The Kriegers

The Kriegers say goodbye to a memorable India Bike Week. 

Another day in Goa - 

One of the Krieger's bike fell and and its gear shifter broke.

We rode down to the KTM service center but the gear shifter was not available - we are grateful to the service guy who understood our situation and fixed it using one from his display bike.

We headed back to the festival and saw some motocross action, the new HD 750, judges testing concept bikes.

We took pictures of some of the bikes parked in the brotherhood parking lot including Rd 350, Triumphs, Vishnu Metha's bike (Guinness record holder), Royal Enfield with custom rims, a Suzuki 750. 

We left Bangalore at 4am. The roads were empty and were able to cover distance at cruising speeds

7 am - The first stop was for fuel near Chitradurga and The Kreigers had thus covered a blistering 200kms in just two and half hrs.

8 am - Second stop was 90 km after Harihar for Breakfast 

After a blistering pace of an average of over 100km/hr on the “not so exciting” four lane NH4 highway the riders headed towards Yellapur at Bankapur city

10 am - The third stop was near Mundgod for a photo shoot, same spot where Saqib did a photo shoot the other day 

1 pm - After riding on some exciting road, the riders stopped for the fourth time near the Karwar port. The Coastal belt was simply mesmerising.

2 pm - Stopped for Lunch at Karwar Beach, MG Road 

After an exciting ride through the Western Ghats the riders finally arrived in Goa at 4:30 pm and stopped in Madgoa. Sharath who was lead right from the start of the trip lead the riders into Goa

IBW excitement was high in Goa with its skinny roads getting jammed with tonnes of exotic bikes -  Goldwings, Super Glides, Fat Bobs, V-Max, Kwackers, Gixers, Yamaha…etc

Felt like the entire biking brotherhood had just descended into Goa  

We also did some customary Goa’s shopping and sightseeing

Once the riders had settled down and freshened up we met for dinner at Zanzi Bar, Baga Goa.

This is the first time the KTM Duke 390 would debut at the India Bike Week and we The Kriegers are one of the first clubs of 390’s to ride to the event.

KTM Duke 390 owners are incredibly patient by nature. We can say this for a fact as most of us have waited for several months for our bikes to get delivered. The IBW participation deadlines had already arrived while most of us were still in the process of running in our bikes, getting our 1st service done, fixing initial niggles, and getting to know each other. We did not even have a brand for the group or a logo to start with.

There were a lots of things to be done and time was running out.

But “where there is a will there is a way” - so with some support from our well-wishers and the IBW organisers we were able to sneak ourselves into the event.

The final leg of our trip discussions fell into place during our first get-together event held on the 5th of January. We arrived at a participant list and made some plans.

The participant list kept changing and now stands at - 

Saqib Jameel, Anoop Reddy, Simran Rastogi, Daivick Bhaskar, Sharath Chandra, Dilip Reddy.

Once we had the riders ready it was time to get the bikes ready for the ride. We geared up and discussed logistics like accommodation, the route etc.

The countdown had begun for the mother of all bike festivals and we The Kriegers were going to be a part of it.

We met on 11th and decided to ride on the 16th starting at 4 am.

Saqib decided to drive his car and left on the 14th. This was a blessing in disguise since he was able to scout the route and provide first hand information on what pit stops to take and which fuel bunks to use. He is going to function as a support vehicle for the riders during their stay in Goa and during their return journey to Bangalore.

Since this was the first time all the participants were riding together it was decided that a trial run should happen on the 12th for everyone to familiarise themselves with each other's riding style.

After much research the route decided for the trip was Bangalore- Hubli – Karwar – Goa a total of 707 KM one way

We also got some help on accommodation through a friend of Saqib's who had stayed in Vagator, Goa during the new year and all we had to do was confirm the dates and pay some advance for booking.

Saqib took the lead the along with Shoubhik on booking the IBW event tickets and got the brotherhood package for the group.

Day 1 - The ride begins - Saqib leaves in his car

14th Jan - The plan was to leave by evening from Bangalore and reach Davanagere for the night and reach Goa by noon the next day. I also wanted to update the riders on the condition of the roads and where to stop for fuel considering the 10lit tank capacity of the D390.

I Left Bangalore by 17:30 and after cutting through some chaotic traffic for an hour was able to reach my destination by 21:30

I left Davanagere the next day as planned by 6:30 and passing through Karwar reached Goa by noon.

Barring the scenic stretch of Bankapur to Yellapur, the rest of the route was butter smooth. This route did have some bad patches of roads (1~2 km stretch) since it passes through villages and a forest reserve but nearing Yellanpur the roads were better.

Here are a few pictures taken during the ride and in Goa

After the 4 lane NH4, I took a de-tour to Hubli – Karwar highway, these pictures were taken en-route from Bankapur to Yellapur

We did a stopover for breakfast near Yellapur - the roads improved after this.

Warship Museum, Karwar

The Costal belt has always mesmerised me and Karwar is one such city. I decided to stop and spend some time exploring it.

This museum is on the NH 17 Karwar – Goa route and on the shore of a Karwar Beach called the Rabindranath Tagore beach.

The Warship Museum is a well maintained one and gives a perspective on how a War Ship works. This ship is a World War 2 Indian Navy ship built in collaboration with Russia. For those tech spec geeks reading out there, this particular model was powered by 3 massive engines each having 56 cylinders and 4700 HP of diesel power !!

  Wednesday - Flea Market, Anjuna Beach, Goa

This is one of the most popular tourist destination and is big, spread over the Anjuna coast line where everything under the sun can be found

Kriegers riding to IBW 2014 -

Saqib Jameel, Anoop Reddy, Simran Rastogi, Daivick Bhaskar, Sharath Chandra, Dilip Reddy.

The KTM Duke 390 does not come blessed with a centre stand.

Standing the bike upright to perform even the most basic of tasks, such as changing the oil, chain cleaning and adjustment, bike cleaning is pretty difficult.

The Kriegers got organised and got the below fabricated - its a pretty good success story.