Sunday morning, Aug 4th I woke up at 4:30 AM and had a big task in hand.
Rewind back to Saturday afternoon. I was having some free time, and as the saying goes in Tamil – the jobless barber will tonsure his wife if he has nothing else to do – I decided to clean my MT Helmet.
On the previous ride a bird had decided to do its job on my helmet which I had wiped with a leaf. Some of the white stuff was still left behind and it had dried.
After making the outside Chaka chak, I pried out the 3 cushions from the inside of the helmet – and soaked them in a bucket. I have this helmet for 8 years and thats 8 years of sweat that came out. Yes I was yukked out too.
It was around 4pm now. Cloudy and no sign of sun. I squeezed as much water as possible – and left it to dry.
5pm. Still lot of dampness. I borrowed San’s hair dryer – her priced possession – a Dyson hair dryer – which comes in a jewellery box! I was admiring the Engineering of Dyson while drying the 3 cushions.
ps : If you guys want to get permission for a Ladakh trip – first get this hair dryer and bring up the subject.- might work!
It helped a bit but still there was dampness. Then night I kept the cushions on a shelf top – closer to the fan – hoping the draft will dry it completely.
Sunday morning first thing I did was to check the cushions. It had worked – they were dry!
Now this is the first time I am assembling these back. Took a good 20 minutes before I could fit them smug.
Job done, I got ready and armoured up and hit the road by 5:30 AM towards Indira Nagar Big wing.
At HAL Junction I saw another guy armoured up in a Highness. I waved at him but he just road past me. Huh – what a rude HBC guy I thought.
But he did not take left to Jeevan Bhima Nagar into Indira Nagar – but rode straight towards CV Raman Nagar. Not a HBC guy. He would be wondering who was that crazy guy who waved at me!
This time I reached within time and the usual chit chat was going on. There were many new faces – for me – more veterans of the group had come this time.
We started around 6AM and hit old Madras Road. When we came down the KR Puram bridge we were greeted with a nice fragrance. There was almost a kilometer stretch of flower vendors on the left side of the road. One of the perks of biking – typically which we will miss cocooned in an AC car.
At 6:30 AM there was so much traffic at KR Puram and lucky none of us got lost. But after a few minutes the traffic eased and it we left the city behind.
Stopped for breakfast at Aaradhya Grand at Kolar – and had a sumptuous breakfast. Their star item was Mulbagal Dosa.
This hotel attracts lot of bikers. Here is a Who’s Who of Elite bikes on this planet. Towards the end you can see a Highness had sneaked into this Elite list! The Red one with a Sofa for pillion is the Honda Gold Wing. First time I am seeing one in Bangalore.
We then resumed our journey and entered Andhra.
“Welcome to Sunrise State” the board said. Did some R&D on your behalf. This was the term coined by Chandra Babu Naidu in Feb 2015. Technically it is Arunachal Pradesh which sees the Sun rise first.
And immediately felt my innards heating up.
Whenever your friends joke about Bangalore’s Traffic and your retort on but the weather is better – holds good. Just 2 hours away from Bangalore and here I am getting cooked inside. We can fix the traffic, but weather – it is God’s gift to us.
We took a break closer to Horsley hills – after riding for almost 2 hours.
I recorded the climb up the hill – had my Gopro on my chest – so this is the view a kid would have got sitting on the petrol tank. I have to yet figure a way to fix the Gopro to my helmet.
Have to say this – there is something riding a bike on a hill. Very addictive.
We road almost 150 kms one way from Bangalore just for these twisties.
It was a rocky plateau and the view was amazing.
On the summit we had a bit of introduction and handing over badges to newbies.
The oldest rider in the group – Mr.Pratap – a core member of HBC- is turning 60 next month and retiring from a 32 year stint at Tata. He had lot of stories to tell.
The youngest rider in the group – was a Super woman – just 19, in her 1st year of College! She was riding a CB 300F – and was riding super confidently throughout. Hats off to her Dad for letting the biking gene flourish! He had presented this bike on Woman’s day.
That evening I promised Prithvi – I will get your learners license in 11th summer break – 2025, and a proper license in his 12th summer break – 2026.
One newbie in his introduction said he recently added Highness to his garage. Someone asked how many do you have. He has 8 bikes and a Hayabusa was one of them. He complimented the group for being disciplined and riding with full gear!
Around 1pm we started back, stopped at a random Dhaba around 2:30 PM – who was a bit overwhelmed to see 21 hungry bikers. Yet they managed to feed us all.
We pushed off around 4:30 PM and after a brief stop and bye-byes at Hoskote toll reached home around 6PM.
Mission statistics 😉
A 12 hour outing. 320 Kms. Around 1300Rs expense.
Breakfast : Rs.270
Entrance to Horsley Hills : Rs.30
Lunch : Rs. 190 ( was a hand scribbled bill – no GST! )
Petrol : Rs. 800 ( got an average of 41kmpl )
Here are the SM handles for HBC
Insta : Honda_beer_club_bengaluru
