out
hebbal
tars, then karthik, then chinmay
the ride started in hebbal. i headed out and linked up with karthik and his guerrilla 450 in yelahanka. from there we rode up to devanahalli and met chinmay at nandi upahar (not for eating, just the meetup point lol), since he’d taken the satellite ring road all the way from whitefield.
07:04
adiyogi
the trio, locked in
once the trio was locked in, we started the proper run together. first up on the way was adiyogi, which has those nice sweeping roads, and that’s where we got the shots of karthik leaning the guerrilla into the corners.
07:37
gudibande
parked up on the bund
after wrapping that up, we hopped back on the highway and cruised till somenahalli cross and bichiganahalli, then took a left where it turns into a single road all the way to the lakes. first stop was gudibande lake. we parked up on the bund road, admired the water with the hills in the background and took some pictures.
out
the twisties
tars, breaking away solo
after soaking that in, we left for vatadahosahalli. the road between gudibande and hosahalli was rather nice, a proper switch-up from the highway straight into flowing twisties. tars was feeling planted, so i just sent it, pulling some nice lean angles and breaking away from the group, solo, just vibing to the music and the corners.
08:09
vatadahosahalli
dead flat
before we knew it we were at vatadahosahalli lake, and the place looked surreal: the twin rocky peak reflecting dead flat in the water, and birds just chilling on the submerged branches.
08:15
the model
the designated model
naturally we had to do our usual photo shenanigans, and i was the designated model this time. i went off the bund, down to the lakebed, doing all kinds of things with the bike just to pose and get the angles right by the water’s edge.
08:18
the puddle
back and forth
the catch was the wet soil. it was looking a bit sus and slippery, so at first i was actually trying to be careful. then i spotted a puddle, rode through it once, and we realised the splash looked killer on camera. so obviously we did the only logical thing: we ran that exact same puddle shot back and forth until the puddle literally had no more water left in it, lol.
08:27
the trench
one burnout
after draining the puddle dry and doing some more riding around the dirt patch, i stopped to catch my breath. karthik had the bright idea of telling me to try a burnout, so we could get a dramatic shot of tars flinging mud in the air. i committed and dumped it, and instead of a cool roost, the rear tyre just dug a straight trench into the wet ground.
in the process i slipped the front brake, immediately got paranoid that i’d cooked it, and hopped off to bow down in front of the wheel and check if i actually had any brake pad left. which, of course, got caught on camera looking like i was praying to the front suspension.
with the mud quota officially met on a “no trails” ride, we packed up to head back.
back
the twisties
karthik leads, tars chases
for the twisties back toward gudibande, i asked karthik to take the lead so i could chase. me on tars chasing the guerrilla is always a blast, and it’s basically become a recurring theme on our recent rides, since the two of us are the most frequent riders and show up for almost all of them. the tandem carving was dialled in: the two 450 cousins, leaning in sync, corner after corner.
back
the highway
a fast cruise
once we cleared the backroads, we hit the highway and locked into a fast cruise, straight back toward the city.
back
the airport stretch
tandem, through the cabs
right as we hit the airport stretch, a little traffic set in. not dead city traffic, more of a fast-moving slalom course. karthik and i immediately locked in and did some high-speed tandem weaving through the massive gaggle of airport cabs, slicing through the gaps in flow state, with punjabi rap still going hard in the helmet.
back
yelahanka
adieu, then tars alone
we reached yelahanka, bid adieu to each other, and i was back home by 10 am sharp.
short, sweet, zero fuss, and another solid morning on tars.
finish
home
me, on tars
10:00 am, sharp
3 riders · 2 lakes · 1 puddle, drained · 0 pitstops
trip 2, off tars’ dash
181.4 km
3:04 h riding · 59 km/h avg · 29.6 km/l