Road To Redemption

Odo: 4550 km, 1 service, 7 months.

Route: Gulbarga - Shahbad - Sindgi - Bijapur (Highway 218); Bijapur - Ilkal - Hospet - Chitradurga (NH 13)

Chitradurga - Hiriyur - Sira - Tumkur - Bangalore - Home :) (NH48)

Milage: Pretty much the same as last report (21 liters, 700+ kms, and1 bar still left on the digi-mileage indicator)

Intro

Last 7 months was drastic.. Got a CBR, Got married, went from Kerala to Jammu with the spousy - or is that spicey? - (and toured many places in between as well).. left a (secure?) government job to go back to college [:)], and getting settled (finally!!!) in Blore in a house that both of us can call home. How do you celebrate? -  road trip to redemption - a 700 km home coming journey on the CBR - no less!!!

The last supper

Bureaucracy means signing on a sheet of paper takes 3 days and that too after making repeated calls. I lost all hopes of getting the relieving letter from SBI on the agreed day, until Mr. Sudhakar Kulai (AGM, SBI Gulbarga) intervened. He made a few calls and the signed relieving letter was on his table at the last moment, 7.00 PM - (Sincere thanks) Had a small farewell at the office, said (an emotional?) bye to Manikeshwar Prasad Singh and left for the parcel office.

The bags had been packed a week before. But they still had to be rushed to The VRL parcel office before it closed. The nice guy at the office accepted the bags - the last parcel for the day - gave a helpline number, his number and other contact details at Blore. Didn't strike at that point that this was the 1st time i was both the sender and the receiver of a parcel. :)

The CBR gulped down 9.5 liters of gas and she got her tires topped up at Mr. Rahul Shah's pump. Then it was off to Praney's place. His house was witness to my last supper at Gulbarga. Mr. Praney Sarkar is good at making Maggie noodles, i say.!!! I  Had planned out the route in my head before, yet at 12 in the night, a groggy Sarkar was watching me check out the route to blr on google maps for one last time, before sleeping. Sleep? Whats that. Couldn't sleep before the trip. As usual :)

Journey Begins

Woke up 1/2 an hr before alarm went off, got ready, bid a brief farewell to Sarkar, and left his house at 6 am. Before I left, I had taken out the cold weather inner lining of the riding jacket, so that it wouldn't get to hot in the afternoon. Mistake.. Big Mistake.. It was bloody cold in the morning. So much so that 5 minutes into the journey, the bike was shaking due to my shivering bones,  brrrr!!

After around 30 km, I stop at a tea shop attended by a kid to fit the cold weather inner lining - (have to say it works bloody well - due to the warm insulation, the shivering stopped right after the pit stop).. and the warm tea was very welcome.. The tea stall kid did look bewildered.. with riding jacket, helmet, gloves and riding boots, i must have looked like a distant cousin of Darth Wader. Hmm.. cant blame him :) But I hope he and others like him gets used to seeing more people with protective gear on Indian roads. We set off again (er.. that's me and CBR) on the Glb - Sindgi - Bijapur route. Its a nice highway with good surface where decent speeds (110+) can be maintained. On the Sindgi - Bijapur road, i stopped at the same village tea shop, i had stopped during my last (Gulbara - Hubli) trip - had Tiger biscuit and awesome chai. (The guy remembered me because of the bike :)

Orgasm

From Bijapur, turn left for NH 13. The 6 lane expressway is orgasmic... speeds can be raised to 145+ k mph. lovely :) But this euphoria lasted only for a brief stretch as I realize that the mileage is dropping at an even faster pace. !!! After a few more kilometers, one also realizes that as the Highway is being newly constructed over virgin / barren landscape, because of which there are no petrol pumps on this stretch :( So speeds drop down to a consistent 100 - 110. Then  you realize that the construction work of the highway is still a work in progress.. and hence there are bad stretches in between.  So now speeds drop to 40 - 60's in some of the stretches. So much for the orgasmic 6 lane highway :)

By now, 4 things would have started bothering a weary traveler. Hunger, Sleepiness, Refueling (for the CBR) and Heat. Punjabi Dhabba to the rescue. The Dhabba comes up from nowhere in this barren stretch. The 2 teas (how is it that all dhabba's make wonderful chai?) and the mandatory parathas quenched the hunger and drowsiness. Petrol refilling by another 9.5 liters was carried out from the pump right next to the dhabba. Also this was an opportunity to remove the inner lining (yup - now it was getting awfully hot in the jacket) and we are ready to go. Just that the dhabba owner mentioned that the the remaining 100 km to Hospet was a lot of work in progress :(

Thankfully, the hospet to chitradurga (NH13) roads are mix of smooth surfaced winding roads and broken roads. On entering Hospet, the scenery changes, the roads begin to wind around hills / iron mining quarries and the traffic thins as well. If you notice, these are all the necessary ingredients for a spurt in the pace. The right hand responds accordingly until the cops spot me.

Police Story

Cops stop me.. Ask for documents.. I told em, i work at SBI.. "Oh.. is that so?".. They don't want to see the papers any more.. They get friendly.. Conversation veers to the bike and.. inevitably its mileage.. they are happy it gives more kmpl than a bullet.. I ask for directions.. They tell me.. journey continues.. :)

Its surprising to see 3 level crosses close to each other on an NH. Anyway, winding roads plus sparse slow moving 

mining lorries with greenery and hills on one side and glimpses of TB river on the other amounts to a wonderful ride.

One can maintain a 70 - 110 k mph+  depending on surface and / or traffic.

Land of Wind Mills

A wall of windmills high upon on a cluster of distant hills announce your entry to Chitradurga.. and as you travel further, you find yourself in the midst of gigantic windmills.. spinning away at an excruciating slow pace. The warm feeling you get at Chitradurga has not only got to do with the scenery, but also the fact that its the last leg of your journey. On hitting NH 48, turn left for Bangalore.

Even though tired, the last stretch of 200 kms passes by in a blur, partly due to the wide and smooth asphalt and partly due to the familiarity of the road and landmarks. Speed rises to 120+ with occasional 135s encouraged by sparse traffic. Zigzag routes spring up between slow moving trucks scattered on the highway.

Bengalooru

By now, the roads are familiar and so are some of the buildings and hoardings. So far it was just a trip that you enjoyed as the scenery flashed by.. But now, you anticipate the familiar neighborhoods, the road ahead, the turns.. the only thing you don't anticipate is the traffic.. :(  700 km to Bangalore took nine and a half hrs.. last 25 km to home sweet home takes one and half..  Bengalooru..good old Bangalore.. :)

Honeymoon with the CBR

1st report at 12 days; 550 km...

Terrain: City - broken roads (what do u expect in Gulbarga? anyway), Highway - (long stretches of smooth tarmac!)

For the "kitna deti hai gang": 15.5 liters in the tank got me 580 odd km (if u r interested, work out the math)

hmm...so where do i start... lets go to the very beginning...

As my friend Das - a fellow biker - knows, I've been waiting for any half decent company to come up with a quarter liter + bike for ages - at a reasonable price of course. CBR bookings opened up in Jan.. at a price of 1.45 lacs ex showroom. That's not what i call reasonable. Its more like the upper extreme end of the term "affordable" for a person like me (even after being a biker.)

Ha.. ha.. But the advantage of working in a PSU bank is that i am eligible for loans at vastly concessional rates that most ppl cant even think of.. applied for the loan about a month after the CBR was introduced.. let me be honest.. that one month was the toughest phase.. deciding weather the whole exercise was worth it or not. Especially since i didn't like the VFR1200.. based on which the CBR250R is styled.. Didn't like her pictures either... OK.. i was confused.

So i went through all international magazines, other reviews and every piece of detail i could get about her... argued with Das, consulted with Kutz - another biker flexing his wings - and finally decided to go ahead. Didn't even tell my parents until after the deed was done.

CBR 250R booking can be done for Rs. 5000 and then one has to wait for 3 months to get your hand on the alloy clip on... Not if u are working at a branch where the local Honda dealer maintains his bank account.. Bu hu hu ha ha ha

Saw the CBR in flesh at the show room... 1st reaction..  " WOOOOOW, she's big".. and she really wasn't as bad as in the pictures.. Again Honda policy says "NO test drives"... Er.. Sorry?.. What was that again?..  :)  half an hr later, suitably impressed after a decent spin on the bike, the dealer handed me the booking receipt. 4 days later, on a rainy evening (25th may).. I was driving home a red CBR very slowly.. :)

1st things 1st.. Its a big bike.. at least for someone used to the normal pulsar.. karizma.. apache brigade.. my friend Anand at the RBO initially felt it was too big until he sat on her (er.. its actually sit "in" the bike.. cause the large petrol tank sinks into the seat and the pillion seat is around 3 inches higher than the riders. u get the feeling u r sitting in something big) Clip ons are kept at a comfortable distance and foot pegs are spot on.. no crouching required.. she's perfect for touring..

Since we r just getting to know each other, i haven't gone beyond 5-6k rpm on the tacho. but with 25ps and 6 gears, that more than enough to have fun.. :)  (5k rpm in 6th is 85kmph) but there's power every where in the rev band as long as the engine is revving above 2.5k rpm. Honda fuel injection means the power comes sweetly when called for. The sweet spot actually starts from 5000 rpm.. acceleration is pretty fast whichever the gear.. and the gearbox is slick.. all of which means the CBR (and the rider) feels constrained in cities and in traffic.. The easy solution for which is to take her out on the highways on Sunday mornings. Thats where the fun begins... :) on highways.. she can maintain 100kmph all day long comfortably.. overtaking is easy as long as someone is not going above 120.. in fact overtaking fellow bikers ain't an issue any longer on highways, nor are the trucks, jeeps and small hatch's.

Even so.. the tire noise from the fat tub less radials - which can be heard over the wind noise if you concentrate - reminds you of a car.. so does the heat generated from the radiator that hits your legs/shins after a fairly long ride. The suspension set up is soft in the front which soaks up all the rough stuff on the roads comfortably and far better than on any other bike that I've ridden - at speeds above 60 - 80. The rear does its job even better as a 200 km drive feel more like a walk in the park.. in fact.. last Sunday i was shocked when i saw the odo after reaching home after a morning spin on the highway.. 120 km covered!!

Riding her initially one gets a feeling, she's not a nimble bike.. That's  largely due to the fact that she's very stable.. The stiff chassis, large size, and large turning radius takes time to get adjusted to.. on one of our first outings, when i tried cornering her by tipping her into a corner, i felt a her to be a bit reluctant to lean into the corner. Few days i kept wondering what went wrong to the normal procedure of leaning into corners - pointing  knee at apex - power out of corners.. In order to get answers, i went to the closest thing to a track in gulbarga.. place called buddhavihar.. a budhist monastery that's about 3-4 km away from the highway... the connecting road is absolute bliss.. 2 medium size right corners, one sweeping left reducing radius left hander, and a chicane thrown in in between and beautifully tarred.. even though there are rough patches in the corners.

The 1st run was pretty normal where she changed sides fast and cornered at decent lean angles. The 2nd and 3rd runs where unbelievable. On the CBR, u can prepare her for corner entry, move your body weight into the corner, and hang on to the clip ons and the foot pegs. Even when you pull her into the corner - leaning her all the way, she's extremely stable. Hmm.. There's no replacement for a well engineered vehicle.

The stability is more apparent if the rider hops on to a smaller bike after riding the CBR. a 150 would definitely be more flick-able and easier to use in the city but at the cost of stability in corners and highways.

all is not great though... the cost of having a soft front end is that the front wheel feels a bit aloof on inclines while accelerating hard. the planted feeling disappears and a vague drifting sensation sets in each time a gust of wind hits you while cruising at 100 +. This can be worrisome on long corners.

That's OK.. i guess as long as she can cover long highways in no time and once you reach your destination, you'll feel like going for a long drive once more. And once you finally get back home and put her on stand all you can do is stand back and gape... if u didn't notice u r already smiling!

Good, Bad and Ugly

The GOOD Part -
Made a trip to Agra and made it back to Delhi in one piece.

The BAD Part -
Had an accident due to a large oil slick on the highway. (not to mention dumb bystanders)

The UGLY Part
Dented the gear lever on my pulsar...
Gave an oil bath to - my trusted pair of jeans, jacket and gloves...
Tore my riding gloves...