Day 2 - 112 km to Thirumangalam

Yesterday it was good that I decided to take a break in that town as next town, Kovalaptti was 35 km away to which today I took 1.5 hours to reach. I would have certainly be drenched by rain if I had continued and I was ill prepared for that yesterday.

It was drizzling in the morning itself. When Coach Rajesh staying in next room said about impending rain I had a look @ satellite image only to find Tamilnadu full of clouds. I had decided to keep moving not allowing rain to slow down my progress & they helped me to carry the trike out of the room. The lodge owner gave me concession, he charged me INR 100 instead of INR 150 that was previously quoted. Their caretaker telephoned him that I am insisting on some concession, having come by cycle. So saved 50 rupees.

I use rubber sheet in bed ever since coming out of the hospital and today that same plastic sheet I carry doubled up as tarpaulin. So all my luggage was protected from rain. Today studio department declared rain holiday and so I don’t have photo of my trike covered with plastic sheet. My sony still camera takes moisture too fast. Many people have taken photographs today but I don’t have access to all that, right now.

The tires kicked up so much muck today that I had to wash the raincoat and plastic sheet after the ride is over. So some more things to wash today.

The road was passing thru some villages and that was a good thing as I did not find tea yesterday noon @ 330 when I was feeling sleepy. That part of highway was passing thru remote area which I believe was recent realignment and so was not passing thru tea shops. Slow climb today while drizzling was quite enjoyable.

After Kovalpatti the size of rain drops increased but it was not very uncomfortable. The wet factor was there but it was not chilly. So I did not have serious problem. Little later the people waiting waved me to stop with a camera and I obliged but did not get out of trike. One of them asked me if I am handicapped & when I asked how come he knows, he said he is a doctor. Looking at their genuine interest I got out and by that time another car had stopped nearby. I gave them the pamphlet and thereby earned Rupees fifteen from that. I explained them the idea of pamphlet is not money but sharing of knowledge. Free pamphlets never get read.

After another couple of km when power usage crossed 15 Ah and it was almost 12.30, I felt it is time to get food and charge. I am not carrying watch & my mobile will be mostly in the bag. So I add up moving time and non moving time recorded in GPS and make guesstimate adding starting time to that. The Balaji Bhavan people obliged but then they had power shutdown & generator was on but my chargers did not accept that. So I had about 1.5 hours to kill till 2 PM. Actual waiting is much less as I had lunch there too. Same reverse polarity problem like yesterday arose in plug in remote corner & they agreed to have my trike in middle of hotel. Luckily customer inflow to meals section had waned and I parked the trike opposite cash counter, in middle of the hotel Balaji Bhavan @ R R Nagar.

One thing we have to very careful about trike riding is road humps and similar situations. We have to approach it directly and never at an angle to avoid toppling over. There are plenty of road humps in service roads & so I am constantly reminded of that. BTW, reason for taking service roads sometimes are to avoid a steep climbing flyover & freewheeling on the other side.

It was nice that there was no problem with pedal assist though there was moderate rain considerable part of day. So this gives me more confidence that little rain will not harm as I had really struggled on climbing Shiradi ghat road other day. Today I was confidence as both my luggage and electricals were well covered. Taking the reading from my cycle analyst meter was bit difficult as it was also under transparent plastc.

Todays Raja lodge is far better than yesterdays as Thirumangalam is a bigger town. They have neon sign that says a/c and non a/c rooms available but there is no hot water for bathing which I hoped for after long ride in wet condition is absent. There is TV in the room that also has Tamilnadu government emblem that indicated it was part of free distribution..

I was able to pinpoint the tracking problem in GPS morning itself and have loaded the today’s ride to everytrail site and is available @ http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=768535

Todays riding time was 5 hours with moving average 22.2 km. Power consumption was 27.24 Ah and 1014 Wh. I continue to make mistake of data recording after battery is kept on charge and hope to do it before charging from now on as I will be happy with minimum voltage recording too. Being fully tired at end of the ride I simply arrange for charging and take rest. I was liberal in using power towards end of journey and thus was able to raise the moving average a little bit.

First day from kanyakumari

Morning went to sunrise viewpoint  within Vivekananda Kendra  campus   and waited for half hour. There was no sunrise view as sky was full of clouds. Came back & packed my things on the trike. Went to canteen only to be told to come back after ten minutes. So again went back to work on organizing the things on trike. Finally left at around 8 AM.

The link road to NH 7 from Kanyakumari was more or less like our roads in Karnataka. Once it connected to NH 7 the picture completely changes. Four lanes wide roads with service roads wherever required. The scenery was great with lot of windmills all around, most of them producing electricity.  I  got  down  from  trike  to  take  photo  assuming  this  was  unique  but  latter found  myself  admist  hundreds  of  windmills.

Around 1130 I had planned to take midday break. Then I noticed the drop of power. All the time I was only observing Ah consumed but did not pay attention to Battery voltage. I was shocked to find that had dropped to 32 V which I presume is critical and it happened near Nangunery. So went near a hotel nearby and asked for some power,   I had assumed I did not charge the battery properly  previous day  and so it was exhausted by 14 Ah instead of expected 20 Ah.

Then A L Siva who owned that hotel Vasantha Bhavana and speaks passable English offered to help. The first plug point we went near had reversed polarity. Then parked the trike near juice center right in front of hotel and took connection form there. After a while I went to check the charging & found chargers were bit hot and switched them off. Then checked the battery voltage. One of them showed 37 V and other did not show any. Then I found the connecting plug had become loose while zooming in national highway & had lost contact. So only one battery was contributing power. This made me happy as that meant charger is okay.

After a heavy meal over there @ Vasantha Bhavana I started around 145 PM. I paid only for my meal and Siva did not accept money for charge. I agreed to send him the photo but the email ID he gave was defective. The sky was bit cloudy and I made good progress. Today power usage contributed by both battery and me was rather high as there was heavy headwinds and crosswinds. Around 330 PM I dozed a bit but 6 lane highway had little traffic at the moment.

A notable factor in today’s ride was lot of vehicles stopping after crossing me & follow me for a while after I cross them. It happened quite a lot of times but they never made attempt to talk to me. After Nunganeri there was sort of flyovers that consumed more of my energy.

Around 515 PM I found the power consumption was about 29 Ah with little safety margin. So I felt it is better to stay in Kayattar if lodge is available. This is just few rooms for hire and not really a hotel. Patrner keeps a motorcycle workshop in the front side. First they did not permit bringing the trike to the room but later agreed. About one hour later there was heavy rain and there was fair chance I would have get caught in downpour if I had continued to the next town.

I have  done  115  km  today  but  the  GPS  failed   to  track  the route.  Hope  I  can  set  it  right  tomorrow  but  I  don’t  have  GPS  manual  here  with  me.  I  was mostly  pedaling  @  24 kmph  but  ultimately  moving  average  was  21.4 km   in   5 hours  and  24  minutes.  Power  consumption  was   29 Ah  with  1112  Wh.   So  my  midday  charge  contribution  was  about  9  Ah  we  can  assume  as  my  capacity  is  20  Ah.

I  keep  making  small  mistakes. Yesterday  I  was  under  impression  that  drift  camera  was  in  video  mode  but  it  was  still in  still photo  mode  set  on  the  previous  day @ Vivekananda  rock memorial in  Kanyakumari.   So   some  good  footage  opportunity  is  lost.   The  language  and  content  of  the  blog  too is  suffering  and  I  have  to  compromise  my  standards  here  little  bit.  I  will be  updating  my  whereabouts  in  twitter  at least  twice  a  day  but  this  story  may  be  delayed..  I  will try  not  to  allow  this  to  pile  up.  

I  was  not  really  lazing   in  kanyakumari  for  one  full day.  I  was  busy  with  the  groundwork  for  the  trip  which  I  expect  to  be  more or less nonstop.  Everyday I  will be  traveling  couple  of  kilometers  and  targeting a average  of  100 km per day.   Evening I  paid  a  visit  to  Vivekakanda  rock  memorial.

My  computer  stopped  recognizing    the  GPS  and  I  did  not  really  know  what  to  do.  Kumar’s, Shree  and  Anil  gave   good  googletalk  support  &  I  was  able  to  download  the  required  software  and  install  thereby  solving  the  problem.  GPS  settings  still have  to  be  changed  as  it  is  not  taking  tracks  though  all trip data  is  available. 

Vivekananda  Kendra  campus  is  really  nice  &  quite  that  I  could  work  very well with  my  preparations.  So  this  place    provided  me  good  jumpboard for me to leap into the trip.  

Leaving  for  todays  ride  within  30 minutes. Bye  

24 hours after leaving Mangalore

It was raining when I left Mangalore. The cooly came at very last moment to load trike in front luggage van & we had very little time left. Ashok had entered the luggage van and placed the trike in appropriate way. He had assured me nothing will happen but I was apprehensive.

On reaching Trivandrum @ 5 AM, I took all my stuff to the luggage van and the trike was unloaded by then. I was happy to note there no damage during transportation. They told me I have to complete the formalities at luggage room before collecting the trike. So I had to carry all my stuff to the luggage room on the other side of track which I had to cross on the over bridge. Two boys helped me to carry down on steps on the other side of overbridge. It was easy in Mangalore as boys and friends did this and I had just walked along. Finally I collected the trike at around 6 AM and stated getting it ready for the journey.

All my luggage was individually placed on the trike @ home but never together. So it was done first time and naturally I was bit slow is putting it all together. Luckily seat and batteries were on the trike itself and not removed. So it was bit easier. Anyway started from Railway station around seven and I had the map of Trivandrum, access to NH 47 and surrounding area etched in my mind from wikimaps and so did not have to ask much.

My first stop around 7.30 AM was near a small shop to buy plantain. Little ahead there was a tea shop open and I had dosa and tea. The dosa was still bit raw inside and tea was good. The interesting thing is customer had to throw the plantain leaf that you ate dosa to be thrown to dust bin.

When you go to small eating places, such practices becomes known. While cycling in rural Rajasthan I was asked if I wanted tea in mud vessel or porcelain. Latter meant you had to rinse the cup after you drink tea.

The shops were still closed when I passed Parasala and little children was on the road on the way to school. Lot of them waved at me. It was in Marthandam when I felt morning rush @ around 9 AM. The police were out on road directing the traffic and they were quite efficient. Some of these towns has narrow two lane roads that is dubbed as national highway. The roads were tolerable, other drivers on roads were accommodating and I had pleasant ride.

Around ten I got off the trike to send some SMS and check mail. People flocked within few minutes but they were manageable. Met a old gentleman around 60 who enquired about my trip. He was in gulf for a while and now retired to farming. Handed over my pamphlet and told him “It cost me money and is not free. Pay anything two rupees or more, my cost of the pamphlet.” He went to his daughters house nearby and returned with ten rupee.

The road was not level and it was roller coaster ride for most part of Kerala side. I had to pedal furiously to keep pace with other traffic and so my moving average was rather high. It also consumes more battery power than my expectation. Yesterday my moving average was 21.8 km.

There was a toll booth near Neyattinkara. All road users paid money & I got a royal salute from the toll collector. That is the way it should be but in this country cyclist is looked down upon and vehicle users get better treatment. Actually everybody, including small school going girls look down at me as I am sitting just eight inches above the ground.

When I crossed Thuckaly around 1030 I felt that Kanyakumari can be reached by lunchtime. Since I was making good progress and battery capacity was satisfactory, that seemed most logical. I was right and I still had 5 % useable battery capacity on reaching KK having used up only 19 Ah.

It was more dry and hot in Tamilnadu part. The heat was noticeable. I did stop to drink water and that was not enough. Have to unlearn urgently the practice of moderate water intake that is built up after my accident and poor urine retention ability.

After entering Kanyakumari a bus overtook me & stopped immediately thereafter blocking my view of Vivekananda Kendra entrance. So I went ahead & turned back to enquire at a building on opposite side of the road. Dehydration did affect my judgment then and I underestimated the height between road & footpath that resulted in minor mishap. I had crossed a busy road and had to reach pavement on the other side quickly but did it bit diagonally. Only flag was damaged a bit and a small bruise on my knee. Nothing serious. Luckily all my electronics were on the other side of the trike and they were not affected.

Looking back, it was a total hydration failure yesterday. I somehow arranged the my bags and got trike ready at railway station but things was not properly organized. Just enough to get to move. I had very difficult time during train journey as I couldn’t change napkins easily in moving train. So my clothes did get bit dirty & my water intake was considerably less. During car journey, I stop frequently to pass urine but in crowded roads like yesterday there is fewer isolated places meeting my parameters. Naturally it gets uncomfortable. That is also another reason opting less crowded Tamilnadu route.

Last leg planning & confusion on Kerala....

Lot of things happened in the past week. Getting hold of the suitable stuff is quite tedious job. Last week took trike to Puttur & got a camera mount fabricated. The finishing was tolerable and only thing bothering me was it was bit heavy. I was shocked to find that camera looked skyward when turned to front and my belly, not my face when turned towards me. He could have bolted a flat iron piece and made sure it is level before handing it over to me. So took the trike again to the same place, paid more money & made it more satisfactory.

There was some confusion about net access. GPRS charges ( 2 GB for 99 Rupees) are much cheaper. The USB modem that has a GSM slot is in market & with that both browsing & uploading becomes much cheaper. Finally realized that it is not within my reach at the moment (Minimum one or two weeks needed) & took a data card from infamous private operator that is supposed to be Number One. It is expensive but I am hoping it will be more reliable.

The Hydration management is a tricky job & got a 2 liter hydration sac from Wildcraft outlet in Mangalore. Suffering from urinary inconsistency, I tend to take less water and that could be very dangerous in hot climate in long rides like this. Now this water sac will be in the bag & I can keep sipping all the time.

Few days back Anil was following me on our Omni in village road. A scooter coming very fast & overtaking us did not see me till last moment and passed very close to me. So it is clear that a slow moving vehicle behind will hide me from the view of the drivers coming from behind. So I have to very careful about my visibility. Here is a interesting article on visibility.

There is still confusion about crossing Kerala. Shankaranna & Ravi have advised to avoid many parts because the road is in poor condition due to heavy traffic & heavy rain. My B plan has always been taking Tamilnadu route to travel towards north & I would be happy if you share your thinking on this aspect. With lower visibility on road, riding trike will be dangerous in heavy traffic. Tamilnadu means taking NH 7 upto Karur but bypassing Madurai and after that towards Sathyamangalam via Erode.

I had opted for Kerala on first leg thinking it is safer. With higher literacy and vibrant media, I had hoped it will be better. Now I am seriously reconsidering the pro & cons of taking Kerala route regarding Heavy traffic, Communal problems & frequent haratal, I am feeling Tamilnadu could be better. 24th hartal in 6 months in Kerala was observed in July. I could be easy target in such disturbed circumstances.

On the Shiradi trip, I had told Dinakar that I need thirty minutes rainfree to set my riding rhythm. Unfortunately there was heavy rain within fifteen minutes & it unsettled my riding. Same way, the trip from Thiruvananthapuram will decide whether I finally take Kerala or Tamilnadu to ride.

Now things are all in place for me to take a train to Thiruvananthapuram on 17th. Reaching there next morning, I will be pedaling to Kanyakumari. I will be starting from Kanyakumari on Friday, 20th morning. Comments and suggestions are welcome, especially on Kerala / Tamilnadu choice.

Preparations progressing but still a long way to go....

Yesterday I have booked my ticket to travel to Thiruvananthapura on 17th August. I will have to pedal to Kanyakumari from there, about 90 kms. Nagarkoil which is just 15 km Kanyakumari has a direct train from Mangalore but the timings are not convenient. I will be in Thiruvananthapura 18th early morning. My trip from Kanyakumari will commence on 20th August morning.

Last week I managed to make considerable preparations but still have a long way to go. Main things got done are two battery bags and two camera mounts. I had to go to Puttur and Vitla many times to get these things done.

The camera mount in the front also will carry a back view mirror and my cycle analyst meter will also go there. The earlier position of this meter was diminishing the view of the handlebar mounted back view mirror. So I am removing the cycle analyst meter from there. The front mount may also carry a headlight and colored LEDs.
The batteries are positioned behind the seat in the newly stitched bags. It is vital I can reach them very easily in all circumstances as I have no other battery cutoff installed and throttle or any malfunction mean the trike will start moving on its own.

When we mount camera and we switch it on, it is bound to collect lot of unnecessary footage. Viewing them is a torture and nothing seems to be happening in long distances. So I will be compelled to lug all that trash if I don’t edit immediately to remove them. I tried using Pinnacle software but that needed video conversion which takes lot of time & effort. Not having a support team means I have to do it myself & so wanted to do it as simple as possible. So now experimenting with Windows moviemaker for editing and subtitling purposes.

Ananth offered his BSNL data card for my notebook computer under impression that it has Nationwide roaming but on Monday when I went to local BSNL office I was told different story altogether. NIC card that I had only statewide roaming & nationwide roaming EVDO cards cost 2500 plus activation charges 512 plus two months rental @ 750 per month will come to about 4.5 K but I am not sure it is worth it as EVDO network is available only in big cities & I prefer to stay away from them as far as possible. So have to look for alternatives.

Having sourced trike from UK & motorized wheel from China, my vehicle is unique is many ways. So is this trip & I am talking a lonely walk off the beaten track.

Successful pedaling up Shiradi

It was still raining heavily when I decided on a trip to Sakleshpur involving climbing Shiradi ghat road. Boys were keen to join me and Dinakar wanted to shoot some photographs. Boys will miss only half day school was on reason for scheduling it on Saturday 30th July. We couldn’t do it on that day as it was raining heavily and postponed it to next Wednesday. Moreover there is just two weeks remaining for my big trip & this was urgent. So decided to take my Omni as support vehicle during this trip.

The climbing data is crucial for realistic long range trip planning. This is also important as there is no lodging facility in about 70 km between Uppinangady & Sakleshpur and I had to think about options before me in such circumstances.

Since we had only half day available on Wednesday afternoon I decided to start from Nelyady as I wanted to reach real ghat section with plenty of daylight on hand. So loaded trike on Omni, collected boys from Schools around noon and headed to Nelyady. We first had lunch there & assembled the trike in Ayyappa temple premises. Finally I could start pedaling at 2 PM. The sky was dark with thick clouds & so I put on the raincoat from the starting point itself.

Within two km there was heavy rain and pedal assistance was reduced to almost zero. Since it was still early evening with many hours of daylight ahead, I decided to continue with or without pedal assistance. Sometimes it was very hard pedaling and slowly I could see improvement in assistance support.

A gentleman followed me on his scooter for some distance and he turned out to be friend of Dinakar. He advised us to have a red flag as the trike having low profile is not very much visible especially during rains. So Dinakar borrowed a red cloth from his relatives on the way & made a flag. The visibility improved considerably then. I had forgotten many things on that day mainly because of power failure early morning & that included the flag.

Finally we reached Shiradi at 4PM. I requested my support team to go little ahead and order tea as I did not want to get off the trike or sit in the trike till tea is prepared in the middle of small town. The first question invariably gathered people ask is how much this cost ? which I avoid to answer for security reasons. We continued immediately after having tea. Again we had some brief showers that hampered the power assist but I somehow determined to continue. Moreover this was only trip planned with support vehicle & I wanted to make full use of it.

Roads are in horrible condition in most part of ghat roads and climbing was very difficult. There was plenty of potholes & sometimes I had to pedal in the wrong side. It was not very dangerous as everybody was compelled to drive slowly & I had sufficient notice of approaching vehicle. Lot of other road users and bystanders were waving at me and showing thumbs up signs.

Apart from considerable climbing there was some downhill rides too. Luckily the roads were in better conditions in such places. With brakes only in two front wheels, sudden braking was simply out of question. Road was wet & I kept the speed limited to about 35 Kmph. I had a scary downhill ride in a winding road little after Maranahalli in fading light.

I had overtaken three gas tankers & once in fading light my support team was very scared. Luckily in those occasions power assist system supported well my furious pedaling.

We finally stopped near a roadside hotel @ 730 PM and had Dosa plus tea. The trike was folded and loaded to Omni. The total distance covered on trike was 50 km that also involved climbing about 2500 feet. The trip back to Nelyady took two hours whereas my triking uphill had taken five and half hours. I had used up 15 Ah out of 20 Ah of my battery capacity.

I could not make GPS tracks as its batteries were low power & though we changed them, it was sometimes in support vehicle and was not switched on. The distraction because of assist failure, frequent rain was too much. So I did use it to measure the distance on the way back but tracks was unusable as it overlapped with earlier tracks. Youtube links of the trips are http://is.gd/e54i8 and http://is.gd/e54z2

It was nice that there was space for me & Sunil could curl up in the back of the Omni and little later Anil took my place. I could not spend much time without moving in tight situation. Finally we reached home @ 1158PM after dropping Dinakar @ Puttur.

I am very happy about successful completion and my calculations about climbing turned out to be perfect. So I can make more realistic time estimations in different terrain now.

More riding on 31st July

Today was expected to be a rainy day and I had to cancel a longer trike trip. Yesterday I had got a camera mount fabricated in Puttur with mount head from Dinakar’s collection and fabrication under his guidance. So now I have a nice mount that can be fixed to the back side of my trike seat. I had also purchased a rain coat and wanted to check the possibility of trike riding while raining with raincoat on.

Sky cleared up a bit around 11 in the morning & I went to post office to collect mail & postal stationery. Then I decided to continue making full use of sunny day. I had fixed the camera mount and camera but unfortunately it took only a small video shot. I was mistaken that it had recorded the whole trip. The mount seem to be okay but I dont have much experience with mounting camera.

I took some rural roads & it was good ride. I forgot to take GPS and so the data was not recorded. I came home around 1 PM and it started raining immediately afterwards.

Evening it was drizzling. Using the opportunity I wore the new raincoat and started riding. After about 14 km there was heavy rain and I took a U turn. Riding in the rain was fun and comfortable. After rain receding the power unit started giving problems.

Maybe moisture enter somewhere in the circuit and created the problem. I could get some assist but that was not sufficient to climb in hilly areas and I had to put in more effort. Somehow I came closer to home & gradually there was more power available. So I have to make numerous connections waterproof before next time riding in rain.

Total distance was about 47 km and consumed about !0 Ah of power.