[Rhik94]

Hey Everyone,
I have been contributing to a few threads sporadically but here goes my first full blown travel report out of the Assembly Line. Do let me know if you have any feedback to better my posts going forward.

One dreary Friday evening, Turbonath, Justwheels and I randomly planned for a One-Day ride to Mahabalipuram. A huge shoutout to them for being such amazing sports in making this one-day "no agenda" ride a beautiful success.

Quick Intro of the riders and their machines:

Turbonath (Atreya) on his 2019 Kawasaki Ninja 1000 aka Ikigai:


Justwheels (Debashish) on his 2022 KTM Adventure 390:


Rhik94 (Sarthak) on my 2011 Honda CBR 250R:

Atreya and I had been itching to ride for a long time and quickly decided that the upcoming Sunday we would do a day ride to Mahabalipuram and back. While Atreya wanted to test his newly acquired DJI Osmo Action 4, I had fitted a fresh new set of Apollo Alpha H1s and wanted to run-in the tires. Soon we had a third member in the plan and Debashish too decided to join us on this ride.

Prepping the motorcycles the night before:

The route we took was Tin Factory-Kolar-Chittoor-Kanchipuram-Chengalpattu- Mahabalipuram. This was the default route as suggested by Google Maps and we did not deviate much from the same.

On June 16, 2024, sharp at 5AM, the three of us set out in the darkness with a single agenda in mind, "Ride to our heart's content". We quickly crossed KR Puram market which was delightfully less chaotic than usual and set our sights towards hitting the open roads. As we crossed the Hoskote toll plaza, the three machines settled into a happy purr, and we were at Narsapura in no time. Initially we had decided to stop at the quaint little CCD at Narsapura for an early morning shot of coffee but very conveniently all three of us forgot to stop and kept riding. We were witnessing a splendid sunrise and the three of us collectively just wanted to keep on riding into the horizon.

We encountered slightly heavier than usual traffic and after riding for a little over an hour, we reached Mulbagal and stopped for a cup of tea.

Tea stop at Mulbagal:

Hereon, traffic cleared up considerably and we were cruising at pretty good speeds.

The trio cruising blissfully:

Once our stomachs started growling for food, we pulled over for breakfast. We had steaming hot idlis and dosa. The piping hot dosas were yum and even better were the accompaniments of chutneys that were served.

Resuming from our breakfast stop:

Having filled ourselves up, we geared up and started riding towards Kanchipuram. This stretch of road had quite a few diversions but nothing too bad. We had to wait on the shoulder on a few instances to let oncoming windmill blade bearing trucks pass safely.

Me pointing at the only right way to go:

By this time, the day was getting warmer gradually, but we pressed on till we reached the junction of Chengalpattu. At this junction we stopped for a breather under the shade of a flyover and rechecked our bearings towards Mahabalipuram. Incidentally we also spotted a test vehicle of the now launched Mahindra Thar Roxx while waiting at this spot.

Debashish and I discussing the just spotted camouflaged vehicle:

Once on the move again, the heat started making its presence felt. To make matters worse, we got stuck in the city traffic momentarily. The combination of the heat and traffic made Atreya fret a little as the Ninja 1000 was not having any of it and its temperature reading kept rising. Luckily, the roads cleared up soon enough and we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere next to an under-construction flyover. We approached a few locals to guide us and that is when we got to know that the under-construction flyover is the new bypass that is being built. One extremely helpful gentleman asked us to follow him so that he could show us the road that led to the main highway. We followed him at a snail's pace for the next 10 minutes dissecting the city and eventually got back on to the highway. We continued riding on the highway for the next 30 minutes before stopping for a hydration break. The Tamil Nadu heat was belting us and a water break had become necessary.

The Motorcycles taking a breather:

At this point, we were about 40 odd kilometres away from the Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram. We decided that we would first visit the Shore Temple and then look for a lunch spot. The idea was to find an eatery next to the sea and have a lazy seafood lunch. As we reached the parking premises of the Shore Temple, we found ourselves amid utter frenzy. This was to be expected since not only was it a tourist spot but also a Sunday. We were hesitant of parking here and decided to head to a restaurant that we had spotted on our way. Once we had parked our rides we entered the restaurant premises. The first blast of air-conditioned cool breeze was enough for us to unanimously agree that we will spend some time here before venturing out. Soon this agreement transpired into a very detailed discussion whether the visit to the Shore temple was worth it in this heat. We spent about an hour bouncing off ideas while blissfully sipping a tower of Madras cooler. Now Debashish and I have been to Mahabalipuram multiple times so the visit to Mahabalipram was mainly for Atreya. Atreya justified that rather than us visiting each of the POIs he would have more fun sending his drone and experiencing the aerial shots of the city. Talk about laziness and how the heat changes plans!!!

The God-sent Madras cooler:

Once we were done gulping down the Madras Cooler and other titbits, we made our way to the lunch spot off the coast. Ikigai had its fan moment here as a bunch of curious onlookers wanted to know all about the green monster. Once Atreya had patiently answered all their queries, we made our way navigating through the narrow lanes of Mahabalipuram and reached Searock Restaurant. Initially finding a spot to park our motorcycles was turning out to be tricky, but the restaurant folks very graciously arranged for a spot in the adjacent property.

The Searock restaurant is right next to the coast with the view of the Shore Temple in the background. It is so close that tables right next to the windows get a generous mist of sea water every time a big wave crashes on the embankment.

The pretty looking windowside tables:

The allure of this restaurant was mainly due to its proximity to the shore though the food was great too.
We had reached around 1 PM, just before most of the lunch crowd walked in. We were promptly seated at a table and our brains went into overdrive trying to figure out what all do we order off the menu. We pounced on servings of prawns and satiated our desire to have sea food.

Butter Garlic Prawns:


Ghee Roast Prawns:


The day's fresh catch:

In a typical Sunday afternoon fashion, the place was bustling and there was a fair amount of waiting to be seated. This meant that our plan of having an idyllic lunch was out of the window (no pun intended). We had an amazing lunch, trying out various seafood items and each one of them were extremely tasty. Once we were too full to even move, we dragged ourselves out of the restaurant and started clicking photographs of the beautiful Bay of Bengal and the Shore Temple in the distance.

View of the coast:


The Shore Temple in the background:

Soon after, Atreya brought out his drone and started taking shots of the entire coastline. He has also uploaded the video on his YouTube Channel by the name of "The Noisy Firefly".

Aerial shot of the coast:


Aerial shot of the Shore Temple:


Trip Video shot by Atreya:

https://youtu.be/TLPT8IeoMHg?si=v1bNrqSn6GhB4Aoh

It was around 3PM now and the sun was in no mood to show any mercy. We decided against riding back to Bangalore immediately and instead made our way to a place where we could sit and relax on the beach for a few hours. Soon enough I found a spot in the Hotel Tamil Nadu property where we parked our motorcycles under the shade of trees and sat on the beach enjoying the sound of waves crashing.

View from the beach:




A horse checking out our horsepower:

[Rhik94]

After an hour had passed, it was time for us to start our return journey. We decided to ride the ECR for some distance before turning home bound. Before heading out though we came across a beautiful stretch of road where we absolutely had to take a few shots of our rides.

The versatile KTM ADV 390:


The Super Tourer:


The Oldie of the group:


Look at them distinguished gentlemen:


Atreya on his Ninja:


Debashish on his KTM ADV 390:


Me on my Honda CBR 250R:


My CBR under the canopy:


Some random screen grabs from the DJI Osmo Action 4:

Photoshoot done, we headed out and rode until Thiruvidanthai on the ECR and then turned towards Sriperumbudur.

The only shot taken off the ECR:

The road between Thiruvidanthai and Sriperumbudur was narrow and busy. There were multiple instances where we stopped to make sure that we were on the correct route as it was hard to believe that it is the major arterial road on that route. Roads were riddled with potholes and devoid of lane markings. Dusk was setting in and the high beam offenders from the opposite direction were not helping our cause. We managed to reach Sriperumbudur just after the sun had set and stopped for a cup of coffee around 6PM.

At the coffee pitstop:

While we sipped nice hot filter coffee, we were discussing the road conditions ahead and hoped that at least the lane markings be back soon as that made riding that much easier. We decided that we would ride on the same road till we hit Vellore, on reaching Vellore we will branch off towards Chittoor and rejoin NH75 towards Bangalore thereafter. Once we had multiple cups of coffee we suited up and started riding towards Vellore.
It must have been just a few minutes into our restart that we could see flashes of lightning in the distance and a big blob of dark grey cloud ahead of us. It was inevitable that the ride would soon turn into a rainy ride, but we chugged on nonetheless. It started drizzling in about 20 minutes and in the next 15, droplets the size of hail started pelting us. The Apollo Alpha H1s on my motorcycle shone here and I was mighty impressed with a wide grin behind my visor. It induced so much confidence to ride through the rain at good speeds despite my motorcycle not having any electronic aids whatsoever. We continued riding through the rain for the next 20 minutes, before I asked the guys to pull over under a flyover. The raindrops had turned into full fat ones and despite wearing full riding gear they were hitting us with precision and induced pain that of hundreds of needles striking at once. We took shelter under the flyover till the rains subsided. Once the weather got clearer, we continued riding towards Vellore. The weather had cooled down considerably after the showers and I was enjoying the ride a bit too much which made me crave some nice biryani. I suggested an alternate route where we would continue riding after Vellore towards Ambur and gorge on some amazing Ambur style biryani. Debashish and Atreya being the rockstars that they are, agreed immediately.
We ran into some traffic while crossing Vellore, but the ride thereafter was peaceful. We reached Ambur just before the clock struck 10PM.

The 10 PM Biryani spot:


We enjoyed a sumptuous dinner of both Chicken and Mutton biryani accompanied with Chicken Kebabs!!!

The next leg of our journey would take us to Krishnagiri and Hosur before we reached Electronic City. The weather was cool, and visibility was great. There were no sign of rain and overall, it was a joy to ride. By this time, we had ridden about 650 kms since morning and my motorcycle's intense vibration issues started rearing its ugly head out. My palms were starting to turn numb in the last 100 kms. The stretch between Krishnagiri and Hosur was the most painful one for me. We stopped once in between for me to take a break. This was more of a teething issue with my motorcycle which makes riding beyond 600 kms a day on this particular CBR painful. Other than this slight hiccup, the ride was extremely pleasant.

The unplanned but much needed break for me:


A Happy Pupper:

At midnight we reached the Attibele toll plaza for our last pitstop.

The last stop and the only one with three of us in one frame:

We decided not to take the Electronic City Flyover as Debashish’s home is in between the two ends of the flyover. Once he had branched off, Atreya and I took the Inner Ring Road towards Indiranagar and made our way to the Tin Factory flyover. Just before the Tin Factory flyover we bid each other goodnight and headed to our respective homes which was just about a kilometre from this point on either side. You can say we had our "When I see you again" moment here.

Thus, the one-day ride concluded roughly at about 1:15 AM, or about 20 Hours and 15 Minutes since start.


Though Debashish and Atreya had to ride a lot slower given that I was riding a pre-owned 13-year-old man which should have seen better days, the entire journey was indeed amazing. Neither did we lose track of each other, nor did we have any untoward incidents with any squids on the road. It was a genuinely very well coordinated ride which is something that is not found too often when riding in groups.
We rode for approximately 800 kms without any agenda other than riding our motorcycles and completed our ride of Bangalore-Mahabalipuram-Bangalore all hale and hearty.

Special thanks to Atreya and Debashish for contributing with photographs in order to compile this travelogue.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[SS-Traveller]

Beautifully written & described, thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by Rhik94

The Searock restaurant...

...brought back some very pleasant memories (Eat, Pray, Laugh | Our Silver Anni-verse-ary / Annoy-versary Trip to Pondicherry & Mahabalipuram)!

[justwheels]

Thanks @Rhik94 for penning this down. So nicely put and you have captured the emotions of the trip so nicely with the write up and the wonderful pics.

It was a great drive after a long gap for me and a good stretch of legs for my ADV 390. The early morning ride on the Tirupati highway was just so good and I remember how all 3 of us had the itch to stop and take a pic of the rising sun shining dead ahead and the glistening grass on the divider. It was a mesmerizing scene to say the least.

Also, loved the riding steads, the mighty Ninja 1000 is a delight to ride along, that thing is a beast and munches miles like anything. Our @Turbonath is living a dream with that machine. And the underdog, Honda CBR250R, it was an awesome companion and never felt left behind. That machine was a pinnacle at its prime, and still drives so well in triple digit speeds, says a lot about the rider and the machine both.

My KTM Adv 390 has never let me down till now and while forums are filled with comments of how the suspension is not ideal and it's nowhere a value for money bike, but you just hop onto it and twist the throttle, and in no time those comments fade away. It's a lovely machine that I love covering distances on.

Special mention to my GIVI top box (), which played an important role to gobble up important luggage items needing a safe locker. That's one investment that I value above everything else, adds a whole lot of practicality to the machine.

It was an amazing first ride with the guys (have driven in the Thar group with Atreya - @Turbonath - earlier couple of times). The seamless coordination on and off road really made the ride memorable. Keeping the sweltering heat of Mahabalipuram aside, it was a wonderful ride, especially the relaxing time at Tamil Nadu Tourism resort. Many thanks to @Rhik94 for the suggestion, really made up for the egg boiling heat we had been riding in, through the day.

I do not have any other pics to add, @Rhik94 has aptly covered all above and sincere thanks again to him for writing this up. Cheers for many more rides together.

[AKSO]

Enjoyed reading about your ride and especially about the Ninja 1000 which make me want to also pull a long ride on my N1K. The South rocks and it is the preferred destination for my annual long ride. You can check out the last South ride here (Kawasaki Ninja 1000 & Ducati Multistrada 950 S Ride to South India 2023) and if you go to my YouTube channel there are plenty of more rides there.

Ride safe!