[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by AKSO

Good to see you back with the Ninja 1000 and munching those miles. Chickmagalur was memorable from my recent trip down south in November and those bad roads towards Charmadi are still fresh in my mind. The pictures from your trip have come out really well and bring alive your post. Ride Safe!

Originally Posted by Laks

As always, great to read your travelogue and see the pics!!

Originally Posted by FAKER

Added to the bucket list! :-)

Thanks for the writeup and amazing pictures.

Originally Posted by ex-innova-guy

KarthikK sir, thank you very much for sharing your rides with us.

For people in and around Bangalore, this serves as a ready reckoner thread on where one can tread. Kudos to the enthusiasm that you both possess, and I hope you continue munching many more miles.

Originally Posted by Vinay3832

Amazing pictures and write up as usual, thank you
My wife and I visited Villa Aroor in September this year during monsoons and it was a complete "hit the reset button" to our routine corporate jobs.
The road leading up to the villa are also a bliss to drive on - fresh air and almost zero traffic through the narrow winding roads.

Originally Posted by Simple_User

Great write-up, even better views. Glad you had fun.

Thanks a lot for the kind words everyone, and apologies for the delayed reply, I was on another long roadtrip and missed checking these messages .

Originally Posted by VNair

Beautiful pictures and beautiful ride!
Absolutely loved the Villa, on an average, how much does it cost per day?

Thank you VNair, the rates are mentioned on their website, every room has different prices. We negotiated a better rate due to somewhat off-season time of visit.

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

Beautiful location. I immediately checked it out and bookmarked it. With a newborn at home, plans will not be in motion for at least another year. Still it's a place worth noting especially because of all the other activities that have been included like the factory visit, the guided hikes etc. Seems to be quite worth the money spent.
On another mote, the Ninja with the panniers looks more like a purpose-built comfort tourer rather than a sportsbike. Looks perfect for the role!

Thanks a lot for your kind words that_sedate_guy!

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Haha! That's my usual - my Google Maps is bookmarked with all the locations Karthik has shortlisted / visited. So no planning needed when I need to go on a holiday. Every single place is a class act!

One of my new year resolution is to cover atleast 10% of these places in 2025.

This is too much man!

[KarthikK]

Insurance Renewal Completed for 7th year of ownership (6 years / 72 months completed)

The bike completed six years of ownership in November end. This also meant the insurance had to be renewed for the 7th year. One factor which I wanted to be compulsorily added for peace of mind was the additional zero depreciation cover. Fortunately according to Oriental insurance, if the NCB (no-claim bonus) is over 35% they do have a clause where they can extend the zero depreciation cover even for the 7th year.

With that information, the total premium for the 7th year came to INR 11,251. This is how the insurance premium trail looks after the 7th year of renewal. The zero depreciation cover costs have marginally increased, hence whatever year-on-year reduction in premium (with reduction in IDV) has been gobbled up by the increased cost of zero-depreciation cover for an ageing vehicle, leaving this year's premium almost the same as last year's premium.



Over the years, the insurance premium costs have reduced and eventually flattened out as expected.



Here is a trend graph showing the IDV (Insured Declared Value) of the bike reducing over the years. It started with the ex-showroom price of the bike on purchase date and follows a depreciation formula every year.



That's all I have for now. Until my next ride report, thanks for reading!

[KarthikK]

Ride to Kundapur with BHPian friends (December 2024)

December is usually not a month that my better half and I prefer to do Ninja rides. It is usually the CB500X doing duties on some long roadtrip in December month. We ended up covering a large part of central India by car, through an 18-day roadtrip. I'll write a separate travelogue on that trip later, but that roadtrip was the reason I wasn't able to write this report earlier.

This particular (Ninja) trip happened in the first week of December and with the usual biker BHPian friends' group. It was a simple stag group ride to a quaint beachside bungalow between Udupi and Kundapur, located on the west coast of Karnataka. To space out things considering the ~450km distance, this was planned to be a two night trip instead of the usual one-night affair which might get too rushed. We ended up with the following riders: CrAzY_dRiVeR (Tiger Sport 660), neil.jericho (Duke 390), KarthikK (Ninja 1000), shaikhmimran (VStrom 650), ebmrajesh (Ninja 1000), rbp (on his final ride on the Duke 390) and rbp's non-bhpian friend (Ninja 1000)

Veteran biker and friend CrAzY_dRiVeR has already covered most aspects of the trip in his signature style here, so I will keep this report simple .

We left Bangalore by around 5AM, taking the Hassan - Charmadi route for the onward journey to the west coast. ebmrajesh and myself were a bit early at the start point, waiting for the others to catch up.



neil.jericho and shaikhmimran were running a bit late and decided to join us at the second meeting point post breakfast, while the other 5 proceeded towards Hassan. The line-up taking a break at one of the toll plazas en route Hassan



Breakfast was a simple and quick affair at the newly opened Indraprastha hotel on Channarayapatna bypass. The food was average and the place was forgettable.



We finished quickly and proceeded towards Mudigere via a different route. Instead of the usual Hassan - Belur - Mudigere road which is currently in tatters, we took the Hassan - Sakleshpur - Mudigere road to approach the start of the mountains, and this route was way more enjoyable and in moderately decent condition.





Passing through the coffee kingdoms of Mudigere en route Charmadi







The other riders in this early risers' group with their steeds









Soon neil.jericho and shaikhmimran joined the group at Ibbani cafe, another of our frequent haunts, where we took a short coffee break to savour some cold coffee and their signature Neer Dosas.



Post this stop, we refueled and set off to descend Charmadi ghat towards Udupi. The folks seen in discussion over some route queries.





Once the twisties were finished, the road quality deteriorated drastically and there were plenty of diversions due to road expansion work between Charmadi and Belthangady. I had to take it a bit slowly on some of the broken 'off-road' patches due to the panniers on my bike, while some of the adv fellows in the group nonchalantly enjoyed gliding through the bad patches effortlessly. Some pictures from another break stop after descending the ghats





The Ninja's 11th trip of the year





It would have been around 3PM by the time we reached Udupi. Some others had already reached our planned restaurant stop a few minutes earlier. This restaurant called 'Thimmappa hotel' was appparently very famous for seafood in Udupi. Since I was the only vegetarian in the group, the others enjoyed different varieties of their seafood meal, while I settled for some simple Paneer ghee roast and rotis. Their lime-soda was fantastic though.



Our beach house stay location was a short distance away from Udupi, we proceeded there after lunch and by the time we reached and settled in, it was almost evening. The bungalow was situated in a nice location next to the beach and was equipped with all the basic amenities necessary for a group, but the quality of the services could have been better. One of the unfortunate pitfalls of over-tourism in this region (the property owners never go the extra mile to ensure perfection in every aspect).



We did some timepass on the beach as the December sun slowly descended into the depths of the horizon on the Arabian sea.







For dinner we visited Shetty's lunch home in Kundapur town, with the help of a cab booked by the homestay. Once again, I don't have any pictures to share of the seafood fare (hope neil.jericho will do the honours with his posts on this thread later). The bored veggie in me tried some weird combination of Majjige Dosa (made with butter milk) with Malai Kofta, but it tasted surprisingly delicious, so much so that even the carnivores briefly abandoned their zillion seafood dishes and tried this weird combo !



Post dinner we returned to the homestay and called it a day. The following morning, some of us woke up early to catch some early morning scenes at the adjacent beach. While at it, we lined up the bikes to get some shots with the Arabian sea in the background. My mini-chopper managed to get some aerial shots



The Ninja with CrAzY_dRiVeR's Tiger 660





The west coast of Udupi



A nice portrait of the Ninja, credits to CrAzY_dRiVeR



The Ninja with the beachhouse in the background

[KarthikK]

Ride to Kundapur with BHPian friends (December 2024) continued ...

Some more drone shots spam of the property location and the surrounding beach








St. Mary's island could be seen in the distance



Group shots in the garden lawn of the property, with the Arabian sea in the background









The trio of Ninja 1000s



Solo shots of the black Ninja 1000







After some hours of lazing around and several chit-chat sessions on bikes, cars and travel, the group decided to take a cab and visit a popular restaurant for lunch in the university town of Manipal (a short distance away from Udupi) called Dollops, with the plan spearheaded by local expert neil.jericho. The service was superb and the food was simply delicious.



Post lunch, Neil suggested another place for ice creams, Hangyo, a short walking distance from Dollops restaurant, which the group gladly accepted.



I settled for a simple sundae, and it was superb nonetheless



Post lunch we returned to the homestay. Around evening time some of us left towards Malpe beach to try and get some views of sunset along the beach.

Rbp's well travelled Duke 390 posing on a bridge near a fishing dock. This will be the last ride for his Duke, as he has moved on to greener pastures, quite literally !



My Ninja posing in monochrome on the same bridge



The narrow road along Padukere beach, which separates the fresh water river from the Arabian sea.



Cloudy evening at Padukere beach



The bikes posing with the beach background



The two generations of the Duke 390



I took the drone out again at this location, to capture the lovely and unique location we were at, with the river on one side and the ocean on another side.







Look for 5 small specs to spot the bikes on that road.









Another perspective of the bikes and the location





After sunset we returned to the homestay, where we ordered in dinner and spent the rest of the evening in chit-chat sessions, before retiring for the day. The following morning we woke up early and had the in-house breakfast before proceeding to pack up and get the bikes ready for the return journey homewards.

The line-up of the bikes just before departing



We took a different route for the return journey, opting to climb up Agumbe ghat, and took the Agumbe - Thirthahalli - Shimoga - Hosadurga - Chitradurga route and then the Chitradurga - Bangalore expressway to Bangalore. There was a bit of road expansion work happening between Udupi and Hebri, and once the ghat section started towards Agumbe, the roads became fantastic, and the twisties between Agumbe and Shimoga more than compensated for the initial bad patches and all riders thoroughly had fun between Agumbe and Shimoga, and later the single lane countryside fast roads between Shimoga and Chitradurga. Some pictures of the bikes in the Sharavathi wildlife reserve patches of the highway between Thirthahalli and Shimoga.







Yours truly in semi-rain gear. This time I tried the erstwhile Ninja 400's Shark D-Skwal2 helmet which was languishing in the cupboard, lol!



Lunch stop was at Shetty's lunch home near Sira, just 140km shy of Bangalore. I settled for some Neer dosas with Kaju masala.



Post this lunch, the group departed towards home by roughly around 4PM. As we approached Bangalore, the last ~100km had a persistent drizzle which got heavier as we neared Bangalore, presumably due to the cyclonic depression effect from TN side. I stopped at a local shack to put on all my rain gear, and in the process I lost sight of the others and continued homewards alone at a slow and steady pace through the continuous downpour. I reached home bone-dry thanks to all the rain gear, but the entire bike and my rain gear were completely covered in muck and rain slush, thanks to the continuous spray from vehicles on the expressway, lol! A nice wash at my friendly wash place and the bike was back to its original gleaming self, ready for the next ride.

This short but memorable ride with friends piled on a modest ~1000km on the odometer for the month of December.



That's all for now. Until my next update, thanks for reading!

[AKSO]

Always pleasing on the eye is the Ninja 1000 and three of them together must surely make for eye tonic. That must have been a fun filled ride with the guys and well done.

[autohead666]

Just wondering, why does no one ride a cruiser these days? Is it out of fashion?

[sf-24]

Wow, What an amazing motorcycle tour!

The breathtaking photos on these lovely motorcycles against the picturesque backdrops are just awesome. Nature's beauty captured from the glimpse of these great machines are simply superb.

Thanks for sharing your amazing experience—it's inspiring to see how these adventures can bring together the love for travel and the passion for motorcycles!

I just returned from a ride with friends from Bangalore to Valparai/ Athirampally. Similar distance and shall post the detailed experience soon but can’t match (not even close) to the quality of the photography here I’m based in Bangalore too and will try and join for one of the rides if that's possible.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by AKSO

Always pleasing on the eye is the Ninja 1000 and three of them together must surely make for eye tonic. That must have been a fun filled ride with the guys and well done.

Thanks a lot AKSO sir!

Originally Posted by autohead666

Just wondering, why does no one ride a cruiser these days? Is it out of fashion?

Cruisers are not my cup of tea, but in general my view is that most of them have lesser gizmos, get least of the latest safety and convenience tech features relative to the other segments to retain the old-school retro feel, lesser ground clearance, relatively heavier to lug around and manage, poor pillion ergonomics and in some cases prone to more niggles or poor after sales service network. Even in terms of sheer number of cruisers available on sale, they are small compared to the other segments such as advs, sportbikes or naked hooligans.

Of course they do have a lot of character and oomph and excel in what they are intended to do, but many folks in India who want to travel more or intend to have multi-purpose usage (city use + highway use + possible long tours) would rather choose something more suited to the requirements nowadays, such as a naked hooligan or an adv instead of a cruiser - similar upright posture with tons of other benefits. Most riders who love and pick up big cruisers usually have some other bikes in the garage to takeover practical duties. Just my observation and views, I might be wrong though .

Originally Posted by sf-24

Wow, What an amazing motorcycle tour!

The breathtaking photos on these lovely motorcycles against the picturesque backdrops are just awesome. Nature's beauty captured from the glimpse of these great machines are simply superb.

Thanks for sharing your amazing experience—it's inspiring to see how these adventures can bring together the love for travel and the passion for motorcycles!

I just returned from a ride with friends from Bangalore to Valparai/ Athirampally. Similar distance and shall post the detailed experience soon but can’t match (not even close) to the quality of the photography here I’m based in Bangalore too and will try and join for one of the rides if that's possible.

Thanks for your kind words sf-24! Looking forward to reading your travelogue. Valparai - Athirapally remains one of my favourite roads, through the twisties of the thick jungles in that region. Hope you had a wonderful time there.

[Raskolnikov.R]

You guys are a major source of inspiration!

Thank you for sharing the experience.

Deeply appreciate it.

[supernova105]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

En route Agonda, we stopped at this valley full of paddy fields encompassing rural Goa. October month usually produces the most striking blue contrasts in the skies, and it prompted us to take a short pause to admire the contrasting blue and green landscapes all around.

Attachment 2670631

Amazing travelogue, and I can only imagine the joy of riding a Ninja through the serene NH66

We had also made a visit from Pune to South Goa during Dassera last year, and passed through these paddy fields on the way to Palolem from Colva, courtesy rented Activa's and Fascimo's, found all over Goa

It was cloudy and drizzled a bit as well post our photography halt.

We were surprised at the presence of paddy fields at such an uncanny location.
The entire stretch of NH66 till Palolem and the ghat after Bally (a small town en-route) was a pleasure to ride through, with the constant drizzling and the ephemeral sounds of Konkan railways' trains passing by.





Our trusty rented Activa 4G which was close to 53K on the odo, but didn't break a sweat even at 60 KPH with 2 occupants:

[KarthikK]

2024 - Year in Sport Touring

As 2024 went by and a new year has begun, I was just looking at some statistics and pictures from all the trips done in 2024 and thought it would be a nice idea to update this ownership 'diary' of sorts with a summary post of all the fun experiences that we cherished in the past year. I won't bore readers with full fledged statistics like I had done here (Living an evolved dream: My 2019 Kawasaki Ninja 1000 ownership review. Edit: 6 years up!). Instead I'll just focus on what was done during this past year and how some overall usage statistics were updated after 2024.

Last year saw a mix of various genres of trips - heritage properties, exploring local art and culture, hiking trips, places of historical significance, natural beauty and some self-pampering relaxation trips as well.



Experiences and memories galore, thanks 2024!





Varieties of properties done in 2024



Variety of sceneries and sights of trips done in 2024



Trip category splits from beginning to now



State coverage splits from beginning to now have some updations with 2024's trips coming in. Hopefully we get to cover a bit more of the lesser covered sectors in the months to come.



With the end of 2024 the usage patterns chart looks like this. 2023 and 2024 have been fantastic years for the Ninja's touring, averaging 10,000km per year and ~800-1000km per month just from pure touring to varied destinations and properties.



As expected, the 2-up overnight trips' sector takes up ~3/4th of the pie chart and that will continue to be the case in future as well.



The bike as usual performs flawlessly as always, never failing to put a smile across our faces every time we step out for a ride. Here is a snapshot of memories of the Ninja from the trips done in 2024





With widespread availability of IOCL's XP95 and even XP100, the fuel usage statistics over 6+ years looks like this now. There is almost nil usage of regular petrol and any other brands too, thanks to XP100 and XP95 available in every nook and corner of South and west. For those rare occasions there is still HP's Power95 which is equivalent to XP95.



The bike is still on the third set of tyres and the Michelin Road 6 tyres look they have another 4-5k km of life left after clocking roughly ~12k km so far. Fingers crossed to see how much more life they give me, but I have made up my mind already, to go for the same Michelin Road 6 again for the subsequent replacement considering their overall longevity, grip levels and ability to handle a fair bit of off-roading (quite common to have 2-3% of bad roads/no roads during our travels).

Here is the tyre usage timeline so far



The Ninja will be taking a break from (overnight trips) travel for the next 3-4 months, while we plan to do trips with other vehicles in the garage and also focus on travelling outdoor more with our German shepherd in the next few months. The second half of the year will be more active for the Ninja 1000 for touring, so this thread may be updated less frequently in the first half of this year. Until the next ride report, thanks for reading!

[after]

Great write-up, Karthik. I have just one question - how do you keep it so clean? All these photos and I barely see any dust on the bike, even though black panels usually show every little speck

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by after

Great write-up, Karthik. I have just one question - how do you keep it so clean? All these photos and I barely see any dust on the bike, even though black panels usually show every little speck

Apologies on the delayed response, I was out on travel as usual .

At home the bike is always under cover in a closed garage when not in use. It is washed after every trip and only taken out on trips (not used for city commutes or breakfast rides), so pictures taken are also during trips (when it is clean to begin with and washed right after), so there is hardly chance for it to get too dirty to be noticeable in pictures . That said, I don't bother to keep it clean during trips at all, say if it rains during monsoon trips and stuff like that. The whole bike has a PPF layer, and the post-trip washes ensure no dirt on it. All in all, I don't put any extra effort in keeping it spotless, apart from those post-trip washes, hehe!

P.S - Black is often the most misunderstood color, it doesn't show much dirt on it in pictures, lol!