#1- My First Long Solo Bike Ride on my 100cc Bike | A Travel Memoir

Even having a confirmed train ticket to Chennai from Madurai, it was a day before deepawali that I decided to ride my 100cc bike all the way from Madurai to Chennai.

We people build unique interests since birth and everybody are uniquely inclined towards unique things. Likewise I too had unique interest to travel all over the world and explore it to the core.. hee hee hee.. wait what ?., I was just kidding because being born in a typical Indian middle class family,
you cant have that much time,money and the amount of exposure to even think about travelling all over the world in the first place (there are few exceptional families too..)

But it was only in 2016,during my jobless days after completing my engineering degree I came to know about travelling., via some tedx videos having clickbait titles like "Travel the world with zero money".Mostly these videos have foreigners' experiences shared and an inferior me thought these kind of travelling is feasible only by foreigners in foreign countries and not in India.Then I followed few quora's question and answer sessions where I found a guy from Andhra Pradesh who travelled all over India for 11 months with no money. This boosted my confidence and by this time youtube analytics started to recommend videos regarding long travel in low/no budgets where I found people going all over India in 100cc bikes and even in cycles,.These information increased my confidence to a greater extent that low budget minimalistic travelling is feasible in India too. But still there are hell a lot of people around you whose sole purpose of life is to discourage you from not doing what you want/like.Because of these kind of people,my confidence level has dropped to the minus side of the scale. But in the smallest corner of my mind it always felt like I will do it some day in the near future.

And that day was slowly manifesting by itself. I was driving my bike to few places in and around Madurai within 150km radius and was getting ready.

There is a myth saying that 100cc bikes cant do long rides because these bikes are not designed for this purpose,cant go higher speeds,engines are not oil cooled so it gets heated very soon,and as its very less in weight cant withstand tough roads bla bla bla.. But that doesnt stopped me. Something else stopped me.I will tell about that something else in a few lines later.

I had serviced my bike only a week before this long ride, before that my bike was not even started for a entire year because of me being working in Chennai and not coming to Madurai due to the Pandemic situation. Now it was running fine but still my tyres where too old, it doesnt have proper friction. And sometimes my bike starts to slow down and couldn't accelerate further like when fuel goes to reserve. So I went on to the mechanic to check with this issue,he said " as this vehicle has not been running for a year, it would take the bike to become normal by itself once it start to run a few kilometres". So, With this I had to take a huge risk but yes I did it fearfully .There is a cool drinks advertisement that all of a sudden popped in my mind saying, "Will you wait for 12 more years for Kurinji Flower to bloom or will you take the risk".

Ok now came the deepawali day, I convinced my mom but my dad was hesitant of me travelling on my bike as it was a rainy season. I told my mom not to tell any of my relatives about it, because they may easily discourage me. And I didn't tell any of my friends too about this for the same reason. These kind of few people( not all relatives and friends) are the ones that I mentioned earlier as "something was stopping me". We all are in a fast moving world trying to live up to the standards of others and not for us. So we start to doubt ourselves and miss to find out our truest potential that we are really capable of doing. I made up my mind to set out to face it with much fear, hesitation and little bit confidence all at the same time.

Finally, The D-Day has arrived 15th November 2020. My Alarm sounded at 04:04 AM I woke up and got readied from my home at around 05:55 AM in the morning and I started slowly.. I told my parents not to get panic about my ride and I will call or text whenever I halt and never call me. I was so sure not to pick any calls from anyone during the ride.

As I was brought up religiously, I prayed at the Uchaaiyi temple present in my area before starting out. In Tamil Nadu there is a belief among many drivers in praying to their area god(ellai kadavul or kaaval dheivam - God who protects and safeguards their geography) present at the entrance of the road/highways.This belief ensures the travelling peope for a much safer and secure journey. So I too followed the same.Then I went to Pandikovil near maatuthavani and prayed there too.

I started at around 07:20 AM on the highways. Weather was cool and the Sun was just coming up. I was going @ 40km/h steadily on the bikers lane. My bike's top speed was 80km/h but I dont want to push to its maximum speed.

I splitted the entire journey into 4 stretches as
1)Madurai to Trichy,
2)Trichy to Villupuram,
3)Villupuram to Melmaruvathur,
4) Melmaruvathur to Chennai.

The main idea of splitting the journey into small chunks came from two different sayings which I got inspired from.
The First one goes like this "Mountaineers dont watch the top of the hill, if they do so they will easily get exhausted instead they watch their footsteps". And the second one comes from my programming background that " Always split a complex problem into simpler chunks or pieces, so that it will be easier to solve them".

At the first stretch, my ultimate aim was to reach Trichy and that was it.This stretch had beautiful weather, roads were quite empty. Few bikers and cars from south Tamil Nadu was going on these roads. They were stopping by at few places for their breakfast.

In these highway roads, it was so ironical to see many dragonflies,butterflies,dogs and even cows being hit by fast moving vehicles, lying dead on the roads. In this fast moving world, We all have a superior thought that we are the only species living in this entire planet who are trying to dominate all other living organisms in every possible way..

I thought this first stretch was easy for me and my bike but when my bike starts to go slow and kind of stopping on accelerating more a few times, I had this question popping in my mind "Should I really have to continue this journey or else return back home with this bike and go in train ?". I was constantly having a thought "Did I took a hasty decision of setting out for this long journey ?". So I tried to convince myself to reach trichy and decide the rest there. I just had to check with another mechanic about this issue there to have a peace of mind for me while driving or else return back home. So I texted my office colleague who is in Trichy about finding a mechanic shop. He then called back and said "as it was the next day to deepawali no one will come for servicing". This made me still more panicking. But still some part of me was whispering slightly that everything is going fine as per the plan. So I made up my mind with positive affirmations like "you can do it and your bike can also do it" and was driving steadily not more than 40kmph because of that "stopping of bike when accelerating more issue" and thus made halts every 30-40kms for 5 minutes.

The another challenge in this first stretch was, there were many small villages near those highways and few people from those villages drive in the opposite side of the driver's lane that they were exactly approaching towards me head to head without even switching on the head light or honking. If I had to move slightly to the right side and give way for them, then to the back of me there were so many fast moving vehicles approaching.So it was pretty dangerous to drive with these kind of few people. As I was not over speeding and maintaining a decent speed it was quite manageable against these obstacles.

I could also see many long driving cars stopped at roadside for having their breakfast which they have packed and brought. On seeing this I too got hungry as the time was about 09:00AM. Then I planned to have my breakfast when reaching Trichy. I thought of taking a half an hour halt in Trichy. Now while approaching Trichy with only 10Kms being left it started to drizzle slightly. Roads are becoming wet and now I have to drive even more carefully and should not apply brakes suddenly or else bike would skid easily. My helmets are getting foggy and I was clearing the fog once the vision gets blurry. So my speed automatically got slower than usual.

When I reached Trichy at around 11:00AM it started to rain heavily. I couldn't drive more so I stopped at a tea shop and ate 3 vadais and a packet of biscuits. I was waiting for the rain to slow down a bit and about 20 minutes later it slowed down a bit. Then I started to ride from there. Now I am officially on my 2nd stretch ie., From Trichy to Villupuram.

My calculation was that I could reach chennai in 10-12 hours but with this speed I couldn't reach there I guessed. Now this stretch had rains here and there. Then I stopped at a roadside shop of an old grandma selling tender coconuts. I drank one red tender coconut for Rs.40 and it gave me little more strength to drive. On further riding I crossed Ariyalur with that dull weather. As the time went on I started to get hungry so I decided to have something when I reached Perambalur at around 01:00 PM. I thought of eating full meals lunch there but I didnt eat because I had a doubt that I would get sleepy while driving. So I drank a glass of pomegranate juice for Rs.40 and started the journey. Now with this I was also feeding my bike in regular intervals with petrol and air. It was also becoming energetic while riding. By this time I found out a technique of accelerating the bike in a particular rhythmic manner so that it avoids the stoppage issue that I have mentioned earlier. This gave me a lot of confidence which goes high above the positive scale that I would successfully complete this ride. On the other side fear quotient is still on the negative side that if I get a flat tyre it is very difficult to find a mechanic the next day to deepawali. This was bothering me and I was saying to myself "everything is going fine, if at all something else happens, then that is happening for a reason to make me a more humane person".

After a few hours of driving, with Ulundoorpettai in few kilometres I had a halt near a tea shop and had cream bun and a cup of milk. And on further driving with few extra halts due to continuos drizzling it took me around 05:00 PM to reach Villupuram. Hurray ! Successfully my 2nd stretch has been completed.

The third stretch is from Villupuram to Melmaruvathur. Usually during November-December time sun sets very early so that the roads become dark at around 06:00PM but on that day due to raining it became even darker before 06:00PM. So again I had a question popping in my mind "Will I continue to ride or stay there that night ?". Then I made my mind that lets decide that once reaching Melmaruvathur. And I started to ride with drizzle and darkness both blurring my vision to the core. This ride needed extra attention and patience than the previous ones. Somehow with much caution, much slower speed and much more halts reached Melmaruvathur at around 07:00 PM. I went to a petrol bunk there and checked the map and it said Urappakkam(the place in chennai where I was living) was only 60 Kms away from there. So I thought its easy to drive within 2 hours time.

And Yes, Now I have entered the fourth and final stretch of the ride ie., from Melmaruvathur to Chennai. I thought this stretch would be easy as I was nearing my location but this was the most toughest stretch of all both for myself and my bike. A scene from the movie "The Walk" was flashing in my mind in this particular stretch. This movie is about the life of a tightrope walker whose ultimate aim is to walk between the tallest buildings with no safety. The protaganist was so desperate, practiced severely and atlast he walked on the rope but while returning on the rope to the building,he gets slipped and at that point of time in the scene there comes a voice over saying something like this " Whenever we are nearing our destination we feel like we have reached and in much joy we lose our focus as a result we have higher chances of slipping but the fact is YOU ARE STILL ON THE ROPE". This made sense to me . I took much more attention here. My ultimate aim was to reach the destination safely. So I was driving much more patiently. Once I crossed Chengalpattu it started to rain heavily and I started to shiver.. I halted at a petrol bunk and had a cup of milk and it was so soothing. As I was riding crossing chengalpattu it became around 09:00 PM. At that time due to rains, water was filled in the potholes and I unknowingly ran into one such potholes. This made my bike to gallop like a horse. I suddenly got frightened and halted there near a shop and then started the ride. Now while reaching Kattankulathur rain got severe and many were standing in bus stop shelter. So I too stood there for about half an hour. Then when rain slowed down a bit I started to ride and at around 10:00PM I reached my home in Urappakkam..

And here comes the end of my journal of a 16 hour long journey that taught me a lot of things. The major takeway that I learned from this ride was life will always go on, no matter what you feel., either you are confident about it or afraid about it or both at the same time. It is always giving you oppurtunities to make you more humane in every possible way. If you put continuos efforts patiently who will reap that yield for it in near future. So always be optimistic and hopeful.

The major purpose of writing this blog is to give confidence to people who have lower cc bikes to go on for longer rides. Before starting your ride check with your bike mechanic for the present running condition of your bike and say them about your long ride plan and ask if something needs to be changed. If so change it. Wear Proper helmets and safety gears. Follow the rules. Have a first aid kid, toolkit, and all other necessary equipments for the ride. I hope this blog will be useful for people who love to travel but have lower cc bikes. Have a happy and safe journey. So grateful for this journey called life. Thank you people and Thank you Nature.