[ashwinprakas]

Well it's been less than 6 months since I've procured by lovely er...Ahem manly Bajaj CT100B, which honestly is a dream come true for any true blue enthusiast who is experienced enough to opt for a single pot 2 valve configured air cooled motorcycle in 2017.

• A random photo taken during the ride. A beauty! Isn’t she?
  
  

Now all that was left of me was to clock some decent mileage which my day to day office runs and weekend sprints left unfulfilled which led me to ponder about the possibilities and that's just about the time a fellow biker brought up the idea of riding to Valparai.

I've been to Valparai before, but that was circa 2013 but the ride was as unplanned as the literary meaning could state, a simple 800+ km's run ended up being a 1300+ km's run due to various silly reasons. Having learnt from our mistakes this time around we decided to make it a 2 day run and booked a hotel at Valparai.

Now introducing the riders;
1. Athul Sivan on his 2011 Hero Honda CBZ Xtreme.
2. Ganesh Nair on his 2017 Yamaha Fascino.
3. Yours truly on my 2017 Bajaj CT100B.

Now for those of you who might be wondering why we're on commuters, well keep wondering cause it's one of those things which if you don't get it then you just won't get it.

Day 1:

Athul and I started from Trivandrum sometime after midnight and headed to Kottarakara from where Ganesh would be joining us, we opted for the MC route as it was obviously the better choice.

From Kottarakara we continued on the MC route towards Alappuzha via the MC route and entered the NH via Changanassery Bypass, we stopped by a shop which runs 24/7 and had some Avocado juice which Ganesh had developed a craving for considering its rumored effects on virility.

Soon after we reached Kochi from where we had breakfast, I was running the lead and had left the rest behind as the mutual agreement was to stop at the first BPCL fuel station to fill up and well I didn't spot one for a long while, which got the rest fairly pissed at me especially since the Fascino's fuel tank capacity is roughly around 5L's. For those who believe that a 9 to 6 in the corporate sector is awesome, well this is the level of IF, IF-NOT conditioning you’d be subjected to.

• A selfie taken while I was waiting for the rest to catch up, man did I get an ear full when they finally arrived.
  
  

After filling up it was decided that we’d be taking the Athirapally-Vazhachal route which meant that I’d be the designated watchman until Athul and Ganesh returned from exploring the waterfalls, having been there numerous time during my daily internship runs from Kollam~Trissur and back circa 2014 on my Discover 100 I was the least interested to spend time there. But having stayed back proved fruitful I was able to prevent a bunch of monkeys from vandalizing our rides, but I couldn't guarantee the same for other rides parked in the near vicinity, unfortunately its a common occurrence in the area hence watch out if you’re ever riding there.

• A photo I took while standing guard, a naughty monkey was ripping apart seats and almost stole the Fascino's floor mat had'nt interrupted
  
  

Back on the road I was insisting the lot to speed up as I’d met a tour operator while standing guard and he advised me to clear the forest as soon as possible due to the possibility of wildlife being a threat.That didn't require much convincing as we were able to spot fresh elephant poop en route not to mention the trampled trees.

• Calling for help is not an option due to poor reception. But for those intending to travel with the help of Google Map's fret not as there are no deviations to get lost.
  
  

The Malakkapara route was full of twisties and not the desirable kind as there was debris all over and the banking was off at the apex of some corners which would not have been a concern if I was riding solo but as that wasn't the case and as Ganesh was leading things were different.

The dude was on heat ripping apart every corner in sight, now you might be wondering how a scooter can pose as a thread to motorcycles, well the center of gravity of a scooter enables it to stick to the ground and with potent MRF’s on both ends it was just a matter of minutes before the main stand was scraping. Now I did not face any scraping issues on the CT100B but I did loose the front end a few times and this is with a tank bag at the front and me humping it to transfer more weight to the front but thanks to the short wheelbase recovering was a piece of cake. In all the commotion we did forget about the Xtreme which was struggling to keep pace due to the MRF Mogrip at its rear which did anything but grip!

Once we were on to decent roads we were accompanied by two groups, once consisting of tourers on Royal Enfields and another younger group consisting of an aggressive Classic 350, Duke 200, FZ25 and a passive Classic 350 nearing the Sholayar checkpost where I had to handover a slip which we received at the Vazhachal check post, the RE bunch stopped for a break and it was just us and the younger bunch of assorted motorcycles.

Within 5 minutes of clearing the check post Ganesh and myself was reminded of our previous Valparai run where the exact same police officer who entered our details earlier had denied us entry resulting us having to ride a lot more than intended, but that wasn't all we were reminded of. The flowing corners of Valparai held a nostalgic appeal for us as during our previous run we both had belted our rides in hopes to be permitted across the check post even though that endeavor didn't end well we unknowingly cracked open the throttle and before I could grasp the situation the group of assorted riders were also gunning at it, all except for the passive Classic 350 who let us pass as soon as we honked, a gentleman among us hooligans.

Ganesh was in the lead followed by the C350, Duke, myself and the FZ25, I’m sure they were surprised to see a Fascino take the lead as I also remember an instance where Ganesh had taken a sharp corner at speed with his leg out which resulted in a couple coming from the opposite direction stare at him with jaws dropped.But his stint ended as soon as the first speed breaker showed up as scooters don't behave well to speed breaker which I know from experience and also have a scar to show for.

The C350 seized the moment and flew past the Fascino, so did the Duke, knowing very well that we do not break formation you would’ve guessed that I would’ve slowed down to stay with Ganesh, but nope! The CT100B welcomes anything Indian roads have to offer without breaking a sweat as proven in previous occasions where even the NS200 and Ninja 250R had a tough time keeping up and this was nothing different while the suspension took care of the speed breakers I transferred my weight to the outside foot-peg leaning a bit to the outside for clearer sight so that I could point my nose with confidence and counter-steer, and in a matter of corners I was leading the pack.

But knowing good things wont last long, I was not the least surprised when the C350, Duke and FZ25 flew past me shortly after ascending the uphill section. After which I rode at a relaxed pace with nothing much in mind when it hit me! Athul!

After waiting for a while Ganesh joined we together waited for Athul and just as we were about to go back to check on him, Athul comes and just as he nears us he applied his rear brake to demonstrate the level of grip his tyre offered, not a word was said after and we together headed towards our room.

• Another selfie taken while I was waiting for Ganesh and Athul, I've mostly taken selfies as my phone's rear camera had started acting up.
  
  

No sooner we reached we freshened up, went out and bought ourselves some exotic beef, why exotic you ask? We paid 750’ish for 2 curries and a fry along with some chappaties, who so much? Well we had a hard time finding a hotel that had beef in the menu so we pounced on the first instance a hotel agreed to provide the same as long as we promised to accept delivery at our room rather than eat at the hotel. Man! Of all the shady instances where I’ve procured questionable things in life, this had to be the most hilarious instance of them all.

The rest of the night was spent listening to Ganesh whining about how bad the food was especially since the last time we were in Valparai we had been to a wonderful Mess which served beef, but neither for love nor lust for beef could I recollect the exact location of the same resulting to which we had to settle with what we could find.

All hope was not lost as we had an ‘Old Monk’ to comfort us and we were fast asleep in the hopes to wake up early the following day to be back on the road as soon as possible.

Day 2

The next day wasn’t that bad The Monk as always did not betray us and we were up and ready within no time, ready for breakfast that is. Ganesh lead us to Mary Matha Mess(the mess I was referring to earlier, Ganesh took it upon himself to find it and succeeded) and we had the best Idly we’ve had in a while, in Malayalam there’s a euphemism comparing an Idly to a Flower well I used to think it was overrated until I had felt the ones in front of me, WOW!

Soon after we had been back on the road, the chosen route was Govindapuram, Pollachi which was nice and fun but for some reason we were all feeling a bit mellow and decided to keep it slow, in some corners I’d even put my leg down for no apparent reason.

• We spotted the 'Tahr', if it weren’t for this experience I would not have known of its existence
  
  

We reached Kochi after a small lunch break at Trissur where neither for love nor for money would the chef add sugar to the lemonade in spite of us repeatedly complaining.

At Kochi the prime destination was Decathlon, to my distaste we spent a lot of time there, though I did not hate the experience, my on-road experience from over the years has taught me that every minute spent resting is a kilometre more on the highway.

Once we got out I was a little more disappointed to know that we’d be staying longer to meet a couple of enthusiast friends, talk about taking advantage of a trip! Even the Jap’s would be baffled by the efficient utilization. The only upside of the this section of the evening was that I got to reconnect with an awesome off roader I met during the 2017 xBhp ISG2G, one of the very few Royal Enfield people I’ve come across in my existence that actually deserves some respect, cause hey! It’s not every day you get to see a Machismo 500 running circles around super-bikes.

After spending enough time here and there we were about to embark on our return run when the CBZ Xtreme threw a tantrum, the starter relay had fouled as a result of which the motorcycle had to be push started, which would’ve been a piece of cake if not for the fueling which was completely off, I guessed the same to be due to an air leak considering the age of the motorcycle but later on the issue was diagnosed to be a faulty choke plunger.

Finally having settled all concerns we were back on the road and reached Alleppy within no time, we left the NH and headed towards the MC route after having another fill of Avocado juice. The last 100 km’s stretch was the most troublesome as I was completely drained and riding in standby mode, Ganesh had to circle back and encourage me to keep pace with the lot which eventually I did after we stopped for a coffee break. Caffeine though gives you the necessary kick at times should not be consumed in excess as the same dehydrates you and makes you weary, to counter which we had substantially hydrated ourselves before getting back on the saddle.

The next and obvious stop was at Kottarakara, where Athul and I parted with Ganesh and resumed on the MC route to Trivandrum, nearing the final 20 kms stretch we had to stop as we both were having issues following the road as for some reason our headlights were bouncing off the road and everything below appeared white. But that did not bother us much as we resumed riding at a slower pace and parted ways at Venjaramood, from where we went to our respective homes.

Whoop! And that was the end of that! Until next time then.

P.S In the following posts I'd be uploading pictures taken by Ganesh segregated by dates, the ones taken by myself are limited thanks to my not so dependable smart-phone.

[ashwinprakas]

Day 1

Route taken:

1. Trivandrum ~ Allapuzha via SH-1,
2. Allapuzha ~ Vazhachal ~ Malakkapara ~ Valprai

Photo courtesy: Ganesh Nair

• Stop at Kottarakara, from where Ganesh tagged along.
  
  
  
• Stop at Alleppy, for the acclaimed Avocado Juice.
  
  
  
• The Avocado Juice, believe the Hype!
  
  
  
• Stop at Aroor, the stop was necessary as it took a bit of running around for me to be bring my adrenaline levels up.
  
  
  
  
• Ticket counter at Athirapilly
  
  
  
• They might appear to be harmless but don’t be fooled!
  
  
  
• These were taken by Ganesh while he was exploring Athirapilly with Athul, and I was battling the baby monkey for his Fascino's carpet.
  
  
  
• Stop after exiting the forest, the look on our faces says it all.
  
  
  
• Couple of photos taken at Sholayar
  
  
  
  
• Last photo of Day 1, when we went for a stroll to have some dessert after dinner.
  
  

[ashwinprakas]

Day 2

Route taken:

1. Valparai ~ Govindapuram ~ Allapuzha
2. Allapuzha ~ Trivandrum via SH-1

Photo courtesy: Ganesh Nair

• Our excitement got the best of us and we arrived at the Mess even before they could set shop.
  
  
  
• That’s me having the best Idli ever!, period.
  
  
  
• The Mess hadn’t started serving tea but we had to have it so we wandered off to the next shop to find this. Which obviously was not an educated decision considering the time spent for the same.
  
  
  
• Finally! A view to behold, though Ganesh looks super excited in the photo, the ride was slow paced, we literally soaked in the experience.
  
  
  
• A few random photo's taken before reaching Pollachi.
  
  
  
  
  
• A nameless waterfalls en route.
  
  
  
• The Nilgiri Tahr, my first experience with them, they seemed docile but something about their eyes creped me a bit, it was like staring into the eyes of a soul-less being.
  
  
  
• Somewhere near Govindapuram, we had to panic brake as this beauty was trying to get to the other side of the road and got confused in between, luckily the Fascino was equipped with wind tones which scared him/her off the road.
  
  
  
• Mirchi Dhaba, Kalamassery. This is where we had our dinner from, and where we met a couple of our old biker friends from the old days. I still insist on this being another uneducated decision.
  
  

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing!

[yogesh.8984]

Kudos to you ashwinprakas and your fellow explorers for making such a long ride on commuter bikes. I have myself done 400 KMs a day on Honda Unicorn and can understand the grit and passion of riding irrespective of the ride itself.

[DImPo]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

[*]We spotted the 'Tahr', if it weren’t for this experience I would not have known of its existence

Lucky you! We went to Valparai specifically to have a sighting of the Nilgiri Tahr but not lucky enough. Did you come across Lion Tailed Macaque near Valparai?

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by yogesh.8984

Kudos to you ashwinprakas and your fellow explorers for making such a long ride on commuter bikes. I have myself done 400 KMs a day on Honda Unicorn and can understand the grit and passion of riding irrespective of the ride itself.

Thank you. And I can sort of relate to touring on the Honda Unicorn as I used to tour interstate on the Hero Honda Karizma, splendid ride if you leave out the random stuck valve issue plaguing Honda motors of the era.

Originally Posted by DImPo

Lucky you! We went to Valparai specifically to have a sighting of the Nilgiri Tahr but not lucky enough. Did you come across Lion Tailed Macaque near Valparai?

Nope, unfortunately we didn’t and to be honest I had to use Google to know more about the Macaque. As for Nilgiri Tahr, Wikipedia tells me that they're plentiful at Eravikulam National Park, haven’t been there but I get the feeling that I'd be visiting once the monsoon rains settle.

[coriollis]

Great pictures mate. Never been to Valaparai, now I have to make plans for it I guess..

But the pic I enjoyed most was the Mirchi Dhaba pic with Nana Patekar sharing the wall with the two legends..

[vjkamal]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

[*]A nameless waterfalls en route.

I have passed through this route many times and have been wondering about the same name board. Seems like it is the name of a locality. Now how does it sound when someone says, "Hi, I am from Waterfalls"

BTW, kudos to your enthusiasm in touring!
Glad that you didn't compromise on safety in spite of riding a commuter. I have never seen anyone with full safety gear on a commuter, sparing the testing folks from 2 wheeler companies.

[sparky@home]

That was a nice write up on your road trip, nice photographs too.I can see it was an enjoyable trip for you guys.

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by coriollis

Great pictures mate. Never been to Valaparai, now I have to make plans for it I guess..

But the pic I enjoyed most was the Mirchi Dhaba pic with Nana Patekar sharing the wall with the two legends..

Do give it a shot and make sure you come via one route and leave via the other, gives you an all-round experience. But do keep in mind that the Malakkapara route has restrictions hence it would be best to clear the same before 4PM.

Originally Posted by vjkamal

I have passed through this route many times and have been wondering about the same name board. Seems like it is the name of a locality. Now how does it sound when someone says, "Hi, I am from Waterfalls"

True! To add more details I had asked a Tamilian colleague of mine to read out loud the Tamil part and I was fairly surprised when he said that it read Waterfalls in Tamil.

BTW, kudos to your enthusiasm in touring!
Glad that you didn't compromise on safety in spite of riding a commuter. I have never seen anyone with full safety gear on a commuter, sparing the testing folks from 2 wheeler companies.

Thank you for reading!

As for safety people think of it as a luxury which is a rising problem among young and old alike.

Irrespective of what you ride, if you fall you die if lucky and if not then you end up spending the rest of your days with pathetic quality of life.

Originally Posted by sparky@home

That was a nice write up on your road trip, nice photographs too.I can see it was an enjoyable trip for you guys.

Thank you for reading

[Shekhar2509]

Great ride-log buddy! Riding to places on commuter bikes is indeed not an easy task; requires a sheer amount of dedication! I say this because I have undertaken on such ride- a 560 km trip to goa and back on commuters, namely Bajaj Pulsar 150, Honda Trigger and Yamaha Fz (our group consisted of 5 people, all riders).

Planning since long for a trip to the 'God's own country', only to be postponed because of some reason or the other! Hope the plan materializes someday!

Cheers!

[Azzitcr]

Proof enough that you dont need cubic capacity to satiate your wanderlust. Being a nutcase is enough

Your trip reminds me of my own maiden trip to the Himalayas on a Bajaj Pulsar 135. 1200km with a pillion and the screams of the tiny motor trying desperately to reach long distance cruising speeds was esoteric. Not to forget the fact that these commuter bikes are never kind to the bottom and back on long trips. It requires you to be a proper nut case. Enough said.

Brilliant pictures. South India is so beautiful. Makes me loathe my Gurgaon

-Peace and respect

[br_876]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

Do give it a shot and make sure you come via one route and leave via the other, gives you an all-round experience. But do keep in mind that the Malakkapara route has restrictions hence it would be best to clear the same before 4PM.



True! To add more details I had asked a Tamilian colleague of mine to read out loud the Tamil part and I was fairly surprised when he said that it read Waterfalls in Tamil.


Thank you for reading

The name is of an estate - 'Waterfalls estate'. People skipped the estate name over time.

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by Shekhar2509

Great ride-log buddy! Riding to places on commuter bikes is indeed not an easy task; requires a sheer amount of dedication! I say this because I have undertaken on such ride- a 560 km trip to goa and back on commuters, namely Bajaj Pulsar 150, Honda Trigger and Yamaha Fz (our group consisted of 5 people, all riders).

Planning since long for a trip to the 'God's own country', only to be postponed because of some reason or the other! Hope the plan materializes someday!

Cheers!

Thank you for reading.

The displacement is well suited for the riding conditions, along with the suspension, riding posture and what not. Day before yesterday had done roughly 500 km’s on my P220 and man, my thighs are still screaming from the off road abuse.

Definitely worth the experience, I’d suggest you head to the Hill Stations and coastal areas to get a good feel of the place, I’d also suggest you outright skip the cities as the traffic management is pathetic in Kerala.

Originally Posted by Azzitcr

Proof enough that you dont need cubic capacity to satiate your wanderlust. Being a nutcase is enough

Your trip reminds me of my own maiden trip to the Himalayas on a Bajaj Pulsar 135. 1200km with a pillion and the screams of the tiny motor trying desperately to reach long distance cruising speeds was esoteric. Not to forget the fact that these commuter bikes are never kind to the bottom and back on long trips. It requires you to be a proper nut case. Enough said.

Brilliant pictures. South India is so beautiful. Makes me loathe my Gurgaon

-Peace and respect

Thank you for reading.

The P135 is an awesome machine, perfect for some serious highway fun, though like the bigger NS200 she struggled on inclines.

The CT100B is ages ahead of the P135 and my previous D100 in terms of seat comfort, which is why I prefer it over my P220, the SNS shocks are tailor made for Indian terrain compared to the Nitrox shocks.

India as a whole is breath-taking. Touring the country is ultimately not a matter of money but that of courage and I hope to muster up the courage to attempt so at least once in this lifetime.

Originally Posted by br_876

The name is of an estate - 'Waterfalls estate'. People skipped the estate name over time.

Now that makes perfect sense! Finally the mystery of the place called ‘Waterfalls’ rests.