I’ve always believed that engines meant to last long durations are best run-in on the highway. This and in case you are going to blow/seize the engine up, you’d be better off doing it while running in on the highway knowing things can go wrong rather than on a ride when the motorcycle is lesser important than the journey itself. So I decided to do this by linking up the capital cities of a few states.
When Rocky posted that he was planning on riding to Hyderabad, I just jumped at the possibility. The Royal Enfield races are to begin in a short while and I wanted to run in the new A350 bore-piston kit on the ThunderDuck which was a replacement to the one that had died on me during the Munnar trip. And to think that the engine on the Munnar trip was practically new and had failed due to a 200 rupee oil pump shaft which was also the cause of the demise of the engine on the track before that! Screwed, due to the mech who didn’t check it, when rebuilt in Chennai!
I was pretty pissed about blowing up these dinosaurs and decided to build it up with my mechanic and push the bike on a long ride and see how it performed. If it held up, well and good, else it would be time to say “bye-bye Thunder-Duck”.
Turned out, Prateek was also up for the ride as was Srinivas who was going home for that weekend. After a really early morning start off from Mekhri circle, we rode on till we crossed into the Andhra border where the top of the fairing that had been fixed using one of these superglues vibrated itself free again. I had a few spare sticker labels and I patched it using that. The fairing was really doing its job well and it was a pleasure to stay out of the wind buffeting. After that stop, the next time we stopped again was at the A1 plaza for lunch. The cross winds by now were really strong and it was a pain to ride. The same fairing that had shielded me a while back, was now a drawback, because it keep acting like a parachute and in the cross winds made it more difficult to ride straight. The fairing is mounted onto the handlebars remember?
A few more breaks, one of which was to raid Rocky’s fridge (Useful tip: the panniers on either side of his bike are filled with goodies) and another to fix a blown regulator on Srinivas’s machine, we were into Hyderabad’s fantastic traffic. Its not congestion that hits you, it’s absolutely haphazard, yeah, way wilder than Bangalore! Srinivas took over as the point and led us through the maze towards the hotel that Rocky had booked.
But, the place didn’t work out as it had no parking and we’d have to park in a public parking lot. So, enter the driver of the auto/ hotel broker/ pimp (all rolled into this fellow); I started off on the wildest auto rides I’ve ever done. It put the tuk-tuk ad with Pierce Brosnan in it, into a whole new perspective. Finally landed up a deal with another hotel to lend us one of the empty shops in the building as a make shift garage for us. Went back, got the guys and crashed out for the night, but not before eating some Hyderabadi Briyani (yeah, I know, its like asking for a French restaurant in France), Phirni etc.
On day two of the weekend, we hired a Sumo and went around, looking at the sights of Hyderabad. After making some purchases (pearls, etc.) for the powers back home, we returned to the hotel room and had a nice drink or two with the BikeNomads Hyderabad chapter’s GR and Vibhu.
Day three was spent at the Ramoji Rao studios along with a couple of Rocky’s cousins. We soaked in as much as possible and realizing that everything that was on offer couldn’t be visited, checked out the interesting stuff. One thing’s for sure, we had to restrain Prateek from joining a Bengali movie that was being shot.
Day four and early in the morning the rest had to head back to Bangalore. I had an extra day’s leave and I planned on going to Chennai. I had to finish running in remember? I had already begun pushing it by now and it was time to put it to full test. I wasn’t too keen on the same route back and GR told me of a nice single lane route (Thanks GR!) which went through Nagarjuna Sagar dam and connected to the Golden Quadrilateral at a place called Ongol. Nagarjuna Sagar is a sight to see, if you ever are in that part of the country just go see it. I spent quite a lot of time; just enjoying the feeling of feeling so tiny in front of nature’s might (not the dam, but what it was holding back). After that, but for a couple of stops for lunch and water, I blasted all the way to Chennai. I entered Chennai feeling happy that the engine had lasted on this build and was ready for the races. Yeah, the last three rounds of the championship were scheduled to run a Royal Enfield class and this was the reason for my hurried running in and testing.
Just as I entered Chennai, the heaven’s opened up and soaked me to the skin in places not protected by the water proof riding gear. I gave a call to Dosai as planned and went with him to his house and crashed out for the night.
The next day, which also happened to be the last of my weekend, I rode straight back to Bangalore and was back by noon. The engine lasted and that’s the same engine that lasted and helped me with a few top finishes through Rounds 4, 5 and 6 of the National Championship and continues to run on my bike.
No snaps from the last 2 days of the ride as I’d not carried a camera and all the snaps are from Prateek.
