Bajaj Discover's influence:
I came across the "Iron Butt Association" website couple of years back while searching for long distance touring tips on Google. I was planning for a 500 km trip on Bajaj Discover 110 cc, a bike and my close friend that I owned then. Though I never did that trip due to various reasons, the "IBA" website stayed in my mind for sometime.
1st June 2010
It was my Ex-bike's(Discover) 4th Year Birthday and i was recollecting some happy moments spent with my friendly machine. IBA website too came to my memory and also the dropped 500km road trip plan.
Last week of August 2010:
Just one more month for my Fazer's 1st year Birthday and something memorable has to be done. I thought of going to Bangalore to meet couple of my friends from HCL, Biju and Parthiban, and then buy a tent in Bangalore that i could use for my bike tours. Then came this thought...the birthday is for the bike and not for me, so I gotta do something memorable for the bike.
Me: Shall we take the bike to temple?
My Conscience: No
Me: What about Mobile charger installation?
My conscience: It's the bike's Birthday and not "Operation" day
Me: What about Motul 15W40 Fully synthetic oil? Engine's gonna thank me.
My Conscience: i told u it's not "operation" day
Me: What else?
My conscience: Something that our bike gets a name "That's the first bike to..."etc.
IBA's website was on my computer screen the next moment and i finalized on "Saddle Sore 1600K" a ride of 1610 kms in under 24 hours. Further searching on Google to find out if anyone has done it from India, 7 people have successfully finished. Also came across an article about a guy who tried the Saddlesore attempt on Fazer and fell short by an hour. Another guy has successfully completed the ride on FZ-16. So if I do this ride successfully my bike will become "The first Yamaha Fazer 150cc to do a saddlesore 1600K in India"
My colleagues at the cabin were shocked when they heard my plan first but knowing about my trips on Fazer they were confident that I'll make it. However the key decision would be made by my boss for Bike touring, Mr. Arul from MBMC(Madras Bulls Motor club)
Me: Arul...I'm planning for a 1600+ km ride on my bike in under 24 hours (I was expecting he'll ask what is the funda behind this)
Arul: Oh...that Iron Butt stuff...Do it man! (How does he know everything about biking world!)
The initial plan :
Chennai-Vizag-Chennai, a couple of bikers have done the saddlesore ride successfully in this route using Pulsar 220. I quickly made the Trip plan preview and posted in orkut's Yamaha Fazer community.
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community?cmm=104340931 The final plan:
I was still not 100% satisfied with the vizag trip as i got mixed reviews about the route because of Traffic density. Chennai to Coimbatore was the route I wanted to do as the road conditions were excellent and hence finalized on Chennai-Coimbatore-Chennai-Madurai-Chennai. The trip was scheduled to happen on October 2nd though October 1st was my bike's birthday.
Trip preparation:
I did the 7th service for my bike on 1st week of september thinking that I'll run the bike for some few hundred kms and then directly take on the saddlesore ride. First time i used Yamalube 15W50 Engine oil and the result was awesome. Just then I got an opportunity to participate in a 500kms social cause ride along with 100 bikers from the city and that turned out to be a confusion maker. My bike has done 900kms with the new oil and I was a bit confused if I could carry on with the same oil for the ride or change the oil again though it is just 900kays old. Not ready to take on any chances i took the bike for a quick service on October 1st just to make sure everything is fine. My concentration was very much on the bke that I forgot to take care myself. It ended up having fever and cold and to make matters worst I accidently hit my left leg on a brick stacked at my home where construction work was going on. Who cares! My excitement level was so high that my sleeping time was not more than 3 hours. Moreover my friends have confirmed there presence next morning to send me off and that itself was a big boost to the morale.
The D-Day:
Got up at 3 A.M with heavy pain on the left leg and severe cold. I didn't have time to worry abut it as we are not 100% fit all the time. Silently packed up all the necessary stuff in the backpack(Mom and dad just knew I was going to Bangalore to meet my friends and will be back the next day) Bike papers, Chain cleaner and chain lube, tools, 3 bottles of water mixed with Electrol, Horlicks Energy bars and First Aid kit. Reached the Bharat Petroleum bunk at 5.30 A.M and waited for my friends to arrive. Once everybody was present the trip started at exactly 6.11 A.M after getting wishes from my friends. Shaggy, One of my good friend from Yamaha Fazer commmunity in orkut was riding beside me for the first 3 kms till I took the turn on Maduravoyil Bye-pass and entered NH4-The highway I used to ride every weekend to my farm at vellore. My bike was feeling so excited, thanks to the oil change and till we crossed Poonamallee we maintained a low profile on the road due to heavy lorry traffic. Took a quick break near poonamallee to give a gentle massage to my toe as it was paining like hell and was back on the road again. A guy riding on Apache was doing the usual honours that Fazers and FZ's recieve on open roads and we started to create some noise on the calm NH4. 100..110...115..123...124..I lost the Apache guy somewhere and decided to slowdown a bit and maintain 105 kmph as the steady speed. My first target stop was vellore, 120 kays from chennai. In another 1 hour and 20 minutes I crossed vellore and made up my mind not to stop till Krishnagiri.
1st Checkpoint(Krishnagiri):
Krishnagiri was my first checkpoint as the rules of IBA wanted me to obtain reciepts from petrol bunks at various checkpoints escpecially at corners like Krishnagiri. Stopping by an Indian oil Petrolbunk just to know that they won't give any compuetr printed reciepts i moved on and stopping by every petrol bunk i just began to understand that if I'm going to keep on looking for computer generated reciepts then I won't even reach coimbatore in 24 hours. Finally made up my mind to go for Hand bills itself and took the first break on a Indian oil petrol bunk in Karimangalam near Krishnagiri. Messaged to my friends about my location and slowly munched the energy bar. Tripmeter indicated 269 kays and it took me 3 hrs and 20 minutes.
2nd Checkpoint (Salem):
since there exists a shortcut route to coimbatore from krishnagiri apart from the normal route via salem I was forced to take another reciept to confirm that I passed through salem and not through shortcut. It was 10.30 in the morning and the open highway suddenly changed it's image to a city like road in salem eventhugh it is a bye-pass there were couple of signals and I was welcomed by a long waiting queue of trucks. I knew these were testing times and slowly passd through the heavy traffic hoping that I could still make up for the lost time.
Time: 10.31 A.M
Trip meter: 329 km
3rd Checkpoint (Perumanallur, coimbatore):
After a steady 110 kmph cruise on the highway reached the outskirts of coimbatore. With coimbatore city centre still 50 kms away I managed to find a Canara Bank ATM that mentioned the coimbatore city name and it turned out to be my 3rd checkpoint. There was a college nearby and some girls were waiting on the bus stand. They were curiously looking at me...ok...not me...they were looking at my bike. Just then a dog came sniffing near my bike's tyre and to avoid any "Outpouring" I immediately switched on the engine and left the place.
Time: 12.05 p.M
Tripmeter: 461 km
Time wasted sighting the girls from inside the ATM: 3 minutes
4th Checkpoint (Near Krishnagiri):
After recharging my harmones with some good "Sightings" in coimbatore I started heading back to Krishnagiri on the same route. After crossing Salem by battling the Lorry traffic once again i needed a real butt break. Stopping by a lonely place I had my lunch- One Horlicks energy bar. The sun was performing it's duty exceptionally well and my body's Liquid cooling system was working at peak load. I had about 100 more kms to cross Krishnagiri. Back on the road the fun continued and in no time we were back in Krishnagiri. The only petrol bunk on the left lane welcomed us with a sign "Petrol out of stock" and to the horro of my eyes the fuel indicator started blinking! That means I've got not more than 40 or 50 kms. I was literally searching for petrol pumps but none came on the way. Sadly i couldn't rev my engine at this point of time and maintained a shameful 50 kmph. To be frank i was literally crying inside my helmet. Just then an orange colored board was sighted in a far off distance. Wow! An Indian Oil Petrol pump. With lot of enthu i entered the station and to my bad luck that seemed to be an old fashioned petrol pump with no roof and having sand everywhere. With no other choice left I topped up the tank.
Time: 3.40 P.M
Tripmeter: 690 km
5th Checkpoint: (chennai)
The sun lost its power soon and rains began. That means my dream is gonna end. I've never experienced sharper rain drops in my life like that one. It felt like a needle. On entering vellore agian the dry weather resumed and I felt relieved. Reached Tambaram via Maduravoyil Bye-pass and it was completely dark. I used up all the cash in various petrol bunks that i was left with 500 rupees as cash on hand. That's fine, after all we are in city now and almost all the petrol bunks in NH45 (Route to madurai) would accept cards. Topped up Petrol for 500 bucks and the attender returned to me and said "Sir your card has some error and we can't process the payment. Please pay by cash" Next thought that came up to my mind was "Is this the end of the trip because of card error?". I slowly rolled my bike beyond Tambaram searching for ATM. My Heart was killing my mind by telling "Has the card got damaged? If yes then this whole trip is a failure because of lack of money, what a climax!" Just then an IOB Bank ATM was sighted near Vandalur. A couple of people were waiting and i too joined them patiently. every minute i stood there was like hell as I know it's gonna seriously affect my ride. Just before i could enter the ATM, people turned back saying that the ATM is out of order. I am irritated with banks who don't care to maintain the ATMs well. With more frustration began to roll my bike again. Just 5 kms beyond that in a place called Urapakkam saw this Karur Vysya Bank ATM. With desperate need of cash I joined the long queue of 15 people!
"Saddle sore dream is gonna be a nightmare"
Time: 7.40 P.M
Tripmeter: 946 km
Still 664 kms and 10 hours left....
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