Its not about SPEED always, its about endurance

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 9^th and 10^th, 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 9^th 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 2^nd 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 10^th 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 10^th 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 10^th 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 11^th 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