving fast, so as to "borrow" his headlights as it were (it was twilight and my own headlamp did not seem bright enough at that point of time). However he went flat out as soon as he noticed the pesky two wheeler on his tail.

However, he was driving an Indigo, not a ferrari. It was quite easy to stay some distance behind him, until he did a three car overtaking maneuver with oncoming traffic (which I had no intention of doing),and disappeared from sight. It took me a whole km to catch him again... Finally he tired of it and slowed down hoping that I'd lead, which I did. But he chap had poorly adjusted lights, or he did not get off the high beam, and there was no way I wanted that in my mirrors close behind, so I had to keep enough distance behind me.

A mistake I made at this point was NOT taking the Shahapur road from Murbad. It bypasses the the SH***** aka Kalyan where there was a 1 hr traffic jam. Anyways, leaving Kalyan - a 5 km long queue at Bhiwandi bypass toll plaza. Sigh. Then back home.
2060 km in 40 hrs.

[nav75]

Looking at that section of well made road, after non-existing road. It reminds me of a similar thing that I experienced in MP, when I decided(out of bravery) that I'll ignore the normal highway route and take this back road kind of road instead (that too in MP).