I recently decided to thrift a little and treated myself to a Royal Enfield Himalayan. To break it in I wanted to take it on a long ride. The Original ride was supposed to happen after its second service but as always life finds a way to screw up the best laid plans. I really wanted to push from Pune to Kochi in 7 days with halts at Goa, Manipal, Mahe and Calicut.
After a few other plans failed, I decided, be it hell or high water I was going to do it! If anyone was going to join me, great! Else I was going to go solo. It wasn’t much of a risk either way so.
A friend of mine was getting married in Goa. Now that I had a semi-valid excuse, I was good to go. The road from Pune to Goa is not great but good enough for the ride. I went online to see what other bikers thought of the route and most if not all of them were good. It’s also the route a lot of bikers take for Ridermania and India Bike Week (IBW). The problem of my luggage was solved as well since a I had mules in the form of friends who were traveling by car. This was seeming more and more doable.
My fellow rider Aditya Bhoyte who I had traveled with to Spiti valley before decided to tag along too.
So, we had the Royal Enfield Himalayan and Aditya’s Thunderbird 500. Some background here; Aditya is good friend and fellow rider. The Thunderbird was just purchased by his brother
Time to get to the gone!
Pune To Kolhapur
I don’t remember getting up before the sun. I remember falling down as it rose but beating it up is a memory long forgotten. Go time was 4:30. It was an early start but the energy, the excitement, the adrenaline pumping through your veins will get you going, irrespective of time. Aditya showed up the previous night from Mumbai. We had the entire gear, route, halts finalized by midnight. Looking at the plan, I thought we will grab a cold one on a sunny beach on Goa by 2pm. Yeah, lofty targets! Bite me!
The gear-
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Riding jacket: So that I can fall without hurting my favorite part, my stomach
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Gloves: Because I work in software and edit a gaming blog
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Knee guard: In case I need to knee someone, this will add to damage
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Riding boots: Bonus damage on kicks
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Balaclava: In-case I need to rob someone
Supplies carried
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Bottle of water: Well Duh
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2 chocolate bars: Free energy
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A can of Redbull: On the off chance I got bored riding and wanted to fly
At 8 am in Karad, life being the bitch that it is was, started to catch up, the Thunderbird was losing power. In attempting to push on it kept losing power. Two possibilities:
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The air filter
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The battery
Fixing either was well beyond either of us.
We stopped near Karad, to figure out what was wrong. Found a local garage at Karad who we called; the guy took forever to show up. After waiting for over an hour which felt like an eternity, we tried to get to a Royal Enfield service center. Fortunately, there was one in Karad, Nand enterprise. They just opened as we reached. As they dismantled the bike, we learned that we are not vehicle technicians: The answer was none of the 2 possibility we had thought but a third one, the fuel tank was rusted internally which was a known problem with Royal Enfield’s in coastal areas… I decided I was going back to software at that point. The guys at the service center cleaned the tank in two hours which killed our lead over the cars.
Back on the road all I could do was hope that the problem was solved but since life was keeping us company, I was wrong, it began to creep in. At this point I was annoyed and left Aditya to deal with the bike in Kolhapur. I watch too much Top Gear!
After Kolhapur the road was mine. The hours lost at the service center had given my friends a lead which I recovered as they stopped at Belgaum for lunch
I arrived just when the meal was being served. My luck was getting better.
They had stopped at a recently opened cafe; the food was good and service fast. Unfortunately, I didn’t pig in since I tend not to eat a lot during rides, keeps me lite and hungry for anything interesting I might find on the road.
Belgaum to Anmod Ghat
After Belgaum the road kept being impressive. We decided to take to take the route via Anmod Ghat instead of Amboli. Everyone who goes to Goa tends to take the Amoboli route. Since we were not going to North Goa, the Anmod ghat route made more sense. It would cut out the entire North Goa stretch for us and take us directly to Ponda. No one had traveled on this route earlier so there was a risk it might turn out to be bad; thankfully it did not. I had to look at my phone periodically just to be sure about the right turn. This caused a realization! Phone holders are a must when venturing into the unknown. Since I had a lead on the cars, they took a right towards Anmod which went through Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary which is a right turn earlier than the one I thought I needed to take. Another lesson learned, be with the caravan and don’t get over enthusiastic when you see a good road. This was a shorter route compared to what I took, 30km shorter to be exact, argh!!
Anmod Ghat to Ponda, Goa
Anmod ghat feels like some race track you see in movies and video games just with trucks. The roads are in pristine condition and I finally got the confidence to enjoy the bike as I hoped. This continued for a good bit. I stopped at point just across a narrow bridge. Sat there for 15-20 minutes soaking in the cool breeze from the river.
A lot of people ask me why I want to take the hardship of riding a bike vs the comfort of a car. This is the exact reason I prefer a bike. You are in the picture and not seeing it from a closed compartment. You can feel the air, the rain, the sun, the wind, the dust. It is not for everyone, but I can assure you the happiness you experience in these small moments are worth the effort and pain.
Once I was finished messing around, I hopped back on my bike and continued the ride. The uphill matches the downhill making my racetrack comparison more adequate. Sadly, good things don’t last forever, and I was greeted by heavy traffic due to road work in Goa, so I knew I was back in a city.
The problem with Goan roads is that they all look the same so once I reached Ponda I was lost again.
The ride though exhausting was great. it took around 12 hours. My battery was running low as I tried to call the friend who I was staying with, he didn’t answer and my phone breath its last for this charge. I should have probably followed my collaborators example on GenericGamingBlog and bought a burner phone (A Nokia 8110 4g for those who care) that would last days at a time. My next piece of bad luck was needing a USB type C charger which are hard to come by. Luckily, there was a shop that had all types of extensions.
Finally, reached my friend’s house. Took off the gear, had a shower, grabbed a cold one and talked about the entire ride.
The final piece of fun is always sharing the experience, the near misses, the awesome sights, the great road and of course the view of nature itself.
This is what gets me going for every ride. The small things.
Things I did not carry and should have-
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Spare front tube.
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Burner phone which is not a smartphone.
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Before the conclusion, check out the few photos I remembered to take:
In the End
I got my test ride; I had my break from reality which unlike my collaborators is a real experience. I got to experience what those with windows cannot. Would I do it again? Hell yes! Like those who say they will never repeat their mistake, I will do the same. I will find new mistakes to make and learn from them.
Few more photos and videos:
