It was hard to imagine how I would get on the road ever again. I guess that’s what happens when you go on a long ride after 2 years!
Bhpian arunabh002 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
This is the story of my motorcycling journey, and a travelogue which captures my experience of switching to a 2023 KTM RC390 GP from a 2019 Bajaj Dominar 400.
Prologue
I discovered riding in 2017 when I went to Wayanad on a rented Bajaj Avenger. There were 10 of us on 5 bikes. My friend and I got an Avenger 150, on which we would switch as riders and pillion. There was no riding gear other than a cheap 500-rupee helmet (that too just for the rider!), and no matter how hard we tried, the bike never crossed 90kmph. Despite all that, I had the time of my life. The feeling of having the entirety of my existence reduced to a handlebar, an instrument cluster and the highway, traversing through this beautiful planet – changed something in me and I knew deep in my heart that I want to keep doing this.
For the next 1 year, I did everything I could – Getting my own place instead of crashing in the hall of my friends’ apartments (to get an address proof), getting a regular paying job (to be able to take a loan) – to get my dream machine home, which was Dominar 400 at that time. I was just about to pull the trigger and found out that the facelift is coming in 2019. So I ‘held back’ (contrary to the tagline with which the facelift launched ) and waited for 7 whole months before I took the delivery of the matte black UG.
Delivery day!
I grew up on that bike as a serious rider. I toured to my heart’s content for 40,000 km and loved every second of it.
Meanwhile, my younger brother also got into riding. After living with a pre-owned NS200, which was shared among his college roommates, he was looking to get his own ride in 2023. Based on my love for the Dominar, he was considering buying one for himself. But thankfully, we decided to go crazy and get something totally different – the new gen RC390.
In hindsight, I am incredibly happy we chose that bike.
Now, in late 2024, I am missing novelty (polite words for being bored) on my 5-year-old Dominar, and he was tired of pampering his bike.
So we had a wild idea that we should exchange our bikes!
After months of planning, we finally executed the exchange ride. My initial plan was to get to Dhule, exchange the bikes and ride back to Bangalore. But due to some unforeseen circumstances, the ride would become much longer as I had to ride to Bhopal and then to Jabalpur before riding back to Bangalore.
Bangalore to Solapur (20 Dec 2024)
I started from Bangalore on my Dominar at 7 AM. I find that the ride till Tumkur is really engaging, there is just the right amount of traffic that cutting through it is a constant flow state while never feeling that I am going too slowly, it’s so much fun to ride aggressively (while being safe, obviously) in such conditions.
But riding aggressively is not how you do a 600km day. So after 1.5 hours of traffic cutting, I took a small break at Tumkur with some chips and water. Chips are my go-to snacks for touring, they are space efficient (in Pringles form), pack loads of carbs for fast energy. After that, I changed my riding style to smooth cruising at 90-95 kmph with occasional full throttle overtakes.
I have installed a jugad cruise control, which saves a lot of energy in such long rides.
The Cruise Control Jugad
That wire has become loose, and as a result, the cruise was not engaging properly. I always keep pliers in my luggage but that day my system failed me. I checked everywhere in the top box and there were no pliers, I probably took them out for some task at home and forgot to put them back.
That lead to a hunt for pliers. I took a detour to a nearby town 50-60km before Hampi and after half an hour of exploration, I finally found a hardware shop that sold me pliers. It was a sweet achievement!
That ordeal ended at around 2 PM and consumed a lot of energy, I was feeling tired and sleepy and there was still ~400 km left to go. So I decided to take a long break. Long breaks mean taking off the riding jacket and being in shade for 10-15 minutes. I also drank half a bottle of Sting to quash the drowsiness and fixed the cruise control.
Caffeine did its job and finally, after a long time (3 hours), I am consistently putting on kilometres without distractions.
I reached the hotel in Solapur at around 7 PM and was tired much more than I expected; it was hard to imagine how I would get on the road ever again. I guess that’s what happens when you go on a long ride after 2 years. Still, I took a shower, ordered a small cheese burst pizza with Taco Mexicana from Domino’s and went to sleep without setting any alarm.
Trip stats – Bangalore to Solapur
- Start time: 6:46
- End time: 19:31
- Ride time: 9h 22m
- Break time: 3h 23m
- Total time: 12h 45m
- Distance: 652.9 km
- Avg Speed: 67 kmph
- Avg consumption (indicated): 32 kmpl
Solapur to Dhule (21 Dec 2024)
I woke up in no hurry at around 8 AM and when I looked at a 4-lane main road from my room window, I was excited again about being on the road! I ate the leftover pizza with chai, and the bike was loaded for the ride minutes later.
In my experience, first days of the rides are always the hardest and I could feel how ‘easy’ the trip felt on the second day. I was in the flow, I found the optimal mental state, the optimal sequence of seating positions to toggle through for maximum efficiency. It was effortless!
A serene break
At the time of sunset, I encountered a ghat section and got excited that I would be able to enjoy some lean angles but the road condition did not allow any such fun. I did get to witness a HUGE solar farm! I didn’t know we had anything like this in our country!
JBM Solar Plant Chalisgaon
I pulled into the hotel at around 7 and had tons of energy left. I would roam around a bit and relax at the hotel while I waited for my brother to land with the RC at 1 AM.
Trip Stats – Solapur to Dhule
- Start time: 10:00
- End time: 18:58
- Ride time: 6h 18m
- Break time: 2h40m
- Total time: 8h 58m
- Distance: 378 km
- Avg speed: 72 kmph
- Avg consumption (indicated): 30 kmpl
Continue reading arunabh002’s thread for BHPian comments, insights and more information.
