[MX6]

Small query. Is it legal to have the number plate like your's in front? I mean this is the first time I'm seeing the number plate moved to a side and made smaller.
If it is legal, I'd like to move mine to the back side of the rear view mirror

[clevermax]

Long solo drive in a hot hatch! Man I envy you

Solo drives are the best! I don't like it when one more driver is waiting to drive, the thought of giving the wheel to the other guy always spoils the fun of driving

[aargee]

Originally Posted by MX6

If it is legal, I'd like to move mine to the back side of the rear view mirror

No its not leal. The registration plates must be placed on the centre, both in the front as well as in the back. There's only one car that I know that came out of the factory with side registration plate - WagonR second gen.

the thought of giving the wheel to the other guy always spoils the fun of driving

- Very true

[bottle]

Originally Posted by MX6

Small query. Is it legal to have the number plate like your's in front? I mean this is the first time I'm seeing the number plate moved to a side and made smaller.
If it is legal, I'd like to move mine to the back side of the rear view mirror

Its not legal but he has a pair of regular plates in the boot which he shows to the cops and gets off

[planet_rocker]

for a moment - i had a hard time locating the wind mills in the pics (actually i was trying to check the speedo) Lovely travelogue, Rahul.

Rated 5 stars before reading the first post

a small review of the tyres as well??

[srikanthpotluri]

So what happened next? you said your happiness ended soon?

[Nikhilb2008]

oh yeah!! Write an official review of the tyres re.... These tyres that you love so much and you've bought 12 of them in 2 years!

[planet_rocker]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Write an official review of the tyres re.... These tyres that you love so much and you've bought 12 of them in 2 years!

Originally Posted by planet_rocker

a small review of the tyres as well??

i knew something is there about these tyres

but are they still available - i thought Yoko has stopped production of the ES100s.

[bottle]

^they are in special production for rahul

[MAS]

This is one hell of a road-trip. It would be a "dream-come-true" trip if i make it. The longest i have done is Chennai-Erode-Chennai in a day (just like aargee), but Chennai-Mumbai-Chennai "in-a-day" is something i do every 15 days. Apart from the strain, i get good points on my Frequent Flier

Awaiting the details and photos of the rest of your trip

[scopriobharath]

Excellent Man, Keep the travellougue coming - I too went for a Bangalore-Chennai solo on a Thunderbird during October 2006

[ampere]

Nice. Where was it raining? The weather looks ideal!

[Rahulkool]

16th May 10:00am
Well the nightmare starts now.
After Chitradurga, GQ is under construction and there are millions of diversions. sometimes its offroad driving, sometimes you go through some other smaller villages, sometimes the road becomes single lane and you are driving with oncoming traffic, this is the most dangerous.
Many times i had to take out the GPS to figure out how to get back to GQ. Anyways this torture lasted some 125kms, which took some 3 hours to cover.

All the good progress i made in the morning is lost.
Anyways i reached hubli around 1:30. Now the fuel meter is in danger zone and i am desperately looking for a petrol pump.

16th May 10:00am
After hubli till Dharwad the road is single lane around 28-35kms IIRC. Anyways i decided to get inside the Dharwad city to refuel. Very bad decision. as i get inside the city looking at my phone GPS for fuel pump, its battery dies, argh !!!!!
Anyways connected it to the charger but iphone takes its own time to start if the phone is switched of because of low battery.
Somehow i managed to find one HP fuel pump, which is size of a hatchback. Filled petrol and get back on GQ but precious 1 hours is wasted.
note to self never get inside a city for fuel, and just after this detour i saw at least 4-5 fuel pumps on GQ in next 20kms .

16th May 6:00PM
I am about to reach Pune. I can see the sign to take right for pune. I called up my friend asking him to take right or go straight. Hes not picking up, took right and the road to pune was amazing, its a ghat section with awesome view and nice turns, but traffic inside pune city was not. Its complete chaos traffic. at last got call my friend and he asked me to get on the road which goes to mumbai from pune city.

Met him somewhere on the way, he told me if you go now to mumbai you stuck up in the traffic as i had to go to pedder road, which is in central mumbai i guess. He asked me to start as late as possible from pune so i decided to start around 9pm.
Called my sis in mumbai and finally told her i am in pune. She said how come i am coming in train when ticket was not confirm(earlier i had told her that i am coming in flight and will be there 17th morning). I told her i am coming neither in flight nor train. Told her to cook dinner for me too .

after that i had a test drive on friends new SX4 and we went to a pub and he had some beer while i was having juice, remember the Tbhp rules as well as i had to drive later .

16th May 9:00PM
I started from pune to mumbai, filled up again on a shell bunk in pune. Asked if there is any shell pump after pune towards bangalore, he said yes its in bangalore lol. Anyways entered expressway around 9:30 and boy i was happy. Since the expressway was made i always wanted to drive on it hehe.

There was too much traffic on the expressway but still it was moving very fast and everyone was using indicators while changing lanes.
Just one blink of HL and people will move to left with indicators giving you way, i was amazed. If only GQ was like this :(

Lonavala section was the best. entered mumbai around 10:30 IIRC. Switched on my mobile GPS and called sis for some direction, had to take Vashi bridge then sion reached home around 12:00-12:30.

[MX6]

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

16th May 10:00am
Well the nightmare starts now.
After Chitradurga, GQ is under construction and there are millions of diversions. sometimes its offroad driving, sometimes you go through some other smaller villages, sometimes the road becomes single lane and you are driving with oncoming traffic, this is the most dangerous.
Many times i had to take out the GPS to figure out how to get back to GQ. Anyways this torture lasted some 125kms, which took some 3 hours to cover.

Chitradurga to Ranebennur is not that horrible. Reading this makes me wonder whether you did this trip this year in May.
I didn't do any off-roading during my drive in January. The only village (town) we enter happens to be Ranebennur. And there's a bye-pass for that too which I believe is complete now. I'm surprised that you had to take out the GPS to figure out how to get back to GQ.
The road from Hubli to Dharwad is two lane. But you can easily keep speeds of 90 - 100 in that stretch. There are two toll booths for your convenience (hubli as well as dharwad). You could have asked the toll guys for the nearest fuel station on NH4. Anyway, that's for posterity.

[Rahulkool]

Here are some more pics ......