Motorcycle Riding is much more than an adventure activity. You get the adrenaline rush through bungee jumping as well as sky diving, but motorcycle riding, according to me, is a lot more than that. I have always loved traveling and I plan to travel as much as possible before my time runs out. But I am grateful that I started long distance touring on motorcycles, for it has been much more fun than simple traveling and adventure.

Riding a motorcycle literally forces you to live in the moment as you have to be focused and alert all the time. It gives you the freedom from your daily tensions and trivial issues putting you at peace with yourself. If you want to know why, compare motorcycle riding with other adventure sports. Even with bungee jumping and sky diving, you always have a safety net. A car also has a lot of safety features for the driver but in a motorcycle, it is much more risky and therefore it demands total and absolute attention of the rider.

As a rider, you have to be more alert as even a small mistake can lead to a big crash and severe injuries as… Read the rest

This was to be my longest ride till date. The best I did before was a 768 km ride in 48 hours, and this one was meant to be 1300 km spanning over 4 days. We were going to pass through national highways, forests, ghats and were also going to do some off roading along the way. I was sick of doing many single day and two day rides and wanted to do a longer ride, so this was my chance and I lapped it up.

We left Bangalore on Friday at 8 AM expecting it would be a long day considering we planned to cover more than 500 km and reach Dandeli by nightfall. We started well but were soon delayed by nagging problems with one of the bikes. Though this meant we lost a lot of time, it also ensured proper rest for all of us. We managed to reach Hubli, which is around 430 km from Bangalore only after sunset and it has also started raining by that time. We headed towards Dandeli which was another 100km of riding through not so good roads but were again stopped in the ranks by a flat tire. After… Read the rest

I woke up at 5:15 am. Shit! We had planned to meet at 5:30 am at Hebbal before riding to Nandi Hills. Spending a good saturday evening with friends might have made me press the snooze button a few times more than I normally do. I gave myself 10 seconds to decide between the bed and the bike. Me writing this post means the bike won, and I was off at 5:30 am from home, reached Hebbal at 5:45 and thankfully, they were still there. Twenty two Royal Enfields!! Wow!!

We started our engines, and started cruising towards Nandi Hills. I looked down, and saw the tarmac beneath as we left the city. Cool wind was blowing against my face and I was “in the” scene. This is the feeling you can only get on a motorcycle, and I felt glad to be on one of the best motorcycles available in our country. Every sight turned towards us as 22 thumping bullets made their way uphill.

Atop the hills, it was a little cold. After breakfast and some chit-chat, we decided to head back. You can’t keep a rider away from his machine for long! Stopped… Read the rest

Many people have asked me that when I decided to buy a bike, why did I choose a Royal Enfield Thunderbird? Well, my answer is – I didn’t decided to buy a bike, I decided to buy a Royal Enfield bike and choose the Thunderbird among its offerings. So what inspired me to go for a Royal Enfield? And how I am finding the experience so far? Discover the answers to these questions in the following paragraphs.

Long Distance Riding
I was always loved traveling and enjoyed wherever I went. But long distance riding on motorcycles was something which always excited me. I have always heard about how adventurous these trips can be, how wind blowing in your face can give you an exhilarating experience. Moreover, on my trip to Mashobra with my 99acres team in 2008, the tour was organised by one such person who used to organise motorcycle rides regularly. A biker dude… u can say!! We hit off somewhere during that trip and since he was also from Delhi and living not far away from my place, we became good friends. So he was the one who inspired me to try this out… Read the rest

I went to a camping trip with a few of my friends. I asked one of my Keralite friend about his native city, he told me about a place in Kerala I had no idea about. Then some time later he asked me whether I had been to any camping trips before. I told him I had been to Rishikesh, and he talked about the Shivling made from ice. He was mistaking Rishikesh for Amarnath. This incident illustrates clearly how vast is this country and how much do we really know about places and people of our own country.

In the north, we have the mighty Himalayas. We have tourist places such as Ladakh, the Kashmir Valley, Shimla, Manali, Dharamsala and so on. We have pilgrimage centres like Vaishno Devi and Amarnath Shrine. Millions of devotees throng to these places every year. Kashmir’s beauty is so amazing it is called the heaven on earth. In the Kumaon and Garhwal ranges of Uttaranchal, we have holy places like Gangotri, Yamnotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. In the east, we have the fully mountainous state of Sikkim and Buddhist monasteries there are a major attraction. Further east, we have the pristine beauty of… Read the rest

Murphy’s Law proved itself to me on two consecutive weekends. First, the plan to ride to Pondicherry with some friends on the Christmas 2009 weekend was cancelled at the last moment. Then, a ride to Lepakshi on 3 Jan with the Royal Indians club started off badly with the clutch cable giving up as soon as I started. So the ride to Bandipur on 9th-10th Jan was awaited with much enthusiasm.

We were 4 of us on two bikes, my Thunderbird TwinSpark and one Yamaha. Bandipur is a widlife sanctuary about 220 km from Bangalore. Just after you cross Bandipur, you get into Mudumalai Tiger Reserve which falls in Tamil Nadu. We got two tents for the one night stay near Gudalur, around 15km after Mudumulai Reserve on the way to Ooty.

We planned to start at 6am on 9th January, and finally started at 6:30am. We took the Mysore Road out of Bangalore and after the initial city traffic, we were cruising at around 80km/hr. We took a break at 8:10 am for tea after around 60km. We left again at 8:25am towards Mysore. The highway towards Mysore (state highway 17) was excellent and we reached Mysore… Read the rest