Its not about SPEED always, its about endurance
The Iron
Butt Association (IBA), a
U.S.-based organization is dedicated to safe, long-distance motorcycle
endurance riding. The
members are the world’s ‘toughest motorcycle riders.’ There is only one way to
earn membership, ride one of the several rides the IBA certifies, which
includes Saddle Sore 1,000 ride covering 1,000 miles (1,610 km) in 24 hours or
less, Bunburner 2500km in 36 hours or less but we had different ideas, our target
was to do SS 2,000 miles (3220km+) in 48 hours or less, we knew that no one
else in India/Asia have previously complemented SS2000 ride, that made us to do
lot of homework and pre- ride preparation.
Being a Lawyer
working for a company, apart from professional life, I always keep my work and
passion separately, after joining Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) in 2010, I traveled
extensively across India in bike and trekked across in south India and we call
our self as Emperor Biker’s part of CTC, being as part of CTC we practice and promote
safe long distance endurance rides and road safety awareness in our rides.
My mentor and my friend Arun Prabahar who is
the first Indian to do SS1000 (1600km) with pillion, he was the master mind behind
this attempt, who supported me and Kovendhan (CTCian) for this attempt. During
September 2015 when I was attempting for a Guinness Record, I met with an
accident near Kishtwar (Jammu), my right hand Index finger got completely amputated
in a landslide, until end of December 2015 I couldn’t able to ride my bike. With
my wife, family and friends support, I started to ride my bike and practiced on
breaking without index finger, during those days I would watch each and every
bikes that passes my way to see how they ride and use the right hand for
breaking. It use to pain enormously but I took those painful days to build my confidence
back and with lot of practice I started to ride back from last week of December
2015.
Those days
helped me to plan my ride calendar for 2016, myself with Honda CBR 250R bike,
Vinodh with RE Thunder Bird 500cc and Kovendhan with Honda CBR 250R bike, planned
to attempt for SS2000 on March 9th and 10th, I made all
the planning and ground work, including pre-ride preparation, route plan,
documentation and reaching out to IBA India members for witnessing our attempt,
as the IBA rides in India has to be tracked by the existing IBA member and
through live tracking GPS applications.
We decided
to sleep at least 8 hours the prior two weeks before the ride, to avoid sleep
depravation , we installed GPS applications in our phones and it was trackable live
through SPOTwalla site, serviced our bikes packed dry fruits and breads for 2
days, electoral and enough water.
Our plan was
to start the ride from Bangalore Nice Road to Pune and back to Bangalore on day
1 and then ride from Bangalore to Kanyakumari back to Krishnagiri and then take
the Chennai route up to Ranipet and back to Bangalore via krishnagir, so that
we can cover 3300km in two days.
On 9th
March we have planned to start at around 5 am from Bangalore Nice Road (near
Electronic City), around 5 am we came to know that due to an accident in Nice
Road all the vehicles were diverted through city, we kept our self calm and re-planned
the route through outer ring road to reach Pune Highway, we started at 5.50 am
from City Bank ATM in Hosur Road, by the time we started there were too many
trucks diverted from nice road, we negated all the vehicles and gradually
picked up the momentum and crossed Hebbal and reached Tumkur road
Our plan was to ride first 900km as much as possible during day
light so that 2nd leg of 700km in Day 1 would be easier to ride
during night, and we struck to our plans and we reached Kolhapur at around 1 pm
by the time we are done with around 631km in 7 hours and proceeded to Pune, my
chain slack got cut in the interim, I tied the remaining piece of rubber with a
wire, but it didn’t work few kilometers further we decided to cut the worn-out chain
slack and proceed to Pune, as Vinodh’s was bit slower when compared to our
bikes, myself and Kovendhan where pretty much in sync with each other as both
of our bikes are of same model and we know each our limits pretty well. But due
to the issue with chain slack we slowed down by the time Vinodh crossed us and
proceed towards Pune. we joined with Vinodh near Satara and proceed to gather
we reached our planned U turn point BP fuel station 35 km before Pune city by
3:32 pm, by then we were done with 840km in 9 hours 40 minutes, as we were well
ahead of planned time we took almost 40 minutes break there a powernap and had
our lunch (Dry fruit, orange, lot of water, and breads) and then proceeded back
to Bangalore around 4.10pm, from there our next target was to reach Hubuli by
8.45 pm, on the way back day light vanished, we took rest in fuel stations and
proceeded further and we waited for Vinodh near Hubli toll for around 15 min as
there wasn’t any place to take rest myself and Kovendhan planned to ride
further and stopped in Kamat Hotel after Hubli for dinner, I had one idili
& coffee and took a power nap for 15 min by the time Vinodh has crossed us
and proceeded to Chitradurga, after the power nap I felt refreshing and from
there we proceeded to Chitradurga to catch up Vinodh, we reached Ranebennur at
around 10;55 pm, by the time we were done 1257km in 15 hours, we joined Vinodh
near Chitradurga and as planned earlier Avinash (IBA Member) and Arun Prabahar was
tracking our whereabouts through SPOTwalla, we reached back Bangalore (Kammanahali)
at 2;34 am on 10th March, by the time we where done with 1656km in 20
hours 45 min, we waited for Avinash near Kotak ATM, he signed as witness in our
day 1 completion sheet.
As Vinodh bike had quite a few issues, he dropped out of SS2000 plan
of continuing further for another 1600km, myself and Kovendhan also were too
tired and we were in desperate need of sleep we decided to stay back at
Kovendhan’s room at near silk board signal (Bangalore), it was around 4 am when
we reached his room, we decided to sleep until 7am and ride through another
1600km on 10th March, as planned we started at around 7.30am from
his room, our bike chains have gotten pretty loose and we decided to fix it on
the go, we had our breakfast stop at near Dharmapuri and proceeded towards Salem,
both of us didn’t felt tired after sleep we both were back to sync and we fixed
up our chains in Salem, but unfortunately both of our chains were at the last
adjustment level, with that we proceeded to Kanyakumari and we reached Karur at
around 11:50 am, by the time we were done with 1975km in 30 hours, we decided
to make use of day light and clock in as much as we can before sun set, we
reached Kanyakumari (Anjungram) our planned U turn point at 3:26 pm on 10th
March, at that time we were done with 2333km in 33 hours 36 min, there we knew
we had 2 hours 20 minutes to do 167+km for 2500k BB, we took 20 min break and had
quick lunch and proceed toward the next target, we reached RR Nagar near
Madhurai and stopped at Axis Bank ATM at 5.45pm by the time we were done with 2510km
in 35 hours 55 min, we took 20 min break there are proceeded towards Salem, in
the due course day light vanished, there were crossing here there in the
highways, we slowed down and was riding within our limits, both of us chain got
completely loosened (expanded), there was no room to adjust it anymore as the mentioned
earlier the adjustments level were at the last point. we took chance and kept our
phase constant from there on and reached Salem by 9:50 pm, by then we were done
with 2807km in 40 hours, we had let out with 8 hours to complete 400km, which
was definitely within reach except for the problem with chain, we then
proceeded to Krishnagiri, on the way near Dharmapuri 2 drunkards jumped from
the median in the mid of road, with ABS in bike I could able to negate them and
proceed further and reached Krishnagiri by 11:10pm 2906km in 41 hours 20 min,
we filled fuel at BP fuel station and had our dinner in a road side hotel and
proceeded towards Walajapet, we took a U turn in Chennasamudram Toll Plaza
(near Walajapet), and tried taking E receipt from Indian Bank ATM at
Ranippettai Engineering College, but due to some technical issues unfortunately
paper receipts were not available, we then went to Walajapet town and took
receipt at Axis Bank ATM at 1:22 am on 11th March, by then we were
done with 3070km in 43 hours 32 min. we were comfortably placed at that time to
complete well before time, but Kovendhan’s bike chain came out of the chain sprocket,
which was unexpected at that time, he fixed it and managed to ride back to
Bangalore near Electronic City by 4:10, with that we completed 3294 km in 46hours
20 min., Saba And Arun Prabahar did
received us in Ecity, with Arun signing the end witness form us.
We are glad that we could able to complete 3294 Km in around 46
hours, which is the First successful SS2000 attempt in India and first overall
in IBA with 250cc Honda CBR bike.
Every ride is a new experience for me, I learned a lot from this
ride, which I would be sharing in my next post with you guys soon.
Until then Happy and Safe Ridding
Live, Ride & Explore
Balaji Mohan
