Several visits to the mech later, the Bullet was in much better condition. Apart from a few minor issues, more of irritants actually, was running quite well.
As usual, a combination of my laziness and 6-day working week had resulted in my not budging anywhere, to the point where I had an overwhelming urge to get out of town. Had a 2 day weekend on April 31st, so decided to do a solo trip to Chennai.
Most everybody I mentioned this to advised against it, given that it was my first long ride on an Enfield....that too a 10 yr old one I wasn't entirely used to yet. I was, however, set on doing it. my boss, incidentally, has this philosophy "Its better to do something thats not entirely right and regret it, than to not do it at all". I'm not sure about the efficacy, but it can be very convenient to follow at times!
So, set off bright and early...actually dark and early, in the interests of accuracy...at 5am. Now I know most Bangaloreans will find this difficult to believe, but I managed to reach Koramangla in 20 min flat. Throws some perspective on the traffic problem, doesn't it?
The ride was great. Very peaceful, to the point of being almost boring. Chose the Hosur-Krishnagiri-Vellore-Chennai route...NH46 and NH4 I think...which is a broad, well-maintained 4-lane highway for the most part. Heard the Chittoor road is much more scenic, but its a single lane highway, which I didn't want to risk, esp. in the dark, with my brakes not being entirely upto the mark.
Minor issues I faced were that the speedometer stopped working after the 1st 100 km or so, and the bike would start to stall (or 'miss' in mechs parlance) if accelerated beyond 85kmph. That was ok since I didn't want to strech the engine to its limits anyways. Slightly more concerning was a silly fall I had while getting the bike into a petrol bunk, which resulted in the clutch and lights console breaking and dangling off the handle. Fortunately there was a mechanic a few metres ahead who managed to fix it fairly easily.
Reached Chennai at about 11.30am, with a 45 min delay due to the fall, and congested roads on Chennai outskirts, on the Poonamallee and Porur districts.
Put up with my aunt and uncle at Guindy. Had a decent time there. Lots of philosophical discussions about Osho and his views, ranging from his ashram to family to the right way of parenting. Btw, they had me convinced that going to the ashram would be a fairly unique experience, so thats another entry in my things-to-do-before-I-die list (which includes things like skydiving, visiting New Zealand, having grass, eating lobsters and riding a superbike. As you can see, I'm a perfect fit in the hedonist category. To redeem myself, I've also added a few other things like writing a book, playing a chess tournament and reading up on both the Quran and the Gita). The Chennai weather was awful, though....all u want to do is find an A/C to sit underneath and drinks lots and lots of...umm...well...anything, so long as its cold.
Started back on Tuesday morning, 5am again, and the ride back was certainly more interesting. Felt rather exhausted and sleepy after about 3 hours ride (result of drinking upto 12am and waking up at 4am), so took a pit-stop at a Highway Motel. Forget the name..its on the right side of the road just after crossing the Ambur town....but very decent place. They advertise rooms and clean toilets...and the latter is actually true. They have a nice big restaurant as well, with decent crowd and good food. Had a humongous dosa and two cups of coffee for Rs. 25. Still felt a wee bit exhausted after that, but while starting the bike was accosted by a gentleman who also happened to be a Bullet enthusiast. He owned a Thunderbird and had gone on a Bangalore-Mysore-Ooty-Chennai trip a while earlier, so spent some discussing that, and agreeing that Enfields were great bikes. Its funny how the little things in life motivate you....that 5 min discussion was enough to get my enthu back to high levels and all eager to get back on the road.
Ride was good for another 50-60km, with some good scenery I hadn't noticed before. At one place there were hills almost climbing up off the road on the left, large grove of coconut trees on the right, flowers (bougonvilla I think) on the divider, and a series of hills on the horizon. Another place where there was a huge 'S' curve stretching about a km or so, with coconut trees on either side.
So, was chugging along feeling at peace with myself, and was about 45 km from Hosur when the bike started bucking like a bronco. Lowered speed but that didn't help, and some wierd clattering sounds later rolled to a halt. I noticed that the engine was smoking like a chimney, and there was a huge pool of oil all over the engine and the bottom of the bike. It refused to start again, and with my very limited knowledge of 'mechanicgiri' (limited to changing the spark plug and topping up oil), nothing I could do about it.
So, stuck literally in the middle of nowhere with a dead bike, hardly any tools, a phone that always kept running low on battery...with a bunch of monkeys on some broken down building behind me for company. So, did the only thing possible and stuck my thumb out to any trucks that passed by. A couple of good samaritans stopped but couldn't actually help. Finally, about 30 min later, an empty lorry did stop, and after a bit of bargaining, the driver agreed to load my bike on the lorry and take me to Hosur. So four of us actually lifted the Enfield up and put it on the lorry...something that I thought was not really possible...I sat atop the bike and off we went. Reminded me of this ad on TV a few years ago, where a car is loaded onto a bullock cart and trundles along.
Along the way, picked up some villagers - one guy and 2 ugly women (one of them had yellow teeth with red spots in between....blyeesh! Yuck!)- and proceeded to Hosur. Incidentally, the way they climbed up the lorry would make a Sherpa doubt his roots. So after a 40 min ride, dropped me off at Hosur next to a mechanic, who managed to get the bike started, and I drove it down very slowly to Blore. Finally reached there in one piece, the worse for wear, at around 2pm.
So, thats the sad end to this tale. The Bullet is lying at home with the engine totally screwed, and me using my trusty old Splendor...which I haven't sold just in case of emergencies like this. Planning to take the Bullet to the mechanic today, who will probably bleed me dry fixing the engine. But that, as they say, is another story....
As usual, a combination of my laziness and 6-day working week had resulted in my not budging anywhere, to the point where I had an overwhelming urge to get out of town. Had a 2 day weekend on April 31st, so decided to do a solo trip to Chennai.
Most everybody I mentioned this to advised against it, given that it was my first long ride on an Enfield....that too a 10 yr old one I wasn't entirely used to yet. I was, however, set on doing it. my boss, incidentally, has this philosophy "Its better to do something thats not entirely right and regret it, than to not do it at all". I'm not sure about the efficacy, but it can be very convenient to follow at times!
So, set off bright and early...actually dark and early, in the interests of accuracy...at 5am. Now I know most Bangaloreans will find this difficult to believe, but I managed to reach Koramangla in 20 min flat. Throws some perspective on the traffic problem, doesn't it?
The ride was great. Very peaceful, to the point of being almost boring. Chose the Hosur-Krishnagiri-Vellore-Chennai route...NH46 and NH4 I think...which is a broad, well-maintained 4-lane highway for the most part. Heard the Chittoor road is much more scenic, but its a single lane highway, which I didn't want to risk, esp. in the dark, with my brakes not being entirely upto the mark.
Minor issues I faced were that the speedometer stopped working after the 1st 100 km or so, and the bike would start to stall (or 'miss' in mechs parlance) if accelerated beyond 85kmph. That was ok since I didn't want to strech the engine to its limits anyways. Slightly more concerning was a silly fall I had while getting the bike into a petrol bunk, which resulted in the clutch and lights console breaking and dangling off the handle. Fortunately there was a mechanic a few metres ahead who managed to fix it fairly easily.
Reached Chennai at about 11.30am, with a 45 min delay due to the fall, and congested roads on Chennai outskirts, on the Poonamallee and Porur districts.
Put up with my aunt and uncle at Guindy. Had a decent time there. Lots of philosophical discussions about Osho and his views, ranging from his ashram to family to the right way of parenting. Btw, they had me convinced that going to the ashram would be a fairly unique experience, so thats another entry in my things-to-do-before-I-die list (which includes things like skydiving, visiting New Zealand, having grass, eating lobsters and riding a superbike. As you can see, I'm a perfect fit in the hedonist category. To redeem myself, I've also added a few other things like writing a book, playing a chess tournament and reading up on both the Quran and the Gita). The Chennai weather was awful, though....all u want to do is find an A/C to sit underneath and drinks lots and lots of...umm...well...anything, so long as its cold.
Started back on Tuesday morning, 5am again, and the ride back was certainly more interesting. Felt rather exhausted and sleepy after about 3 hours ride (result of drinking upto 12am and waking up at 4am), so took a pit-stop at a Highway Motel. Forget the name..its on the right side of the road just after crossing the Ambur town....but very decent place. They advertise rooms and clean toilets...and the latter is actually true. They have a nice big restaurant as well, with decent crowd and good food. Had a humongous dosa and two cups of coffee for Rs. 25. Still felt a wee bit exhausted after that, but while starting the bike was accosted by a gentleman who also happened to be a Bullet enthusiast. He owned a Thunderbird and had gone on a Bangalore-Mysore-Ooty-Chennai trip a while earlier, so spent some discussing that, and agreeing that Enfields were great bikes. Its funny how the little things in life motivate you....that 5 min discussion was enough to get my enthu back to high levels and all eager to get back on the road.
Ride was good for another 50-60km, with some good scenery I hadn't noticed before. At one place there were hills almost climbing up off the road on the left, large grove of coconut trees on the right, flowers (bougonvilla I think) on the divider, and a series of hills on the horizon. Another place where there was a huge 'S' curve stretching about a km or so, with coconut trees on either side.
So, was chugging along feeling at peace with myself, and was about 45 km from Hosur when the bike started bucking like a bronco. Lowered speed but that didn't help, and some wierd clattering sounds later rolled to a halt. I noticed that the engine was smoking like a chimney, and there was a huge pool of oil all over the engine and the bottom of the bike. It refused to start again, and with my very limited knowledge of 'mechanicgiri' (limited to changing the spark plug and topping up oil), nothing I could do about it.
So, stuck literally in the middle of nowhere with a dead bike, hardly any tools, a phone that always kept running low on battery...with a bunch of monkeys on some broken down building behind me for company. So, did the only thing possible and stuck my thumb out to any trucks that passed by. A couple of good samaritans stopped but couldn't actually help. Finally, about 30 min later, an empty lorry did stop, and after a bit of bargaining, the driver agreed to load my bike on the lorry and take me to Hosur. So four of us actually lifted the Enfield up and put it on the lorry...something that I thought was not really possible...I sat atop the bike and off we went. Reminded me of this ad on TV a few years ago, where a car is loaded onto a bullock cart and trundles along.
Along the way, picked up some villagers - one guy and 2 ugly women (one of them had yellow teeth with red spots in between....blyeesh! Yuck!)- and proceeded to Hosur. Incidentally, the way they climbed up the lorry would make a Sherpa doubt his roots. So after a 40 min ride, dropped me off at Hosur next to a mechanic, who managed to get the bike started, and I drove it down very slowly to Blore. Finally reached there in one piece, the worse for wear, at around 2pm.
So, thats the sad end to this tale. The Bullet is lying at home with the engine totally screwed, and me using my trusty old Splendor...which I haven't sold just in case of emergencies like this. Planning to take the Bullet to the mechanic today, who will probably bleed me dry fixing the engine. But that, as they say, is another story....
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