So last night at dinner, I got offered “Magic mushrooms” right outside the restaurant. Kodai seems to be a place where drugs are common. No wonder there are plenty of signages outside the city as you enter – including the ones saying “Say no to plastics”, and then the “this is a drug free zone” – almost as if saying – you can consume stuff up to this point, but nothing once you enter this zone.
The hotel did not have fans or Air conditioning, and did not need to – since the room by night was pretty chilly. Complete wooden cottage, retaining all the cold from outside. Woke at 330am, and wanted to head out, but the fear of biking in the temperature outside kept me under the covers until 530. Finally made up my mind to head out. Was out the door at 6am sharp. Wasn’t as bad as I thought outside, was pretty cold, and foggy, but nothing unbearable.
Does riding a motor bike burn calories ? Did a lot of research on this just for fun, and yes it indeed does. Increases your resilience, your sense of balance, spinal strengthening (assuming your back is in good shape already), clutching and declutching, pulling the front brakes, changing gears, punching the rear brakes, being on full mental focus at all times, along with carrying your helmet and gear – all contribute to a healthier core. So there’s a motivation, in case anyone needs one.
Until last night I was busy at the maps, 2 more days to go, to get back home, wasn’t sure where to go next. Could not find anything halfway. So left the decision to morning. Bangalore was almost 480 kms, a lot to do in one day – well on this trip anyway, given I have done 370-400 kms at the most and gotten fairly tired.
Decided to head to bangalore, and park myself somewhere en route if it wasn’t going to be doable same day. The winding roads started downhill, 50 kms or so. Broke down the journey into small targets to chase. Reached the bottom of the mountain in about 2 hours, stopped for a tea and refuel. Chalked out the next route stops, and started chasing time targets on subsequent stops. Had a yoga bar and red bull for breakfast – to save me the time from stopping somewhere, and wasting good morning weather time for riding.
Chasing Time ? Each time you lose a minute on your planned target, to make up for tht 1 minute lost, you need to drive at 1.5x the speed for the next 2 mins, or 2x speed for the next minute. Putting things into perspective. If your speed is 60kph and you are supposed to reach somewhere by 11:00am, you stop for a break for 1 min, and you start riding again to see you will now reach at 11:01 – To bring that down to 11:00 again, you need to ride at 120kph for 1 min, or 90kph for 2 mins,0r 75kph for 4 mins, just to make up for that lost minute. So instead of doing this catch up, try to earn your breaks. Go at 70 for a few mins, and eventually you would have earned a few mins, and the time to arrive would show 10:50 for instance, in which case you can now go avail that 10 mins of break.
I kept following the earn your breaks regime, until I gained 30 mins, which I decided to split between a KFC as well as a Coffee Day – took 45 mins instead. Spent the next hour trying to gain back the 15 mins I had lost. All in all, the highway ride was uneventful, long, smooth, and extremely hot, so I did not “de-gear”at all – else teh heat would get in. Reached Bangalore about 3pm – 9 hours including breaks – 480 kms – not too bad considering the ride started with mountain roads.
So the headlight on the Vulcan – as someone elsewhere in a review suggested, is nothing more than a small “birthday cake candle”. The blue high beam indicator on the dash is another story altogether. You put the switch on high beam, and the headlight goes into that mode for you to see the road better at night. The blue high beam indicator on the dash shines right into your eyes, sharp and bright – very very uncomfortable.
The bike also needs a turning radius like that of a car, big and long, difficult to turn in even non-tight spaces. Another issue is the gear lever. The Classic 500 has a Toe and Heel lever, which means you push it down at the front to downshift, you push down your heel at the back to upshift. Simple, comfortable. On the vulcan, and like many other modern bikes they have only half a lever, which means to upshift – you literally twist your shin outward, bring your toe below the lever, and push up. Spoils your shoe leather – for which I brought a tie on cover, but it is pretty uncomfortable in my opinion, and it may just be me, but I think it is ridiculous.
No plans for the next 6 months atleast for another bike ride, but I am pretty certain I will take the faithful Classic 500 the next time round, and not this one – for old times sake, and for all the things it does offer over the vulcan. Until then…
