This is the most adventurous activity I have ever taken up. To complete 1000miles (1600kms) in 24 hours. Today, I look back and am proud of what I have achieved. It takes a little madness to take up such a ride and finally finishing it too. I am glad that Kaiser was with me all this while. Not one complaint from him. Glad to meet so many supporters of this activity. It was a fun. It was nice to be a celebrity for a short while.
It all started with a post in our club forum about saddle sore ride information and its rules and regulations. I was the first to accept the ride and called for other riders to join in. Initially, no one did. So, I wanted to take it up alone.
I have done enough riding on my Kaiser (my Royal Enfield Thunderbird Twinspark). Have loved each ride and have always been left lusting for more. That is what ignited this spark of 1600kms ride. It was a challenge to myself and my Kaiser.
Everyone I spoke to, told me that I am completely out of my mind to even think about out it. The more people told negative about the ride, the more adamant I was getting about taking up this ride. And I came to a stage, when I thought that I have to do this ride alone. And then it happened. A lot of interest started getting generated for this so-called impossible ride. I was to happy to be among the knuckle-heads. Raam, Jerin, Vijay, Caveriappa…all of them started chipping in some positivity.
People dug into info…and we found that 3 indians have achieved this feat. But none of them on a bullet. That made our resolve stronger to complete this ride on our Bulls.
The people who wanted to join up this ride increased. And then we realized that we are going for the ''First Group Saddle Sore Ride in India''. We looked for sponsors - to provide us in kind - the gear/consumables. Very thankful for the support from Agip, Fastrack and Reliance. A heartful thanks to Enfield for supporting us all through the ride. I have seen employee/dealers/service agents, who work for companies. But when it comes to Bullet, all of them are as passionate about it, as we are. It was very pleasing to meet up so many new faces enroute. Meeting for the first time, but friendly due to our common passion - The Bullet.
All the people who say that Bullet is absolete technology - can roll it shove it, where it belongs. No other bike can create such passion in this country. We are proud to be associated with this brotherhood.
And then the interest in this activity started igniting.
We decided on Bangalore-Pune-Bangalore. Based on the rules and regulations and road conditions around Bangalore. Completed a recce, 3-weeks before the actual ride. Thanks to Raam and Jerin for taking up the recce and providing us with such valuable information.
We took up a night ride to acclimatise to tough conditions. We took Bangalore-Chitradurga-Shimoga-Sringeri-Chikmagalur-Hassan-Bangalore (total of 850+kms). Completed this ride in 24 hours. Lot of dropouts after this ride, and few additions as well. Total stood at 20 riders - the final list.
As we approached the ride date, more dropouts. Finally, the riders were 12. Shiv was taking the opposite direction…Pune-Bangalore-Pune. And was attempting the ride alone.
Two days before, I sent Kaiser for servicing. Was completely fixed/tightened/cleaned. Took for a ride and I realized that the bike was mis-firing. Took it back to the service centre and found that the cap around the spark plug was grounding. Fixed it. Kaiser was ready-it always is
Weeks of planning had finally taken us to the D-Day.
Previous day, I wanted to sleep the whole day. And I could not muster more than 3 hours of sleep. I was so excited that my heartbeat was clicking the upper threshold. I thought, I might receive my first cardiac arrest. Lying in the bed…eyes closed…but no sleep, whatsoever.
Kept the alarm for 0330hrs and woke up at 0300hrs. Not that I was sleeping before that - I mean, I got out of the bed at 0300hrs. Glad that the night was over and I can get going with my preparation for the ride. I had kept my complete gear ready, the previous night. In fact, I had packed my bag and was under the octopus cable on Kaiser.
Got ready, opened the door to find out the first surprise for the day. It was drizzling. I was like …WHAT!!!????!!!
Then thought that God wanted to sprinkle flowers, but had to do with a slight rain. Looked up towards the sky, with a nasty grin. Took Kaiser out. I was not prepared for rain and neither was my gear. Was smiling on my way to meet up with the guys, near my house.
Reached the spot at 0415hrs. Where Vijay, Mani, Caveriappa and Bundu were supposed to meet. Saw only R.T.Mani with Gappanna. Went to ATM and picked some cash for the ride. Came back, thinking that everyone would be assembled to leave. Behold…found out that Caveriappa is not up from his slumber. All of us trooped towards his house. Waited in the drizzle..all geared up, excited and cursing Caveriapa .
Finally, he came out of the house. Later he tells me that, he was sure that he would sleep late and would not get up on time. So, he kept the keys next to the window, so that when we come…we can open the door and kick his ass to wake him up. Funny guy…?. He calls himself ''Late Caveriappa'' now.
We reached the start point. BP Petrol Bunk near Jal Bhavan on Bannerghatta Road. Despite the rain, it was nice to see that all the riders were there and we had Royal Indian members to cheer us on…Dush, Gaurav, Deejay, Santosh, Biswaroop, Vijay (new member), Mani...It was nice to see Uday (Agip sponsorer)…up early and came to see us off.
Put up reflecting stickers on the riding jackets…''Keep Distance'' ''Endurance Ride'' and a sticker with emergency no., Blood Group and our name.
Put on sponsor t-shirts for photo-op with Royal Indians banner. The members taking our photos, made us feel like celebrities. We were all smiles and enjoyed every bit of it.
Tanked up our fuel tanks and we rode in a procession through Bannerghatta Road. Three bullets up front, clearing the road. A car with Royal Indians banner and all the riders (with their co-rider) behind in an orderly fashion. Another car as a swip. All eyes were onto us. And we were ripping our throttles to make the bulls roar .
We reached, the start of NICE road, from where we had to officially start the ride. All our meter readings were taken by Biswaroop. He was our start-witness for the ride.
And then it began...the best and toughest ride.
Gaurav and Piyush were there to take our video. Didn't we feel good . Deejay and Santosh2, drove before us to take up further video…
Nice road toll-gates were paid by the members and we were given a pass through the gates.
By the end of this road, my bike started making a loud noise. I was riding at 80-100 on this stretch. I was shocked to hear the noise….just 30kms into the ride. We came out of NICE road and were on Tumkur Road. I could not take the noise and feared the worst. Thought, it was engine noise and my ride was over. Stopped over to the side and checked the bike with my partner - Maverick (Manjunath). The other riders passed by us. We held onto each part, to check if the vibration was creating the noise…no avail.
Was about to call the mechanic, when Maverick found that the bolt holding the tank was loose. And when I looked from the other side, I could not find the nut…SCREWED…
Took out the bolt and pocketed it. We were to meet our first pit stop at Davangere. Maverick asked me, if I can hang on till there. I gave him the thumbs-up and we rolled. Holding the tank between the legs and absorbing all the vibrations...in the bargain, my entire was body was aching, when I reached Davangere.
We had started first, and after this breakdown, we were the last. I thought we had lost all the other riders, and started ripping on Kaiser. All Maverick needed was an invitation to rip. And we soon found and overtook all the riders before we reached our first rest stop-Chitradurga.
Maverick has a ear-shattering silencer (in any case, it should not be called a silencer). It is pretty loud…let me describe it to you. It is the thump of Bullet and 100+ times louder than the normal one. Result - it made me deaf. I was passed by a car and all its passengers were showing me their hands and cursing me. I then realized that they must have honked…and I was tone deaf to hear it. This deafness continued all through the way. Usually, when I ride alone, I get a lot of stares for my Kaiser. But with Maverick, we got more attention (due to the noise) and his bike got more stares.
We were met by Arun and Krish. They had put up the banner on a pole and waited for us to pose with the banner for photos. Krish was continuously capturing video. Told him to inform the mechanic ahead to carry a spare nut-bolt for the tank. Drank up my first Red bull, ate a nutri-bar and some dry fruits. We were 15 minutes late, as per the schedule chart. Ripped again…hardly so…we were met with a nightmare of a road.
Reached Davangere, was very happy to see the mechanic. Told him about the tank issue. He took a rusted nut-bolt and fixed it. Was happy…gobbled up 2 bananas from a road side shop. A small crowd gathered around to watch the excitement. One of Pasha's mechanic had hit his head on the handle bar and was bleeding from his temples. The blood was profusely flowing from his temple and was all over his face. But he was so focused to check our bulls and get it ready for us to ride ahead. Aditya, took out a band-aid and took care of it.
We rode on...through the pain in the ass roads. We were too excited to be stopped.
We met Shiv coming from the other side. He was traveling alone on this ride and doing Pune-Bangalore-Pune. We greeted and hugged each other. I introduced him to the riders and bid a hasty good bye, as we were running late.
Reached Hubli toll gate…and saw few guys capturing us on video. It was my friends who had arranged for the camera…Sunil and Rakesh from Reliance, Hubli. Stopped further up and took another red bull. Next bad news, Raam's bike was not able to go over 80. We asked the Davangere pit stop mechanic to be ready for the bike and its problem. The bolt used on my tank was not the original and started to make noise again. Asked the mechanic to keep a spare one ready.
About this time, I had got pissed off to see Pune still 300kms away. I shared my thoughts with the guys. Told them, lets reach Pune and finish it off.
It was a single road for some time between Hubli and Belgaum. But was well-kept and the scenery enroute was amazing. We enjoyed the ride, when suddenly Maverick comes parallel to my bike and tells me that he has approx. 25kms of fuel. We asked a pulsar rider for the next petrol bunk and was told 40kms away. Relaxed Maverick by telling him that I will share petrol from my tank if we faced any problem.
After some time, we reached a non-descript town. The cop stopped the entire traffic due to a jam ahead. I gestured him to the watch and told him that we were getting late. He did not bother. As law-abiding Royal Indian's, we did not move. Then I saw people taking a left, taking a u-turn and then joining back our road ahead. We did the same and we were soon back on track. Little ahead, we saw a petrol bunk and Maverick was glad to refuel. I topped up the tank. We roared on.
We met up with Sudhirji in Belgaum. He is an ardent Bullet lover and was very happy to be part of this ride. He wanted his son (also into Bullets) to experience the ride. But it was too short a period for get him ready for the ride. Promised him that I will take him on the next. He did not take any money from us to service our bikes. But he got all our love in return and our best wishes. I was at last given a proper nut for the bolt that I was carrying. We removed the rusted nut-bolt and was satisfied. After that, it never made any more noise. They tightened my chain as well. Raam's bike went for a major re-haul here. He was happy with the service and we moved on…one by one.
It was nice to finally see Bundu after we started in Bangalore. He was riding with Mani. Came to hear that Caveriappa's bike was acting up and needed assistance. Took him to Sudhirji's shop and asked him to co-ordinate with Vijay/Caveriappa.
I left first and was sure that Maverick followed. But I could not see him in my rearview mirror for a long time. Belgaum to Nippani was a wonderfully scenic ride. Two ghat section and a river to be crossed. Broad roads, very less traffic and surrounded by beautiful nature. Need we want more…we ripped our hearts out.
Somewhere enroute, I could hear the now used-to roar of Maverick's bike. Happy to see my partner…we thumped on till Kolhapur.
We met Deshmukhji in Kolhapur - another RE service support point. A very down to earth person but with same passion for bullets. Maverick and Jerin wanted to fuel up their tanks, so asked them to move ahead. My bike was done up and the mechanic took it for a ride. By the time he had come back, I was alone. Started the bike and started to rip. After coming out of Kolhapur, I saw the fuel meter and was shocked. I was close to reserve myself. It was getting dark and I was outside the city.
Desperately, I started looking for a gas station. And for my luck, I did not see any for a long time. Patience paid off as I saw a HP fuelling station. Tanked up and started again.
For a very long time, I did not see any other rider. Was getting dark, eyes were taking time to adjust to the night ride…and was actually missing my partner - Maverick. After a long while, I saw the familiar reflective lining of a riding jacket. I cannot explain you how happy I was to see a fellow rider. It was Raam. Rode with him for some time. His problem of not able to go over 80 was persisting. My bull was in no mood to go slow. It picked up some speed and I moved ahead searching for Maverick. Finally, I caught up with him. He had stopped on the side with Surya. On enquiring, found out that his engine has overheated and needed to cool it down. We all took that excuse and rested ourselves too. Swigged another Red Bull and ate some dry fruits. Raam joined in, but wanted to ride ahead as he was not able to go faster. Bundu joined in…. totally zapped. He said… I ripped as if my life depended upon it. It sure did, for all of us.
Next up… our half way point - Pune.
We saddled up and rode again. We were clicking some mean speed at this stretch. The night was settling in. Traffic was much easier to spot. Lesser jay walking. There was a tunnel on this route. It was fantastic, as bullets were making all the noises and getting an awesome echo back. Due to the recent rains, the left side of the tunnel was wet. And this wetness was on the road as well. At a point when I slightly breaked, my back wheel skided. My heart was in my mouth. The average speed of vehicles in the tunnel was around 90-100kmph. My first thought was that it was a puncture…but my tyre is pretty new. Then I realized the wet conditions and moved my bike to the right side of the road. Once out of the tunnel, I stopped my bike to check the wheel. Surya came over to me excitedly telling me about the tunnel ride. When he saw my tension, he joined me in checking the bike for the puncture. Luckily, it was not a puncture and we moved on.
We were to meet at Shell bunk on the outskirts of Pune. Pramod (RE Service Support) was not able to find it out and was searching for it. In the meantime, we reached the petrol bunk. Was happy to see the bunch - Raam, Mani, Vijay, Caveriappa, Bundu, Maverick. Then they told me that Aditya vehicle was not starting and he has abandoned the ride in Kolhapur. He was getting his bull checked up there. Surya (who was behind me), called in to say that he is lost. He had in fact gone 2kms ahead of the bunk. Guided him back. He had caught onto Jerin as well. After some time he called me again to tell me that he is still lost. This time he had crossed us and gone 15kms, the other way. Finally, they arrived.
Pramodji helped us with the bikes. I asked him, if Kaiser needed a oil change. He did not think so. He told me that my bull was in perfect condition and should be able to belt speed and take you back home.
We were running out of Red Bull stock, so we went into the Shell store to pick some fresh stock. He had a different brand out there…Cloud 9. If Red bull kept us going…Cloud 9 kicked right into our b@#$%. It was bitter, tasted yucky but woke us up. That is what we needed.
Checked the time. It was 2045hrs. we were 2+ hours late reaching Pune. Now we had to complete the return journey in 10 hours. Sounded impossible. But we readied ourselves for the night journey and took up the road. We wore additional sweat shirts, surgical gloves and Baraclava.
I was to lead and Raam was to be the swip. The idea was to get the flock home now. We started in right earnest. The roads were deserted now. I was maintaining 80kmph speed (Maverick does not like to go slow). Caveriappa overtook me on 100kmph..and then Mani…and then Bundu. I said to myself, I am slowing these guys down and kept up the speed with them. Later realized that we were all going over 100kmph… Vijay, Mani, Bundu, Caveriappa, Maverick and Self. We had truly lost the rest behind… way behind. Somewhere on the way, I was stopped by Caveriappa. Vijay was feeling sleepy so he needed a face wash. That done, we started again. We went through a beautiful stretch of ghat section (this is the return road to the tunnel). We reached Kolhapur with constant speeding. Realised that we have done 200kms within 2hours 15 minutes. That gave me hope. If we take break every 200kms, we can reach Bangalore with 3 more stops.
Met Aditya in Kolhapur. He was there with a sleepy eyed Deshmukhji. It was 0000hrs. He checked on our bikes and gave us thumbs up. We were good to go.
Then we got the news on Caveriappa. His piston was broken and was well away from Kolhapur. He needed a tempo to ferry his bike and we could not find any at that time of the night. It was decided that he will hike it onto a truck and get it home. Vijay was along with him. They later told me that they loaded both their bikes on a friendly truck and got it back home. Costed them Rs.1,000/- for the help.
In the meantime, I was excited and ready to go. Asked Maverick…as usual, he was ready to speed. Shared my plan of 200clicks (at a speed of 100kmph) and a break thereafter. Filled up the tanks, as there were no bunks till Belgaum. Adi got excited on the plan and wanted to ride along. Now the story of problem with Adi's bike. He uses a heavy key chain, due to which the contacts of the key and the ignition socket was not proper. This was the problem due to which the bike was not starting. He was feeling like shit that he was stalled due to such a nonsense reason.
We decided that the next stop was Hubli. And we rode like maniacs on a empty and deserted road. All I could see was the road in my headlight. The rest was eerily dark. We are cruising at very high speed and did not notice that we left Adi behind. Stopped at a picturesque place before Belgaum for a bio-break and a can of Red Bull. We were about to reach Hubli, when the sleep started to kick in. We reached Hubli around 0530hrs. We were very very exhausted and wanted to sleep. I asked Maverick to lie down on the grass and take a short nap, while I kept a watch. He could not sleep and then I tried. I think I slept but was woken up with a slight drizzle on my face. We took a rest and calculated the journey. It was impossible to complete the ride within 2 hours.
We messaged Biswaroop that we will not be able to complete it. We were riding like zombies. Some time later, I asked Maverick if he wanted to have a tea. He gladly agreed. We stopped at a dhaba and ordered for tea. By the time it came in…. Maverick was sleeping like a log. We spent 30 minutes there. I was chatting up with the lorry drivers, who had stopped at the dhaba… gathering information on the route back. It had been raining all through the evening, is what I was told. That could make the ride tricky. As suddenly as Maverick had slept… he woke up the same way. Got up and wanted to ride. So we saddled up again and rode.
Somewhere during the journey, I was feeling too sleepy and was about to crash into Maverick's bike. I asked for another break. It was early morning and the sun was about to rise. It was a cloudy morning and I wanted some Sunrays to hit my eyes and wake me up. That did not happen for a long time. This put more pressure onto my sleepy eyes. I was disoriented for a long time. Riding like a zombie. I was talking to myself. I even sang to myself. Purposely moving my head to see the scenery around. Maverick, who is usually speeding, was following me at low speeds. He later told me that we did 40kmph in that time. I have no clue.
Sleep got the better of us and we wanted to rest. So, we started looking for a hotel/lodge to lie down. We found a Lodge on the highway…for our luck, there were no rooms available. He gave us reference to another Lodge across the highway. It was a dump. We did not want to risk sleeping out there. We pulled ourselves to the highway and started riding again. We were moving at low speeds. I was feeling hungry now, as we did not eat much for the last 24hours.
The total food intake was:
Bananas 2
Nutri-bars 4
Red Bulls 6
Cloud9- 2
Dry fruits 20gms
Peanuts Handful (given by Mani in Pune)
Water 500ml
So, we stopped at a restaurant on the highway and ate some breakfast. There was a Lodge opposite to the restaurant and was quite appealing. But we decided that we will rest only on reaching Bangalore. Had a strong coffee to wake us up… which incidentally, did not work.
There were a lot of people taking pictures of our bikes parked in front of the restaurant. A bullet with luggage tied to it, dirt around…gives an awesome picture to capture. So, we let people admire our bulls and took some rest as well.
Saddled up and moved on. We were getting weary and tired every mile that we covered. Kept taking breaks. Whenever the roads went bad, we loved it. That made us to wake up and negotiate the potholes and traffic. Long stretch of no traffic and good roads were killing.
Somehow we managed to reach Tumkur City. The traffic was maddening and city riding was difficult. Autos, two-wheelers and jay walking was very irritating. It was the question of so close, yet so far. We rode on.
Somewhere in this stretch, Maverick lost it and rode his bull, as a man possessed. Tried to keep up pace with him. Energy kicked in with all the adrenaline rush and we cruised. We overtook everything in sight. We were moving at pretty good speeds. Reached Tumkur Toll-Gate… our end point of the ride. We knew, no one would be waiting for us. Dejected, we moved towards Bangalore.
We went through Peenya traffic…a complete mess. We were no mood to stop and we negotiated the traffic pretty well and moved. Somewhere on this stretch, I lost Maverick. But he waited for me ahead and we rode together - brotherhood at its peak. Mekhri Circle…lot of eyes on our bikes and on us. We were with our riding jackets, knee pads, dirt-up bikes, no-nonsense posture… and then there was the distinctive thump of Maverick. We said our goodbyes on Nandidurg Road and I moved further on to my residence. Riding on these roads for so long, made my riding easy. I was like a robotic rider and was cruising on its own.
Reached home…my nephew opened the gate to get Kaiser in. Parked the bike and sat on the sofa. It was the best feeling for a long time.
It was lunch time and everyone was busy with raagi-mudde. My favourite food. So dug in and ate to my heart's content. I had taken a photograph of my gear and luggage before I rode. So, I took another snap of all the gear and luggage after the ride. My shoe and Jean were in pretty bad condition. Riding jacket was pretty dirty with all the dust and grime.
Called up Biswaroop to find out if everyone is ok and reached home. We were 3rd & 4th to reach Bangalore, after Bundu and Mani. The others had decided to rest enroute and were distributed. Raam and Jerin in Kolhapur. Surya and Aditya in Nippani. Caveriappa and Vijay were on their way back in a lorry. Shiv was resting in Davangere.
It was 1230hrs, when I reached home.
Sat up for a little while and watched a telugu movie on the telly. Had enough, I went to put my head on the pillow…that is the last I remember of the ride.
Bang… bang… bang on the door. It was 2100hrs, and my nephew was trying to wake me up for dinner.
I called up Biswaroop again. Everyone had reached home - safe and sound. That relaxed me completely and I went back to sleep.
Check on my body parts:
Right hand - Badly paining
Left hand - Comparatively, lesser pain
Knees - Both knees paining, as I had a crepe around them for 24 hours. And I think that must have stopped blood flow.
Head - Slight hurt. Must be due to the excessive Red bull intake.
Overall Body pain - Nothing a good sleep and a shot of Old Monk can set it right.
We would like to thank the RE service support, for their invaluable help in keeping the bikes in good condition:
Shiv Prasad - Bangalore
Pandurang Deshpande - Pune
Nayaz Pasha - Davangere
Sudhir - Belgaum
Deshmukh - Kolhapur
Pramod - Pune
Vijay - Bangalore
A very special thanks to all the mechanics along with the above list. They were driven more by passion than their jobs. Something, I will never forget.
A special thanks to Sunil and Rakesh for capturing video when we passed through Hubli Toll Gate.
Royal Indian's members at the start…Deejay, Dush, Santosh1, Santosh2, Vijay2, Gaurav, Biswaroop, Mani, Piyush, Gappanna.
Thanks to Arun and Krish to ride ahead of us and waited for us at Chitradurga. It was a very warm welcome to see them after the first leg of our ride.
It was great to ride along with our fellow riders…Vijay, Caveriappa, Mani, Bundu, Raam, Jerin, Aditya and Surya.
Feeling bad for Sandeep and Kaleem for dropping out near Tumkur toll gate.
I would like to thank Manjunath a.k.a Maverick for being such a wonderful partner in the ride. We have shared all emotions and incidents together. We overcame all obstacles to reach home safe and glad. We have promised each other that we will take up this ride and complete it within 24 hours. We have gathered a lot of learning and experience in this ride. We are very confident that we will be able to finish Saddle Sore 1600K, next time around.
My ass is a witness that I have unofficially received a Saddle Sore.