My Top 10 Bike-rides

after quite a few bike trips i decided to come up with my own "top 10 bike trips"
this is entirely my perspective.
here we go:
10: yelagiri
the ride to this small lesser know hill station in tamil nadu was very pleasing.
9: yercaud
the yecaud ride is memorable because this was my first trip on my bullet. it was very close to the himalayan odyssey 07 and i just wanted to get used to the bullet.
8: all the rides to sakleshpura
sakleshpura was a short distance from hassan. but the route was a dream. it had straight stretches where we could test the top-speeds of our bikes, also it had high speed corners where we could test our riding skills by bending the bike as far as possible. the rides would with the boys in class, some 5-6 bikes. we would mostly go to manjarabad fort and get back. the trips would be planned during a lecture and we would just bunk the next class and get back before lunch!! i and poo poo would also ride to sakleshpura, sometime late in the night, just for kicks. it would be shivering cold and pitch dark. the rides to sakleshpura had to be in the top 10 as i have very fond memories with friends on this route.
7: gaganachukki - talkad
this was one of my first rides on the CBZ. those were the days when only speed mattered. :-) i was not very experienced and it was a very good learning ride. still remember that i had a puncture near talkad. the headlight also stopped working on the way back. this is probably the only trip with my oxford friends.
6: mangalore
this is a notorious trip!! i and kulla wanted to play around in a beach, since the nearest one was is mangalore we decided to go there!!! :-) i rode at breakneck speeds on shiradi ghat from hassan to mangalore. we played around in the beach and rested in a cousin's place and got back to hassan the same evening. the trip later became notorious coz my cousin told my dad that i had ridden my bike there whereas i had told them that i used a KSRTC bus!!! :-( hee hee.... all in all it was a very high-speed ride in the ghats.
5: muthodi - kudremukh - horanadu
we wanted to do something over the republic day 07 weekend. we decided to hit some forest on our bikes. off we went to muthodi forest. once there we decided to go to kudremukh. the green scenery here is absolutely spectacular. the long winding roads were a treat to the eyes as well as to the bike. we then went to horanadu before heading back home in b'lore.
4: karwar and jog
unofficial trips (unknown @ home) always give that extra satisfaction. this trip was not at all planned and we just packed a bag and left. we got to see the majestic jog during one of the best monsoons in ages. riding on wet roads in high speed corners is one the highlights of the trip. its probably the best unplanned trip that i have ever been on.
3: twin trips to mullayangiri
hassan to mullayangiri in the rainy season is special. twice in two days with different people is AWESOME!! the roads were slippery and visibility was poor due to fog (at noon!!). the landscape was wet and absolutely beautiful. there is no prettier sight than seeing cloud covered mountains from the highest peak in karnataka.
2: kodachadri - agumbe
this trip was planned and executed within a week of me landing in bangalore from dallas. it took a lot of courage to finish this trip sucessfully after lee and darpan crashed up. the off-road routes were too good. the ride to kodachadri in darkness was pure madness. we got a first-hand view of nature's splendour on this ride.
1: himalayan odyssey 2007
not much to say about this. the ride, the weather, winds, cold, rain, unforgiving terrain, bad gearbox springs, screwed up transport of bikes, lack of oxygen and etc etc.... made this one of my most memorable trips ever. some pics are @ http://picasaweb.google.com/rangan.iyengar/HimalayanOdyssey2007