Picking this up from after the return from Kerala (on our Big 2013 ride), you may remember that the motorcycle had a terrible problem. One that caused it to not cross 3,000 RPM and had forced me to ride under that, while being fully loaded. It was the death of my 29mm CV Carb’s diaphragm, which meant I got a new carb. Which also meant, back road solo rides to test it. Testing with the Enfield Explorers chasing Anchetty which had been elusive to the group for more than one reason.

I headed out on what started as a morning breakfast ride. It ended up being an entire day affair. And what a wonderful route and company it was.

After a good breakfast we continued down Kanakapura road looking for the deviation. The real fun on this route starts after a bit of riding off the main road.

We did have a few stops to catch up and make some pictures. It was turning into a relaxed day. The carburetor was working well and that meant I could really ride the motorcycle really well after the last month fiasco.

The Road became more and more desolate after a while with jungle surrounding it. It was great to just hang out on the roadside listening to nothing.

Sometimes when I waited ahead for the group to catch up, I could hear motorcycles low rumble for kilometers.

We regrouped multiple times since there were many routes that could be taken back to Bangalore. And, at this point, we’d not yet reached Anchetty. Here’s a bunch of kids who had their holidays and very excited.

A couple of Harley Davidson Sportsters (Shalin, Dev), four Royal Enfield 500s (Atul, Anand, Pankaj, Som) and a couple of Royal Enfield 350s (Sabith, me) .

We had dosas for lunch at a tiny joint run by Subramanian at Anchetti and I’m sure everyone had more than their usual quota. Till he ran out of batter to make any more.

At lunch we could do one of two things. Head towards Hogenakal and extend the ride or stick to plan and head back to Bangalore through the beautiful forests around Anchetty. We decided to stick to plan this time around.

This was one of the last group shots we made before heading out of the forest area back towards Bangalore. The carb continued performing well and everything was hunky-dory till now.

Just as we were passing a small town, Dev slowed down for a road hump, I slowed down for the same road hump and the next thing you know was a screech, a solid thud from the back and I was off the bike. Obviously someone had not! 😀 Som and his Desert Storm had “done the needful” to use an Indianism. Glad both of us had no injuries. I had been hit from behind and the silencer had got twisted into what looked like a cobra with its hood opened.

After realising that fixing the sheared bracket would be impossible with nearby welding shops closed, I just removed the silencer and tied it using a bungee it to the back. Glad I was carrying the full tool kit. But, this meant that I could not ride over a certain RPM range else risk hurting both my ears and the engine more. Now, that was crappy part of the ride.

I rode back slowly till home, knowing one issue had now been replaced with another issue. Back to the garage and tinkering around. Aaargh Murphy!

Chasing Anchetty Route

Gallery of Enfield Explorers chasing Anchetty

We did about 200kms in all this day, give or take 10.

The group is now called Ministry of Torque.