Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Bangalore to Hyderabad - Bike Trip 2008



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

Friday, December 26, 2008

604KM - 13 Hours - Bangalore to Hyderabad


Yes, 604KM - 13 Hours - Bangalore to Hyderabad !
It happened this Christmas. Way to go !


More by year end !

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Where the hell is Matt ?



http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Thanks to Biswa for the pointers.

ON-LINE BLOOD AVAILABILITY / REQUIREMENT TRACKING

There is a site: www.friendstosupport.org

Here you can search for a Particular blood group, you will get thousand of donor addresses.

Thanks to Perima for the pointers !

Monday, December 22, 2008

Shifting Allegiance to Adidas

There I go after using Nike for more than two years I've moved to Adidas.

My Nike Air Max 180 had just finished 1000KM and I had to retire it as I started getting some nagging pain around the right ITB area. It was time for a shoe change.

I'm an over pronator and I was trying to look for Asics GT 2140 or 2130 models. But in India you don't get Asics (or do we?). I was planning Adi star or Supernova from Adiadas and another option in Nike was the "Bowerman Series". The Bowerman ones were good but then I decided to go for Supernova.



But finally I went to Adidas showroom adjacent to Safina Plaza, Commercial street and got my foot analysis done. Finally zeroed in on "Supernova Sequence". Just did a 4K today morning and I guess it will take me some 30-40KM to get adjusted to it.

So Mumbai and Auroville will be on this !

Will update more about my runs and how I feel about this shoes shortly ! Keep running folks !

Monday, December 8, 2008

Energy Bar: How to prepare one

Well the other day my mom tasted one my energy bars and went through the ingredients and came out with her own recipe of how to create one.

Its pretty simple as well:

Ingredients:

* Oats (quaker oats)
* Raisins
* Brown Sugar (unrefined sugar)
* little butter (Amul types salted is also fine)
* Walnuts (Akhroot in Hindi)
* Cashews
* Peanuts
* Dates
* Honey

Method:
Heat butter in a pan and after it melts add honey and brown sugar and stir until it becomes like syrup and remove it from heat. Now mix this syrup with all other ingredients mentioned above in a separate bowl.

Fold this into a aluminum foil and freeze it for 5-10 minutes. That is about it. Simple and Easy. I'm sure this one would be packed with loads of energy.


You can use it as a quick breakfast filler as well.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Monday, December 1, 2008

Weekend Running and Slumbering

I've decided that I'll now run the Mumbai marathon. I was little yes and no before. But after the attacks in Mumbai I'm going to run this marathon for the true spirit of India. I'm sure 26.2 miles will just pass by.

Weekend Breakfast Runs with Asha folks
Last weekend (Nov 29 and 30) we went through our training schedule for Mumbai and Auroville. On 29th Anita, Sanjeev, Santosh Hulkund and I were at Cubbon and started the run at 6.30Am. It was drizzling quite a bit. I ran around 7K with Anita and rest with Sanjeev. Nice time of the year as well as the winter was setting. Anita, Sanjeev and Santosh left for breakfast as I had to head elsewhere.


Sunday (Nov 30) we all met for a quick run at Lal Bagh glass house at 7AM. Gave the RFL run at Kanakpura Road a miss. This was my first run at Lal Bagh. Got my friend Abhay sarkar as well for the run. Siva, Thushaar, Anita, Sanjeev, Balaji and I were there for this run. Met others for the first time. I paced Abhay for around 3KM and then caught up with Balaji for the rest of the 7K. Others had already moved into SKK (Sree Krishna Kafe) at Koramangla for breakfast as Balaji and I hurried to finish our 10.5K inside Lal Bagh. The drizzle started again and we reached SKK to join others.

Breakfast runs are always exciting. Spent rest of Sunday sleeping and of course some sumptuous lunch at his place.