Author Archives: Krishna Raj

One Ride 2016

Since my ride from Goa with Road Kings team, I wanted try a ride with Royal Enfield, to know how it feels like. So I registered for One Ride, which is a ride hosted by RE dealers globally on the first Sunday of April.IMG_20160403_073745

Cochin RE brand showroom hosted the ride to Vagamon. Even though I visited Vagamon recently I decided to go for the ride. The registration is done online by Thursday and I paid the fee (Rs 500) at  showroom on Saturday. They offered a One Ride T-shirt, stickers and lunch.

I reached the showroom at 6:30 AM on Sunday with my Bullet, gears and a full tank of fuel. Sadly the ride delayed around 1 and a half hours since we had to wait for some riders, which I obviously hate like all others. Around 60 IMG_20160403_125123Bullets gathered there and we started at 8. Reached Vagamon around 12:30 PM and we drove into the pine forest through the entrance via Mottakkunnu. Parked the Bullets under the pine trees and had some rest there. Spent an hour there and went to have lunch which they arranged at Holidays Vagamon Resort. Started the return ride at around 2:30 PM and reached home around 6:30 PM.

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I enjoyed the ride as a usual ride. But when considering it as a team ride, and that is hosted by RE, I didn’t like it. There are too many issues to point out. The main issue is the ride wasn’t well planned and I could feel the missing of an experienced senior lead. I don’t want to list out all the issues here. But personally, I don’t want to go for another ride like this in future. I think Bullet clubs plans better rides. So next, I want to try one of those. Until then My plan, My ride, My life!! 🙂

 

Fly Vagamon

It was an amazing experience to fly over the hills of Vagamon like a bird. I really enjoyed the glide. I registered for the paragliding event on the redrawlife website along with 2 of my colleagues and confirmed the date and time over the phone. They told me to reach the suicide point(where the gliding happens!!) by 10 – 10:30 AM. DSC06555

We started the ride by 5:30 AM from Vytila on 3 Bikes and reached Vagamon town by 8:30 AM. Had breakfast and headed to Suicide point. Since we had a lot of time till the gliding starts, we went to Mottakunnu. We enjoyed the view and the rope way, which was a “nano adventure” before the main course.

We reached suicide point on time. The event managers and gliders from Himachal Pradesh IMG_20160313_125804943IMG_20160313_105645were waiting there for the wind to become strong. Compared to other gliding points, the specialty in here is, we jump from the hill, goes higher and lands at the same point since the wind here is that strong. So we waited there for a long time while one of the glider had a test ride to check the wind. He went higher and higher until we couldn’t see him because of the clouds. He came back after an hour and said the wind is not strong enough. Around 1:30 PM, they started the tandem jump when the wind became strong enough.DSC06583DSC06566

We waited till 3:00 PM for our turn since the manager promised us a good and long flight if it is at the end. It was an amazing experience we had. It’s beyond words, so I assume my pictures and videos will explain it. The Paragliding cost is Rs 3500 per head. They provided a GoPro cam on the flight to shoot the video and images for an additional cost of Rs 500. For that they will provide a 8GB micro SD card in which your photos and videos are recorded. It is optional though.

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Idea Ka Funda

Idea Ka Funda was a bike rally from Kanyakumari to Mangalore sponsored by Idea Ka Funda, to create an awareness of road safety. Food, fuel and accommodation is provided by them. So many people came from different parts of Kerala in different bikes. But the dominant was Royal Enfield (more than 80%). This was my second opportunity to ride with Road Kings team. I registered to ride from Thiruvalla to Kochi only. I couldn’t start it from Kanyakumari. I went to Thiruvalla to join them. By the time I left Changanassery (on the way to Thiruvalla), they were already started. I joined the ride somewhere between Changanassery and Thiruvalla.2015-12-12 16.33.11

We reached Kochi by 4 PM. There was an event at Hotel Marriott International. All riders gathered at the event. Collected the Hand band (I got 3!) and T-Shirt. We missed the flower shower from Helicopter. Gujarat Assembly Speaker Mr. Ganpatsinh Vestabhai Vasava was the chief guest. Had food after the speeches and Road safety oath. The initial event plan was to continue the ride to Calicut and stay there. Since it was rainy they dropped the plan to ride upto Calicut on the same day and arranged stay for riders at Marriott Hotel. 5 members from Road Kings team stayed to continue the ride till Mangalore and others returned to Thiruvalla.

Had a bath for refreshment from the Club Suite and we spent quite a lot time in there (was that a dream?).

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2015-12-12 22.11.08We went to the Hotel Lounge (near to swimming pool) to attend the event which they spoke about their actual plans. Idea Ka Funda is a platform to encourage investment, entrepreneurship, social, human and conscious development and awareness. Speeches again. This time more peoples (mostly entrepreneurs), shared their experiences and about their incubators facility they provide at their companies.

Had a good dinner after that which was arranged in the hotel itself. I ate Ghee rice, plain rice, Ice cream and finally a pepsi on the rocks! After that riders gathered around a table to ha2015-12-12 22.55.10ve a chat and to know each other. I met a team from Calicut and team KL 14 from my hometown. 5 people came from Kasaragod to participate in this ride. It’s announced that they are going to end this ride at Kasaragod and planned to start the journey from Cochin at morning 5 AM. I came back to my room as I’m not riding to Kasaragod with them.

The ride was good and I can’t forget the moments in Marriott. I don’t know whether I’m going to have a chance to be there once more. I’m thankful to Vishnu from Road Kings team for this awesome experience.

 

Ridermania 2015

It’s my great pleasure to start my blog with a great event I have participated in. It’s the second Ridermania event that was held since I got my Bullet. The only main reasons that I was sad after the event was 1) The event is over and 2) I missed RERM 2014.

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The Ride Begins

It was a great solo ride from Cochin to Goa. I started from Cochin early morning and reached Baga beach by midnight. Around 865 kilometers in a single day. The highway was creepy at night with people who don’t know how to dim their headlamps. It felt better to ride in the day even though I had to make it in rain since Udupi. I think Iron Butt must give me the SaddleSore certification for it (that was supposed to be a joke). The event started on 21st but I reached Goa by 21st midnight only.

RERM 2015 Day 2

When I reached the event next day morning, it felt like I’m in a paradise of Bullets. The Vagator Hilltop had a great energy just by having the RERM event there. It was not hard to reach even though you don’t have a bike or car since Goa is a small place and Vagator Hills is not too far from nearest town.

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I went to the registration counter and collected my RERM 2015 band and stickers. I had registered online for the event around 2 months back. The band is the ticket to the venue and they put a hole on it (which I didn’t liked) when I collected my RERM 2015 t-shirt from inside. I found so many modified RE’s inside and some of them participated in the Custom motorcycle competition.

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There are so many stalls for riding gears and bullet parts. I went through all of them and I found those things I cannot afford. It was the same for food stalls too. I bought a cooked maggi noodles for 80 Rs, which is made of a 5 Rs packet of maggi. From that you can guess the price for the other food items in the stalls. Food was cheaper at AnjunaDSC05607 Beach when I was there last time with my colleagues. The only thing I found cheap is beer which is no use to me. So I had many colas at the same price as a bottle of beer.

I went to register for some competitions like slow race and maze chance only to find all registrations were closed since they had enough participants. The main competition outside the venue was Dirt track racing. It was thrilling because it included many sponsored professional riders.

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Night was blasting with music. Danced madly with Reggae Rajahs and F16s.

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RERM 2015 Day 3

It was so much exciting as Day 2. The main events on the last day was Dirt Track racing finals and Arm Wrestling.

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The dirt track after racing.

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The Return Ride

Just like my all rides, I started my return ride early morning. But unexpected happens sometimes. Just before Canacona, my axle cable broke. Tried to ride by holding the axle cable by hand but it hurts. Somehow managed to pull the cable using a pen and ride up to Canacona.

It was 7 AM and no workshop or spare parts shops available at that time. I found a closed workshop just after Canacona and tied the axle cable to a useless brake pad which I got from the workshop. Pulled the axle using that brake pad and headed to Karwar which was a bigger town and I thought I can reach there while the workshop opens. But I couldn’t make it. Just after 3 Kilometers from the workshop, that brake pad was in my hand. I tried to tie it again. Thankfully a team of riders stopped for me. They had axle cable and mechanic too. They were actually prepared for everything. That’s the moment I realized that I know nothing about Riding and I must learn the basics of mechanics to fix my Bullet myself.

The 6 members from Road Kings Thiruvalla helped me by fixing the broken axle cable for free (I owe you guys). I continued my ride with them till I reach Kasaragod (my home town) at night. I had to stay home for a week. The solo ride to Cochin from home started on next Sunday morning.

I had covered around 2080 kilometers when I reached Cochin and the total budget was around 7500 Rs including fuel, food, room and rider mania registration. That was an awesome trip and I made some new friends too. Waiting for Ridermania 2016!! 🙂