10th nov : Trichy – Chennai

The pic says it all!


A back-up rider?

The 'pipe' made her sound too good...


The Comet was a fun toy on the superb highway..what with the exhaust off!


The rains did try to spoil our party..err..our ride


Riding the Fireblade was scary, but fun too..

10^th nov : Trichy – Chennai

320 kilometers to Chennai, it was 11am and we still hadn’t left Trichy yet! My bike for the day was the Kinetic Comet, whose suspension was soggy, both front and rear disc brakes weren’t working even half their potential, and the horn was almost dead – still I looked forward to making one major change in the bike once we stopped for food on the highway. We tanked up all our machines and headed onto the NH45 to Chennai. The initial few kilometers seemed very disappointing but once the city limits were over, it was better for us. There were hundred of trees cut and lined up on the side of the road which gave strong hints on the coming up of a four lane highway. Ofcourse, if an environmentalist would be riding on this highway, that person would have had a heart-attack and would be all ready to sue the contractor for bringing down trees. But, then all these trees which are coming down will mean a wider highway will come, which will mean cutting down on traveling time and less burning of fuels and hence less pollution and over the time there would be less pollution by vehicles and far less accidents and hence less deaths. To summarize, all those trees which were cut will and actually be better for us in the long run.

All of us somehow got separated on the way. Sunny raced his way on the Fireblade, Sunil and Ashish were behind me on the Blazes and I was cruising at a constant 7000rpm, which meant around 100km/h on the clock ( I had calibrated my tacho with the Fireblade’s speedometer earlier). Around 110kms from Trichy, I got a call from Ashish that his Blaze was giving problems and also from Sunny that he was waiting for me some ten kilometers down the highway. I, in the meantime, had stopped to take pictures of an old couple lying down peanuts on the road to dry up. We didn’t know each others languages but they could understand I wanted to take their pictures and once they saw their pics on the camera, the joy and their face easily said a million words.

I joined Sunny soon and then Sunil too came and we decided to wait for others at the next Reliance A1 restaurant, where we have lunch also, plus it was here that I made that major change to the comet. See, there was no speedometer and hence I was getting a little bored riding the bike. Out went the exhaust with the removal of four small allen screws and one single big one from the rear foot-peg frame. Starting the bike without the exhaust on did make it sound way better and that V-twin growl at low revs really brought a wide grin on my face. I left the place before every one and started having fun with the ‘new comet’. Removing the exhaust also meant loosing around 4-5 kilos, and that screaming sound above 6000rpm really sent those big truckers and buses back to the lane they deserved. While passing through small towns though, I kept the revs below 4000 and enjoyed the growl of the 250cc V-twin engine. Ok, for some, the Comet without an exhaust may sound too loud, but I was just loving it. Down-shifting, accelerating, kissing the red zone on the tacho, up-shifting and again inching closer to the red-zone was pure fun. But I must admit, in the end, as we approached Chennai, the sound started becoming more of a concern.

The four lanes started around more than a hundred kilometers from Chennai and that was good as the sun was about to go down in an hour and black clouds hovered in front of us. And it did rain, it poured cats and dogs. We took shelter in a Dhaba and here is where we clicked the picture of the day, with me riding the Fireblade in the rain and Sunny clicking the pictures. Yes, it was hard getting traction, and the rear kept spinning all the while! It was scary, but fun too, and in the end I was happy I didn’t crash her. The Chennai guys were to meet us around 30kms short of Chennai and fortunately the rains had eased up. It was a pleasure meeting up with the Chennai gang and we headed to our hotel, Hotel Mars, just on the outskirts of the city, which we had booked in the morning. 1300 a room in a 3-star hotel sounded quite nice. We spend quite some time with the gang in the room and then with Chitra, the biker girl, who also races on Yamahas on the track. It was nice knowing her more and as it is coming across a girl who actually knows how to ride is very very rare. Just finished with dinner, it has been a long day for us, riding 320kms from Trichy. There is a lot to do tomorrow, mainly getting the machines back to shape.

As for now, the A/C in the room is really chilling us to the bone, us as in Sunil, Ashish and I. And Sunny? His wife flew in from Delhi sometime back and they are probably having a well deserved time together. Signing off from Chennai…