A road trip with Bonneville T100 and iPhone: Part 1

A road trip with Bonneville T100 and iPhone

I agree, motorcycles are like ornaments. They deserve to be admired and flaunted. But that’s not all they are meant for. The primary purpose of a motorcycle is to let you experience something even more beautiful - freedom. So when the time came for me to ride down to Goa for the India Bike Week, boy was I happy! As the cherry on  the icing, Triumph was kind enough to lend us a Bonneville T100 for the ride. After all, which other bike can stand a chance against Goa’s rustic charm better than a Bonnie!

I have always enjoyed riding solo, as it gives me the freedom of not having to put up with someone else’s whims. For this ride however, I had an unusual accomplice. We usually prefer tugging Kapil or Kaustubh along for our travel stories, for the magic they conjure out of this wand called Canon is nothing short of marvellous. But this time, I was handed an Apple iPhone 7 and asked to let my imagination run wild (although I was also told that Candy Crush was off limits). This isn’t as fun as it sounds. Apart from being an expensive liability, the iPhone is loaded with iOS, an operating system I have never been comfortable with. But as it turns out, this trip changed a lot of things for me. More on that later. 

My road trip started in the wee hours of a Thursday morning in Pune. It was still dark and foggy, and the roads were deserted. And despite the low ambient light, the iPhone managed to beautifully bring out the bling of the Bonnie. Remember what I said about treating motorcycles like ornaments?

Bathing in the warm rays of the early morning sun, I took my first pitstop about 100 kilometres into the ride. As I rehydrated myself and attended to nature’s call, I noticed some orange cosmos flowers lined up on the side of the service road. Seemed like a good opportunity to make use of the iPhone camera's ability to display a shallow depth of field.

I pulled into one of the myriads of hotels lined up along the NH48. I settled for my all-time favourite breakfast, the missal pav. Native to this part of Maharashtra, missal is a spicy curry made of sprouted moth beans topped with farsan, sev, onion and coriander. It is usually served with bread or pav. 

You cannot go past Kolhapur without stopping for a cold and refreshing glass of sugarcane juice (or taking that customary shot next to a sugarcane field). The main source of economy for the district, the sugarcane crop takes up to 18 months to mature. This particular plantation is still in its nascent stage. 

There are several routes to get to Goa, but my favourite is the one through Amboli ghat. After 300 kilometres of butter smooth, but monotonous NH48, these back roads present a good contrast. The route is full of narrow roads bordered with trees, sharp turns, hairpins and elevation changes.

I happened to notice this stream running next to the road. It was mid-day and the weather had started to warm up, and a splash of cold water from the stream was just the thing I needed. I spent more time here with my feet dipped in water than I intended to. As the saying goes, the journey matters more than the destination.

The Amboli ghat is a stretch of tarmac that snakes through the Sahyadri mountain range. It is narrow, curvy and widely regarded as dangerous. The Bonnie might be adept at a lot of things, but serious corner is reserved for its sibling, the Thruxton. I instead preferred maintaining a steady pace and enjoying the scenic beauty of the Sahyadris.

It took me just about nine hours to finish the 430 kilometre ride from Pune to the Orritel Village Square in Vagator, which translates into an average speed of around 48kmph. Here’s where the Bonnie’s quality as a comfortable tourer comes into play. Besides, it is fuel efficient and refined, which means that you can cover ground at a surprising pace without requiring too many pitstops.

Reaching Vagator put an end to my idyllic day. It was time for me to plunge headlong into covering the biggest motorcycle festival in India. While I desperately wanted to ride around and explore Goa on the Bonnie, I simply couldn’t spare the time or the energy to do so. However, I did manage to make the most of the remaining half of the road trip, so stay put for the part two of the series.