Riding on the back roads of Goa is a fun thing to do and the Aerox made it even more exciting given the power and balance it has.
BH{ian minzanurag recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Bit of background on 4-wheel to 2-wheel movement:
I relocated to Bengaluru around August 2022. Moving from Delhi, I found it quite difficult to use a 4-wheeler (SCross) in Bengaluru for office commute and some random weekend city exploration, given the already stretched road infrastructure in Bengaluru. The car was barely used barring a few outstation trips to Kanyakumari, Hampi, Munnar, Chennai to name a few. On top of that, as I moved without my family, I would be shuttling between Delhi and Bengaluru every 30-40 days or so, I was not quite able to justify keeping the SCross. So, off it went back to Delhi and exchanged it with my Tiago. Now, it was a bit more usable and I could commute to office on that for couple of days in a week but still felt, a 2-wheeler would fit the purpose more appropriately.
I was eyeing the Aerox when I was in Delhi given its bike like characteristics, liquid cooled engine, quirky looks, generous storage and from what I gathered from reviews, not too bad a touring machine. It also helped a lot that Aerox was an automatic and if, or whenever, I grew bored of it, I could hand over the keys to my wife who prefers automatic over geared vehicles any day.
So, I went ahead and got myself a black Aerox !
Post buying, I painstakingly finished the running in period. Once completed, I did couple of spirited runs on the Bengaluru Airport road to Nandi Hills and beyond, both solo and two up riding. This made me confident of the characteristics and ergonomics of the bike on highway/longish rides. Big thanks to Crazy_Driver, Sebring and AnAntInspired for their posts which reinforced the capabilities of the Aerox and helped me to remove any apprehensions which I had.
The actual ride:
- Destination – Agonda
- Days – 18th – 20th Feb 2023
Onwards:
- Route – Bengaluru – Davengere – Tadas – Kalaghatgi – Yallapur – Karwar – Agonda
- Distance – 580kms
- Departure – 4 AM
- Arrival – 3:30 PM (Agonda)
- Breaks – 3 (Food, petrol, bio, photos, etc.)
Return:
- Route – Retraced the same route in reverse
- Distance – 580kms
- Departure – 6:45 AM
- Arrival – 6:00 PM (Bengaluru)
- Breaks – 3 (Food, petrol, bio, checking OIL warning on dashboard, etc.)
Total Expenses:
- Petrol – 3000
- Hotel – 4500 (Cilantro Agonda)
- Food/Others – 4500
Day 1 – 18th Feb, 2023:
I wasn’t able to catch a nap because of excitement for the trip. Even though I had set the alarm for 2:45 am, I got out of the bed at 2:30am and did a check on the luggage, prepared tea and some breakfast, bathed and put on the riding gear. I memorized the route off Google maps. I don’t like to mount my phone on the bike and usually, memorize the landmarks, turns and only check if I am thoroughly lost. (Sometimes finding your way back after getting a little lost is exciting as well, on trips and generally in life). Then, I went down to the parking and loaded the storage with toolkit, coolant, air pump and other miscellaneous items. Then, fastened a small tail bag with clothes and utility items.
Ready to go:
As always, I start most of my trips sharp at 4:00 AM. This time it was no different. I did not expect to witness daylight by at least 6:15-6:30 AM. There was not a lot of traffic, which helped me in making quick progress. For the first half an hour or so, I paced through at 50-60 km/hr with occasional 70 km/hr and waited to get into the rhythm and adjust my eyes. After Tumkur, I increased the pace and by daybreak, I was closing in on Chitradurga. I stopped at Hotel Naivedyam, on the highway just after Chitradurga, at around 7:00 AM for breakfast, did some stretches, refuelled and started again. As the sun was up now and the roads were smooth and visibility was good, I could ride at 80-90 km/hr. Progress was quick and shortly after 11:00 AM, I got off the main highway and turned towards the Tadas-Yallapur road. The Aerox which was cruising supremely on the smooth highway earlier, was jarring to ride the first 10-15 kilometres off the highway, given it stiff suspension. One thing that shone throughout was the automatic transmission, it was a dream to not change gears ever so frequently after slowing down for a speed bump or pothole or a stray animal.
Somewhere before Yallapur:
Soon, the condition of the road improved when I joined the road coming from Hubli to Kalghatgi. Post that, it remained fairly good all the way. I stopped for lunch at an eatery just after crossing Yallapur and also, booked the hotel (Cilantro, Agonda) while waiting for the lunch. After lunch, aiming to reach the hotel latest by 4:00pm, I had good amount of time to spare, so I could stop and take pictures as well.
Sufficient time in hand allowed me to stop at key milestones. Outside Yallapur:
Also, it was getting a bit hot and humid as I descended toward the sea but nothing too uncomfortable. After bypassing Ankola, Aerox saw the sea for the first time while crossing Karwar.
Next to Karwar Beach:
We entered Goa shortly after and I could sense change in my general mood, which all of sudden became very upbeat, if I can say. Goa can do strange things!
Very close to my destination:
Finally, at 3:45pm, I arrived at my hotel/shack/tent, whatever it was. I will, however, say it was good and clean enough for the price and I did not have any issues whatsoever. I parked my bike just next to my room. The only visible threats to the bike was from falling coconuts and the resident dog trying to mark my Aerox as his own territory.
Quickly settled in the room, took off the riding gear and after a quick shower, went out for a stroll and food. Agonda is a village and the only visitor activity I could see was near/on the beach. It was nice to breathe in the air coming from the sea, sit on the sand while seeing the sun go down, stand next to the shore letting your feet feel the waves and in general, watching people enjoy while being on vacation.
Agonda Beach:
Being tired from the ride, I quickly headed a restaurant facing the sea and had some food and beverage. By 9:00 PM, I called it a day. Being the first day of the ride and not getting enough sleep the night before, I had slight body pain esp. lower back but nothing which a good sleep couldn’t fix.
Zzzzzz !
Day 2 – 19th Feb 2023:
I slept like I was knocked out. I woke up around 8:30 am to the sound of something falling, probably a small coconut, on the roof or somewhere. The best part of the morning was, the body aches vanished and I was feeling as fresh as possible. In about an hour’s time, I went out in search of breakfast. I had a hearty breakfast which was more like full English breakfast but with more greens and fresh juice. It was starting to get warmer by the time I came back to the room and thought to myself, 15 minutes nap, and then let’s check out Agonda village. Well, that nap turned out to be one hour, but still, I went out exploring at around 12:00 PM. The heat does not usually bother me but sweating sometime makes it a bit unpleasant. Anyway, went to see the local fishermen bay, the fish market, local churches and generally walking on the village roads. It was almost 1:30 PM by the time I came back to my room for quick change of clothes.
Fishermen boats, Cola:
Rode to another fisherman bay:
Same one, another angle:
Rode to a church on a hill near by:
I, then, decided to go to Cabo da Rama. I took out my bike as it was around 30-35kms from my hotel and I planned to have lunch on the way. Riding on the back roads of Goa is a fun thing to do and the Aerox made it even more exciting given the power and balance it has. I reached the place in about an hour and waited patiently to take picture of my bike with some arch. It was bit funny taking picture of my bike, as mostly, it was people who were taking pictures of each other with the arch as the backdrop.
Cabo da Rama:
The place was crowded and the humidity was high. I quickly moved out and went to a restaurant just a short distance away and ordered Goan Fish thali. The food was good and the service was quick. With lunch out of the way, rode back to the hotel, checked the engine oil and coolant levels. The engine oil level was slightly lower (10%) on the dipstick than what it was when I started the trip. (Q: Is this normal?). It had started to become cooler as evening descended, I changed and again headed out to the beach. Walked up and the down the beach, watched the sunset, mentally began checking out of Goa.
Enjoying the sunset:
I explored a few eating joints which I saw the day before and had a beverage in 2-3 places before settling in for dinner at one of the places. I kept the dinner light as I had to ride the next day. Post dinner, I packed my bags and kept things in order to leave early. I planned to reach Bengaluru before the evening office hour rush start, before 6:00 PM. I did a quick mental calculation, which made me arrive at the conclusion that leaving at 7:00 AM would give me enough time to reach Bengaluru at 6:00 PM.
Lights out.
Day 3 – 20th Feb 2023:
It was still dark when I woke up at 6:00 AM. It took another 30 minutes to get ready and load the bike. Around 6:45 AM, I cranked the engine, warmed it up, checked the fasteners, patted my pockets for wallets and mobile, closed the gate behind me and off I went. Now, back roads of Goa through the jungles seem very nice during the day but early morning, it had an eerie silence with all the narrow single lane roads, trees and blind turns. I just hoped these forest don’t have some haunted stories to tell. After 15 minutes, joined the main highway, filled up the tank at one the last petrol stations in Goa. The traffic was sparse when I entered Karnataka, twisted the throttle, passed Karwar, turned left off the highway towards Hubli road, entered the ghats. It was bit foggy as I climbed higher and I could feel the weather becoming cooler and drier. Aerox was performing flawlessly on the twisties and I could maintain good speed and have fun leaning in on the turns, averaging 50 km/hr by the time I stopped in Yallapur at the same place to have late breakfast/lunch. A plate of fresh hot Managlore buns and coffee, I was confident of hitting the highway sometime around 12:00 PM which would have kept me on target to reach Bengaluru in time. Although I did not stop anywhere post breakfast, I did enjoy the sceneries of farms, small towns, village folks going about their work and general sights we don’t see in cities, through the visor of my helmet.
Pretty soon, I reached the main Pune – Bengaluru highway, 400 odd kilometres from home. After I had covered around 50 kilometres, the dashboard began to flash “OIL” sign. I wasn’t too sure (should have read the manual), and stopped and quickly checked what it was. It turned out to be some default reminder for oil change which has been programmed. However, I still checked the dipstick for oil level. All good! I rode the next 50 kilometres at reduced speed of 70-75 km/hr and reset the flashing sign. After it felt like the bike was behaving normally, started riding it back at 80-85 km/hr. Davangere went by. Chitradurga bypassed. Stopped after Hiriyur to refuel and check traffic conditions. Zipped past Tumkur. I encountered slight traffic at Neelamangala and Yeshwantpur, but not much of a bother. Reached home just before 6:00 pm.
Back home:
Happy to complete the trip on an automatic maxi scooter!
Aerox report card:
Overall, it was amazing to ride the Aerox on the highway, much better that speed breaker infested city roads. With varying speeds, I could extract around 40-45 km/l on the highway, measured by tankful to tankful method. It was pretty eager to do fast spirited runs when the roads were good. Overtaking was not really an issue for me, as I don’t ride very fast but it could keep up with fast moving traffic very well. Engine ran smoothly and felt like could do longer trips as well. Brakes were sufficient and I had no moment where I felt brakes lacked stopping power. Luggage space under the seat ensure saddle bags are not required for short 2-3 days trips. No body aches after the ride back home and was not even that tired. I think, the slight tiredness during onward ride was mainly due to lack of sleep.
However, I always felt a little bigger fuel tank would have helped immensely along with a bit supple suspension to tackle the uneven speed breakers and bad roads. Seat cushion is sloping forward which causes rider to adjust frequently. Headlights, esp. the high beam, could have had more throw. I did not face any issue but would have helped seeing couple of potholes and speed breakers in advance at night. These are things which I understood fairly well the bike lacks and have adjusted my riding style to accommodate for these shortcomings.
Finally, I hope members/visitors find this thread useful, just as I found threads by fellow members in clearing a lot of doubts/apprehensions about taking an automatic scooter on a long road trip. Happy to answer any queries. I must say, after this trip, I am shelving my KTM ADV390/CB500X plans four 4-6 months, given my requirements are well met by the Aerox (for the time being atleast).
Thanks for reading!
Cheers!
Anurag.
Keyword: Did a 1160 km Bengaluru-Goa road trip on my Yamaha Aerox scooter