Fantastic road trip on TVS Apache RTR 310 accompanied by 2 more riders

One of them was riding a TVS Apache RR310 and the other brought his Royal Enfield Hunter 350.

BHPian doomketu recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Closing off 2024 with a 420 km round trip

As 2024 was coming to a close, a long ride was in order. Since work and domestic responsibilities grew manyfold, I had barely ridden the bike since Nov 20th 2024. I wanted to seek the blessings of Shri Yoganrusimha swamy at Melukote and also Thondanur and prepared myself. A pleasant surprise manifested itself in the form of two other AOG club members joining me in the trip. What would have been a solo spiritual trip turned into a fantastic 420km group ride to seek HIS blessings.

We had a fellow RTR owner who had to bring his Hunter 350 as the RTR was getting some work done, while the other got his RR. After a short and fruitful discussion, we found that we are all on the same wavelength and this made the trip much easier on the mind. The other two were seasoned riders having done almost all of AOG's flagship rides and doing 700+ km in a day, while I, on the other hand, am not so experienced. What I lack in experience, I make up in navigation and AOE skills (area of effect as seen in RTS/RPG games).

On a cold Saturday morning, with temps at 15C, we met up at the Murthy Petrol Pump, Kanakapura road. At 6.50 am, we started from our meetup point at the Nice road junction on the Kanakapura road. We opted to travel via Kanakapura road as the Mysore road expressway is closed to bikes and I don't want to travel over 100km in just service road with speed breakers every 2 km. The overhauled Kanakapura road is fantastic and the natural curves and the backdrop of mountains and fields are easy on the eyes.

The route travelled was Bengaluru--> Harohalli--> Kanakapura--> Malavalli--> Maddur--> Mandya bypass--> State Highway 84 from Mandya to Melukote. The distance from my basement to Melukote is 190km. Connected via the Intercom grid, the to journey was fairly uneventful with us stopping once at Malavalli to check our bearings.

As we wanted to cruise at 80/90 and ensure everyone's safety (especially the Hunter as the engine was getting run in), the RR led the way with me bringing up the rear. I had the navigation running in my bike and was giving advance heads up on turns and potential curves up ahead, much to the RR's delight. I cannot carve out corners, but I will still try to have as much fun as I can, and seeing the RR take the corner like a champ is indeed a fun way to enjoy your Morning rides.

We decided to eat only after the Darshanam and stopped every 1.5 hours to just rehydrate. At Malavalli, a local tea shop uncle rather curiously asked about the 310 twins and was amazed by the looks of the RR. Hunter being ubiquitous does not draw as much attention. The road from Malavalli to Madduru is extremely scenic and I would love to drive through that stretch again. We stopped at Maddur at 8.20 am, having covered about 100km with 1 stop in about an hour and 30 mins. I would say that is a great time.

After having our coffee and attending to our bikes, we started off and were stuck to the service road. After 20 mins of service road experience, we turned north into the state highway 84 that leads us to Melukote. I have been a regular on this route for the past 9 years and I am happy to report that the road is still as it is. Goats, cows and hay bales occupy the roads intermittently, with unscientific speed breakers that might as well break your back hampering our smooth flow. But if you are willing to look past this, the road truly shines in bringing a big fat smile to your face as your bikes cruise through the verdant stretches and enjoy the cool mid morning breeze.

Before I got off on a tangent to explain the significance of Melukote and Thondanoor, let me share the rider experience for the RR and RTR.

For a rider of my heft and height, I faced NO fatigue. Correct body posture goes a LONG way in alleviating any pains associated with the travel and the bike's setup is friendly for Indian roads. I have adjusted the rear to my weight and so I see wonderful results. The bike breathed happily in the pure morning air, something it is deprived of in the cluttered Bengaluru roads and the fuel economy in sports mode with a light throttle hand was 36KMPL. I would say that is fantastic.

I then got to ride the RR for the last 40km, while the RR rider jumped onto the Hunter. The Hunter rider, happily got back on the RTR and flew past us as he finally was free from any encumbrance associated with the Engine run-in period. I absolutely LOVE the RR handling. With a good engine oil, a talented technician and copious amounts of pampering, the RR was smooooooth. I, a man who is scared to corner, was naturally leaning in at the behest of the bike and was partially successful. The bike was a pleasure to drive, but the riding posture is still something that I am not comfortable with.

Melukote is famous for 2 temples and is also the birthplace of former Tamil Nadu CM, J Jayalalitha.

The Yoga Nrusimha Swamy temple is famous in its own right and is a major devotional place and the Cheluvaraya Swamy temple is famous because of Shri Ramanujacharya, who spread Shri vaishnavam 1000 years ago and is an important figure in Vaishnavism along with the Alvars in Southern India.

We reached Melukote without any issues and managed to find a good parking in a shed owned by a flower-selling Ajji (aunty). With our bikes secured and helmets inside her store, we purchased Flowers and Tulasi from her and started our journey to the top. I am terribly out of shape and the 150 steep steps were rather a harsh wakeup call to me, and this is despite me dropping quite a bit this year. Monkeys and goats roamed around unrestricted and septa and octogenarians were climbing the steps without any issues. Sad to say that the temple is heavily commercialised, and with Gandhiji's blessing, we got a sannithi darshan of Nrusimha Swamy and prayed to our heartfelt content.

Once done, we stepped out to admire the view of the surrounding countryside from the top of the hill and spotted our next destination, the Cheluvaraya Swamy Temple, in the distance.

After parking the bikes and navigating through hundreds of school kids and tourists, we entered the temple via special entry and proceeded to the darshan line.

After a calm and peaceful darshan, we finally decided to top up our stomach, as my last meal had been at 8pm last night. We hurried to Subbu's mess nearby, which was recommended to us by several folks. The Puliyogare and Chakkara Pongal with Plain dosai and chutney was FANTASTIC. After eating to our hearts' content, we noticed the time, it was now quarter past noon. As temples close by 1pm we were not sure if we could get a darshanam in Thondanoor.

The road from Melukote to Thondanoor is equally a pleasure to drive through, and we reached there by 12.55 pm. Thondanoor has 3 temples, a Rukmini / GopalaKrishna temple, a Nambi Narayana temple and the Yoganrusimha temple (Which is where I wanted to go to).

Strangely, a young boy on a scooty came up to me and asked for a photo of him standing next to the RTR. Considering there is an RR behind me, this request amused us all and I happily obliged. I expressed my disbelief to the RR rider who just laughed and left it as it is. RTR is a great bike and I love its looks.

We decided to return via the Thondanoor--> Pandavapura-->Bannur section to join back to the OLD Mysore road and connect to the Kanakapura road from Malavalli onwards. We wanted to experience the pure joy of riding and not get bored out of our skull on the Sidelines of Mysore expressway service road. The road was an absolute hoot to ride through and brought out the joy of riding in us. I once again assumed duties as the rear guard and navigator and would let the RR know when juicy curves were approaching. We tackled the numerous curves and smooth roads splitting the farmlands that dot the landscape and finally joined the Old Mysore road.

Had I known that Tirumakoodalu narasipura was just 18km from this junction, I would have gone further and visited the Nrusimha Swamy temple at the Sangamam there, but alas, I was not aware and turned left and continued towards Bangalore.

We stopped to hydrate ourselves and refuel the bike. I got 36kmpl and filled about 8.2 liters of fuel. The Hunter on the other hand had half a tank left. Talk about 42kmpl coupled with a 13 liter tank. The vehicle is fantastic, and is selling in good numbers. One point to note is that till this time, neither me nor the RR rider faced any fatigue and the RTR absorbed all the undulations like a champ and tackled 80-90 in 6th gear at about 4.5-5k rpm. The engine was not stressed at all. The Hunter on the other hand has some challenges for such rides.

Credit where due, the brakes on the Hunter are nippy and we got to test it out in the next 1 hour when an errant Wagon R swerved right from the left most lane, with us deploying emergency braking measures. With choicest words imparted to the Wagon R driver, which only I could hear in the intercom, we started back to an uneventful ride back home. We split after a small coffee break, 15km from our morning meetup point and I took nice road to return back home.

This trip has further motivated me to plan my next temple visit to my native place deep in the land of the Chola kings. With this I bid goodbye to 2024, a fantastic year by default for me, but made even more exciting by the midlife crisis purchase I call my beloved RTR310. As I type this, Appucha is sitting patiently on the paddock stand in our covered parking, awaiting the day I will ride next.

6000km in 10 months, many more to come.

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