RTMC X!A and Munnar - My ride.
Woke up unusually early after a long ride and figured I
would just put some thoughts down.
As usual, it was a kick ass ride for me. Left from
Tambaram alone at 650 am on Saturday as Lakshmi refused to pick up his phone!
However, since I was alone and importantly since the
weather gods were very nice, I was able to belt it to Trichy. And I mean like
really belt it. The boring straight highway roads obviously helped and I think
it took me like 4 hours to reach Trichy and meet the rest of the gang there.
Then went on to Dindugul and the 100K odd from Trichy to Dindugul only took an hour and 15 mins. It was starting to get hot so had to bear in mind that I was on a cast iron as well so reached there and had a long break while we waited for the rest of the group to catch up. Here we lost one person! Priyan we assumed had a seizure on his cast iron 350 and so Rajith and I went back in search of him and let the other guys ride on.
We didn’t find him and decided to head on to Kodai. Rajith and I were belting our way from Dindugul to Vatlagundu and hen the issues happened. First - I had airlock issues so petrol cap was not tightened fully, I would ride and then periodically open up while riding and managed reasonably well. Second - Rajith and I were off-roading on the dirt patches! and his Givi rack clamp gave way 2 times. Third - Third time around the case fell off. I was behind him so picked it up and put it on my tank and we rode. Fourth - One off road stretch, the combination of the points above meant my tank cap flew off!! :(
We didn’t find it despite some intense searching. Rajith fitted his rack back and we also caught up with Priyan or he caught up with us. Used a plastic cover and insulated the petrol opening. called Hari and told him to bring a tank cap to Kodai as he was in Madurai with Sakthi and Jothi.
Restarted the journey to Kodai. At Vatlagundu found Dead dog, Brij and Partner. Brij useless fellow came in his dubukku car! as he was scared of the fuel strike! Dead dogs bike was towed to a mechanic( Dead dog - we need to train you in towing and being towed!) Rajith had told the rest of the boys to carry on BUT our friend Sailesh did not see the message till the rest of the boys almost killed him for waiting SO long at the foot hills. (sorry guys - next time just kill him!)
We couldn’t sort the bike so Rajith and I carried on.
Note - Rajith had high fever and was still belting it. Halfway through, we took
a break and I took the lead as riding in the hills is quite stressful for the
guy in front.
Eventually reached the resort, had a nice high tea and
crashed. The party went on and I won’t go in to the details of shantanu crying
and all here!
(next day was chilled out, and then party again!)
Monday morning, the plan was for a few of us to do a non-Madbull ride to Munnar though most were Madbulls. Woke up at 9 am. left at 11 AM! as the guys were loading excess booze in to every car possible. The Chennai group left around the same time.
Lakshmi, Jothi and I then left after getting the clutch of Lakshmi’s hybrid bike sorted. We took adventurous route to Theni that meant we did not have to descend the ghats the normal way! It was an awesome experience. Some bits like Nagari, some very beautiful stretches. 4 wheelers don’t use this route at all. But it was a really good experience!
Reached Theni and then waited for the cars to catch up
and then the bikers headed off. We did some good speeds and the climb up was
awesome. Stopped halfway to Munnar and took some pics at an unusually windy
place. The wind was so strong the bikes were shaking when on stand.
Continued on to Munnar, tanked up and went to a resort. No mobile reach at all, so those who had to make calls had to roam the hills to get a reach.
Had a good evening and then was up at 7 to leave, but Lakshmi was still sleeping and the others had (very unusually) gone trekking!!! Rajith who had left to Ernakulum came back via Munnar and reached the resort at 9 am.
We had breakfast and left around 1030. Rajith, Lakshmi and I were riding. Rajith came up with an alternate route that I had had no idea about but decided to do it anyway.
We rode through some very good winding ghat roads. This route is not for cars as the speeds will be dismally slow. It is exciting though.
(Bra - you useless fellow you would have LOVED this route! but you decided to
be a sissy and do a gunfight and come by car!!!!)
We were doing only speeds of 30-40 as the bends were so
close together! We came through some wildlife sanctuary - and the Annamalai
tiger reserve. Givi problems again but sorted it. I cannot stress how nice this
ride was despite the heat. 
Reached Karur, Lakshmi’s bike had a carb issue after a
nasty bump on an unidentified object. sorted it and carried on to Perambalur.
Then Rajiths bike had some electrical issues which we also sorted. Nice scenic roads on the plains. Unusually good state highways with marking and
paint etc. Hit the highway at around 630 I think.
Took a nice long break at a hotel on the highway. Left at
around 730 I think. I was in the lead as Lakshmi only had parking lights.
Rajith brought up the rear. This formation riding was awesomeness! 3 bikes
moving as one unit. words cannot describe this at all. the mind-set of the 3
riders, the consistent speeds, the impromptu signalling, each looking out for
the other. to quote David: BLISS.
we did 100KM in 1.5 hours. stopped for chai, fixed my
bikes indicators. rode to Vaigai mess and reached there also pretty fast. had a
nice dinner, called all our respective contacts that we had to call had a good
break and then took off.
Rajith led. I swept. Finally at exactly midnight we
stopped for chai near Saidapet. And then we split up.
Awesomeness would be an understatement. I was initially
upset that I did not do a night ride on Friday but yesterday made up for it big
time!
Nice riding with those I did. And here’s to many more.
Maggie - as usual, great job of base contact. Despite the
advent of whatsapp (thanks ex mbmc shan!:))I think we need to cooperate and utilise
the base contact. it was awesome to call him on my solo bits and know where
others were and who did what etc. Again, many thanks Maggie.
