The Road Trip to Kanpur: Build Up

On the 8th Dec 2009 I will be setting out on a ride which will be a first for me in many respects. It is not that for the first time I will be going on a long ride on my Bullet, but this time it a bit different.

I will be riding to Kanpur to attend the wedding of a close friend and also a fellow rider. And I think it will be apt for me to attend his wedding together with my Bullet. Apart from that, the ride is also which I am interested in.

I have been riding for the last 3 years with my Bullet having done a little more than 38000+ kms already. This is not bragging, but just an indication that at this point I do feel a bit more confidence than I would have felt say a couple of years back about this ride.

The longest ride I have undertaken till now has to be the Hyderabad trip I undertook last January to attend the Royal Enfield Rider Mania. We had a gala time there needless to say. However as I said before this ride it is a bit different.

Kanpur is roughly 1300 kms from Pune and I have broken up the journey atleast the one from Pune-Kanpur into two. The first day I will ride to Indore which to some extent is midway between the two cities. I intend to spend the night at my Maushi’s place. Its been 7 years since I have met her and when I called her up telling her I would be riding to Indore she actually checked the News as she thought that there must be an impending bus or railway strike :)

I am not yet sure whether I will wait another day in Indore or not. That is something I will have to decide once I get there. The next day of the ride will see my go through Guna, Shivpuri, Jhansi and finally reach Kanpur. There is some ambiguity here too. I have been instructed or rather warned not to ride near Jhansi if its late evening or so as there are still some cases of dacoits lurking in the wilderness at nights and plus Kanpur is a good 5 hours ride from Jhansi which I wouldn’t want to do in the night. So the cut off time which I have decided upon is that if I reach Jhansi later than 5pm, I will call it day and find some accommodation in the city and then proceed the next day. This to me sounds reasonable. And it is this ambiguity which might prevent me from staying put in Indore for another day.

So depending on this by the end of the my second day on the road or in the late afternoon of my third day on the road I plan to reach Kanpur and meet up with the fellow rider who is soon to tie the knot!!!!

As this is the first time I am undertaking such a long ride, I had to do some decent investments ;)

Remember like free lunches there are even no free rides in this world:

1) Cramster Saddle bag for the luggage: Rs 2100
2) Canon Powershot A480 digicam: Rs 6795
3) Adhoc thermal wear: Rs 395
4) A full face helmet: Rs 935

And just to complete the Mastercard advertisement: Getting on the Bullet and riding out into the horizon : PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!