RTMC 4 Anniversary Blast @Yercaud
Tour: Chennai – Yercaud – Chennai
Dates: 1 & 2 of Oct 2005
Calculated distance: 350 Km (one way)
Proposed route: Chengalpattu – Maduranthakam – Tindivanam – Villipuram - Kiranur – kallakurichi - Attur – Salem – Yercaud.
Occasion: RTMC 4th Aniversary
The pack: Sarangan, Ranga, Solo, Jai, Saru, Sebin, Dosai & Bobby, Sachin, Rohan (Roadshakers), Abizer, Vijay, Ajith, Dominic, Antony, Ganesh, Sailor Bala, Zuriel, Venky, Arun, Praveen, Harish, Ramith&Sylvia, Nouffel, Sharat, Sabin, Deepak, Karthik, Gaurang, Brijesh and I
Flag off party: Haridas, HariPrasad, Vinod, Bala and Raghu.
Starting point: Royal Meridian, Chennai
Odo reading: 8498
Prologue: Twice every year, the petrol heads meet to celebrate the anniversaries of RTMC and MBMC. It has always been a tradition to celebrate the occasion at different locations with the hosts taking care of the accommodations and the guests presenting the hosts with a surprise gift. Where ever it is, the place is rocked. History proves how great it is when these two clubs meet, and it keeps getting bigger and better every year making it a must attend on everyone’s list. Most of the people don’t know many of the people, but what makes this get-to-gather so special is the bonding and respect that we have for one another.
Having worked late the previous night, could only hit the sack by midnight. Not trusting myself to wake up early, I SMS’ed Dosai with the responsibility. The bugger obviously did not call. Hence, reached the starting point late by ten minutes. Every one was ready to take off. Haridas, HariPrasad, Vinod, Bala and Raghu had come to see us off. Ranga divided the lot into smaller groups. Our group was lead by Venky followed by Arun, Ramith&Sylvia, Sebin, Gaurang, Abizer with me sweeping in the back. Not wanting to miss out on the fun Raghu decided to ride along with us till Chengalpet.
It was one mad caravan of Bullets on the highway that morning. Ours being the slowest groups was overtaken by others. If Anthony and Dominic were a blur, Sachin and Rohan could only be heard.
Just before Chengalpet, Sebin had a flat tyre, further down the road Abizer had problems with his clutch. The bikes were towed to the nearest puncture shed (luckily it was just a few meters ahead). The halt lasted for more than an hour during which Sebin had to fix his tyre twice (bad rim and a worn out tube) and Sachin & Rohan fixed Abizer’s gearbox. The clutch cable was not playing freely and the high tension kicker spring had come loose. It was Rohan& Sarangan who finally muscled the spring back into place. Back on the road, we made some progress before hailed down by Gaurang. Muthu’s 500 was behaving, and he was trying to get the tappet to align with the push rod which was out of reach.
Odo reading: 8650 (Villupuram)
By then the Ranga, Sarangan and Dosai had also joined us. Sarangan took one look at the tappets and immediately ordered us to dismount the tank and open the rocker head. The tappet had clearly jumped the rocker and was wedged tightly. While the wise heads settled down to fix it, Ranga wanted some of the bikes to move on as Abizer was still “running in” his bike. With me tailgating, Gaurang, Abizer and I were isolated from others and we made steady progress. The roads from Attur to Selam were the worst of the ride. The potholes were filed with uneven patches of tar making it horrible for even for those with gas shocks.
The original plan was to regroup at Selam for lunch, but since we were running late, we decided to make it directly to Yercaud. After some refreshments at Selam the three of us started the up hill climb to Yercaud. At the toll gate, we met Chaitra (RTMC) on a gleaming blue Java 350 twin. Recognised him from Ranga’s Leh trip photographs. Immediately after the toll post we rode into a cloud of colourful butterflies, just like that, we were surrounded by butterflies. Millions and millions of them. It was one of the most beautiful sights that I have seen. My appreciation of this fluttering spectacle could only match with the sorrow of these creatures colliding into my visor.
If ever was there a selfish act of abandoning your fellow riders, I committed it then with no apologies. The beautiful curves and the hairpin bends were the treat after the punishing roads we had so far. At times the climb was so steep that I could engage no higher than the second gear. I scrapped my foot pegs and the stand on almost every turn. The sheer pleasure of leaning into a bend only to shift to the other side for the next one was indescribable. The immediate ‘S’ curves were taken at the maximum speed that my comfort permitted. The change in climate only enhanced my state of exuberance. We stopped for the occasional photograph. Met some more RTMC’ers enroute. Finally reached the hill top to be greeted by Jai with his camcorder, Harish, Sarangan, Venky and Arul who rode down from Bangalore. Arul was hopping mad to see us all. He literally crushed the wind out of me in a bear hug. With out further ado we headed for the final destination: Hotel Shervoys.
Odo reading : 8857 (Yercaud)
The bikes were all lined up and we were immediately directed to the registration counter where Biju handed me my name tag and the keys to a very plush room. All the rooms were labelled after different engine parts. Our room was titled “Air Filter”. Wonder who occupied “Crank case”. After some much needed rest and a chilling bath headed for the paaaardyyyyyyy.
The cake…The gift…&…The PAARDY
Like every year, this party also bore the Prashi ishtyle. He rode a Bullet up the stairs right into the hall and there stood the bike in the middle of the dance floor. And there was the cake – a huge one. Anil did the honours and soon after got smeared. Brijesh and Ranga stepped up and gifted the “RTMC 4A ” caps as the special gift from the MBMC. The crowd accepted it with a roar of applauds. Muthu and Small Moe meticulously went around distributing the caps to everyone. The party started almost immediately.
Booze & music, chilly climate outside & hot atmosphere inside, RTMC & MBMC and finally beautify girls – all the ingredients for a superduper ekdum mast bole to jhakaas paaardy.
The MUZIK and the GRIND
Zuriel was the DJ for the night and man!! did he rock the place. The dance floor was crowded from 8PM to 2 AM. People danced through the night. Some of the best dances were to the raunchy Tamil songs. The lungi dance by Ranga, Solo, Dosai and Vijay was the most whistled at performance. Not to be out done Dosai and Sylvia out did the rest with a typical Tamil “mass” number. There was also some close quarter dancing by the couples to the slow romantic stuff. Few of us danced no matter what song. Past midnight the when most of the folks called it a day, the last few standing turned out to be all out rock n’ roll fans. We had a good two hour session of pure high volume, air drumming and head banging rock. Finally, I retired at 2 O’clock in the morning leaving Dosai and few RTMC’ers still at it. The final count of the bikes was at a staggering 89.
The Ride Back
Was woken up early the next day (thanks to Arul, I will have my revenge buddy!!) with the pretext of riding early, only to find all others still in bed. Anil arranged for the breakfast to be served early for us. Had sumptuous open air breakfast. Biding goodbye to our RTMC buddies, we started from Yercaud at 9.30AM. Muthu’s bike still needed fixing so Sachin and Rohan stayed back. Venky, Harish, Brijesh and Arun had started early at 8 AM.
The down hill ride very bit fun as the ride up. Took some knee scrapping bends. My ride down was done solo and enjoyed every bit of it. It was only when we all reached Salem and joined others that we came to know that Jai had a small skid. The group again divided into smaller batches of similar speed range with Surya, myself, Arul and Dosai as the tailgating party. Solo took off to Cochin and Saru to Coimbatore. Jai had stopped at Salem to get his bike fixed.
We did some good speeds with Surya leading and Dosai in the back, Arul and myself juggling in between. After covering nearly 150Km, we decided to halt and wait for Jai to catch up. So there we were under the shade of a huge tree, on the highway, in the middle of nowhere doing what we do the best – bike banter. The grass and the cool breeze were so invigorating that before anyone realized it was almost 90 minutes since we stopped. As we started off from that place Arul dropped one of his gloves and I raced back to retrieve it for him. In the mean time the rest pulled over and Surya started spinning his rear wheel. On our encouragement he locked his front wheel and revved the rubber off the rear tyre. In less than 20 seconds he was completely engulfed in smoke. The 500cc was roaring heartily as the rear wheel started throwing small pebble sized melted rubber (I got covered in it). All that remained of the road was a gaping hole of molten tar where the tyre has obviously sunk in – Now that is leaving your mark on the road.
Hoping Jai to catch up further down the road, we made it to the next halt some 100km away. Here, as we were having lunch, we saw Jai and promptly flagged him down. It was here that we received the news of Arun’s accident and Ganesh’s run in into a Qualis (getting his license confiscated). Not wasting any time, Jai and Surya immediately took off to join the others ahead.
With just the four of us (on three bikes), we took out time with the lousy food that was served and started for Chennai – a ride what can be defined as “belting down the road”. I took the lead and we rode is perfect synchronization. We reached Thindivanm sooner than we expected and stopped over for some chai (Dosai had two mug fills). We were to hit the toll road L&T highway and it was getting dark, so Arul took the lead (he has powerful head lamps) and we followed. The ride from here was a treat to watch. Arul sliced through the traffic with calculated judgment and precision. Proper indicators and hand signals made it easier for us to shadow him. Doing all this at 100kmph on a crowded highway was not an every day experience. The traffic got thicker as we reached the city and finally regrouped at the Katthipara junction. A call to Brijesh confirmed that Arun is doing well and might need an orthopaedist, Ganesh is happy back in the city with a spare licence that he had.
Not wanting to go home (just yet) Bobby, Dosai and I decided to head for Amethyst – a retro coffee pub and then to the beach. Met Anthony, Domnic and Ganesh at the beach and spent good time recapping the day’s events. At around 11PM just as we were about to leave, Sachin and Rohan roared in. They were the last to leave form Yercaud after fixing Muthu’s bike.
Finally after a very exiting two days, reached home to my welcoming bed. Sore muscles and deprived sleep made it easier to banish the thought of going to office the next day.
Odo reading: 9248 (Chennai)
Total distance covered – 750 Km
posted by Addy @ 6:19 PM
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