Saturday 18-Jun-2005, the day we rode to the scenic destination of Nandi Hills.
'We' - a group of enthusiastic techies who love riding bikes and nature.
Royal Enfield providing complimentary bikes for the trip ; Red Bull sponsoring the energy-drinks and 'fun-tainment' ; The zeal to break-free from the monotonous life of staring at the same screen day-in and day-out - all reasons for us whiz-zers to roam the roads in search of a subtle change ; a break ; and tranquility.
Started off by a mail on the company bulletin board, we became a group of 20-odd enthusiasts who stood outside the RE store on CMH Road @ 0730 hrs today to push-off for the excursion. Though the flag-off took place an hour later, the spirits remained high in anticipation...
Driving via MG Road, passing the Bangalore Golf Course, the Le Meridien ; crossing the Hebbal flyover and continuing on the Bellary road, we made our first stop en-route Yelahanka at a location where the road was still under construction.
The refreshment stop gave us an opportunity to relax in the company of our co-bikers. Also, gave us all an opportunity to try our hand at some 'Biker-games'. The game was to pick up a can of Red-Bull, with your hands, placed in the middle of the road while still riding your bikes (similar to the horse-back sport of plucking pegs from the ground)...
Made a couple of attempts on my Unicorn, but every time the hand used to skim off the top of the can; the RE riders had a higher conversion rate of attempts to lifts (Attributed to the low-seating of the bike, solely). The game in itself became a traffic-stopper to the extent that we were forced to push-on by a traffic cop manning the highway...
With no other untoward incident or stoppages the group moved on to it's destination through the picturesque drive through Karnataka's country-side. Nandi Hill isn't famous for anything in particular ; but the vast expanse of land visible from the top of the hill ; the cool breeze blowing in the middle of the afternoon ; the idyllic spots to just lay down and be one with nature for a moment ; make it a must-see for one and all...
Besides this, you have a steep drop on the hill known as the Tipu-drop - believed to the location from where executions used to take place in the Tipu-era...
The drive-to took us approximately 2 hours ; we stayed there for about 4 hours till 1430 hrs. The drive-from there wasn't all that bad too and the group covered the distance in the same time.
The RE's gave an average of 35-40 kmpl; pretty decent for a 350-cc engine. The riding comfort is excellent and the engine just purrrs upto 100 kmph with no-effort at all... Not trying to hard-sell the bike but just expressing the 'royal'-ness you experience when you drive one of those bikes.
The end of the first group-trip on bikes was an extreme joy and we concluded the event with the hope that we would be able to organize many more excursion trips to other locations and have as much fun as we did this time round...
'We' - a group of enthusiastic techies who love riding bikes and nature.
Royal Enfield providing complimentary bikes for the trip ; Red Bull sponsoring the energy-drinks and 'fun-tainment' ; The zeal to break-free from the monotonous life of staring at the same screen day-in and day-out - all reasons for us whiz-zers to roam the roads in search of a subtle change ; a break ; and tranquility.
Started off by a mail on the company bulletin board, we became a group of 20-odd enthusiasts who stood outside the RE store on CMH Road @ 0730 hrs today to push-off for the excursion. Though the flag-off took place an hour later, the spirits remained high in anticipation...
Driving via MG Road, passing the Bangalore Golf Course, the Le Meridien ; crossing the Hebbal flyover and continuing on the Bellary road, we made our first stop en-route Yelahanka at a location where the road was still under construction.
The refreshment stop gave us an opportunity to relax in the company of our co-bikers. Also, gave us all an opportunity to try our hand at some 'Biker-games'. The game was to pick up a can of Red-Bull, with your hands, placed in the middle of the road while still riding your bikes (similar to the horse-back sport of plucking pegs from the ground)...
Made a couple of attempts on my Unicorn, but every time the hand used to skim off the top of the can; the RE riders had a higher conversion rate of attempts to lifts (Attributed to the low-seating of the bike, solely). The game in itself became a traffic-stopper to the extent that we were forced to push-on by a traffic cop manning the highway...
With no other untoward incident or stoppages the group moved on to it's destination through the picturesque drive through Karnataka's country-side. Nandi Hill isn't famous for anything in particular ; but the vast expanse of land visible from the top of the hill ; the cool breeze blowing in the middle of the afternoon ; the idyllic spots to just lay down and be one with nature for a moment ; make it a must-see for one and all...
Besides this, you have a steep drop on the hill known as the Tipu-drop - believed to the location from where executions used to take place in the Tipu-era...
The drive-to took us approximately 2 hours ; we stayed there for about 4 hours till 1430 hrs. The drive-from there wasn't all that bad too and the group covered the distance in the same time.
The RE's gave an average of 35-40 kmpl; pretty decent for a 350-cc engine. The riding comfort is excellent and the engine just purrrs upto 100 kmph with no-effort at all... Not trying to hard-sell the bike but just expressing the 'royal'-ness you experience when you drive one of those bikes.
The end of the first group-trip on bikes was an extreme joy and we concluded the event with the hope that we would be able to organize many more excursion trips to other locations and have as much fun as we did this time round...
