Accompanying me was my friend riding his Royal Enfield Himalayan 411.
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Finally, after 1.3 years of ownership (I do sincerely apologize for mentioning it as 2 years in the initial review even though I mentioned the purchase and delivery in Oct 2022. Mods, if it is possible to edit the post now, would gladly do it), here is my first ride report on a long ride of one of the most popular routes from Chennai for bikers- the East Coast Road from Chennai to Pondicherry.
I prefer to keep the review and the entire experience/adventures of ownership as a single thread, therefore will update everything here.
Ride Date- 26th Jan 2024 (Chennai-Puducherry), 27th Jan 2024 (Puducherry-Chennai).
After a lot of delays, I finally, got a good opportunity to do the famed ECR stretch on my R15 from Chennai to Pondicherry. As stated in the original review, I had done the Chennai-Marakannam-Chennai trip, so this is actually my second run on the ECR, but this one felt special! The start of the ride was a bit bumpy. The entire night, I was down with a fever and a sour throat. Having taken medication, I tried my best to get good sleep and try to make this ride possible as it was long due on my bucket list. Honestly speaking, I badly needed this. A three-day weekend, and also, considering some hectic work-related stress in my day job over the past couple of months, this seemed like the best opportunity to refresh.
Thankfully, by early morning 5.30 AM, the fever relented and I was feeling better. I did this ride with a very good friend of mine from college. With my jacket, gloves and helmet all prepped up, I met with my friend was on a Royal Enfield Himalayan (the old one, not the newer 450). The first stop is of course the petrol station. We filled both our bikes at Shell near Injambakkam on the ECR. This will be the only fuel stop for me for the entire trip!
We hit the road. Since we both had mobile holders on our bikes and with the first stop set at A2D (Adyar Anandha Bhavan) at Mahabs, I didn’t consider much about riding at a sedate pace and wanted to have a good speedy run when the roads allowed it. The bike with fresh fuel started to shine as always as I twisted the throttle, well, that was until Kovalam. Due to some reason, we were diverted to OMR via Kelambakkam with ECR being blocked till Mahabs. This added around 10-15 km. So much for wishing to experience the entire ECR. Adding to this, the mobile holder on my friend’s bike broke off. This meant only one of us could navigate. It was also not actually a friend’s bike, but rather he borrowed it from another friend of his. It was also not in the best shape. The brakes were worn out and the engine kept overheating at frequent intervals. All things said, this meant we needed to stick together and with the worn-out brakes, anything beyond 60-70 kmph on the RE seemed risky.
So, with a detour and with no option but to keep a sedate pace throughout the rest of the trip, it was a rocky start. But I guess such things happen. So you’re on a 155cc sportbike, with little to no access to harness the VVA band. What did that result in? Mileage! The total distance covered on this trip was around 272 km, and I only had to fill once at the start, that too, I am confident, it wasn’t a full tank. Pretty sure I was getting 50-55 km/l. Really astonishing numbers when you consider, the bike behaves like a totally different animal after 6000-7500 RPM, when the VVA kicks in.
Now, I am not the kind of person who values mileage as something that’s of some paramount importance when considering a bike. I knew the R15 wasn’t meant to be driven like having a cruise control set at 65 km/h for long stretches. But you know what, The bike never seemed like complaining. 5th gear, 65 kmph and just admire as you gracefully pass through. I never imagined, that I would have fun, not even reaching triple-digit speeds even once on his trip. I have seen some reviews, where many claimed the bike to be boring/dull until you reach the VVA band. I disagree. It makes me feel like I have two bikes in one. Till 6K RPM, it is just like any commuter, (Splendor, Passion etc) with a sporty twist. Beyond 6k-7.5k RPM, it is becomes an R3/R7. Now as the spec sheet and facts imply, it is neither as slow as a commuter nor anywhere as quick as an R3/R7. But does it really matter? Absolutely not! In the end, you have a machine that doesn’t complain and will always support your style whatever the type of riding you’re going for and make it look absolutely easy and beautiful while doing it. This to me will always be the biggest pro of this bike, something you will miss out on lower down the range and even if you move to higher-powered machines in the future.
Back to the trip, we had breakfast at Mahabs, and with the 55-65 km/h pace, we eventually reached Auroville first. Had some juice to freshen up and eventually proceeded to Pondy for lunch. Both myself and my friend have already been to Pondy n number of times, but this was the first time we came by bike. So neither of us was keen to visit tourist places like originally planned, and rather we decided to take it easy and just roam around the beach at most. Initially, the plan was to return starting in the afternoon and return to Chennai by evening itself. But since we both were quite tired, we decided to stay at Pondy for the night and start tomorrow early morning.
We woke up at 5.30 and left by 6.10. After my friend filled up his Himalayan, we proceeded once again at a consistent 60-70 kph pace. I am glad we stayed the night. The early morning ride was memorable. The mild fog, and occasional drizzle. This made me forget about the lack of pace on this trip, sometimes taking it slow does bring a smile, given such wonderful weather with a sweet sunrise. Once again, we reached Mahabs for breakfast at the same restaurant. I did notice quite a lot of geared-up bikers on the ECR on RE Interceptors, Continental GTs, some 600ccs like the Kawasaki Z650, and even a mild glimpse of a possible ZX10R and maybe even a Z900 if I spotted it correctly while riding. Probably, making use of this three-day weekend.
Some shots were taken on the way. Early morning rides are bliss!
We reached Chennai around 10.00 today morning bringing close to my first long biking trip. Wish to do Ghats next, possibly Yelagiri. Hoping for the best.
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