Passion for Road Trips: Part 5: Coimbatore - Ooty Climb & Rider Mania Day 1

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Part 5: Coimbatore - Ooty Climb & Rider Mania Day 1

Continued from Part 4 - A human gesture

Good roads, early morning breeze, picturesque landscape, right mix of ingredients for a leisurely cruise atop our bulls and each one of us were enjoying this to the core. Once the Coimbatore bypass ended we had a small regrouping. We decided to delay our breakfast, since we already had a pretty good delay of 1 hour or so and decided to make maximum utilization of early morning climate. After the discussions we started off quickly without wasting time.

Here you can see a video of the thumpers getting into the road and zooming away after this regroup.
Click here to see the video

It was 10am when we reached Mettupalayam the last major junction before the Ooty climb starts. Decided to fill our tummy from a vegetarian restaurant.

Protectors of our CPU were resting on a table top, when we were enjoying the yummy yummy masala dosa & ghee roast.

By about 10.30 we were again on our steeds and marching ahead. The terrain slowly changed from the plains to slight curves and some ascent and descent. The roads were pretty well maintained and we kept on enjoying our cruise.
Another video of our cruise through this section.
Click here to watch this video

Soon the ghats arrived. Crankie was riding like a dream and the control he exhibits in the ghats are truely amazing, I just kept trailing him watching his approach in the curves and for overtaking big vehicles. Never does he overtakes on blind turns or does he overtake even if there is slightest of the doubt in judging the speed on the incoming traffic. Even with this cautious approach he was going pretty fast, a lesson of sorts in riding and I just enjoyed the way he was leaning with the vehicle while cornering. At times I felt like the man and machine was one integrated unit. I was enjoying watching this guy march ahead as much as enjoying the ride. We were so absorbed in the ride that photos soon dried out. It so happens that the twisties are sometimes so addictive that you keep going on and on without bothering about anything else but the ride.

As soon as we reached the entrance of Ooty crankie and myself stopped. Enquired about the position of others, they were some 5 minutes behind us since the twinspark brothers were little slow to climb owing to the weight of two human bodies in a single steed and others were keen not to leave them behind. Meanwhile crankie made a call to our group members from Bangalore who rode from Bangalore to Ooty. They told that they were already waiting for us near the Ooty lake. Two Silver Bullets newbies, anjath and sanal who came from calicut also were with the Bangy guys.
Crankie and myself decided to proceed to the Ooty lake where they were waiting. Updated our status to the rest of the gang and we proceeded to Ooty lake. Aha I'm again at Ooty after a gap of 17 years, last time being the school tour when I was in tenth grade and this time a mode of transport which I never expected that I will use to reach a destination so far away from my home.
Somehow managed to miss the Bangy guys and rode till the end of the lake. By this time rest of the gang had reached Ooty and they met the Bangy guys. Soon we heard the thump of a mega silencer and saw JSR - a member of Bangalore Silver Bullets chapter, coming to us in his 500cc monster. We exchanged greetings and soon we joined other guys who were waiting for us.

The rides of JSR, Anjath and Sanal.

We all got ready for the group ride to the RM 09 venue. JSR was leading us. We were having 17 members in the gang of silver bullets. Slowly but steadily we proceeded to the sterling resorts where the event was arranged. People were waving to us whenever they saw us and we felt as if the whole of Ooty is playing hosts to us and a sense of pride was flowing right through our minds. Afterall who could stop gazing at the sight of 17 mighty bulls thumping together through these ghats.

We neared the final ascent towards the entry to the venue. Revved the throttle hard and we were climbing up in style, the decibel levels increased and so was the adrenalin, the final turn and we are into the venue.

Wow Amazing, the sight which we saw there is something which we will never forget for a life time. About 400 bulls were parked there...The people already present there greeted us by cheering, by revving there machines and by honking..

We parked our bulls and quickly went to the registration desk where there was a long queue. The participation was more than what the organisers - the RTMC bangalore - expected, coz the registration officials seemed not able to handle this much of a rush. But waiting there at the desk yielded another good thing for us, we could be part of the excitement of the other groups which came afterwards, we cheered and encouraged the groups coming in each time.

The indie thumpers gang mumbai was a treat to watch, they played their anthem using the throttle. Something which we thoroughly enjoyed. All of the indie thumpers looked like hardcore bikers. Watch there anthem here. Can you identify what they are singing.
Click here to watch the video clip
They are singing, "I Love Bullet", trrr...trrr... trtrtr.

Then came the madbulls. Their entry was also grand with the number of riders far outnumbering other groups.

We got ourselves registered and got the keys as well by about 2pm. Decided to go to the room, freshen up and then return to the venue. We got accommodation in another hotel of the same group. We went to that resort in transportation arranged by the organisers. The organisers had so arranged that club members from the same club got accommodation in the same resort. Soon we were back at the venue after a stint of freshning up exercise. .. Decided to have lunch. When we were having lunch We could hear announcemnents of some kind of competition. It was slow bike race, Enjoyed thier spirits for some 30 odd minutes.
We enjoyed more carefully observing each of the bulls present in the parking lot, the Classic ones, the standard 350s, the AVLs, the CI 500s, the AVL 500s, beauties which had a story or two to tell dating back two to three decades, the neatly modded bulls, the supercharged bulls and a lot more.

After having a cup of tea by 5pm, We went back to our room, this time in our bulls. The parking lot of our resort (resort No. 2) also was full of bulls.

We had a quick nap and decided to return to the venue by when it was 7.45 pm at night.
Doc posing at the parking lot of the resort where we stayed.

Ooty was starting to show its character. The temperatures were already in the single digit zone and we could feel really feel the coldness even with all this heavy riding gear.

Doc and Anjath on his modded Thunderbird before starting to the main venue.

By the time we reached the main venue, the party was just beginning in the big hall of the resort. After some customary speeches the DJ took over and people seemed to enjoy the party. Had dinner after the party. Got a lot of new friends, some of them were riding all the way down from Nepal, some from north eastern part of the country, some people came with their better halves, some ladies who were also hard core riders were also present, everybody shared the same passion. By about 11 pm bid adieu to the main venue. Doc and myself got into our bulls and decided to take a small round trip around Ooty before we proceed to our stay. Ooty was freezing at night. This one short ride at this time of night and with our body shivering will be remembered by all. The air frills of my riding gloves were felt for the first time since I could feel the cold air hitting my fingers, I wished if I could close those frills. After a trip around which lasted 30 minutes or so we reached back our resort.
Parked our bulls and it was time to bid adieu to day 1 at RM 2009.

A night shot at parking lot

Went back to our rooms. Soon our Doc has to be in to the thick of the action owing to ill health of Akhil. He seemed to have lost himself in the excitement and ate without his stomach in mind, and his body responded by quickly ejecting all the unwanted food in one go. Raghu also was having a throat infection, but it was not so severe. After another round of discussions we all went to bed by about 1pm. A day which started at Palghat, and after a lot of events we let our drained out bodies to take some rest and recharge for the events on the second day of Rider Mania 2009