The last chance ride for 2009 and a photo opportunity for the members too. Yercaud was on the menu and the V40 riders were ready for their "on any surface" trip. It was my first ride with the club. My first long ride on my new bike with just 600 kms on its clock and my first ride after a 12 year hiatus from riding bikes. It was time for me to find out whether I could still do it.
Eight bikes and eleven riders assembled on the crack of dawn on the 19th Dec on the jump off point on the poonamalee bypass. Prakash and Mahesh were waiting for their new Classics to be delivered and Sudip had his bike parked in the wrong town but chose to ride Dominique's second bike from Ranipet. Prakash had offered to make the trip in his car, solving the problem of transporting the non-biking riders, our photographers Lazar and Rajesh along with Shankar our mechanic and quick fixer for the trip. The rest of the pack, Dominique, Goutham, Barani, Ganesh, Venkatesh, Vijay (first time rider) and Ram - I (also a first timer) were ready to role.
The route chosen offered the best of both worlds. One the way up, Chennai – Vaniyambadi – Tirupattur – Harur – Kuppanoor – Yercaud offered good winding roads and a terrific ghat run. The road back Yercaud, - Salem – Dharmapuri – Krishnagiri – Vaniyambadi – Chennai offered yet another ghat trip, good NH quality roads and a quick & easy ride back home.
After a quick debriefing on the rules the ride started. Traffic was thin on the way out of Chennai and the ride to the outskirts was quick. First stop was at the Red Chillies near Ranipet were Dom's second bike and Shankar were waiting. Sudip stopped being a passenger and became a rider here.
After breakfast, we started out again. The day was promising to be a great one. The weather was just right, not too hot and not too chilly for a late December weekend. The pack was doing well as we crossed town after town, staying together in our staggered formations and riding at good speeds.
Lesson 1: Focus on the road and ride within your limits. Do not get distracted by your immediate pack. Well the story behind the lesson is equally simple. As we crossed Vaniyambadi Bridge the pack was doing close to 90 kmph and the bridge makes a nice right turn, not too sharp though. I was riding on the right side on 3rd spot when I took the turn along with the leaders and I found my bike slipping from under me. I had taken my eyes of the road and lost focus on the turn. Usual effect, I righted by bike, straightened and slipped out of the pack and chose to get steady before continuing on. Only problem, I ran out of road and came to a stop next to the parapet wall of the bridge and lost by rear balance and was on my back. Here comes lesson two for all riders.
Lesson 2: Always ride with proper riding gear. The club places a great deal of emphasis on this and insists all its members have to own and maintain their gear well. I was riding with full gear; upper body armor, knee / shin guards, riding gloves, et all. Except for a few scratches on my bike and some superficial score marks on my jacket and jeans, I could get up, shake off the fall and continue riding.After this brief break, we continued riding again. We had to make another stop at Thirupattor to fix a flat on Sudip's bike. I understand that fixing something at Thirupattur is quickly becoming a V-40 tradition. It was a leaking fuel tank on, guess who, Sudip's bike last time. A good chance for all to take a break and get some hot tea and much needed hydration.All along the way, our two photographers went clickety-click capturing the riders in every conceivable way. We also took pictures of riders in formation, riding solo and a few pairs along the way. Pictures will be on the V-40 web pages soon.By afternoon we had reached the foothills of the hills and the riders were eager to hit the ghat roads.
Lesson 3: When riding up ghat roads lean into the turn. Yeah I know, all ye seasoned bikers know this. But a lesson is still a lesson. I had to start slow on the ghat roads, and when I mean slow, I mean slow. Took me a while to understand the mechanics of making the turns at faster speeds. I am sure that I will probably need a few more rides up such hills to get to a decent level.But I sure had lot of practice as we rode back and forth on these roads for numerous photo shoots. This route up to Yercaud took us through some pristine jungles. We could not see the sun at any spot. The jungle canopy was complete. A cacophony of sounds from monkeys, birds and other animals I could not even see filled the trees. As we rode up, every feet of elevation made us feel the chill in the fresh mountain air.The rest of day light was spent on getting maximum photo opportunities done and by the fading light of dusk most Yercaud residents were aware of the bullets in town as our thumpers reached the lake side.Home for the night was a large dorm style room in a resort and all the weary travelers could unwind for the night.Sunday morning brought along with it a cold mist and a chilly wind. After breakfast, we started the ride down to Salem. Here is lesson 4.
Lesson 4: The rules for riding uphill is different from riding down hill. Difference, down hill is more difficult. Again photo shoots meant all riders going back and forth choice hairpins and curves for our photographers to make the best of it. And this meant some more practice for me. And by this time, I was getting a hang of riding the ghats. And I realized why my fellow riders were looking forward to the ghats so much. One has to be experienced this personally to feel it. But a close explanation will be like riding a roller coaster at high speeds with no rails or stops, only depending on your skill as a rider and your bike to take you through the next curve. All I can say is it took some ten minutes for my heart to stop pounding and come back to a normal beat after I had done the ghats.
Once the ghats were done, I believed we were going to have un-eventful ride back to Chennai. But was I wrong, and how wrong I was. On the way back we took a diversion of the highway on to an old stone quarry. A dirt track lead to the entrance of an old stone quarry, and another rubble strewn path lead up to the quarry proper, an imposing stone cliff 50 to 60 feet high. Here the bikers stood for group and individual profile pictures. Each of us tried our own mini version of off roading as we tried to ride our bikes to position for our turn to be photographed.Now, we had seen all surfaces, smooth national highways, patchy & bumpy stretches of state highways, adrenaline pumping ghat roads, dirt tracks leading to no where, rubble patch that drove us right up the cliff wall and sandy surfaces that made your bike go in two different ways and took you in a third.With all these photo shoot breaks, sun down on Sunday saw is in Krishnagiri and some good ways from home. Tea and hydration completed, we prepped up for a night ride. Visors were cleaned, riding glasses were put away and lights were checked. I was not expecting any rain this late in December, but again I was wrong. As we approached Vaniyambadi, the skies opened up on us and it started to rain. Not a drizzle or a few showers, but serious heavy, blinding rain.
Lesson 5: Ride as a disciplined pack. This is not for show or for solidarity; it helps as one rider takes cues from the other and can keep all safe. The rains only let up as we crossed Poonamallee into Chennai late in the night.Well for a first time rider, I have had the best of all surfaces, all weathers and all riding conditions. Learnt a lot of lessons (the five listed are just a selection), learnt a lot of what my bike can do and cannot, what I can and cannot do on this bike, some more learning on my gear which I will implement.
Footnote: Proper riding gear for all riders is important.
Ride Safe............Ram Srivatsan
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