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

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

kool trip. I liked the way you have put everything together.

Balu said...

@Jyotsna
Thanks for dropping by. More to follow !

Anonymous said...

Dude....you ROCK!!
That was a cool and a daring trip!!...and you completed it just right. I liked the way you detailed your experiences...hope your back is safe!

Cheers,
Karthik

Balu said...

@Karthik

Thanks Bro ! My arse has been flat long back ever since I've biked to Chennai and Pondichery from Bangalore couple of years back.

Back's good :-)

Anonymous said...

hey...cool trip man..

Next month I am going to bangalore from hyderabad on my pulsar 150 dts-i
and hope your tips will help me there because this going to be my first NH trip. Actually I am shifting to bangalore so I decide to shift my luggage by some movers and packers cause its not too much just one computer and a box stuff things.
ok then
bye
sumit

Balu said...

@Sumit:

Good luck and drive safe. Welcome to Bangalore.

N0 $tring$ @ttached said...

hi guys. I am planning to do a roadtrip from hyderabad to calicut through bangalore on my thunderbird this week. most probably starting on 8th. so anyone feel like joinin please inform me at lalsonjacclt1938@gmail.com

N0 $tring$ @ttached said...

i know its real hard to ride in this summer during day time so im plannin for a night trip. could someone say howz the road condn b/w hyderabad and bangalore??

Balu said...

@NoStringsAttached:
The roads between HYD and Bangalore in excellent condition. The 4 laning of all the stretches are almost complete with raod divider in between.. so at least 70% of the 600KMs is just bliss.... the other 30% stretch is not open to public yet as they are giving final touches to 4-laning..

Avoid NIGHT trips as there will be lot of lorry and volvo buses with those blazing head lights...

Good luck with your calicut trip !

Anonymous said...

Hello! Sir

I am BILIGIRI RANGA, from Hyderabad, India and am writing an article for a Hyderabad based PRISM , a 10 year old mag, on fitness culture in Hyderabad.

U can see my earlier articles in www.primetimeprism.com - Features link for earlier articles of mine)

I saw your blog and found it nice and was keen to take your views for my article. My article deals with as to how the fitness culture is in Hyd Like jogging, walking, gym, etc and what needs to be done to make it better.

I would be delighted to get your views to my questions and hope u would respond.

Pls get back to me SOOOON at
brnugget_6@yahoo.com

Its Urgent

Balu said...

@Ranga:

Hyderabad is a wonderful place and there are quite a lot of people of are very active.

There are "Hyderabad Runners" who meetup regularly near KBR Park every weekend and run regularly...

There is also "Hyderabad Cycling" community which cycles across Hyderabad...

If you to parks like Indira Park, Necklace Road, Public Garden, Tank Bund, Chacha Nehru Park (Masab Tank) you will find regular runners, joggers and walkers...

Unknown said...

hey gud bro... even am planning to hyd from bang... I have an experience of riding bike from bangalore to kadapa more than 20 times..... hope ur trip would help me ...
thanks

Anonymous said...

Good Info man for all those Bike riders with precautions provided for indians and its highway roads. Sharing Good experiences with others was good thought, I appreciate that and your narration was so good.
Cool job.

abhi said...

thanks buddy for helping me out... Actually i am planning 23 of this month...... If anyone interested can join me.

Abdul said...

hey im leaving day aftr for same route, tell you about it when i cum back.........

ikiranreddy said...

Hey thanks for posting. I am planing from so long but i am not able to. i am planing to go for ride Bangalore to Nizamabad. I will fallow the same.

Gaurav Parashar said...

I am planing my trip from Bangalore to Hyderabad, let me know the road conditions now and also is there any other thing to keep in mind while riding my 220 avenger......

itzbobi said...

hi ! Gaurav Parashar

This is bobby. Did you made the trip ? I have a question - Did you face any problem Police while traveling from Bnglr - Hyd ?

for info : My bike is from Bnglr ..

muladeva@gmail.com

Balu said...

@itzbobi

No problem what so ever. Why will they bother you ?

itzbobi said...

hi @Balu ,

No.. my question is where the bike registered in Banglore can be taken to Hyderabad ?

Balu said...

@itzbobi

Any white board vehicle can be taken to anywhere in India :) if you are traveling !

itzbobi said...

Thank you for the clarification MR. balu.

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jaiwant said...

Hi Mr.Balu,your post very informative very wellexplained ,me to planning a bike trip solo HYD -BLR -HYD, this month end
Regards,
Jaiwant