Over the Hills and not so Far Away
by sudharsh
I had been itching to go on a motorbike roadtrip to Kerala. Sitting in the back of the car isn’t exactly my idea of a fun and fulfilling roadtrip.
Therefore from Oct 2 – 10, I was on my motorbike riding through some diverse terrain and landscapes that included arid countrysides, coastal plains, villages, forests, hill stations and plantations of cardamom, sandalwood, rubber and tea.
The 2118 odd kilometers was done on my little 150cc Yamaha FZ16 laden with saddle bags and supplies. Given a chance, I’d gladly re-do the same roadtrip again on a more powerful machine.
The Short Way Round - The route
My itinerary for the trip was as follows
- Oct 2, Sat: Home – Salem – Avinashi – Coonoor
- Oct 3, Sun: Coonoor – *crash in the mountains* – Ooty – Gudalur – Sultan Bathery (Wayanad)
- Oct 4, Mon: Sultan Bathery – Kalpetta – Calicut
- Oct 5, Tue: Calicut – Thrissur – Chalakudi – Athirappally/Vazhachal falls
- Oct 6, Wed: Athirapally – Unknown shortcut through rubber plantations – Kaladi – Muvattupuzha (Rendezvous with my friends here and was no longer alone) – Munnar
- Oct 7, Thur: Munnar – Marayoor – Chinnar – Offroading at Anaimudi – Munnar
- Oct 8, Fri: Munnar – Idukki – Elapara (with lots of detours taking us to awesome spots)
- Oct 9, Sat: Elapara – Vagamon – Parunthumpara – Pambanar (Goodbyes over a heavy lunch and was all alone again) – VandiPeriyar – Kumily – Theni – Madurai
- Oct 10, Sun: Madurai – Trichy – Home
It was a long, wet weekend with rains lashing through Kerala rather heavily. Nevertheless, I was having lots of fun except for the crash in the mountains near Ooty. That was not fun AT ALL. Detailed logs to follow soon.
En route Wayanad
Crashed 5 minutes later
Awesome.. How many accompanied you?
and what do u mean by ‘the crash in the mountains’?
Was solo till Munnar. And from Pambanar.
. My kneepads and jacket protected me from injury. Unfortunately, my bike took some damage in the form of a bent toe lever and a slight fork bend.
Had a little accident near Ooty crashing into mountains
Did you meet ‘jesse’ ??
Naww
hey hi!
i also own an FZ and was lookin for saddle bags for my bike. the cramster guy in blore told me that cramster ones won’t fit the FZ etc..but i see that u have used saddle bags.. what make are they. where did u get them and how much did they cost?
please do let me know.
thanks
I have the Cramster Colt.
The reason why Cramster says the bags won’t fit is that they can come in contact with the rear tyres when cornering. Since there is no proper ‘frame’ to hold the bags in position.
However, I solved this problem by using two bungee chords and making the bags rest on them for support instead. This way, the chords prevent the bags from touching the tyres while cornering. Run the bungee chord diagonally from the grab rails to the loops near the rear foot pegs. This should form a nice ‘frame’ to hold the bags.
The height between the exhaust and the right bag is a bit low, so be wary of that. Other than that, Colt works wonderfully for my FZ.