Beast and its rides Trip 5

Beast and its rides Trip 5 70 hair pin bend Kolli Hill, Aagaya Gangai Falls 22^nd june 2014.

Started off with 4 bikes from Forum mall Bangalore with 8 people to Kolli Hills (Eastern Ghats) at 5am, our first stop was in MCD HP gas station Hosur to fuel the bikes, we reached by 6am pretty good speed maintained, surprised RX135 maintained the pace of Enfield’s without  breaking down the entire trip, well maintained by Vishwas.

Breakfast stop was in Salem by 7.40am, we left Salem by 8.30am next stop was Kolli Hill base but in midway got to know that the TB350 fuel tank key was lost on the way, we were close to Rasipuram Town being a Sunday it wasn’t that difficult to find an duplicate key maker it took one hour to fix it, the weather was getting hot, little further after the town we stopped for fuelling took the first group photo and continued the journey the SH was well maintained with the trees on either side of the road, gave it an look of Bangalore 15yrs back the cool breeze and shade made our trip in the stretch very comfortable.

70hair pin bend

 Just 20km before the Kolli Hill we stopped to fix the camera on the helmet the GO PRO way, which again was a flop in a different way, once touched the base the forest guard stopped us and told us ride slow, we obliged and continued the 70 hair pin bend in one hill was an amazing experience (this was the one which made other two bikes join us) the beast as usual cruised through it easily and RX too made it without any trouble but TB350 silencer touching the ground on right bends made the bike come up slow,  as we were 1000meters above the sea level the breeze was cool, all our mileage and speed maintained came down in this stretch, We reached Aagaya Gangai Falls by 12pm all excited to jump in water as we parked the bikes near the famous Shiva temple near the falls.

Aagaya Gangai Falls

The ticket issuer said there is not much water in this and the surrounding water falls have gone dry, Aagaya Gangai falls is the biggest in this hill, we trekked downhill for 1km as we reached the falls there was hardly water there and the water from the top was like a wet cloth put up for drying (the drops from the cloth), spent less time there now the tough task started the climb everybody had drained out, had to scale 1086 steps to get to the top, once reached the top got in  an shop finished 4ltrs of Maaza 8 omelets and 2ltrs of water. We were on top by 2.30pm and started our return journey, stopped on hairpin 70/70 for group photo, put all the bikes in neutral we were touching 50kmph the best comedy part was over taking Sumo and other two wheelers in neutral (for the people reading this don’t do this neutral riding it’s not safe), again on the base 1/70 for a group photo, and we stopped in just before rasipuram for a different route and one bike had gone way ahead of us and waited for the return.

The return (unexperienced team)

Next planned stop was in Dharmapuri, as we were nearing Salem there was a heavy downpour we continued our ride, stopped my bike in Salem for 10min to meet my dad’s friend, others continued caught up with them in no time just before Dharmapuri two bikes had stopped for refreshments, mine was the last one coming, the other bike had crossed us without noticing, just 10mts after the start the TB350 broke down (chain cut). Informed other two bike to continue the journey and reach home, it was in uphill hard time to push the bike, somehow managed for 4km and found an local mechanic shop around 5.30pm the mechanic didn’t have a Enfield chain lock, we had to visit Dharamapuri to get it 30km one way, got the chain lock the mechanic fixed 9.30pm, and we took it to the Enfield garage in Dharamapuri, he was specialized with Enfield bikes for our luck he said he his open till 1 midnight, reached him by 10.15pm he fixed the bike by 2.30am, in the mean time we had to do an Dharmapuri midnight sightseeing to find oil for the bike. We continued our journey without any further trouble from the bike, but the sleep was a biggest challenge we took 2 short stops to get fresh and get on the wheels, and horrible driving private Volvo operators, and TNTC bus changing lane from 3^rd to 1st without any signal and another immediate 1^st to 3^rd lane. Reached home by 4.30am.

Advice

Please carry essential spare parts of the bike in long rides when you not connecting remote towns

Destinations

1 Kolli hills

2 Aagaya Gangai Falls

Bikes

1 Thunderbird 500

2 Classic Chrome 500

3 Thunderbird 350

4 RX135

Riders

1 Venkataram

2 Gajapathy P

3 Avinash R

4 Santhosh V

5 Sharath C

6 Vishwas V

7 Madhu T

8 Manjunath M