Help/guidance on Our Kanyakumari Ride

[Chethu]

Dear Riders,

Me and my 2 friends are planning for a ride to Kanyakumari from Bangalore around Dec end(2026) or early Jan(2027) and return by bus/train.

We are amateure riders with little experience on such longer rides spanning multiple days.

We have been practicing consistently over weekends for the past 6 months with 80-100kms/day. Recently we did Bangalore-Mysore comfortably.

We need your vast experience as guidance to plan our ride properly such as but not limited to,

1. Preparation (We are planning for a couple of 200s and 300s before December)
2. Best Route to Kanyakumari: Highway v/s  scenic-interior ones, road quality, daily targets etc. 
3. Stay: We are planning to carry our luggages on panniers and arrange for stays on the same day. This way it would be more adventurous(no pressure on reaching daily target) than pre booking the or transporting the luggage in advance. 
4. Gears: We have 2 hybrids and 1 road bike. I am skeptical about more chances of punctures on a road bike.
5. Safety plans: We are planning to start early mornings   in the dark  & evenings so that we can rest during the middle of the day.
6. General guidance.

Please reply privately(me and my fellow riders in cc) if these details are trivial for this group.

--

Thanks & Regards,

Chethu

[Ali Poonawala]

Hi Chethu..

Looks like a brilliant collaborative effort.

Few things I can think of :

How many days you have?

How adventurous are you planning to be ?

650 Km by straight route

We have riders like Vikram -Rocky- who would dust it in 48 hours !

So the daily distance covered will depend on your objectives.

December, especially Christmas time, will be busy in Kanyakumari. Hotel stay should be better booked ahead.

Hybrids are easier for long trips but all combinations have been used ..so no advice on that !

Not sure about safety plan..riding in dark  early mornings /late evening would not be considered safe ! Daytime December is tolerable ride down south from heat point of view..January may be even better. 

But again...each rider has his or her comfort zone 

Fluorescent / reflectives strips on yourself and bikes a must.. lights and spares too 

Warm regards and all the best

Ali Poonawala 

--
Biking conversations on the world famous "Bangalore Bikers Club" :)
bangalorebikersclub.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bangalore Bikers Club" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bangalore-bike...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bangalore-bikers/CAD%2BwgM4iWTVN4RHNvmM-g63ho%2BX%3DGij%2BFRP4-S%3D7AaKeFqJb4w%40mail.gmail.com.

[Chethu]

Hello Ali sir,

Thanks for your response and all the valuable suggestions.

We are keeping 4-5days for the onward ride. 

Adventurous as being open to surprises and challenges,  definitely not risky ones 😃

We want the ride to be kinda leisure one,  no hurry and no hard targets, so that it keeps us inspired for many such long rides in future 🙂

That's the reason,  we are open to suggestions on interior-scenic routes,  provided they are in good condition.

Thanks & Regards,

Chethu

[maheshv]

If you want the shortest route, it is straight down (salem -> madurai -> tirunelveli ->kanyakumari) - pure highway - hot as hell and no fun

The more scenic route would be to include kerala in the iterenary. (but more time and rolling terrain)