Mysore - Coorg - Mysore

[raviranjan.kumar]

Hi All,
We plan to rode from Mysore->Coorg->Mysore coming weekend.
Question is : Why not Bangalore -> Coorg -> Bangalore ... Simple answer .. i dont like traffic on the Bangalore Mysore hiway.
Idea is to reach Mysore As early as possible on saturday (13th).. ride to Medikeri (Is the spelling correcy?? .. or ny better place near this) .. chill there ... start back sunday morning .. reach mysore .. take a train/volvo to Bangalore.
Simple and ideal ride ..
We are there ppl already oin the plan
1. Ravi (Me)
2. Nishad
3. Sharath
Thanks and Regards,
~ Ravi

[abhinpatel]

I am assuming that you will be doing it on a road bike
Abhin

[raviranjan.kumar]

Hey Abhin,
We plan to do it on MTBs as majority ppl joining have MTBs.
Shall i count you in?
Thanks and Regards,
~ Ravi

[abhinpatel]

Sorry Ravi,

am un-prepared, no rack on my cycle and not planned properly, and still at office trying a restore Raghu's Laptop which has crashed

will definitely join you for a day Ride
Abhin

[iggy]

ha Ravi how was the ride ?? i hope it was good

[raviranjan.kumar]

Hi Iggy,
The ride was very good .
Sharath is writing the report .. will post it ASAP.
~ Ravi

[raviranjan.kumar]

The write-up by Sharath, ... looks like he f'got to put it here

Hey Guys, here's the ride report from last weekend!!

13th & 14th Sep, Mysore – Madikeri – Mysore – Totalling 262Km.

I must warn you, this ride report is particularly inspirational and encouraging for new bikers and ones who've been holding back from trying a long ride for themselves.

It was 5 of us originally planned for the ride, while mishu opted out and navdeep couldn't make it.

So it was Ravi(Trek 4300), myself(Trek 3700) and Shriram aka shri(Trek 4300) who completed the ride.

This being my first long ride outside city limits, I was particularly excited to know what it's going to be like. And I must say it was well worth the effort.

Day 1. Me and ravi did a final check the previous day on things we were carrying, haves and have not's.

Shriram meanwhile had informed he would be starting from Bangalore only after 10am. I left home at 4:15am. Touched base with ravi at majestic bus stand @ 5am. I just paused to see so much of activity at the station, felt like this's one place which never sleeps. We took a Volvo going via mysore and loaded our bikes. The conductor charged some Rs.35/- as cargo. Some well deserved sleep on the volvo, with ravi having a late party previous night! J

A neat ride to mysore and we decided to have breakfast on the way as we weren't particularly hungry. We left mysore towards hunsur road at about 7:30am. It was a good start with weather in our favour and neat road ahead. Further on, things started getting rather interesting. We chatted on the way till about 10:00 am where we stopped for breakfast. By this time I was already sweating and visualizing the long journey ahead of me.

Treated ourselves with some Double idli's and Double vadas, and mixed my first bottle of water with electral for the road. We decided that we're gonna catch up every 20 km so that we can stick to our own pace of cycling. We had plenty of time in hand, and I must say I really used it!!

The first 20km went pretty good with good roads and gradual inclinations. And ravi was atleast 3 km ahead. Further on, the heat, headwinds and the distance starting playing its role on me. By the next 40km, the distance built so much that every 20km, ravi waited for half hour for me to arrive!!! Shriram was regularly updating through sms on his position. At about 1:45pm, I met up with ravi where he has already finished a nap for half hour!! We check with shri if he's already left mysore and he said he's already 20km from mys(later we realized he had just then reached mys!!!:0))

One golden rule I had to learn quickly is ' to drink before you're thirsty, and eat before you're hungry'.

We crossed hunsur, and were headed towards kushalnagar. The next 20km was probably the most challenging for me, with hunger creeping in, winds hitting hard, temperature dropping with light showers, and my back end burning!! Eiikes!! That really hurt must say! Somehow the gel seat cover that I got attached helped a lot. I got a call from ravi saying he's already reached bylakuppe, and found a place for lunch. As ravi was dead hungry by this time he gave a 'shock' expression to know I was still half hour behind him! Lol! J

Huffing and puffing I reached bylakuppe in 20 mins, and both finished lunch, and filled up the liquids. It was around 3pm when we had lunch. Shriram by now was covering distance. Man, the food in my tummy was such a big relief and a big influence to my mind that I can still make it. There was another 45km to go, and we set the next checkpoint to kushalnagar. We reached the base of madikeri hill climb and by this time it was well visible I was mentally lost out. It was a climb of 21km to reach madikeri and I was very unlikely to go even 2 km cycling. Ravi however tried very hard to motivate me, make me push my limits, but sadly nothing seemed to work, so I opted to take a lift from a passerby.

Ravi pedaled ahead, and we decided to meet at raja seat on top. For 2km I got a tractor ride to the next junction hoping to find some kind of transportation. There I struck a ride on an autorickshaw for Rs.125/- and said he can at best get me to 17km on top as he won't have a permit upto madikeri. So for the next 40min or so, combined with a bumpy ride, and my bum still aching, and a catch in my right leg, I got dropped off at the 17th km. So I had to do the next 5km upto the top. It was 6pm now. Ravi called saying he'd already reached, and at the same time shri called, so put ourselves on conference. We noted shri would take another 2hrs or so to make it. My thought of him being crazy was reinforced by this time!! J

6:30pm I made it to the top, we took some pictures, found a place to crash for Rs. 350, and they allowed us to carry our bikes inside. At about 7:30pm shriram showed up, and he'd forcibly been given a truck ride to the top as there are some elephant movements around the hill and it wasn't safe to ride. Raised a toast, had some nice food at athithi restaurant, with some colorful crowd around to keep us company. Took some painkillers to overcome the body pain and sun burns on my back! They were killing.

Day 2. After literally splashing bucket of water on shriram J, we were all up and having breakfast, planning the ride ahead. I was feeling light this morning, with stiff thigh muscles though, but could notice an improvement in cardio. We decided to hit abbey falls on the way, and it was pouring outside. Started at about 8:30am and we headed out on a short cut via somwarpet road.

There started steep inclines and declines yet again. The last evening's nightmare started haunting me again, but I made up my mind to not to give in to them at any cost. Added to that, shriram constantly guided me to handle the climbs, like taking the outer line and using mega drive in regular shifts. I noticed that I was doing much better today, and keeping pace with the group. Reached abbey falls and cable locked our bikes there. (Shri had tea here)

What a sight abbey falls was. I had been there 4 years ago, but it looked fiercer this time around. Shri was more than willing to get into the water, but I dunno what changed his mind suddenly!! We took some striking pics and followed back with the sight in our head. It was most relaxing. We settled down for a quick bite. (Shri had tea again!!lol) We then started back to the 5km climb to reach diversion to kushalnagar. Now on it was a sweep down the hill. We were doing an average of 45kmph. I noticed a top speed of 58kmph on my speedo. I was gradually pacing up, and was getting easier to push myself on the inclines. Oh! And some dogs chased us here!!! Ravi, you almost got bitten right?? By this time rain turned to drizzles and gradually stopped raining. We reached kushalnagar around 12:30 and sat down for lunch. Nice hot meal served and we cleaned our cycles a bit to head out. We agreed to cycle till about 5 p.m. and then we check with each other on our positions. If someone was lagging behind then he would have to hitch a ride to mysore to avoid cycling at night. I was already thinking in my mind that I might be the first to do that!! J

Well there we were, all pedaling ahead, reflecting on our ride the previous evening and covering distance. The first 50km went well for me, where I maintained a constant gear ratio of 3/3 and 3/5. Little after 55KM my right knee started acting funny. Shooting pain when I stopped pedaling for a min, so I stopped often to stretch a bit and move on. It seemed to give a little relief but stayed on.

Reached hunsur and gave these guys a call. Shri said he was already 15km ahead of hunsur, I was like, WHOA! There was another 45KM to reach mysore. I just calculated in my mind considering how much time I would need, and on the way I (held on to an auto tempo for about 10km to help me cover distance) and continued ahead. By this time, pain was overcome with my will to finish the distance cycling. I was zipping ahead and was surprised to see myself pacing real fast. I curiously used to enquire from passersby to check what time my crew passed by them!!! I knew I was getting close enough. The TAIL winds started acting in our favour as against yesterday, and the ride became much easier.

I got a call from ravi at about 5:50pm saying he's reached mysore and was waiting for shri. I had another 23km's to cover, and I told him I'm cycling this last distance as well. I covered this distance in less than 50 mins, and it was an exhilarating experience noticing the finish line ahead of me. I've never been so confined to the speedo than I was for these last few km's. Shriram reach at 6:20pm, and I reached at 6:45pm. Just came past these guys and we were literally howling on the street!!! WE DID IT!!!!

I never thought I could actually time myself on a ride, forget even completing the ride of this endurance. So I must say it was a fantastic experience to have gauged my level of fitness and a chance to test it all out. So, you've just got to do it to really know where you stand!!

Shriram mentioned that he passed by a palmist, and literally thought of 'getting his palm read' to know if he'll reach madikeri that day!!!

These guys told me about the 'recovery' ride to just loosen up the tension in the muscles. Until the bus stand it was a slow recovery ride, and it sure helped. We took some pics of sunset to give a grand closure for the ride and we just reflected on the past 2 days. It was a good chit chat on the way and we were stinking like crazy!! Lol!

After some hustle bustle at the bus stand to get our bikes loaded, we finally caught the 8:00pm bus to Bangalore. Changed and freshened up and we were on the way. It was a good long chitchat on the bus, sharing experiences, taunting shri and chalking out some challenging rides ahead. Must say we had almost the entire bus engaged in our conversations! Lol! Ravi would agree with me on this!! Ha ha!

Unloaded our bikes around 11pm and we headed back home.

So a great ride must say, and this has definitely prepared me for tougher ones ahead. So I'm sure gonna train hard for them.

Ravi – Shri – Thanks guys. I'll look forward to taking up my own road bike shortly.

Have uploaded some pics from the ride as well.

http://www1.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/ ... =138002282


Cheers

Sharath.

[abhi]

Thanks Ravi. Sharath, that was a very nice narration!
Cannot see the snaps though, do I need to register to see the album? :-/

[deepak_majipatil]

Nice one Sharath,Sriram & Ravi.

Not able to view images.

[iggy]

Man it is really inspiring Ravi and the next time you have these rides i am in for it no matter what and Sharath nice report will like to see you on one of the rides

[anindya_911]

Inspiring writeup, Sarath!

Nice pictures

Cheers

[wannabe cyclist]

That's an awe-inspiring ride, buddy; and your narration is just too good. Hats off to the first-time tourer in you .

--Ram

[mallik]

Ravi and Sriram is a wonderful combo. non stop fun guaranteed. Nice trip guys!