Exploring UK.. Uttara Karnataka

My favorite part of our side of Karnataka has always been Uttara Karnataka or UK. My friends from this parts used to introduce themselves as "Hi I am-- I am from UK" confusing the other person.

I enjoy visiting remote villages and jungles for the solitude they offer. During my college days Sathodi Falls near Yellapur was our regular haunt. In the past 2 years I have taken up to explore the tourist places around Hubli particularly around Yellapur/Sirsi and Dandeli.

A friend of mine had been to Shirley falls and had recommended it as it was possible to get into the water and also lack of crowd as not many know of this place. So me and my riding buddy planned to ride to the place. The road from Hubli to yellapur is very good and can be covered very fast. We went there on a CBR 250 and we usually halt for break fast at a hotel next to a Bank on the main road and also enquire for direction. A huge map is painted in the hotel highlighting all the places of interest around UK.

Shirely falls is very near to the highway a little after Yellapur, a small detour has to be taken at a small bus stop, there are no sign boards , just written in red brick " Shirley Falls here" and an arrow mark.

The road is wide enough for bike and small car and the road leads upto a small Areca nut farm. the falls is in the farm. You need to pay 10rs as entry fee.

The trail to the falls is about 500 Mts to the falls. You need to negotiate boulders to reach the falls. We climbed on the boulders and approached to the left side of the falls. One needs to be quite careful as the rocks are quite slippery .

The force of the falls at the time we visited was not too great and could sit direclty under the falls.

There is also a small cavity near the falls inhabited by Bats.

It is better to pack some food. Be care full not to liter the place as dumb idiots have already made a mess of the place with broken beer bottles in the water and all round it.

The body in the well

I was a pretty curious kid, wondering just about everything. There were not many mechanical or electronic goods in the house which had not bore the brunt of my curiosity, a beautiful alarm clock which my mother has still kept and scolds me even now for ruining it. Once the TV went broke and the way my dad looked at me, I thought I was gonna get it that day. Another obsession with me was peeping into wells, I don't know why, but I always thought all the wells had tortoise in them.

There was a place called Mayuri estate a near my house which had a huge brackish water well in the it. It was gated to prevent access to it.And always wanted to have a look. Finally a friend of mine had a house warming ceremony in Mayuri estate and me and my chums went there for the food. The area then was not yet developed and we went exploring and soon we came across the well and to my delight the well was not gated, happily it went in and peeped in, instantly I regretted it there was a body floating in it!!I just saw his bloated hand I distinctly remember he was wearing a white shirt and the something was wrong with his head.I ran scared and told my friends who did not believe nor had the guts to look themselves, another of my crazy friend Prasad agreed to look in and went ahead but he could not see it. He came back saying I was lying. Gathering up all my courage I again went in just to show from the other side of the well with Prasad following me. I saw it again and pointed out to him and I turn back and I see on one and see Prasad running like hell. He ran straight home. I was scared now thinking the police would arrest me and take me to the station. I too ran home, didn't tell my parents knowing that me going near a well would land me in trouble. An uncle had come home and he was going to a near by town and asked me to accompany him I only too happy to escape went with him.
After a good night of sleep I woke up. I was standing near the gate of my house and I saw two police constable standing near a shop, my hear started to beat rapidly I was convinced by now that they were looking for me and I was done for. I had told my sister about the body and I told her about the police. She being the elder and much much smarter then me reminded me that today was a festival and the police were just doing their rounds. I was very happy I was not caught.



A few days later I enquired with my friend whose house warming we had been to about the body. He told that some drunk guy had fallen in and had drowned. I was so relived. This incident took care of my curiosity about wells for quite a few years, needless to say I still love peeping into wells.

Updated -Expansion Chambers

I have been digging deep into forums and scouring the net collecting information on Expansion Chamber manufacturers/tuners in India for my "pipe dream" of owning a stroker. The below is the list of tuners who can build an expansion chamber for you.
The following are the tuners who can get a expansion chamber made for you to your specification, you can get expansion chambers for RX 135/100/Shogun/Shaolin and other bikes.
Numbers are not update.

For those up north-Yogesh Lakhani

The FB PageW+K Racing

Shekar Bhojanna of Pacer Yamaha Bangalore

Motokraft
9886723922
#51, 20th Main, Marenahalli, Vijayanagar.

Tectrac Racing

monish_bstreet at yahoo.com
wonderguy15 at gmail.com
Phone Dheeraj- 9035491875 shahid salman- 9538400913 monish- 9035491874

Tectrac racing



Check point service Basvershwar nagar Bangalore-Babu I have the number, but its listed under somebody elses name. Leave a comment for the number


Chamber Jose in Cochin near Kalloor international stadium-Mr Jose aka Chamber Jose - 09846053537




Thirumala Motors JC Nagar-Muthu- They stock chambers built by Muthu

Sashi Chamber Works at siddiya road 2nd cross Urvashi theatre- Edit He has shifted to Siddaiah  Circle


Zen Motors - Bull temple road Bangalore

Hyderabad Gun running tuning
Gun running tuning

The expansion Chambers built by Gun Runners





 

ORM Racing support - http://www.ormracingsupport.com/

This unit is run by Mr Sunil Kumar of Thrissur , he makes the famous ORM Expansion chambers.

OUTRIDERS MOTOR CYCLES,IYYAPPAN MILL COMPOUND,KOKKALAI.(OPP.BARTH PETROLEUM) ,THRISSUR,KERALA. PIN.680021.

Mon- Sat 10:00Am to 5:00Pm - email: ormracing@yahoo.co.in, sunilormracing@yahoo.co.in

Phone Off: +91 0487 2424592 Mob: +91 9847306336 .


Sur Tinkering works -Mysore
Shafi 9980973484
# 3215, Sultan Park Road, Mandi Mohalla, Mysore - 570001, Mysore  

 

 

Yamaha RX series modification

Those of us who used to ride 2 strokes and then had to switch to 4 strokes due to the obvious reason, will always miss them. To sum up my experience with a Bajaj FE scooter and it's maintenance was "No Cam, No chain, No headache!" My dream bike was the shogun, when it was available I did not have the resources to buy it and now I don't have a Shogun to buy, Spares are a major issue.

Even today I see the odd one longingly hoping to own one.

The other bike I wished I owned was a Yamaha Rx series. This series I hope will satisfy my need to have a 2 stroker in my garage. I like to customize almost every thing, either cosmetically or performance or ergonomically. I have been lately collecting pictures of modified Yamaha RX's to get some idea on how I'd like my bike to look.


Over the years I have seen how the mod seen changed. When in my 12th grade, the RX 100 was kitted out with a chrome plated expansion chamber with a belly pan.Some of the expansion chamber were 1 into 1 or 1 into 2, the twin chambers looked very cool. As far as the performance of the chamber is concerned i have no idea as I never rode them. Others also added the "Mag" wheels or Alloy wheels. I've searched quite a bit but been unable to find any pic of this type of mod.



The Rado brand were quite common and also the design in the pic.




In Bangalore the Yamaha's a carriers is welded to the sissy bar added . The belly pan was a lot different than that in the pic, it looked more like that of the RXZ with a radiator cowl.





The sissy bar was chopped off just after the seat and plugged or the sissy bar entirely removed.







On the head light side, a large headlight was added with a grill.
The headlight is lifted in height by using clips.







One more commonm mod was adding a scrambler/off road bike mud gaurd, this gave the bike a bad ass look.





On the seat side, some scrapped off a little foam to make it a little slimmer, In Bangalore adding a Suzuki Samurai seat with a MaX-R 100 tail piece is a common mod.




The sissy bar of the Shogun/Samurai is welded in the place of the original.







The speedometer used on some are of the shogun and some just keep only the speedo and remove the rest.





Using the Yezdi 16inch wheel was and is a very common mod on both Yamaha and Suzuki's , it looks cool also adds good acceleration, at the expense of top speed.



Another mod I have seen in Bangalore is shaving of the fins on the head. It looks nice, and I have no information on the effect of cooling efficiency.











On the handle bars side, we used to use the Fury handle aka short handle, this was quite common and still it. Some use the shogun or the RD wide handle.

A fury Handle, No idea why it was called a fury handle.







Some neatly modded pics off the net.

Trippin Badami Pattadakal.

I had 4 days off and came home to a empty house , parents where out on a trip themselves. With most of my friends either in Bangalore or other cities , I was left with little to do.A professor of mine had been to Badami and had recommended the place and it being about 120 Kms from Hubli decided to visit it. JJ a ever trip ready friend of mine had a Karizma , which I loved to ride, it was shod with Duro Dual purpose tyres which was perfect for the roads here.

The route we had decided to take Hubli>NavalGund>Nargund>Kulgerei > Badami.

We left Hubli around 7:30 , The ride to Badami was uneventful , I was expecting the field adjacent to the roads to be covered in Sunflower plants, but encountered few.



Badami Caves is in the city itself , the road which leads to it is filthy and narrow. The entrance to the caves cost us 5 Rs and parking 5.
The moment you enter the premises you see the huge rock and it looks really beautiful. After clicking a few pics, the Camera went dead, I had particularly asked JJ to charge the Cam atleast 5 times, the only think that saved him that day was his I Phone which had a pretty decent camera



I was expecting to see a lot of "caves" , however these are not exactly caves but rather rock-cut temples.



On the left side of the caves is the a huge tank and it looks really awesome with the green grass and surrounding temples. The temple over looks a large lake which is surrounded by temples on one side.



A small cave like structure, with a few unfinished carvings.



From here we visited the Badami Temples, its a sprawling temples with temples dedicated to many different gods.








At lunch we inquired which are the other places to visit and Mahakoota was recommend, we made it there but the place was disappointing , it was not maintained and is filthy and can be skipped.We had to skip Mahakuta as the ride to Mahakuta , took a bit of time




I wanted to continue on to Kudala Sangama from here but had a long ride back home.

Paragliding in Pune

The place where I stay overlooks the Pune Aero Club and everyday I see para glider flying off. I had heard that it was open to public on weekends; a friend of mine had already been there and had taken a ride. So with Decided to try it out.

My roomie got up early and got us registered.
Despite which our turn came only at 3.30.As the one persom who had come before us registered for about 15 to 20 people!!
There are about 3 glider there and each take a turn to fly the passengers.



The glider is launched via a diesel powered winch. at the far end of the ground. You climb in and the pilot straps you in the cockpit behind the pilots seat.





How to go about it

Got to the club around 8.30 get yourself registered and anyone else who would want to join (One person and register many) Go early, you may have to wait
The flying starts around 9:30. There is a person who has the roster, and he will direct you. Climb in and the pilot will strap you in and the ride is on. It lasts around 3-5 mins depending on the no of people in queue

Once the ride is over you will have to pay and it's pretty cheap at 187Rs a round.