My name is Sridhar, 30 yrs of age owning a CBR 250R for almost 6 yrs now with decent ride experience. I have been a part of multiple riding groups for sometime, but I can say the riding group “The Knight Ryders” are very different.

This Munnar trip is my 2nd outing with The Knight Ryders after our Kolli trip in June.

The term maturity, safety and discipline is just second nature to The Knights Ryders club.
I have to add sticking to the timelines too.

Day 1

As usual excited with the ride, sleep didn’t come easy to me with the ride scheduled the next day.
Though I had minimal sleep, I was on time to the KUN Adyar showroom by 4 AM sharp.
One by one every rider arrived and once we got the rider numbers assigned to us, it was soon time for a briefing by Captain Ramesh. Post that there was a small prayer. It was a nice gesture by the Knight Ryders to send off the riders despite not joining the trip.

After a few mins past 4:30AM we started towards the destination. Even some from the club joined us till outer limits of Chennai for send off. They parted \after our 1st tea break. All these small gestures, add to the brotherhood feeling among bikers.

Soon the sun started to show it’s heat but that was tackled easily by the sufficient breaks organised to replenish ourselves back.

The lunch break was also adequate with a good meal at Dindiugal Thalapakkati restaurant. (vegetarians avoid this place due to the poor service for veg items)

As our bikes started to munch the miles effortlessly, the route selected was via Udumalaipettai that kept us busy with the scenery plotted with windmills and some winding roads canopied with trees at both sides kept us engaged.

We reached the hotel stay by late evening after a small tea break in the Kanthaloor region. The hotel stay was nice, and we guys were having the full freedom because the whole property was booked for us only. Cottage style construction was really nice with the warm lighting used. After the dinner, we had a fun campfire session and went off to bed for the much needed rest.

Day 2

We started around 8 am towards the sight seeing locations. 1st was a viewpoint where
I got to admire some of “Daddy’s” (Jayapal N K⁩) off road riding style. His refined concept of engine braking was also displayed in the curves. There is always something to learn from every single bike trip.
Then the folks decided to go to falls where I was told the CB350s showed their off road capabilities to enjoy a bath in the falls. I didn’t participate as I could not go with my CBR250R owing to the serious off road path. When the guys joined after some few hours, it was time for lunch – and we soon started to the munnar hills approx – 110kms of winding roads.

I have never thought to buy a specific bike in my 8yrs of biking life to just to get into a riding group, but this time when I rode a fellow rider’s CB350 Highness bike for 120kms in the munnar hills it hit different.. That means something is special about the bike and riding group. The hill ride was effortless, i just kept the bike in 1-3 gears, 90% in 2nd gear. It was never the case in my own CBR250R thus allowing more time to sink in with the scenery.

Soon the crisp cold air was accompanied with drizzles that just lifted the mood with the mist following as well. All the riders stopped for some time on the Gap Road and had a funny dance choreographed by KUN Sathish. After all these immature things makes the best memories.

We started soon for the downhill since we wanted to return to the stay with minimal night riding. We again had lunch and a short camp fire with some funny dances again by the riders and then slept due to the long way ride home the next day.

Day 3

The next started with an early breakfast and started to depart towards Chennai. We took the relatively direct route to reach quicker. The support given by the KUN Ramesh was commendable in replacing worn break pads for a fellow rider. We had some nice vadas and tea in the break. After that, it was purely munching miles to cover the distance faster. The lunch was superb in KMS Hakim Biryani. Even though took some time to bring the orders, the wait was well worth when we were served with fresh and piping hot biryani.

After a satisfied lunch, we resumed with the journey again with 2 breaks in the journey. Had a good time during the break discussing the ride. In the final stop we waved each other good byes with some group selfies. On the way home it was really good reminiscing the ride experience and feeling lucky to be a part of the honda family.

I want to end with the below statement:
Even though it’s just my 2nd outing with The Knight Ryders I didn’t feel like it. It was just pure biking brothers meeting. There is an old saying from the west from 1970-80s – ” You meet the nicest people in a Honda”. It’s very applicable to our group.

Finally signing off with my special thanks to Kun Bigwing team for organising this ride and the invite.

Looking for more such great outings.

Thank you 🫰🏼❤

Sridhar Krishnan.