[himadrimondal]

Originally Posted by Mik

Plan:
Friday evening - exit Delhi before friday jams in my Figo - Go beyond Agra till some place where I can catch 2/3 hours of sleep.
Start early on Saturday morning (Say 3 AM) and target to reach the Panagarh turn by 6.30PM (The ilambazar - santiniketan route passes through a forest which isn't safe after 8 PM)
Wifey will be giving me company - hates driving

Tuesday early morning - Cannon ball run from Asansol (4AM) to Gurgaon(12 AM)

Is the above plan doable?

My experience
20 hours + rides on the bike once in a while.
25 hours - Delhi to Pune run with one hour sleep.
I generally drive 10kmph faster than the similarly paced traffic (Upper cutoff is 110kmph with occasional bursts if the roads are too good)

Specific Queries
1. Any place to stop beyond Agra where I can get 3 hours of sleep.
2. The timelines - Its critical that I reach Panagarh by 6.30/7 PM.

Kolkata - Delhi in a day is very much doable, I did it this year on August 9th, 2013
Left Kolkata at 4am in the morning, reached Delhi CR park at 11pm in the night, 19 hrs straight.

If you get the timing right, with a certain amount of luck, Delhi in one day is very much doable.
You can get my details here.

[Baddychat]

Originally Posted by Mik

I have a 4 day extended diwali weekend coming up and am thinking of giving my folks in Santiniketan a surprise if feasible.

Plan:
Friday evening - exit Delhi before friday jams in my Figo - Go beyond Agra till some place where I can catch 2/3 hours of sleep.
Start early on Saturday morning (Say 3 AM) and target to reach the Panagarh turn by 6.30PM (The ilambazar - santiniketan route passes through a forest which isn't safe after 8 PM)
Wifey will be giving me company - hates driving

Tuesday early morning - Cannon ball run from Asansol (4AM) to Gurgaon(12 AM)

Is the above plan doable?

My experience
20 hours + rides on the bike once in a while.
25 hours - Delhi to Pune run with one hour sleep.
I generally drive 10kmph faster than the similarly paced traffic (Upper cutoff is 110kmph with occasional bursts if the roads are too good)

Specific Queries
1. Any place to stop beyond Agra where I can get 3 hours of sleep.
2. The timelines - Its critical that I reach Panagarh by 6.30/7 PM.

Hello Mik
Why dont you stop somewhere in Agra. Get some sleep and leave early early next morning.
I believe you would be driving down from GGN so it would take you atleast 3.5 hours to get to the end of the expressway and considering the fact that Friday is Dhanteras you could add in a little more time. Start at abt 3 from Agra and then you should be able to make it by 6:30 - 7 in Panagarh.
My 20 hour driving times included mostly relaxed driving and a car that has notoriously low GC . I had a decent amount of luggage in the boot.
If you leave at 3'ish from Agra, you would reach Varanasi by 11-11:30. The rest should be doable by 6:30 - 7.

[Mik]

Originally Posted by anandjha

Gunjan Resort at Sirsaganj.

Thanks! Will keep this in mind. I am looking for a reasonably priced room with safe parking.

Originally Posted by himadrimondal

Left Kolkata at 4am in the morning, reached Delhi CR park at 11pm in the night, 19 hrs straight.

Got the motivation shot I needed seeing your log .
Binsar can wait - this year no Diwali - only Kali puja!

Originally Posted by Baddychat

Why dont you stop somewhere in Agra. Get some sleep and leave early early next morning.
Friday is Dhanteras you could add in a little more time. Start at abt 3 from Agra and then you should be able to make it by 6:30 - 7 in Panagarh.

Thanks! Dhanteras is an important point. Never considered that. I am keeping my options open. Friday is reasonably relaxed at work so might be able to leave early and secretly target Kanpur!
If we do get delayed - will stay put at Agra/SirsaGanj.

[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by anandjha

The other day I was chatting with my tyrewallah during routine alignment, balancing process. When I asked him about the anti-puncture sealant he said that he doesn't recommend it. Any comments!

In case you wish to buy a anti-puncture sealant, I guess you go for Ultraseal. This company claims that they are approved by the US navy, US postal department and even by the NASA! A friend of mine had applied it in his car more than a year earlier for about Rs 5000/- and reported me that he has since driven over 25000 KM in his Skoda Octavia without a single puncture. And it was through the Skoda workshop that he first came to know about this product.

[anandjha]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

In case you wish to buy a anti-puncture sealant, I guess you go for Ultraseal. This company claims that they are approved by the US navy, US postal department and even by the NASA! A friend of mine had applied it in his car more than a year earlier for about Rs 5000/- and reported me that he has since driven over 25000 KM in his Skoda Octavia without a single puncture. And it was through the Skoda workshop that he first came to know about this product.

Thanks. You see I have this. And it has been ~45,000 and I haven't had any flat tyre, except for a sidewall cut. But on the other hand, in case of the stock tyres (the tubewala) I had used them for around 42,000 and experienced punctures on 2 ocassions, that too at the fag end of the lifecycle of the tyre.

The point the tyre man had is that anti-puncture sealant leads to vibrations on speeds above 80-90. This is something that I have experienced with the new set of tyres but am not sure whether anti-puncture sealant is the culprit.

Theoretically it is possible since the sealant is in liquid state inside the tyre it might add to wobbliness. And this is what I want to confirm.

Originally Posted by Mik

Thanks! Will keep this in mind. I am looking for a reasonably priced room with safe parking.

It's good. Infact one of better places on the entire stretch of NH2. Had stopped there last year for quick tea while driving to Dhanbad. Seemed like a family place as well. But mind you I was there around 10ish. If you go behind a few pages in this T/L a BHPian had spent a night there and had found no reason to complain. May be you can PM him.

[Mik]

I am back from traversing the NH2 over the holidays.
Thanks to the wealth of information here and inputs regarding hotel stay.

Route update

Friday 3.30 PM from Gurgaon to Kanpur TRH 11 PM

Agra to Kanpur is intermittently patchy due to deformities. The jams at Firozabad and Tundla can be a pain. Watch out for party flag clad Scorpios and Safaris. They demand space and you better give it to them.

Saturday- 6AM Kanpur to 6PM Santiniketan

Kanpur bypass is a delight. However, wrong side traffic can be an issue.

Allahabad bypass is a delight. However, its imperative to slow down near the little bridges. The car will bottom out badly otherwise.

Varanasi - Allahabad stretch has lovely roads but is a potential killer. Too much wrong side traffic. In one instance, a truck was coming from the wrong side and a jeep was overtaking it!

Varanasi - Sasaram is a mix of very good, good and some wavy roads.

Loved the roads through Jharkhand. Beautiful landscapes.

Bengal roads are a pain with intermittent potholes and barricades and red lights on the Asansol Durgapur stretch.

The return was a Asansol to Gurgaon run in 17.5 hours yesterday.

[mkbksc]

Have they not repaired the deep furrows( tyre tracks) on the road s especially in the firozabad kanpur stretch?

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by mkbksc

Have they not repaired the deep furrows( tyre tracks) on the road s especially in the firozabad kanpur stretch?

1 month ago, I found the NH2 between Kanpur and Ferozabad very good, did not find any summer melt or deep furrows in the north-bound direction.

[Nonstop-driver]

Good! I may be taking this road to Samastipur via Mohania-Ara-Patna tomorrow. Thanks for the valuable information @Mik & HVK

[Mik]

Originally Posted by mkbksc

Have they not repaired the deep furrows( tyre tracks) on the road s especially in the firozabad kanpur stretch?

They are present at some patches. However, nothing to worry too much about. I could maintain around 100 kmph comfortably.
The only real pain was the Varanasi - Allahabad stretch due to the mad traffic, invincible pedestrians deciding to cross the road wherever they felt like it, suicidal bikers going the wrong way on the high speed lane and the local traffic treating the highway as two seperate roads.

[Dry Ice]

OT -

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

2) TPMS by Tyreprobe

Joy, any thread on the forum you put more info on this? I am on the lookout for a reliable TPMS retrofit and just chanced upon this post of yours.

How much did it cost you? I saw some kits on Amazon - from as low as $50-60 till about $129-140. From their site, it seems they are importing these and have local dealers selling them. How reliable has it been so far? Any issues faced?

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

OT -


Joy, any thread on the forum you put more info on this? I am on the lookout for a reliable TPMS retrofit and just chanced upon this post of yours.

How much did it cost you? I saw some kits on Amazon - from as low as $50-60 till about $129-140. From their site, it seems they are importing these and have local dealers selling them. How reliable has it been so far? Any issues faced?

DryIce
The company in question is @ www.tyreprobe.com. You can find more information that I posted here.

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Now Rahi is a place I've stayed in over and over again, because it's located opposite the Benaras Railway Station inside a lane.


Large space for car parking, no traffic noise at night. Clean, cheap, reliable. Since most of my trips have been in winter, I had never needed to look for an AC room before. I remembered a new hotel in the vicinity of Rahi, which had underground parking. So into the same lane we went, and pulled up at the Hotel Plaza Inn.

Shamindra da -
From Vishwa Sundari Bypass, it is around 14 km to the general area of Cantonment station. A search on makemytrip resulted in hotels in the similar price bracket and similar facilities however much closer to the VS Bypass and on Route 29.
curious as to your preference for staying close to Cantt station?

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

curious as to your preference for staying close to Cantt station?

Nothing in particular, except familiarity. I'd stayed at the Rahi for the first time in 1988, when the highway ran right next to the Cantonment station. The last time I went into that area (i.e. entered the city) was in 2009.The last few trips, I've driven the whole stretch without an overnight break, and not bothered to look for any hotel.

Edit: I think my preference also conforms to my pet theory about why there are so many livestock on the highways. Not too long ago, the highways didn't exist, and were grassy grazing grounds for the cattle. Once the highways were built, the animals couldn't figure out how the grass disappeared and tarmac came up (I guess the 'homing in on grazing grounds' behaviour is also passed on genetically). So they continue to stand in the middle of the road, hoping the grass will reappear. Likewise, I suppose till a few years ago, I simply homed in on a hotel / area that I was familiar with, and didn't bother looking for anything else!

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by himadrimondal

If you get the timing right, with a certain amount of luck, Delhi in one day is very much doable.

Originally Posted by Mik

I am back from traversing the NH2 over the holidays.

Originally Posted by Baddychat

Did the Delhi - Kolkata- Delhi route during DP. Nothing much to complain about the roads. The following are some of my observations

Originally Posted by Baddychat

Hello Mik
My 20 hour driving times included mostly relaxed driving

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

The last few trips, I've driven the whole stretch without an overnight break

I am still planning the December end DEL-CCU trip on an excel
(what else - )DEL-CCU-Trip Planning.xls

This thread and related threads have been very useful input - particularly posts from all who have recently traveled during Durga Puja/Diwali/Dhanteras/Kali Puja. I thank all of you once again.

While many of you have done this stretch in a day, I cannot attempt that due to various reasons , instead I have planned on a halt at Varanasi.
I have not yet decided , what would be the length of stay at Varanasi , but that does not impact planning the drive. So Day 1 and Day 2 may or may not be consecutive days.

The excel contains the various segments for this trip, with some assumed start time, distances by segment , an estimated average speed on the segment, and probable time of day when the segment gets done.

The estimated average speeds for these segments are purely based on my judgement after reading many comments on the thead.

Please let me know if these estimated speeds are just right, too aggressive or too conservative.