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1600km trip on my Tiger 660: Decided to ride instead of taking a flight

18th December 2023, 13:33 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

My friend had to ditch his Honda CB500X in favour of the Toyota Fortuner at the last minute due to heavy rains.

BHPian CrAzY dRiVeR recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Bangalore - Trivandrum - Guruvayoor - Bangalore ~ 1600kms

The last of the old rides I'll be documenting here - this ride happened in early September 2023 and was the second ride to Trivandrum. Flights were very expensive due to the festival season of Onam and hence decided to ride down instead.

A month prior to this, I had done Bangalore -> Trivandrum on my Aerox 155 scooter without any issues and hence didn't cross-check anything before starting this ride. Turned out to be a mistake as the average temperatures were much higher in TN as compared to a month earlier (I had assumed the reverse). Towards the end of the ride, it became quite a struggle to keep myself from getting dehydrated and finally required a couple of days rest after reaching home to get rid of the tiredness.

Post this struggle - I was looking for options to break up the return into two parts when my CB500X friend mentioned his intent to visit the temple at Guruvayoor. So on the return journey, I agreed to join him at Guruvayoor and ride back together from there. However, he had to ditch the CB500X in favour of the Fortuner last minute due to heavy rains in Bangalore and so we ended up alternating between the car and the bike on the way back.

Also met up with my cousin who was driving down to Bangalore in his Kia Sonet and we managed to catch up and drive together from Dharmapuri to Krishnagiri.

This was also the ride when the CB500X upgrade was finalized. My friend took over my bike from Coimbatore post breakfast, and I didn't see him till the lunch break at Krishnagiri. He says he had an absolute blast, one that would hurt his wallet eventually - for he went and booked the new Street Triple 765RS. He finally decided to retain the 500X for touring and have an additional bike for fun.

Onward:

Started from home by 5:15AM. Covered ~150kms and reached SaiSangeet near Thoppur by around 8AM for breakfast.

Panniers come in handy once again!

Had a good parallel run with this Super Meteor 650 for some time and had a chat with him when starting from here. Lovely bike in his opinion, except for the stiff rear suspension.

Post breakfast was a good run covering almost 350kms in 4 hours. Skipped lunch as well. However, turned out to be a poor decision in the end - because when I neared Kovilpetti - I was already feeling stressed by the heat.

The Tiger Sport resting it out for 30 minutes while I try to cool down

Needed a couple more breaks to cool down and drink water, but finally made it home by around 4:45pm after almost 11.5 hours of riding. The heat took a heavy toll on the body and required a couple of days of rest after reaching home to get rid of the tiredness.

Our cat checking out who is the new entrant and if it's safe to come in

Dropped off the bike for detailing the very next day:

Onam

The main highlight is the sadya on Tiruonam day. We usually go out for a short drive to see the lights and decorations post nightfall, but rain dampened the spirits quite a bit.

Post Detailing

Got PPF done on the bike finally, the panniers especially were starting to collect scratches from accidental boot kicks every time I got on or off the bike. Went for UltrashieldX from The Detailing Mafia thanks to my previous good experiences with the center in Trivandrum.

Return

Started on Saturday morning from home by 5:45AM. Due to all the National highway expansion work happening in Kerala - I took the MC road via Kottayam instead. Stopped for breakfast at Kottarakkara by 7am. Spent an hour at my cousin's place in Vaikom and finally reached Guruvayoor by around 2pm

How's that for road presence (or the lack of it)

Spent the evening visiting the temple.

Started the return on Sunday at 5:15AM. Stopped for breakfast after Coimbatore L&T bypass. Started again by around 8:30AM and my friend took over my bike, not to be seen again till the lunch break at Krishnagiri. He says he had an absolute blast, one that would hurt his wallet eventually - for he went and booked the new Street Triple 765RS. He finally decided to retain the 500X for touring and have an additional bike for fun.

Met up with my cousin who was driving down to Bangalore with his Kia Sonet and we managed to catch up and drive together from Dharmapuri to Krishnagiri.

The Fortuner towering over the younger crossover SUV: