This bike trip has been pending long time. Last Christmas I wanted to do this but my folks came down to Bangalore. This year (2008) I haven't been king apart from the 888KM Coorg ride in Feb with Abhay.
After a lot of research and support from folks from home I decided to go in for the 600Km ride.
The Plan and the Gung-Ho factor:
The whole plan was to do this ride either in one day or in two days with a halt at Kurnool. All that I had to do was to get my bike serviced at least 3 days before. I want to the popular Bajaj service center near passport office Koramangla and trust me, the Pulsar was in a real bad shape. People there know me very well and they guessed that I was planning a long ride. Once I told it was for Hyderabad this time they doubly made sure that there was no loose ends.
The bill was 4K for the entire repair and I went in for an overhaul. But after service the bike just cruised like a butter. So everything was set and I shopped for hand gloves for the early morning ride, lots of food items and the petrol was filled up till the brim.
The route:
So if at all anyone is planning a road trip from Bangalore t Hyderabad this is the route you need to follow. Just take the NH-7 from Bangalore towards the new airport and just keep going straight.
from Koramangla in Bangalore to Attapur in Hyderabad, the distance is 604KM and if you can average 50-60 in car you can reach in 10 hours including some breaks.
You will pass by these big towns enroute and there are bypass roads without you going into the main city.
Hebbal-Yelahanka-Chickballapur-Penukonda-Ananthapur-Gooty-Dhune-Kurnool -Jadcherla-Shadnagar-Shamshabad-Attapur
(its all in NH7, which starts from Varansi and down till Kanyakumari)
Caution: Four laning of the road is in progress for the entire stretch with road divider so you will be forced to take many deviations. I'm sure in six months time this will be done.
Roads are really good and there are speed breakers wherever you have deviations.
The Start:
I started at 5ish in the morning and Bangalore is very very foggy during this time. Once you reach outskirts the visibility falls to almost one or two meters. I had to stop at a tea stall. Vehicles generally switch on their parking lights and go very very slow until the visibility improves.
Around 6.30AM the sun slowly started to set in and it was perfect to catch some speed. The traffic is almost nil from Chickbellapur and you will find only lorries and construction workers enroute.
Overtaking and Unwritten Riding protocols
Riding on highways in India is simple as long as you want to keep it simple as a biker. Only cars get noticed. In fact if you want to overtake most of the vehicles give you respect and when you switch on your dipper they will give you way. And especially if it is a long overtake you need switch on your lights (no the dippers) and then proceed.
The trucks and lorries especially when they are in process of overtaking some three-four vehicles they switch on their lights and keep going until they complete the maneuver.
Respect heavy vehicles
Heavy vehicles many times don't budge for request to overtake them or give way. Even if you are driving a car.
I in fact had a chat with one of the truck drivers at a tea stop and he reason is since these vehicles are loaded (three times the allowed permit) they have to maintain a constant speed and if they loose that speed especially during an uphill climb it gets very nasty for them to tackle the vehicle and during overtaking on narrow roads they generally don't come down the road as they want to be on the road considering the load they carry.
My funda is simple, if your vehicle has more power than mine you get the respect !
Always use dipper when overtaking even if there is no incoming vehicle because most of the trucks don't hear your horns during night. Dipper is the only way they can see and also the fact that they play loud music inside to keep themselves awake.
Always be careful near the curves and especially if there is a blind curve. This is where most of the accidents occur.
No lunch breaks
I did not take any lunch or breakfast breaks. In all I took some 5-6 tea breaks and I filled myself with energy bars and crackers. That was god enough as I wanted to be light.
Just kept on going !
Keep track of fuel
I always knew that I had to refuel at one particular stage and it was Kurnool for me. For around 4-5 stations there was no petrol it was all diesel. So make sure you always have enough fuel for the next 100KM before you go in for a refuel.
I had to keep my mom informed for almost every tea breaks and she was very well versed with all the places. Working for BSNL means she not only knew the road lines but also telephone exchange lines.
Back to Home:
Once I reached Jadcherla I just to go slow and beat the time. The vehicular traffic increased from here and by the time I reached home it was 6PM covering 604KM in 13 hours.
Folks were happy to see me and another tick mark !
Be good Drive safe !
Pics at : http://picasaweb.google.com/balsubu/BangToHydBikeTrip2008
