Rider Mania "12

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Who we are: Sajid C U, Manu V V and Felix George

What we ride: Royal Enfield Classic 350cc & Royal Enfield Classic 500cc




The route: KOCHI→Mangalore→Udupi→Karwar→GOA→Londa→Davengere→Mysore→Bandipur→Nilambur→KOCHI

KMs: 2300+

This is the story of our journey to attend the annual Riders meet held at Vagator, Goa called ‘RIDER MANIA’. For those who aren’t aware of this, it’s an event conducted by the Royal Enfield every year.

Back in Kochi we all work under the same roof ‘Royal Enfield Brand store’. Yeah, for us it’s our family get together. I (Sajid) rode a black Classic 350cc whereas Manu & Felix switched seats on their green Classic 500cc.

It was the amalgamation of three bodies into a single soul & a mind that we took off one fine morning from our homes, geared ourselves up, fueled our tanks & etched Goa on our notions. We all knew the route to Goa was not much of a struggle, because most of the stretches were covered through highways with directions all along. So we planned to take that route for Goa. We fired our bikes at around 8 am in the morning, reached my native soil (where my parents live) at 11 am. We crammed our tummies till the brim & continued our journey again. The riding wasn’t that tiring because we were riding on well rubberized tarmac roads. We had exact plans for filling our fuel tanks, we fueled our tanks back from Kochi just enough to reach Mahe, where it is cheaper for fuel, as we reached Mahe it was feeding time for our mean machines. We crossed Kerala border at around 8 pm & drove through Mangalore to reach Surathkal at around 9:30 pm where we had planned our Night stay.

The next day we woke up around 7 am, had a vegie breakfast which included Dosas & Felix’s favorite “Kesari Bath”, mmm…we repeated this 1 more round & then realized , this is not what we are here for J, we have to depart. We set off again, en route we had visited the famous Murugadeshwara temple. It was somewhere near Ghokarna that we had to experience a bit of off roads due to the road works which were being undergone there. As we accosted Karwar, the scene changed from off roads to “Asphalt”. The roads were well banked n rubberized. As we crossed Karnataka border, we have already clocked around 800+ kms on our odo’s.

As we entered Goa, we realized it was time to fuel up. The price of petrol/liter in Goa was around 15Rs cheaper than at Kochi. When the ‘pump wala’ asked ‘for how much’, I had a quick rewind of pictures in my brain which showed me fueling for 100rs or 200rs back at Kochi, suddenly I heard it again ‘for how much’ I said ‘F..Full Tank’….i really felt the headlight of my bike turning & staring at me at that time. Am sure even Manu & Felix had the same feeling as mine. As we reached Goa, we had actually arranged our stay at Benolim near TAJ EXOTICA. The stay was arranged by Maxx, a guy who was my classmate’s (Mukesh’s) friend. Maxx welcomed us so warmly, because even he hailed from Kochi. He treated us so very well. By now the time had become some 10pm. We had a bath, drank some chilled brews J & slept.

The very next day we woke around 10 am & set off to the venue at Hill Top, Vagator which was around 60 kms from Benolim. We met up with our Friend cum my senior Ashwin Shetye who also works in Royal Enfield & is basically a Goan, it was he who took us to the venue. This was the first time in my life that am witnessing these many Bullets at a place. There were a couple of thousands of them in the parking lot which was meant only for the Bulleteers. We witnessed the events that took place that day & reached back to Maxx’s place at 12 midnight.

The 2^nd day of Rider Mania had my event, Dirt Track of 350cc class. I reached the venue at 11 am, registered myself into the event. It was my race mentor Felix who gave me a lot of instructions & techniques of cornering & weight shifting which earned me 4^th in the heats. It was a great race, in fact it was the first time in my life that am competing on a track. All credits goes to two of my fellow riders cum my bosses viz., Manu & Felix. I owe them a lot for keeping faith in me because, if I had done something wrong & wrecked the bike, I had no idea how do I return. It was a great experience & I strongly believe that they are happy too. After this event , we had a rocking time with Ashwin. I personally danced with Ashwin for the tunes played by the Dj’s there.

We reached back late that night, so didn’t wanted to disturb Maxx, we took our bikes to get something to eat at 12 midnight. We recall Maxx had told there’s a 24hrs Hotel near Colva beach. None of us knew the route. “As Riders, we do not need any”. After a search of about 20 mins, eureka….we found it , had veg pulao n something to drink J.

The next day we had plans of roaming in Goa, which only fulfilled partially due to the lack of time. We wanted to go for Go-karting, but unfortunately we reached there late. We were full time in the event, dancing, taking pictures, enjoying to the music played by some great Dj’s. We returned at around 10 pm after the closing of all events. We had to plan the return journey now.

We planned in the night that we would take the Ponda-Londa route, which would take us to Dharwad by-pass , eventually to Mysore.

The next day as planned, went to the pump & proudly said Full Tank J & set off at 8am. The road to Londa was a bit confusing because there were no direction boards in between. The worst case scenario happened, as soon as we left to Londa, we noticed a punctured tyre on our green Classic 500. We fixed it in a nearby puncture station, meanwhile we also had our breakfast from there the traditional Goan way, Pav n Chick pea curry with Chilly Bhaji J. Had a plate or 2 & took off again at 10 am. As the roads to Dharwad was a bit bumpy but not that worse.

It was when we reached NH4 that we were astonished by the tarmac there. I personally haven’t seen such a road in my whole life, I believe it’s the same for Manu & Felix too. It was the first time in the whole journey that I thought of having a cruise control on the Bullet, so that I could set the speed at 100kmph n launch off. The roads were a never ending stretch of Tarmac. At times when we see a truck, it was like finding an Oasis in the Sahara Desert, because we could at least turn our handles to relax our muscles. The only time we stopped was for quenching our thirst with some fresh Tender Coconuts. As we reached Davengere, we entered a Dhaba & had our lunch there. We had asked for directions from a co-luncher. The route he said was at least a 100km less than ours to reach Mysore. But what we forgot to ask was the condition of the road, which we later thought we should have L.

As told we turned from NH4 to reach a place Chengiri, which we never reached. We asked the by-passers how far it is from here, they all said 30kms, trust me we passed 100kms of continuous hardcore off-road & asked again, and even then they said 30 kms. In my life I haven’t travelled this much long 30 kms. At last we found ourselves stranded in some inner Karnataka, where Kannada only ruled. All credit goes to Felix who knows Kannada fluently, if not we had to go for spoken Kannada classes for returning back home. We at last charted another route. This time while asking routes, we ensured the the condition of the roads too as an inevitable parameter. With sour bums we took off again. It was 9 pm when we reached Hosdurga, we planned to pass the night there. We woke up in the morning at around 7 am, had in our minds that we would reach home that night. We head on to Arshikere & then to the stretches to Mysore. We had our lunch from Mysore, also had a great Lassi, which was refreshing J & continued the journey. We went on to Ooty road. We crossed Bandipur Tiger Reserve, which was scary because there were hoardings at correct intervals which showed Wild animals crossing zone as such. Some also which showed “Pass Silently”, which we were helpless, because we drove Bullets J. As we crossed it we drove down the twisties & curves of Mudhumalai, Gundelpet. That too was a great experience, without which this trip would have been incomplete.

After reaching Nilambur, we rode on to the road which took us to Kochi. At around 1 am, we reached Kochi.

After riding 2300+ kms, riding through bumps, tarmac, dirt, uphill, waving to the school buses which passed us, talking to keen teens who wanted to know where we were heading to, taking pics of great scenes, racing in a Dirt Track……all these wouldn’t have been possible without you …Royal Enfield…

And for the only question which we ( Sajid C U, Manu V V & Felix George) or any of the RIDER’s don’t have an answer for is “WHY DID WE DO THIS ?”.

Last but not the least …happy to get back home all in one piece….As said…. Safety First..!!!



P.S: Always wear proper protective gears.

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