Arasikere - Hassan

Date: 16 June 2018

Total distance: 420 Kilometers

Start Time: 5:30 am 16 June 2018

Return Time: 4:15 am 17 June 2018

With: Lokesh Jain

Altitude Profile:

Kanteerava Stadium - Tumkur - Tiptur - Arasikere - Hassan - Yadiyur - Kanteerava Stadium

With less than 30 days to go for the Gates of Heaven ride, I needed to get some miles under my belt. Practice rides were the need of the hour and I was more than happy when I received a call from Lokesh enquiring if I would want to ride the Hassan 400 BRM route during the weekend.

Nothing much to plan, have ridden the route before, just got a few things together and hopped onto the bike on Saturday morning at 5:30 am and started the ride. I synced up with Lokesh at Yeshwantpur at 6:20 am. Lokesh had just reached and we started straight away. Got onto the Yeshwantpur flyover and we were off to a quick start.

There was a lot of traffic and I did get the feeling that we had started an hour late. An hour earlier and we might have probably had lesser traffic. The traffic scene did not improve even after we got past Nelamangala, the truck traffic was irritating to say the least. Further, the shoulder on the left of the road was strewn with small pebbles/mud making it almost impossible to stay on the left of the road which brought us onto the firing line of the traffic. Had a lot of occasions when we were in the path of the heavy vehicles.

It was a relief to get to the Tumkur bypass and then off it as the traffic reduced a little from here. The clock had ticked past 9:00 am and we had to stop to refuel. Stopped at Hakki Goodu restaurant just before Gubbi, I had a Masala Dosa and Lokesh had Set Dosa/Coffee. The restaurant was a little disappointing as the cleanliness level has dropped a little since the influx of customers had increased on account of KSRTC buses stopping at the restaurant. It was a 45 minute stop. A relaxed stop as we were in no hurry.

10:15 am when we started from the restaurant. It was bright and sunny, cross/head wind had started and we braced for a long day on the saddle. The ride till Gubbi was a breeze and then the rolling terrain commenced adding to the difficulty level of the ride. Many places where the road looked flat, however there was a slight elevation making us wonder if we were struggling on account of the wind. We had made a decent start in the morning averaging 25 kmph till the breakfast stop. The pace was beginning to fall now and was edging below 25 kmph. The body was showing signs of tiredness and grinding the big gears was difficult.

We stopped at a sugarcane juice vendor and sipped on a large glass of sugarcane juice. We were about 15 kilometers from Tiptur. We decided to stop at Tiptur for lunch. It was going to be an early lunch since we would get to Tiptur by 12:30 pm. The plan was to have an early lunch and then get to Hassan before stopping for another break. The ride after the stop for the sugar cane juice got easier more on account of the gradient easing up. It was very sunny and wind although slowing us down was keeping us cool. We reached Tiptur town at 12:30 pm, stopped at Kamat restaurant. Stepping into the restaurant took us away from the Sun's fury and getting water on the face was rejuvenating.

We had a south indian meal. A good serving which looked like it was enough fuel to get us to Hassan. Had a coca cola as well to cool off and refilled the water bottles. We took a long break here and relaxed at the restaurant. It was an hour long break, we headed out at 1:30 pm to resume the ride.

The ride out of town was slow. However, we picked up the pace when we got out of town and made the most of the fast rolling terrain. In an hour we were closing in on Arasikere. It was a beautiful view of the hills near Arasikere. As we got closer, the view got hazy and just as we reached the outskirts the reason for the haziness was revealed. The rain had arrived, a quick stop to pack the phone and continued riding. The rain got heavier as we got into town, however it did not last and by the time we were out of town the rain had abated. The rain had left us dirty on account of riding dirt thrown up from the wheels.

4 kilometers from Arasikere we stopped at Coffee Day, a quick break here. 15 minutes and we were back on the saddle. Dark clouds were lingering above and the rain was imminent. We did get a few drops of rain when we got back to Arasikere which disappeared just as quickly as it came. We headed out of town and took the turn towards Hassan.

We had been quick till we got to Arasikere with the pace still hovering around the 25 kmph mark. Knowing the route from Arasikere to Hassan, I did expect the pace to drop, however not by much. The roads were good and the weather was good except for the wind which was still hindering us. The surroundings were green and the agricultural fields had been prepped for the sowing season. It was beautiful country roads which was making this a very enjoyable ride. 

There had to be something that got our focus back on the ride rather than the scenery. The climb towards Hassan started and we immediately slowed down on account of the effort put in the morning. We made it past the climb and got onto a flat section. It had rained here leaving the roads wet, the wind had stopped and we were back to having an enjoyable ride through country roads.

The dangers of riding on wet roads were on display as well, a biker skidded and fell about 200 meters ahead of us. He was injured, however was up and walking towards his bike. Hope he recovers quickly. We rode past the accident spot as there was a crowd beginning to assemble to help the rider.

Pretty soon we were at the turn towards Hassan. The ride which was enjoyable till then turned dirty, as in literally dirty. The road is being concreted and as soon as we took the turn and crossed the railway bridge there was a gravel road for about half a kilometer. The road was slushy since it had rained. We made it onto the concrete road which had been laid recently and had been covered with jute sacks for curing, however the sacks had turned to powder on account of the rain and having been run over by lots of vehicles. There was only a small piece of concrete to ride on and everyone was vying for the prime piece of road. Being on cycle we were more often than not pushed away from the preferred line, the cycle bore the brunt of the dirt and so did we when we had to place our feet in puddles to let the vehicles pass. It was a difficult ride and the two kilometers that it lasted for seemed more like 10.

After getting past the slushy part of the concrete, we were onto better concrete roads. This section had been laid quite a while ago and as such there were no jute bags and the surface although wet was clean. Riding was slow since the gradient was uphill and the concrete road was not smooth. The ride was painful and the frustration was beginning to boil over on account of us running out of fuel. The meal at Tiptur which seemed to be sufficient to get us to Hassan, had been used up about 8 kilometers before Hassan. The ride into town seemed to take longer that it actually did. It felt good to see the buildings in the horizon and them growing larger as we got closer was a relief. We did not go into town and headed for the highway and stopped at Patanjali restaurant. It was 5:30 pm when we reached.

Knowing that that next 80 kilometers is an easy ride, we took a long break. I had tomato rice and Lokesh had Veg Pulav. We had lime soda as well to fill us up and keep us going for a further 80 kilometers. The restaurant staff were busy catching a snake and it served as an entertainment for the restaurant guests. The cycles were dirty and it was depressing to see them covered in mud. The saddle bag had served its purpose and had protected my shorts from getting wet. Washed the water bottles, refilled them and got ready to leave after an hour.

It was 6:30 pm when we started and getting to Bellur Cross/Yadiyur for dinner was the target. We had to ride about 75 kilometers to get to Bellur Cross. The start was slow as we had to climb to Shanti Grama and in the process we caught a beautiful sun set. Since the sun was setting behind us, I kept looking back to catch glimpses of the setting sun and the beautiful hues of the sky.

When the sun had set we had gone past Shanti Grama and were in fast rolling terrain. Long descents followed by short climbs made us ride quickly and we were ticking off the kilometers rather quickly. Channarayapatna came by very quickly and then onto Hirisave. We did not realise that we were under 20 kilometers from Bellur Cross and the time was still 8:30 pm. Just over 2 hours for 54 kilometers. We took a short break to refill water, drank juice/tea and resumed the ride. We took a short break to refill water, drank juice/tea and resumed the ride.

The ride slowed down a little after the break since the gradient began to ease out. We reached Bellur Cross at 9:30 pm and decided to ride to Yadiyur and stop at Coffee Day for dinner. It took us 30 minutes to get to Coffee Day. I lubed the chain as soon as we got to Coffee Day since the chain had begun to creak. Headed in, had a Tandoori Chicken Sandwich and a juice. We decided to start from Coffee Day at 11:30 pm, which gave us a spare hour. Decided to catch up on sleep in that hour and promptly slept. If we started at 10:30 pm from Coffee Day our expected arrival time at Bangalore was 2:30 am which was too early and therefore we opted to extend the break.

Lokesh woke me up at 11:30 and we got going. A little lethargy had crept into the ride, Lokesh took off after a short while and I tried to keep up with him which woke me up. I was tiring, however, the gradient was not difficult and the weather was pleasant which allowed me to keep up with Lokesh. Made it to Kunigal bypass easily, took a while to get past the bypass since it's a long one. The ride to Solur after getting past the bypass was not as difficult as expected and we raced to Nelamangala. We were looking out for a place to rest, however, just as we got to Solur, there was no electricity and the place was shrouded in darkness, we rode on looking for a well lit place to rest. However, with the kilometers coming down quickly, we were at Nelamangala where we found a tea store.

We stopped at the tea store, ate biscuits and a banana, refilled water and resumed the ride. Slow to get off the blocks, once the body was warmed up we were back up to speed. Rode quickly and got onto the Peenya flyover and when we alighted it was time to part ways with Lokesh. He headed towards Nagarbhavi while I continued into the city. Took me an hour to get back home.