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It was our time to ride to Jawadhu Hills. In case you missed out on reading about the previous ride by Tarun and Deepak, click here.
The ride plan was actually not to Jawadhu. It was supposed to be a breakfast ride to Attur, to meet up Deepak. 2 days before the ride, on 26th February 2021, I bounced the idea with Sabarish and other members from CBR – they suggested we do Jawadhu hills. I bounced this idea with ROFL but sadly, no one was able to come. As a pleasant surprise, Manoj was able to join for this ride. Always a pleasure to ride with the Light Weight Champion! Lallu from the local Triumph group also agreed to join. So 4 riders, all on Street Triples (this was honestly a coincidence).
Route Plan
On the eve of ride, we decided to start the journey from Thirumazhisai KFC at 5 am. The initial plan was to ride to Polur, then head to Vaniyambadi through Jawadhu Hills and touch Uthangarai before joining Tindivanam and heading back to Chennai. Breakfast was planned somewhere near Polur and lunch was supposed to be at Tindivanam. We discussed and made alterations to the plan to cover more distance in lesser time on better roads – so, we decided to ride till Vaniyambadi from Chennai, stopping for breakfast at Sai Sangeet.
https://goo.gl/maps/ARjAqYymrS1Wk6Lv5
Then, go to Polur via Jawadhu Hills. Depending on the time of the day. we either decided to go to Chengam and then to Thiruvanamalai or drop Chengam and head to Thiruvanamalai from Jawadhu Hills (we made great time and so headed to Chengam). Lunch was planned either at Vikravandi or Tindivanam and ride back to Chennai via Chengalpet – Thiruporur road.
A ride through misty roads
I suppose Lallu had reached the meeting point first and Manoj followed suit. I started from my place 5 minutes to 5. En route, I caught up with Sabarish. Since it was early morning, we reached around 5:15. The roads were misty, as expected; but we were underestimating Mother Nature! After a quick tea break, which is the a tradition we uphold before starting of any ride, we rolled out, Manoj in the lead, followed by me, then Sabarish and Lallu was the sweep.
Lallu did not have a sena while the other 3 of us did. So while the 3 of us were passing on oral warnings to note on the road, we passed on the warnings to him through hand and leg signals.
A few km into the ride, we were shocked. We had to ride through mist covered roads with very very poor visibility. All of us had hazard lights on, while some cars actually had stopped on the side of the road due to poor visibility. The mist condensed and water was dripping from the helmet visors. It was as if we were riding through a hilly regions. This went on till 6:30 to 7 am. Sun rose and the mist gave way. We cold not stop to take pics due to visibility but Sabarish was able to record the road conditions. We were supposed to reach Sai Sangeet around 8:30 am but reach well before time, around 7:45.
Jawadhu Hills
After stuffing ourselves with food and fuel for the bike, we left to cover Jawadhu Hills. Our memory of Jawadhu hills is from many years ago, roads were not proper, though the scenery made up for this. What awaited us were freshly laid roads for most part of the journey. Street Triple conquered all the curves and bends that were thrown at it. Have to say, we did lose track of the route a couple of times!
We stopped for taking pics near a valley view, spent sometime there, chatting before heading to Polur for hydrating ourselves.
Being a one day ride, it did not click for us to carry the hydrating packs (oh it was a mistake alright!). We tried to locate a tender coconut shop but all we could find was a sugarcane juice vendor, where we gladly agreed to take a break.
Oh the horror!
As I was saying, we made great time, despite losing track of the route a few times, even on NH and SH. Around 10:30 am, we were near Polur, passing through a picturesque road, with plantation on one side, backdroped by mountains. It was near 2 pm when we decided to stop for lunch somewhere near Tindivanam – Vikravandi, I suppose we stopped at A2B. After finishing out lunch and taking a rather long break, we wanted to fill up the bikes. The petrol bunk was not far off. We spotted a bunk and filled up our bikes. Just as I was about to start my bike, disaster! My bike wouldn’t start! Though not panicking, I was wondering what would happened!
DIY Service!
One of the main reasons why we should be on a group ride is this. In case of any such situations, you will always have helping hands. We parked the bike at a corner of the bunk and were trying to figure out what would have happened. The display did not work, no lights were working, and the bike did not crank. Was it a serious issue or something very trivial? I have to be honest, with each passing minute of the bike not starting, it sounded more and more serious. We got in touch with the service engineer (Mahesh) and senior personnel from Triumph (Anwar) who had asked us to do couple of basic things
- Check if all the fuse are intact
- Remove each fuse one by one and visually see if it has burnt or not
- Check if the immobilizer light was blinking if the key was removed or not. If this light was not working, RSA is the only way to bring the bike back! Thankfully, it was working for me.
- Whatever we did, we were advised not to touch the battery nor to remove the 30A fuse near the battery. We stayed clear of it.
Having done all this, I again called the service manager, Mahesh. In the meantime, I received the customer care number from Triumph in case I needed to call RSA. I had prepared my mind that I had to ask them to tow the bike to Chennai. As a final ray of hope, Mahesh asked me to remove the 30A fuse, then proceed to remove the battery wires (negative terminal first, then positive terminal); wait for 5 minutes and then plug it back in, in the reverse order.
The waiting time, honestly felt so long! We were discussing about random things and after sometime I came to realize only 2 minutes had passed. This was the longest 5 minutes ever! If push come to shove, I was ready with RSA’s number. 5 minutes had passed. Moment of truth, we reconnected the battery terminals and inserted the fuse…The bike sprang to life! Having informed Mahesh and Anwar from Triumph, we rolled out. This entire situation took us about 45 mins.
And it comes home
Having decided not to switch the bike off till I reached home, which was quiet possible since we had just filled the petrol tank and Chennai was hardly 130 km away, we rolled out. We rode till Chengalpet and took the right to Thiruporur. The sun was beating down on us and we were already thirsty. We stopped for a final water break here and had a quick photo shoot. We parted ways once we reached Perungudi.
The moment I reached home, i switched off the bike and started it again, and repeated it once more. No issues whatsoever.
What an experience it was! First, it was a brilliant ride through misty roads on highways, then winding roads of Jawadhu hills and an unforgettable break at Tindivanam!
