BHPian V.Max recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Quick update on my Yamaha R3 – Pleased to cross the 10,000-km mark of having owned it for just about a year now. Check out my buying experience here – https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor…um-solved.html Alrighty, back to the present day – clocked about 9600-ish on the odo when a sudden thought prompted me to ask my 2 fellow musketeers to join me for a Kolli hills trip. I had just completed a quick run to Ooty on the R3 to meet them. Check out that experience here – https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave…ft-yzf-r3.html It so occurred to me that I needed to do a trip again with them, but this time on the bike for all 3 of us. Didn’t take more than few minutes to make them accept my Kolli hills plan, but twas me who had a lot going, that made me confirm my availability just a day before the trip had started lol. I thank those 2 here for putting up with my inadvertent shenanigans. Even as our plan was unravelling, Musketeer A had brought his colleague onboard who inturn had 4 more folks joining the circus. From 3, we became 7 pax in no time. This ride just got serious! This was also the inaugural run for the notoriously sweet Tuono 457 which Musketeer V had purchased a week prior to the trip. More on the Tuono later! It was a mild Saturday morning – November the 1st. Started off on my 380-ish km trip with just a laptop bag filled with a day’s clothing. Ignition on at 6:00 am sharp and off we GOOOOOOOO! I had envisaged a trip duration of approx. 5 hours. Courtesy of few too many stops here and there for asking routes, I met my folks only at 12 ish noon. Twas a great ride until that point and we’re yet to scale those 70 hairpin bends from hereon. Pretty much the highlight of the trip. After a sumptuous lunch, the ascent began. It was the turn of our machines to feast on the 70 bends that lied ahead. Have a look at this for a line-up. 1. Honda CB350RS 2. Ninja 300 3. KTM Duke 390 4. Tuono 457 5. Ninja 500 6. and yours truly Yamaha R3 The point where I absolutely stopped when I crossed 10,000.0 kms on my ODO. A quick photo-op later, we started off for the 70 bends. As we went uphill, we all started riding our own style. It was a case of to each his own, without disregarding that we were a team. Randomly stopped here only to find that that spot was exactly 1000 mtrs above mean sea level. As we reached the top, there was a mild confusion as to the correct route to navigate. This is when, me and the Tuono musketeer lost our way. Yikes. And this was a place with ZERO signal reception, except for a whiff of it for the BSNL users. Sadly none of us in the group use that carrier. So, after some thorough discussion with the locals, we rode again only to find the rest of the crew awaiting us just 5 kms ahead. We reached our stay destination at 3 pm – A mighty 50 acre property called Sunnyside Kollihills. A well-maintained property with all necessary infrastructure including smart TV, WiFi and very good food. We were almost done for the day, when somebody enquired about a nearby waterfall location. And before we knew it, we were off again. This time the Tuono musketeer was kind enough to let me ride his barely 300 kms driven bike. We were 2 up riding cos I decided to give some rest to my R3. As for the Tuono, MAN! the LOW-END TORQUE and that EXHAUST GROWL! DAMMMNNNN. While I thoroughly love my R3’s bassy note under 4000 RPM of the first 3 gears and the high revving screaming note between 8500 and 13000 RPMs of the top 3 gears, make no mistake, that Tuono is loud! Like LOUD, even while idling! It’s gearshifts were slick and devoid of false neutrals. Seems like its impossible to wake it up on a quiet morning without bothering folks at your house!l In a nutshell, the Tuono has enough torque to take an uphill hairpin turn in the 3rd gear with 2up riding. I rest my case. Wish him many many happy miles! So we reached this waterfall location called Namma aruvi. Check this out The Waterfall seems small and soft. But NO! The force of the falling water is pretty intense, while being typically cold and refreshing. After spending an hour or so, we swallowed some piping hot noodles with this sky setting as the backdrop. The colors are so therapeutic! The ride from the falls to the stay was barely a 40 km round trip of average twisty roads with barely any traffic. By late evening the temperatures had fallen and this calls for only one thing! Nope its not what you think I’m thinking more like this : After a good amount of bonfire banter, a nice dinner followed up. And as the tiredness kicked in, it was time for some much needed shut eye! The following morning we had a plan to try the much famous Aagayagangai. However, we all got up late and took some time to explore the property which had its own coffee plantations and lakes! Its 50 acres remember. We barely saw 5 acres! Just a random pic. My bad. I didn’t take pictures of the lake! After a good breakfast and a nice coffee (made from the resort’s own plantation), it was time to leave for our respective nests. One last parting shot of the trio of us And the 7 of us before we left the property. Guys on the Duke were 2 up riding icymi. Their downhill journey was different from the one I had in my mind. They were fascinated with the prospect of riding the 70 bends again downhill. But I had other ideas. So after Solakadu, I took a right heading towards Mullukurichi and Attur which connects with the Salem-Ulundurpet bypass. The same was also suggested by team bhpian R15M_rider And boy, I’m glad I took this route. Got to enjoy some amazing scenes with the odd hairpin bend, the odd cave section and dense forests here and there. The roads were soooppeerrrrrbbb and traffic was minimal. Random pics from the Mullukurichi route: A final parting shot after getting down at Mullukurichi: I’m happy to note that TN’s road network is pretty robust to the point where almost all places are connected handsomely with nice roads. True some are average, but man the backroads I tried this time (listed below) are awesome! Stats and Info.Onward route: Chennai – Ulundurpet- Vellalagundam – Veppilaipatti – Navalpatti – Belukurichi – Senthamangalam – Karavalli – 70 bends – Solakkadu – Semmedu – Selurnadu (resort)Return: Selurnadu – Solakkadu – Mullukurichi – Thammampatti – Malliakarai – Attur – Kallakurichi – Ulundurpet – ChennaiYes these are odd routes, but you wont complain once you try them. It has detours that you wont regret.Kms covered: 780 kms. Sayonara folks.Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
