Riders:
Sudeepto - Versys 650
Mahesh - Versys 650
The first time I ever heard about Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) was when Chetan and Madhu set out on their bikes to break the record for fastest around the GQ. The earlier record was 87 hours and they broke it and brought it down to 85 hrs. 1 month later, Chetan went on to bring it down even further to 79 hours and this time he did it solo. The magnitude of this achievement was finally understood by me during our GQ ride, till then it was more of statistics..
GQ is a set of highways that runs from Bangalore - Mumbai - Delhi - Kolkata - Chennai and back to Bangalore. The overall kms as per trackers is 5846 and covers 13 states through its course. We were not trying for any records or time trials, we planned for 8 days with 9th day as buffer to cover the distance. Plan was to ride from sunrise to sunset, then rest for the night in hotels.. The rough plan was to cover 700-800kms per day.. Simple!
In this blog, you can see how this simple plan went out of the window from 1st day itself and we were thrown into this conundrum called "GQ". With lot of grit and some common sense we were able to come out of this ride unscathed and with an experience to remember forever.
We did a preparation ride of Bangalore to Kanyakumari and back on a single day.. We were able to cover 1350kms in around 19 hours.. And, we didnt have to push much.. We had breaks every hour, some sight seeing and not very high speeds. Plus, we figured out that we were comfortable with each other's pace and style.. In long rides, the chemistry with riding partner is of utmost importance and this worked out well... This ride gave us the necessary confidence that GQ is possible as per our plan with less stress.. In fact, we had included some sight seeing locations for each ride of the ride.. We were so naive!
The list of items that were procured for this ride
1. New helmets.. This was a good buy for us, the new helmets were very aerodynamic with very less drag and better noise cancellation. The ventilation was also good in these.
2. New jackets and riding pants.. Needed a jacket with better protection and ventilation. Some places along the route are hot and very humid. With badly vented riding gear we will slowly cook ourselves to exhaustion in no time. Both our riding gear served the purpose well..
3. Sena 30K.. Sudeepto suggested this and was the best buy for this ride.. We were able to be in constant touch with each other.. This helped immensely in following google maps directions, keeping each other awake at times, warning each other of dangers on roads and possibilities to overtake, discussing about hotel stays, entertaining each other with songs.. Without Sena, we would have easily taken half a day more due to time lost in wrong directions and more stoppages for discussions. Plus, we were able to answer phone calls from families while riding.
4. Panniers - I wanted a luggage system that was safe, sturdy and easy to use.. Hence, bought the panniers system with 37x2 litres of carrying capacity. The boxes were filled to the brim.. The ease of use was so good since there were umpteen times when we had to dig into it for small items.. If it was not panniers, the same task would take ten minutes, whereas here we were done in a minute..
5. Electrical accessories - Mobile phone chargers, power bank etc are a must for long rides.
Day 01, July 13th, Bangalore to Shirwal
So, finally the day had arrived, after months of planning and meticulously gathering items needed for the trip, we were all set to go around 5:30am.. Our plan today was to settle in Mahabaleshwar, a small detour from highway.. My colleague mentioned a place called "Mapro Garden" where fresh strawberries grown in and around Mahabaleshwar are served.
Our morning ride was great, as all morning rides are... Traffic was light and road was 6 lane.. However, an issue surfaced on my bike.. At speeds of 120+, the front end of the bike started weaving.. It was more while taking turns and any road unevenness would start it off on straight sections.. Discussed with members of VBR and they suggested to increase the preload on rear suspension, so was fiddling with it for the whole of the day.. still the problem did not solve.
We had very tasty breakfast and lunch was done just before we reached Belgaum. It rained for very short time, and we were prepared for it with our rain liners.. We did not get wet from inside and rather enjoyed the slight rains. We crossed into Maharashtra and reached the detour to Mahabaleshwar around 6:30pm.. We had option of continuing onwards to Pune or to visit Mahabaleshwar, we decided latter... The climb was very good with the sun slowly setting and we getting glimpse of small dam and valley along the way.. "Mapro Garden" at the top turned out to be a very popular place and was crowded.. Although, we did not get the fresh strawberries (out of season), we got some much needed break for a while.. Instead of staying in Mahabaleshwar, we decided to come back to highway to avoid early morning fog.. so down we came.. Here, we learnt our first lesson of the trip.. We spent close to 1 hour just to look for a suitable hotel nearby the highway.. We lost Sena connectivity due to low battery and were not able to sync up for quick decision making.. There onwards, we charged the Sena during lunch breaks..
We finally settled in a hotel in Shirwal, 30kms before Pune and called it a night.. Our ride just turned into a trip!
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| Day 01: Enroute Chitradurga |
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| Day 01: 5.30AM start, all set here we go.. |
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| Day 01: First air checkup |
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| Day 01: Nice weather |
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| Day 01: On route Mahabaleshwar |
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| Day 01: View during Mahabaleshwar climb |
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| Day 01: Maharashtra |
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| Day 01: Mapro Garden.. Yummy, but very cold ice cream.. |
Day 02, July 14th, Shirwal to Thane
We had no idea that this day would turn up the way it did.. Phew!
We started at 7am and reached Pune by 7:30am.. We had got some contacts of bike shops in Pune who can look into my bikes weaving problem.. Chinmay answered our calls and we were at his shop by 9am, after breakfast.. Chinmay root caused the issue to be tight cone set and loosened it up and suggested not to change or open the bike for any other fixes.. We got our chains cleaned and lubed.. and we were about to leave when another shop I had contacted called me and I was convinced to get a second opinion from him as well.. This was first major issue on my bike and we still had 5000 more kms to go, so just wanted to be doubly safe now.. The other shop was 25kms in other direction and by the time we left the shop, it was 12:30pm.. Their diagnosis was similar and we reached Lonavala around 1:30pm..On hindsight, this was a mistake from my end to visit the second shop.. and we suffered the consequences later that day..
It was a Sunday and we were surprised to hit some traffic before entering Lonavala.. It had been raining from morning and the mud section by the roadside had become a slush.. So, the bikes were not able to use it and were forced to follow the cars on the roads.. Well, we looked at Google Maps for information and we were shocked to see red color traffic warning for kms and kms.. Aiyo, it was a 12km traffic.. not just traffic, it was a traffic jam, with some movement every 2 minutes, else it was just waiting.. the traffic showed no signs of relenting and after struggling with frustration for couple of hours, we stopped for lunch.. atleast, the lunch was good and filling.. the slight rain started again.. and again we moved in the jam.. with energy now. It seems the cause for the traffic was the influx of tourists due to numerous waterfalls brimming with water in the nearby mountains and the day of Sunday.. We did not expect this, did not plan before the ride and were not prepared for this.. The heavy bike made the movement difficult and we finally broke out around 5:30pm, we would have covered around 20kms..
We reached Thane around 10pm via the old highway and crashed at a hotel, just at the start of road towards Surat.
We had travelled only 250kms today and we were 550kms behind our schedule and from now onwards it was a race to catch up..!
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| Day 02: Lonavala view point |
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| Day 02: View of traffic jam |
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| Day 02: Lunch time, rice rotis |
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| Day 02: Our spirits were high even in the jam.. :) |
Day 03, July 15th, Good day, bad highways..
Well, we had lot of kms as arrears and started early.. The roads were very good and stopped midway Surat for breakfast.. We were surprised to get south indian breakfast of idli, dosa in the restaurant and munched on them.. We reached Surat around 10am and the best road section of the whole trip started.. It was the section from Surat to Ahmedabad... Absolutely wonderful road with no bumps or undulations and the bike and we just loved it.. My bike behaved well till 150 and the fix done in Pune worked.. Suddepto had an extended race with S-Cross with him winning, the S-Cross tied its best, but could not beat Sudeepto and Versys.. Relieved we started munching kms along with lunch after Gandhinagar..
Here on, the nature of the highway changed.. Infact it changed so much that we were wondering whether to call it a highway or not.. Every few kms, there were diversions from main highway to service road due to road construction in progress.. At times, it was a flyover under construction or an incomplete section of road. The diversions were horrible with immediate speed bump at the start (we had to literally fly over all these starting speed bumps due to coming down from highway speeds), broken roads in between and an exit bumper as well... Lets just say, we were tired of saying "diversion" over Sena to each other..
We reached turn towards Chittorgarh (120kms to go) and planned to push till Jaipur if the roads were good.. But, the diversions continued and with the sun down, we were slowed down.. The going became very risky when we saw cows sitting on road lanes after their busy day... The cows were brown, black in color and without any reflective stickers on them, they were almost invisible in the dark highways..
We couldn't risk it any more and we halted at Chittorgarh...
Started with chain cleaning and lubrication.. Had breakfast at roadside dhaba, too good food and tea.. And, the diversions on the highway continued much to our disappointment.. It was like this till about 100kms to Jaipur when the road became complete and was a 6 lane road.. It was fun zig-zagging through traffic and Sudeepto raced a Ford Discovery with him winning again.. :)
We crossed Jaipur via the bypass and headed towards Gurgaon and encountered lot of traffic before Gurgaon.. This is where the second issue on my bike started, the front brake lever got jammed and front brake would not apply.. I was able to ride with rear braking and some situations were tricky..
For lunch we stopped at a small roadside shop and had parked our bikes by the road.. 3 guys came looking at the bike and one of them wanted to take a Tik Tok video by sitting on my bike.. The other guy was shooting and I did not notice anything peculiar, but Sudeepto did.. the person shooting the video was a 100% match of Hirthik Roshan.. We were surprised to see such a resemblance.. Only difference was the height and the missing 6th finger.. We had lunch with them and found out that 2nd was Ashustosh Mishra (Bhojpuri movie actor) and the 3rd was director of Hindi serials.. We were in the midst of celebrities :)
Headed into Delhi, got a glimpse of Qutub Minar and after exiting Delhi, we were on the road that would take us to Yamuna expressway, 23kms away..
We had some roadside chaat and water to replenish ourselves.. since no water or food break until Agra.. We entered Yamuna expressway, paid 205 toll per bike till Agra.. There are no words to describe the excitement we had on this road, it was barricaded from both sides, so we didnt have to worry of stray dogs, cows or people crossing the road.. It was a 6 lane road and being a working day was devoid of any traffic.. It was only us, the setting sun and some rains on the whole 185kms till Agra.. We zoomed at 140-160 and covered the distance in 90 minutes.. Sudeepto had Taj Mahal on his mind and he zoomed off on wrong road towards Agra, instead of taking left turn towards Kanpur.. Few phone calls and WhatsApp later he was back on the right road sipping on the best tea we had on the trip.. It was 8:30pm then and we reached Etawah after 120kms late night by 11pm and crashed...!
It was a great day, we pulled in some more kms and the possibility of reaching at end of 8 days became more realistic... just 150 kms behind schedule.. Yamuna expressway kept our spirits high for the day!
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| Day 04: Found Hrithik.. |
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| Day 04: Lunch with celebrities.. :) |
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| Day 04: Best tea of the ride! |
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| Day 04: Breakfast in Rajasthan |
Day 05, July 17th, Dehydration
Started early and since the front brake had not magically cured itself overnight, had to do a service stop at Faridabad, UP. In a stretch of 1 km from highway, there were showroom/service centres of KTM, Honda, Hero, Suzuki.. And we rolled into KTM showroom.. It was opened just 4 days back and setting up the tools took some time.. The service personnel was able to fix the brake and we were off again.. We lost 2 hours by this time.. The fixing of the brake probably saved my bike from a sure crash later that day when a truck before me applied sudden brake and I stopped some 2 inches behind it..
The road to Allahabad was concrete and little tricky, with stretches where the left and right section had split and a gap was there right in center of the road.. We had to be careful while crossing lanes, else we may damage our rims or worse crash the bike.. We stopped at a wonderfully decorated place for lunch and the food was equally good.. Today, the sun was out from the morning, but we continued to ride like the previous days, with less stops and less of water... By the time, we realized near Varanasi, it was too late.. Both of us were completely dehydrated.. We were barely able to keep concentration for 30mins.. I had heavy breathing and no sweat.. Then, we stopped at a roadside juice stall.. Had 2-3 glasses of musambi juice with salt, had a mango each, 2 bottles of ORS and lots of fresh water.. Sudeepto luckily stopped at a puncture shop to fill air and the person there discovered a puncture in rear tire.. We stopped after every 1 hour even after sunset for water and struggled our way till Aurgangabad, Bihar.. Sudeepto's family rightly suggested not to go any further, due to thick forest and possible Naxalites, and we camped..
Lesson learnt and we escaped further days of dehydration there after!
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| Day 05: Our own hero! |
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| Day 05: Bikes resting under a tree.. |
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| Day 05: Best lunch of the trip! |
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| Day 05: Photography! |
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| Day 05: Mangoes and Musambi juice, medicines after dehydration.. |
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| Day 05: Colorful |
Day 06, July 18th, Replan
The events of previous day, of losing more time and dehydration, made us realize that we will have to use up our buffer day and stop pushing relentlessly.. So, we planned for Kolkata stoppage for the day, and if possible go to Karaghpur.
The Barachatti forsest was beautiful and very dense.. We were glad we did not cross this section the previous night.. Stopping for water too would have been risky.. The breakfast we got at a roadside dhaba was so delicious that I can still remember the whole taste of it.. We had chapathi, aloo, fried karela and dal tadka.. Yummy!
We moved into Jharkhand and the roads became bad again.. The roads were wavy and the right lane had caved in many places due to the heavy trucks.. We had to be careful for long stretches and light rain made the going tougher.. I had a rear tire puncture and luckily there was a shop, just 100m away.. Got the tire fixed and Sudeepto's bike's windshield nut had fallen out... Did some jugaad fix on it and off we went towards Dhanbad via black mud/sand aligned roads..
The stretch from Dhanbad to Kolkata crossing Durgapur (with its huge Steel plant) was very good again and we stopped at a place for tasting the famed Bengali sweets.. Had Langcha, Sondesh etc and some tea and we reached Kolkata hotel around 8pm.. Sudeepto paid a quick visit to his grandma residing there, whereas I had some laundry to do..
Nice easy day after the previous day struggle... Now, we had covered 3 of the 4 metros!
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| Day 06: Well, saw a well.. ! |
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| Day 06: No tea for the bikes.. they are allergic |
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| Day 06: Durgapur Steel Plant |
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| Day 06: Langcha |
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| Day 06: Breakfast dhaba in Bihar |
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| Day 06: Hero again! |
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| Day 06: Best breakfast of the trip! |
Day 07, July 19th, Happy birthday to me!
We were in constant touch with Kishore from VBR for everything from issues to planning to road conditions.. Kishore's input for today was to ride carefully in Orissa, due to split concrete roads and huge undulations on the stretch.. Plus, we were expecting the most humid day since we were to ride through coastal road for the whole day.. But, finally we got a lucky break, as it was cloudy whole day without any rains!
The road was as Kishore mentioned, where the undulations on the road were invisible and it would fling us up in the air and we had to be very careful after first few scary ones.. Earlier, we had planned to visit Chilka lake, but due to time constraints skipped it.. There were snakes on the road around the lake area, we narrowly missed one and the other was not lucky enough where some vehicle had crushed it.. The scenery near the lake was very pretty with the road running through hills and greens everywhere.. It was a pleasant weather and the ride was good.. We had good lake fish curry with rice at a restaurant and started towards Vishakapattanam..
We were riding at brisk pace and by late evening reached Vizag and checked into Taj hotel, since it was my birthday.. 37th one, quite memorable.. Sudeepto surprised me with a cake and after dinner crashed!
Happy birthday, excellent day, we covered around 880 kms !
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| Day 07: Chilka Lake |
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| Day 07: Chilka with Sudeepto |
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| Day 07: Lovely day! |
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| Day 07: Chilka lake fish lunch |
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| Day 07: Treat for the eyes! |
Day 08, July 20th, Back to good highways..
Our start to the day was slow and by noon we had covered lesser distance than planned.. The exit out of Vizag was very pretty with mountains and slight drizzle.. We were back in South India and had idli-dosa with gun powder for breakfast. We were constantly checking the oil level on Sudeepto's bike and today it looked much less.. So, got a bottle of oil and topped up at a service center.. We had to travel though a bout of heavy rain which subsided quickly..
We were still couple of hours to Vijayawada and decided to push a bit.. The ride was fun zig zagging through traffic at speeds.. and making up some good time. Vijayawada did not have a bypass and had to slowly skim through the traffic..
After lunch, the third best road stretch began.. From Vijayawada to all the way to Nellore, the road was a bliss.. 6 lane highway, smooth road, very less traffic and the truckers were behaving themselves by sticking to the middle lane only.. The weather was cloudy with some rain, it was a perfect ride till we reached Nellore..
While we were checking-in at the hotel, a person called Sai came to speak after looking at our bikes.. He mentioned that he was part of Nellore SuperBikers club and invited us for dinner at the hotel.. We joined him and his other club members and had a good chat.. Sai owns a Hayabusa, the other bikes were BMW GTL 1600, Kawasaki Z1000R and another Hayabusa. They invited us for Sunday morning ride next day, till Naidupeta around 70kms from Nellore
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| Day 08: Photo bombing! |
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| Day 08: Back to South India breakfast! |
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| Day 08: Setting sun |
Day 09, July 21st, GQ completed!
We were zooming with the super bikers till Naidupet.. we were no match for the Hayabusa's, but the others were riding at leisurely pace.. We rode till the departure point and a fellow rider noted that rear air pressure had dropped on Sudeepto's bike. Luckily, there was a puncture shop at the junction and we found that the old puncture had started to leak.. Got it fixed and moved on..
Later we got 2 more issues on his bike.. Observed that the rear tire had lost all it's tread and had started to open up.. And at a petrol break, saw that his front left suspension fork seal had broken and the oil had dripped over the fork onto the front disc brake.. There was no way we could fix that on road and tied a cloth to soak the oil a bit.. Also, my bike had started developing a rattling sound, I thought it was from the cone set, but later found out that the chain and sprockets were done! Bad maintenance by me.. So, our speeds had reduced for the day..
We had late breakfast at Chennai and just 350 more kms to go and the road after Sriperumbadur is a delight.. We reached Kanchipuram, then Vellore, then Ambur and then Krishnagiri. Mani, our friend from our biking group came from Bangalore to join us for the last leg.. It was nice seeing him and at the back of our minds we knew that we were almost there.. ! Mani took some amazing photos of us, even lying down on the road for some of the pics.. After filling up for the last time, the 3 of us rode and reached home at 4pm.
Thanks to the Golden Quadrilateral for allowing us to ride it!
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| Day 09: BMW 1600 GTL |
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| Day 09: Hayabooooza.. ! |
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| Day 09: I am gonna eat you.. Arrgh! |
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| Day 09: Kawa ZX 1000R |
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| Day 09: Mani came to Krishnagiri |
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| Day 09: Nellore Superbikers! |
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| Day 09: Mani's photography.. The riders and their steeds! |
After thoughts..
The first thing that came to my mind after going through the roads was that, what Chetan and Madhu had accomplished for their record is simply a herculean task.. I had the expectation that roads and traffic would be similar to highways in South India, but the North Indian highways are an altogether a different beast.. Those are incomplete, rugged, ruthless, uninviting and downright dangerous to be ridden at high speeds.. And to ride there without much rest on a time attack is purely genius. No words can describe their achievement..
The North India is a completely different India than I am used to here.. Almost everything is different and one has to be on their toes to get through life there.. Fascinated by that India though and expect more rides there..
Last but not the least, it was fun riding with Sudeepto.. He is an excellent long distance rider.. Open to ideas, has lot of good ideas and ready for an adventure!
