Mumbai - Hyderabad - Mumbai 1466 km on FZ

Call me crazy or call me what you will but yeah its true Mumbai to Hyderabad in one night on a bike. 700 km chewed and spitted out on a cold march night. It all started with memories of last Holi festival which was nothing more than a few phone calls and wishes exchanged with family and close friends. I am not a big believer in Indian culture nor I am found of so called festivals, but there is one thing i like about festivals is that these are great means of bond and reunite with family and friends. So for this Holi i decided to ride a little , read that 700 km , to be with my Uncle and Aunt. And it all came to me in a fraction of second, it was 3:30 pm on Friday 18th march i informed my TL I am leaving early today, took my helmet and bag. The very next moment i was speed away from my office parking lot.

Reached home at 4:00 pm and informed my room mate about Hyderabad trip, packed my back pack and by 5:00 pm i was on IOC petrol pump getting fueled and filling nitrogen in tires. 5:15 pm i was on the road cruising at 80 kmph on butter smooth palm beach road. Mumbai - Pune via NH4 and then Pune to Hyderbad via NH9 was the intended route. I wanted to cover as much distance as i can in day light because once it gets dark avg speed goes down drastically. By 7:00 pm i was about to reach Pune and when I did, got stuck in rush hour traffic to me 2 hours to cross Pune and reach Solapur road. Solapur road, which is a very important highway considering solapur is an industrial town, is not in a good shape just a few 4 lane sections are there for easy riding other wise mostly its a 2 lane affair with roadworks every 5 kms to make matters worse... but still i was going on 60-70 kmph maintaining 40 kmph avg. took a few pit stops at local dhabas and sambhar vada joints and by 11 pm I covered 240 km from starting point which translates to 40 kmph avg. I wasnt good enough my target arrival time was 8 am next morning and but this rate it was unachievable not to mention that speed will go further down as night progresses because of sleep deprivation. So i decided to speed up and reach solapur, which was 160 km further, by 2 am. Took a refueling stop on outskirts of solapur and i was there on solapur by pass by 2 am. It was after crossing solapur that my efforts started paying off. road conditions improved with very sparse traffic, mostly trucks, and long down hill straits . It was the moon light and sweet sound of engine humming between my legs which kept me going. By 4 am it was reading 516 km on trip meter and i decided to take a tea break. Stopped at a lonely roadside dhaba with few truck drivers and karnatak roadways drivers. They were astonished to see a Rajasthan registered bike somewhere near maharashtra - karnataka border.

4:20 am I was back on road heading towards hyderbad at steady 70 kmph and it was around 6 in the morning when i saw sun breaking over horizon. You may not find it as important as I do but for me it was one of the moments which you preserve in your memory for rest of your life. And it was a big occasion as it was my first Night ride on a bike. around 6:30 i took another refuling break and called my aunt i'll be home in next hour or so. Not to mention she was all shocked to hear about the 700 km ride.

Coming up more on ride back from Hyderabad and Hyderabadi traffic sense (or lack of it)..... stay tuned.

PS: I've left spell check for those who mind spelling errors others can enjoy with errors \m/

Jaipur to Delhi on two wheels....

Okay so here is the  first real post for this blog....  although i  have many previous highway 

experience to share but i will start with this one as it is one of the latest .

Date : 13 Dec 2008

Task: Jaipur to Delhi 257 Km in less than 6 hours.

Machine used: 2008 Yamaha FZ 16 

The machine in spotlight here is a spanking new FLAMING ORANGE Yamaha FZ 16,with 256 km on Odo it was time to give this baby some highway miles to munch on.  As the engine was in running in period that mean throttle openings were restricted to half throttles and engine speeds were restricted to under 4500 RPM (with occasional exceptions). Yamaha recommends less than 4500 rpm operations for first 500 kms gradually increasing to 6000 rpm for next 500 kms. With all these running in restrictions imposed I set out with a target time of less than 6 hours. 

Winters in northern India are not suitable for early morning starts so i set out at 11.00 am and it was about 12 kms if city driving before i hit the highway , NH 8 in this case, on the way to highway some commuters threw few enquiring glances on the FZ  ,"whats the mileage", "what brand is it?"most of them were awestruck with sheer size of that rear rubber (140/60 R17).

Once on highway it was time to engage that 5th cog and do some laid back driving, travel bag strapped to pillion seat turned out to be a good back rest . With engine running at 4500 rpm  i did next 150 kms at mere 60 kph and this running in thing was getting to my nerves. with over 415 km on Odo i decided to break that 4500 rpm barrier and went for higher speeds and started doing speed around 70-80 kph bracket and i noticed as the miles were going by that  153 cc mill was getting smoother and smoother. NH 8 has always been a breeze to drive on , with occasional traffic jams in towns , in one of such jams i was crawling next to a BMW 325i driver and he popped the question "konsi bike hai??" i replied its a new baby from YAMAHA "FZ" he was quite impressed with styling. While both of us were curing traffic ahead of us , it struck to me and i asked the Beemer driver, with a big grin, "wanna race". He replied "i will pass". and there i was driving zig zag between the lanes and in 2-3 minutes i was through that notorious JAM and all the skodas hondas and BMWs for that matter were standing still honking at each other.  After that JAM it was time to make up for the lost time and more serious numbers started showing up on the speedo. Soon i was in manesar with bumper to bumper traffic situation doing just 50 kph.  it was only after i crossed gurgaon and on gurgaon delhi expressway i regained speed with numbers in range of 90 as my destination was Air force station in palam i worked out the route before hand using Google Maps and as a result not a single wrong turn to account for.

All in all FZs first highway endeavour was fun( limited by running in restrictions) theres more on how FZ performs after running in and first service. Keep checking this space for your virtual highway kicks... 

  

For highway gods..!!!

all right..!!! here we go in traditional Indian way, before starting this blog lets give a tribute to highway gods (if there are any)...

Tom Cochran

Life Is A Highway Lyrics

Life's like a road that you travel on
When there's any day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend and sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your head to the wind
There's a world outside every darkened door
Where blues won't haunt you anymore
Where brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore
We won't hesitate
Break down the garden's gate
There's not much time left today

Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you're going my way
I wanna drive it all night long

Through all these cities and all these towns
It's in my blood and it's all around
I love you now like I loved you then
This is the road and these are the hands
From Mozambique to those Memphis nights
The khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights

Knock me down get back up again
You're in my blood
I'm not a lonely man
There's no load I can't hold
Road so rough this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Just tell 'em we're survivors

Gimme gimme gimme gimme yeah
If you're going my way
I wanna drive it all night long
There was a distance between you and I
A misunderstanding once
But now we look in the eye

There ain't no load that I can't hold
Road so rough this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Just tell 'em we're survivors

Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you're going my way
I wanna drive it all night long

ok so this was for high way gods keep checking further post for more on highway travel in india