Roadtrip to Ananthagiri

With the temperatures going downwards a bit, my friends and me decided to hit the road and go on the roadtrip once cancelled, to Ananthagiri

here are some pics - http://picasaweb.google.com/i.cheedhu/RoadTripAnanthagiri#slideshow

and the trip story...

Riders:
1. Cheedhu on Thunderbird TBTS
2. Vibhanshu on red R15
3. Bhanu (bhanuprakash_85) on black RTR Refresh
4. Amarnath non xBhp on Avenger 200
5. Chandrasekhar on P180 UG3
6. Sarvajit on black R15

Pillions:
1. Souvik on Vibhanshu?s red R15
2. Chandrasekhar?s brother Arun on his P180

This ride was planned for much before, but fizzled out due to the sweltering summer heat.
But this time it somehow got confirmed. We were scheduled to meet outside ITC Kakatiya Sheraton Towers Hotel sharp at 7 a.m.

Time: 07:00.
Place: ITC Kakatiya Sheraton Towers Hotel
Chandru, Cheedhu were already there. Bhanu decided not to waste time&went off to fill fuel in his RTR, saying he would meet us at Banjara Hills.
Vibhanshu wasted about half an hour in picking up his pillion Souvik&filling fuel. Funny considering he was the most eager one for this ride. Amarnath was supposed to join us at
Mehdipatnam.

Time: 07:45.
Place: ITC Kakatiya Sheraton Towers Hotel
So we started off from there, with Chandru leading the way to Mehdipatnam, picked up Bhanu half way at Banjara Hills. We found Amarnath waiting for us at Tolichowki and he waved out to Vibhanshu- a bit funny considering he never met him! (He thought Sarvajit's bike was red)
Anyways, we spent a minute explaining to each other the general rules-keep your lights on (atleast parking lights), don?t overtake without signal, keep a watch on the one behind you, decided how the riding formation would be like&started off. Sarvajit in the lead and Cheedhu in the tail.

Time: 08:30:
We were feeling that the sun will come out anytime & so will the traffic, and spoil the fun of the ride, like the Bhongir ride. It took us some time to get out of the city limits, with some really bad roads at Langer House, underneath the new Flyover Construction. We were getting a bit bored winding our way through the under construction areas with deviations at every 200 metres, when finally the highway opened out into a 2+2 lane with a barricade in the middle. Sarvajit immediately signaled to Chandru and zoomed off, with Bhanu in hot pursuit on his RTR!
Now this was interesting to watch, as this was his first time on the highway on a bike and everyone wanted to see how the RTR performs. More on this later.
So we had just begun to have our fun on the 4 lane, when suddenly the road tapered out into a 1+1 lane with no divider. I thought to myself, now the average speed will come down to 65-70. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the road quality was very good, maybe newly laid and there was hardly any traffic, maybe because it was a Sunday.
So from there on the fun started, with R15s and RTR constantly doing speeds of 90-105. The others were cruising at 75+.

Time: 10:00
Place: Chevella.
After about 40kms., we decided to stop for breakfast at Chevella. This time there were no odd stares from people. We managed to find a table just to keep our helmets & bags.
There we came across a group of bikers, with some 7 guys & 3 girls. One of them was actually sitting with her back to the rider! Maybe that is enjoyable, but not on a highway!
We had a good laugh, when the rider zoomed off without noticing a speedbreaker & she bounced on the seat (oops! that would have hurt) !

Time: 11:00
From Chevella we took a left & the road continued to be fine, except for 1-2 kms of bad stretch.
Finally we saw a board saying Anantagiri. We remembered what KP had told - don?t forget to try the next 2-3 kms. So we went ahead.

Time: 11:45
Place: Ananthagiri.
Now was the time for some twisties. Sarvajit was trying best, but couldn?t scrape the footpegs (or was too scared). It was fun though. We managed to find a straight on which Vibhanshu asked Souvik to get off & both R15s tried a speed blast. They managed to do about 126 & 129. Then suddenly Bhanu came up & said his bike was struggling to go beyond 110. We couldn?t believe it - We?ve heard of others doing much more on their RTRs, so sarvajit and Bhanu exchanged bikes & tried gunning the RTR on a downslope followed by a 400m straight stretch. It did 122 & did not seem to be running out of breath at all! Then we found a place where there was a really good view & parked all our bikes there for snaps. One really funny incident was, Bhanu suddenly realized that he had to answer the nature?s call (could have been the breakfast at Chavella) and ran off with a water bottle behind a hillock. Since we were all in a naughty mood, we tried aiming stones at him, but
he was too far.

Time: 12:00 hours
Distance covered 100 odd kms.
Anyways, after this speed test, Cheedhu was getting bored & wanted to explore the jungle. Time for some offroading. We finally found a good spot, settled down there, took some snaps and then decided to leave, as the heat was catching up.
The ride back was much faster, Amarnath started gunning his Avenger and said he wants to get onto a 4 lane next time! Bhanu started crouching and realizing what difference it makes to the top end.

Time: 14:00
Place: Hyderabad City Outskirts
Distance covered 200 odd kms.
Stopped once near the city outskirts to say our byes and then we had already decided on a longer ride on the NH7 to Pochampad Dam next time!

so next time to Pochampad Dam...