Chennai to cochin!!!!

It was a simple reason... i had to get my bike from chennai to cochin.. and unlike the previous case i DID NOT want to bring it in train (well the last time i did that.. i had to shell out nearly 3000 bucks on repairs!!! not to mention the scratches).. so this time i decided to ride it home!!! so that day me along with my ex-college-roomey Kiran started off from chennai at around 6:30 am. The trip was quite good initially.. the ECR (East coast road) was awesome... really really awesome.. it was greenary on both sides of the road.. the breeze from the coastline was refreshing.. we cruised down the road at nearly 90 Kph.... but it was quite cold... unusually cold.. it was ominous.... then we felt it.. the wind stopped... and the there was silence... then it happened.. a storm that can only be equalled only by something like "the perfect storm". but it was too late to turn back.. so we moved on.. after all we are riding the chariot of the gods... so we continued on the journey even though we did not have even a jacket to protect us... we roared down the high way in order to overtake the storm and get away... guess what?? we did..

the last shot before the storm lashed us!!!

but a trip of this magnitude does not end with just this.. especially when i am the one who is doing the trip!!! so after a mad run from the storm we were nearing Villupuram (near to Pondicherry) when i felt a weird sound coming from the engine... hmmm... no what??? well you are not gonna believe it.. I had a OIL LEAK!!! and the oil was empty!!! god alone knows how my bike was running this far... well i thought of fixing it!!! but hey time is precious.. so i decided otherwise!!

you are not gonna believe what we decided on... we went to a petrol pump and brought 2 bottles of MAK lubricant... heh heh heh... ya the ad says "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE".. not that i take those ads literally but hey how else can you ride 771 Kms with an Oil leak!!!!

well so i filled her up and kept the bottle in my pocket (Military cargos) and continued our trip.. well what we did not see was that the oil leak was just the start of the adventures.. but we knew that we had made a really bad choice in selecting the route... the ECR was the only good road!!! soon we were offroading... with a cruiser!!! god it was horrible.. but ya nonetheless fun!!! well by the time we reached Trichy we were dry... well too dry.. actually dehydrated to the core... the TN sun is really something... still we pushed on.. soon we were nearing Madurai... but it was starting to get dark... then the unthinkable happened!!! the battery cover of the bike became dislodged when we went through a especially large pothole.. it fell on the road... at 60Kph... thanks to kiran i came to know of it (i was having an earphones on)... my Graphics.... yes.. SCRATCHED!!! what can i do but reattach it ant move ahead... and at nearly 7.45 in the evening we reached Madurai.

but by the time we reached there we had a new issue... my chain sprocket was damaged or shall i say worn off.. how bad?? OK lets say that we are supposed to change the sprocket every 10,000 to 12,000 Km.. mine has done 27000 Km without even one change.. heh heh heh.... i know!!! well so due to this my first gear was not working... so i was practically driving on 4 gears now.. and to top it all there was an issue with my clutch plate due to which i wont get power at lower RPM.. but while riding on an NH that's not an issue as we need only the 5th gear...

So even with all this we reached Madurai and checked in to a hotel and had the best sleep ever!!! whew it was so tiring!!! according to our plans we had decided to start at 7 the next day.. but we woke up at 10:45 am... cool na... but even that day was just getting started!!

the bike was parked in the basement of the hotel and the driveway up was paved with tiles.. and those $&%^% guys washed it that morning.. (did i mention the slope of the driveway??? hmmm.. lets say 40 degrees) ok so i took my bike (note the point that i don't have low RPM power and my first gear) and tried driving it up the slope.. ya you guessed it right!! the engine stalled at 3/4 way!!! and there was no stopping it even though the brakes were full.. i went straight back and crashed on to the pillar!!! my bikes beautiful box!!! and my tail lamp!!! gone!! but not so bad as i expected!!! hmmm.. i managed to keep it in place using some ropes and other contraptions!!! finally we started off at around 12:30 from there....

the Madurai - Teni road was awesome.. scenery.. trees... hills... paddy fields.. etc etc.. we covered a lot of ground pretty fast.. then we started our climb towards Kumali.. and interestingly just at the starting of the high range roads i lost my 2nd gear also!!! now i was down on 3 gears and we were supposed to climb uphill!!! cool. so we recalculated our mission statistics and came to the conclusion that we were not to stop anywhere no matter what or we won't be able to move forward again!!! so we started our ascent!! we were doing great as the bike was havin enough power to move up in the 3rd and 4th gear!!

almost 10 Km up we were takin a hair pin turn when kiran told me to look at the scenary.. it was so captivating that i unknowingly stopped the bike... yeah.. stopped!!! i realised my mistake.. but i was too late.. so we took photos there and enjoyed the view before we turned back and went down to start the climb again from start!!! heh heh heh... soon we crossed the kerala border and we met with the familiar kerala roads. we were actually riding like we were in the US.. on the right side of the road!!! why?? see the pic!!!

the rest of the trip was fine.. pretty much.. well at pala we lost the third gear and at chottanikkara we lost the 4th... by the time we reached my home we were not riding a avenger.. but something like the cross of an avenger and an Activa... one geared bike!!!

we were battered by the rain... wind... sun.. stones.. mechanical issues.. food... and what not... but against all odds we reached in time to take the final picture of the trip from the gate of my house!!!

thus one of the most tough n enjoyable trip came to an end!!! we had our share of troubles but the experience is one of a life time... the lessons we learned??? heh heh heh.... lets do it again!

reg

ninja

i