In the 13+ years that I’ve been riding and driving on the Cochin to Bangalore stretch, this was by far, the longest trip.
BHPian neil.jericho recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
As is often the case, life had a funny way of taking one too many unexpected twists and turns, often without us having too much of a say in what exactly ends up transpiring! Anyway, I had to shift lock, stock and two smoking barrels to Bangalore in a time frame that was a little too tight, for my liking. In the midst of all the chaotic shifting, I left my Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 behind in Cochin, under the optimistic assumption that I would ride it up at a later date. I don’t know how I did it, but before the Continental GT 535 found its way to Bangalore, I squeezed in a ride with a few fellow TBHPians to Chikmagalur. KarthikK has done his usual excellent job of recapping that lovely ride here.
The following weekend, I was back in Cochin with a grand plan of peacefully riding the motorcycle back to Bangalore, on yet another solo ride. I was only worried about two things:
- The monsoon rains
- The battery acting up
Thankfully, after reaching Cochin, neither of the above was really a factor. I used the motorcycle for pottering around town to meet a few friends and run some errands. The Continental GT 535 always started at the first crank and never gave me cause for a second thought.
There were heavy overnight showers, which did not bode well for my 550-kilometre solo ride to Bangalore. I had all my waterproof riding gear packed in my tail bag and with a small prayer, I set off from Cochin. This time, I was in no real rush to get to my destination. Hence, I only set off by 07:00 AM, which was rather late by my standards.
Within 20 minutes of departing, the rain clouds opened up. Oh boy! After pulling over under a metro station, I slipped on my rain gear and got back on the road. It didn’t take more than 10 minutes for the rains to cease. The overcast skies though, remained as ominous than ever. Rather than losing time in changing in and out of my rain gear, I kept riding, hoping that the conditions would shift one way or the other. Expectedly, everything remained just the same. The sky was 101 shades of grey with the threat of imminent downpours never really going away.
Meanwhile, the Continental GT 535 was blissfully munching miles. I was thoroughly smitten by the wave of torque which let it effortlessly overtake other vehicles, before settling back into its steady rhythm of following the clearly mandated speed limits (obviously!). Finally, after crossing one of the toll booths in Trichur, I packed my rain gear while taking a short water break. The speed camera-less section between Trichur and Palakkad was dispatched in no time and before I knew it, I was descending down the Palakkad flyover. At one of the subsequent signals, I switched off the motorcycle. When I tried to start it, nothing happened.
Moving the bike to the side, I managed to kick start it (must have tried the kick start after years) and after a few tiring attempts, the bike came to life. However, the dials were all wonky and I knew that this was the dreaded battery on its last legs issue. What baffled me though was that I had just ridden the motorcycle for 3 hours, almost continuously. How did the battery not charge itself at that time? A few hundred metres later, the motorcycle again came to a stop. A half dozen kickstarts later, I knew that I was in big trouble.
My experience with Royal Enfield’s Roadside Assistance team
Opening the side panel, I checked that there were no loose contacts in the battery. I called up a couple of local garages and they suggested that I reach out to the nearby Royal Enfield showroom for support. As luck would have it, I had crossed one a few kilometres back. After taking down my details, the service advisor sent 2 mechanics to my location. They arrived within 15 minutes or so.
After jumpstarting the battery, the motorcycle came to life and was able to hold a steady throttle. However, after switching off the motorcycle, they were unable to get it started again. The battery was well and truly dead. Even they couldn’t explain why this had happened to a battery that had been used for the last few hours.
After they checked with the service centre on the battery availability, the mechanics told me that there was a battery store nearby. To my good fortune, my bike had stalled midway between a Royal Enfield showroom and an automobile battery store, though I was on a national highway. I gave the mechanics the go-ahead to procure a new battery. A short while later, they arrived with a new SF Sonic dry cell battery with an impressive 48-month warranty. Post installation, the Continental GT started without an issue and everything in the world, went back to being normal.
The total cost of jumpstarting my bike’s old battery, collecting the new one and installing it, came to only Rs 200. At this time, I don’t recall how much I paid for the new battery minus the exchange value. What I know for certain, is that the prices of batteries have gone up by a fair bit! Even the store owner mentioned the same and said that 2-wheeler owners are feeling the pinch in 2023. Anyway, I thanked the mechanics profusely and was back on my way.
As far as I remember, this is the first time that circumstances necessitated calling for Royal Enfield’s roadside support while I was on a ride. The cost-to-convenience factor is something which is unbeatable, really. Kudos to Royal Enfield for providing this facility, though their customers must be praying that they never have to call upon it! I would rate my experience with the RE support a full 5/5.
Back in business
Once I was back on the highway, I took my usual stop at the Cafe Coffee Day in Chengapalli, which is a short distance from Coimbatore. While mulling over the battery incident, for the life of me, I couldn’t understand how this could have happened. Anyways, there was only one potential chink in the armour, and that was the battery. Now that it was replaced, there was nothing else to worry about on the refreshed Continental GT 535. The ride to Salem was a far too familiar one. The Continental GT kept chugging away at a steady 100 km/h. While the motorcycle has a lot of strengths, steady-speed cruising on monotonous highway roads isn’t at the top of the list.
The ride from Salem to Bangalore was so much more fun than the preceding section. Here, there was the occasional heavy vehicle traffic to weave through, in the afternoon. That, combined with the Thoppur ghats and the very gradual but perceptible increase in elevation, on the interesting highway made sure that the Continental GT 535 was in its element. Instead of the steady droning speeds from earlier, now I had to keep riding in the 80 to 110 km/h zone, which is where all the lovely torque comes into play. Honestly, the time lost in the battery change and the slow but steady riding past Erode were but a distant memory, when I was blitzing my way back to Bangalore. My only regret was that I was enjoying this brilliant ride all by myself. I can count at least 15 TBHPians who would have loved to ride back to Bangalore with me, at that blistering pace!
All the fun and games came to a screeching halt after crossing the state border and entering Karnataka. By 6 PM, I was back at home, tired and thoroughly entertained by the afternoon’s hijinks. In the 13+ years that I’ve been riding and driving on the Cochin to Bangalore stretch, this was by far, the longest trip but it also ended up being one of the more memorable ones.
Coming up in my subsequent posts are updates on:
- A breakfast ride (with familiar old faces) to savour the best dosa ever.
- A worrying new sound and nailing down what it stems from.
- A 4-day 1000+ kilometre chasing the rain clouds (away !) ride took us from Bangalore to Agumbe to Kalpasa to Madikeri and finally, back to Bangalore.
- A quickfire breakfast blast with the newest Ninja 400 on the forum.
- A moderately annoying breakfast ride for some of the best wood-fired idlis in this part of the country.
Keyword: An eventful road trip with my Royal Enfield Continental GT 535