[Govardhansupra]

Good to have a better half who ride bikes.
Sorry to hear about the unpleasant experience from the goons.
Salute to you for facing the clip-on handlebars of the RC for several hours. RC has one of the most committed handlebar positions. Can you explain why you being a tourer, chose the RC390 over the CBR250R?

[ast.ggn]

Originally Posted by Govardhansupra

Can you explain why you being a tourer, chose the RC390 over the CBR250R?

I had a Thunderbird 500 for touring purpose, which I sold due to various niggles. RC was never meant for touring, it was bought as a fun bike and for short trips. Here it was used as I didn't have any other option at that time. Since I had Classic 500 with me too, plan was to switch the rides on regular intervals so that it would be less difficult for either of us.

[aditbelw]

Thanks for sharing! This time around we usually are in this region spending time with family however situation kept us back in Namma Bengaluru.

Binsar, is my personnel favourite. The fact that electricity supply is not prominent has kept this place serene as many do not want to visit due to this fact. Munsyari, is amazing too but the long drive there has kept many family travellers away from it. Milan glacier trek starts from here and that's one the biggest reasons for seeing tourists in this small hamlet.

Bilaspur, Rudrapur and other tarai (Foot Hills)regions are notorious for these kind of incidents. What you did to avoid the confrontation with the goons is commendable.

Long ago, we had a similar incident while coming back from Ramnagar heading to Haldwani and we were fired upon also. However, we reached a police picket and informed the cops about the incident who just turned a blind eye, till we introduced ourselves . Those goons were caught the same night and we had an escort with us till our destination.

Yes, we do carry licensed weapon now when we are travelling in Uttrakhand on behest of my father. I recon it's good to have a resident contact on you to the place you visit, they can be useful, of course not possible every time or for every place.

Hope to see more pictures of this trip.

Happy Motoring and keep safe

[deepfreak15]

Originally Posted by ast.ggn

Parting Shots, couple of behind the scenes:

Yours Truly


and Mrs. Yours truly



Signing off now and thanks for reading.

Simply Awesome! Lovely pics to boot. I have spent many a night thinking of ways to teach my better half how to ride so I can have fun riding solo and she can tag along. Sadly I'm a horrible teacher and that never materialized, neither does she have the gumption to go out of her way to learn and is thrilled to be a pillion. Though I do keep that hope alive that someday she does learn. Till then I'll be content that at least she has never turned down a bike ride. But you both are really lucky, cherish that!

[MOUNTAINMAN]

Awesome pictures, specially the flowers. Since childhood I have seen my parents enjoying gardening, that makes me take note of the flowers any place I go. Although I am not an avid gardener, but I do dabble once in a while.
What brings your keen interest to photographing the flowers?

Originally Posted by ast.ggn

I had a Thunderbird 500 for touring purpose, which I sold due to various niggles. RC was never meant for touring, it was bought as a fun bike and for short trips.

Originally Posted by Red Liner

I wouldn’t dare ride that 390 in the city, let alone tour!

Agree, unless you get to ride frequently on tracks or around hilly roads, its not comfortable doing anything else on it. RC390 is a totally NO NO for me, riding posture is too committed to make it a usable bike for anything else.

How long has the RC been with you? With 390 Adv available, do you still want to keep the RC?

Originally Posted by ast.ggn

Now the guys had noticed that we were not from the area in all that gear and bags in the saddle, they started gesturing towards us. One of them showing middle finger multiple times and all other kinds of Hindi explicits you can think of.

I was once in Haryana, enroute to Dehradun, passing through village area on state highway somewhere between Karnal & Ladwa, Yamuna Nagar. While I was waiting behind a Scorpio for the traffic to pass the narrow bridge, I closed up behind the Scorpio for vehicles trying to squeeze in jumping the line. This Swift guy trying to squeeze in seemed offended at my gesture asking him what he was doing? He drove ahead of the Scorpio and blocked it, steeped out and started yelling and mentioned that its a Uttarakhand vehicle looking at my car number plate and that i was trying to act smart and he seemed to be trying to gather people against me.
Fortunately the Scorpio guy seemed to be of a nearby town stepped out and intervened and managed in a while to make this guy step aside with some persuasion.

He was hyper for nothing, and to me it seemed that his last visit to Uttarakhand didnt go well given his driving nature with some local cabbies.

I do notice in hills that the cabbies are locking horns between their town Cab association and the next town cab association. Although not all cabbies are the same. These hill station cabbies also gang up against out of town tourist who are loud and drive recklessly. He seemed to be a victim of that.

In the end its always advisable to not engage with anyone while travelling and traveling at nights are a big NO NO.

I had some work in Panipat so I used that route, otherwise I don't prefer travelling through Haryana villages. Ideal route to Dehradun from Delhi is through Meerut bye-pass & Muzaffarnagar bye-pass, it has new wide multi-lane highway away from villages.

Originally Posted by ast.ggn

she jumped in front of the bike and tried to grab one of them by his shirt. When she shouted at them, they realised that it was a female in all that gear and they almost lost control of the bike. Before anything else could be done, they sped off.

Totally uncalled for, its better to let them run away and get rid of them than to get into wrestling unknown of the result in an unfamiliar land. Think of the famous dialogue from the movie BAZIGAAR.

Originally Posted by ast.ggn

With quite a few butt breaks, fuel refills, slow and steady we reached Gurgaon at 3 AM. By that time both my palms were blue in colour due to pressure on wrist from RC. It took 3 days for the numbness to go away.

It was a 650 kms return journey covered in approximately 19 hours.

My back hurts just by thinking of you riding 19 hours (650 kms) on a RC390.
Pls avoid riding into the night specially when solo or with your wife. Its too dangerous to take a chance on the dark highways.

[ast.ggn]

Originally Posted by MOUNTAINMAN

What brings your keen interest to photographing the flowers?

Thanks a lot Mountain man. My wife has interest in photography. Most of the pictures are clicked by her.

How long has the RC been with you? With 390 Adv available, do you still want to keep the RC?

It's been over 3 years now. I was tempted to exchange it for a 310GS during lockdown but price quoted was too low. Given the economic situation due to Covid, I want to retain it now. It still runs as good as new.

In the end its always advisable to not engage with anyone while travelling and traveling at nights are a big NO NO.

I am from Muzaffarnagar and I know how ugly can things get there. Better to avoid any confrontation. Our usual travel plans are supposed to end by 7-8 pm latest.

Totally uncalled for

Yes it was not required and could have been avoided. May be she was frustrated by observing them doing all sort of things. Anyways, glad that it ended safely.

[Frankenstein]

Nice pics, i was there just before lock down too. Things can get bad in north India, especially villages in UP. They will be waiting to create trouble . cops are also helpless sometimes, people have no fear of cops, law etc. Stark opposite from the southern parts.
Heck even guys in German cars want to trouble bikers, let alone the odd village racer .

[mh09ad5578]

Lovely travelog. The end bit was super scary, too adventurous for my liking . You are lucky to have a life partner who is an avid biker too! Me and my friend had driven down from Bangalore to Binsar last September in a Renault duster. Incredible roads and even though an army friend had told us to continue to munisyari we couldn't due to shortage of time. Beautiful pics mate. Thanks for sharing.

[Amrik Singh]

Originally Posted by ast.ggn

Munsiyari


Friend came to say Hi next morning at breakfast

Attachment 2029503

Interesting Travelogue.

I would have gifted "Fair & Lovely" to this friend

Yes there was a big hiccup during late night ride. This is what T/L is for - for others to learn lessons. Anyway, keep the happy moments in your memory. All's Well that ends Well.