bikergirl

Doing the SaddleSore has always been a dream of mine since the Great Indian Ride and even spoke about attempting it during the Xbhp Biker of the year, but throughout the year I was busy with my other rides like LEH LADAKH, etc but somewhere down my heart I wanted to pursue it and there was this nagging tugs at my heart instigating me to go ahead and do it and thereby the dream started to see its light towards reality from December 2011.
I started reading a lot on this, collect whatever information I could lay my hands on, interacting with people who have been successful and unsuccessful in doing so, getting to know the difficulties they faced etc.
During the month of December 2011, I did my dry run from Chennai to Vizag as I was familiar to this route and to my horror I knew this was not gonna be the route that I had in mind as roads were under construction leading to total highway transport chaos and that’s when the the plan of Bangalore Mumbai Bangalore started taking shape in my mind.
As much as I wanted to, I could not do the dry run on this routing and was not familiar with the roads after Hubli.
After discussing this issue with a few friends from Bangalore on the routing , I was assured that this particular route was pretty well established and not major constructions work was left and nearly 80% of the route was good.
Good! Now since the major block in my mind was cleared as to the routing and the viability of completing the SaddleSore on this road seemed possible,now the next stone left to be un turned was getting a bike which could be fit for this kind of adventure, race against time and the safety.
I did finally approach Honda in Bangalore and opened my conversation with a “ I know this may sound kinda crazy…..” , which guaranteed their attention discussed the plans for this ride and requested them to help me endeavour my dream!!!
The deciding authority from Honda was very encouraging and gave me the go ahead and agreed to give me their bike CBR 250cc from the Saphire Honda Showroom, WHOA! WHEEEEEE! WOW!!!!for which I was thrilled and very very humbled.
Now at peace, all I had to do was prepare for the ride and remain focussed on how I would achieve it in the best manner possible.
Headed off to Bangalore , checked into a service apartment on 20th December 2011 and collected the bike from HONDA on the 23rd December 2011 . Super thrilled at the bike and rode it locally , completely happy with the performance and could not wait to test this Super fine piece of machinery on the highway.
Change of plans as in Pune instead of Mumbai
Preparing for the drive was crucial as I didn’t want to be burdened with something I would not be using on the ride.
The day before the ride I looked around the local super market and quickly shopped for what I needed!!!
2 cans of RED BULL energy drink.
Energy bars
Chewing gums
Salted Cashewnuts
GPS device (borrowed from a dear friend)
Back to the room for the REAL PACKING TO BE DONE AND THIS IS WHAT MY LUGGAGE LOOKED LIKE!!!
My Back Pack with the hydration pack with 2 litres of water, energy bars , energy drinks , chewing gums, and salted nuts.
My waist pouch consisted of Swiss knife, Camera, Lip Balm, Tissue, Eye drops, GPS, Extra charged mobile phone, hands free for mobile, powerful torch and some emergency cash.
I my riding jacket carried the license, bike documents and wallet.
After reviewing all the above mentioned over and over again I finally tried to fall asleep with the intention of starting the ride at 5 am as I was sure the petrol pumps would be ope by that time on 25th December 2011 , but I left the room at 6 am and reached the first petrol pump I Tumkur at around 6.30 am, but to my fate, I lost a good crucial 23 minutes in trying to locate a petrol pump which had an electronic billing at that time so that I could get a digital receipt recording my time !!!! Finally at 6.53 , I got lucky and filled the petrol which marked the beginig of my ride !!!!
WHOAAAAAAAA!!!!! GET SET GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Was all I could think of at this moment with adrenalin gushing high!!!!
The roads were awesome and a dream to ride on making it safe for me to test the bike at its best performance in terms of speed. At certain stretches I was able to record a top speed of 155kms.
The Lord up above made sure that my guardian angel and guiding spirits drove along with me all the way to make sure that ALL WAS WELL!!!
Well, letting you guys in on a secret is that am super crazy on the road and love talking to the angels and guardians all the way…..eeeeks! I don’t believe I am actually writing this!!
Since I am a breakfast person, the growling stomach was constantly reminding me and demanding attention!!! 200 kms from the starting point I stopped for 5 minutes, had my energy bar and a couple of swigs at the water ad started out without losing a moment further. Around 400kms is when I took my first coffee break where I spoke to my friends and updated them o my progress and location ad all they had to say was MOVE IT MOVE IT!!! DON’T WASTE FURTHER TIME AND NO MORE RANDOM BREAKS!!!! Leapt on to my bike and focussing on the road with a strange kind of happiness in my heart and a smile on my face, and stopping only for fuelling to gather documentation, I did manage to reach Pune at around 5 pm which was tiring since it was Christmas and the roads were piled up with traffic for over 5 kms with a total grid lock.!!!!! OFFICIAL WORKING MINI LUNCH BREAK WAS TAKEN AT THIS TIME!!!! Pune Break lasted for about half an hour which was crucial as my system needed to revive back for the return journey, again losing a crucial 1.5 hours trying to get out of the city traffic chaos to reach NH4 again.
After a well deserved lunch break, geared up for the return and the flow started with excitement, wondering and asking myself if things were I my favour and if I had forgotten some cruicial points regarding documentation, nevertheless once out of the city traffic chaos, my confidence grew again and now it was just one goal and that was BANGALORE TO BE THE ONLY AND LAST STOP EXCEPTION TO BE MADE ONLY FOR FUEL STOPS!!!
Let me remind you guys that night driving was the toughest part as the winds showed no mercy chilling me to the bones and trust me guys, nothing I did prepared me for this cold!!!!This not only slowed down my speed as I had to take a couple of breaks due to shooting pain in the upper back due to sitting in the same position for more than 18 hours and the cold certainly added to the entire pain level which was like a 9/10, but with equal determination, I speed on talking to my angels and asking for strength from the super power above to be with me and guide me on this anti climax ending leg of this drive.
Around 10 pm is when the traffic started thinning out on the highway and where I could gain speed and catch up for the crucial time lost evading through the traffic in Pune earlier, and the highway around peak hours.
To add to my misery here trying to ignore the chills to my bones and poor visibility due to smoke as people around were burning sugarcane on the sides of the road, making the road smoggy due to lack of movement in the cold air, suddenly out of nowhere suddenly a stray dog sashays on the road like its his own royal garden!!!!! It took one hell of a split second manevour to avoid colliding with this doggy!!!!
Needed to take my mind off the cold and started my Ipod which was like total chaos!!! Instead of playing my favourite songs, God knows how my favourite playlist disappeared and it suddenly started playing old Tamil songs and romantic slow ones at that too!!!! Uffffff! Horror of horrors! Also, I didnt wanna stop on the highway to get the ipod and shuffle or make a new list and continued the ride.

Riding through like a possessed human, I saw that it was around 1 am and I had crossed Hubi, which was in pitch dark and not a single soul on the highway!! Phew!! This was not only gonna get scarier but darker too as Hubli highways are famous for dacoits known to ambush people on the highway!!!
I decided, not matter what happens, am gonna make a dash and just drive as fast as I could and sent a silent prayer to my angels asking them to protect and see me through this part of the journey.
Driving like crazy the next thing which I can remember is crossing Chitradurga with shooting pain in my shoulders and now my focus was to keep shifting my positions on the bike to ease the pain level which did not and so now had to take a break evey 2 hours for a brief 5 minutes to ease the pain.
Since I was a solo girl a riding alone , I also had to make doubly sure that everytime I stopped, the place was safe enough and not draw any attention to me.
As dawn approached, I was approaching Tumkur and was like 50 kms away from the comfort that the service apartment had to offer.
When I reached the Tumkur highway I realised that I had done 1650 kms and was ecstatic that my mission was complete and the running nose, red eye and burning shoulder pain didn’t matter at all!!! All I could do was thank my angels, my parents and well wishers who believed in this madness of mine. Nothing else mattered!!!!

At the start of the ride.


The Honda CBR250 I rode


Turn around point at Pune


At the end of the ride!


Chithra Priya

Attached Thumbnails

 

Sunny

Congrats!

Example for the ladies indeed! So when is this going official, with the paper work et al.

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The Celebrity

Wow! Congrats Supergal!!!! Good going...

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Battleaxe

Awesome! Congratulations!

MG

Superb! Congratulation

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RohitJames

Helmets Off to you !!!!!!!!

bikergirl

Thank you Sunny, I have submitted the necessary paperwork, and the ride has been approved. Waiting for the certification now, which might take a month or two.

nids

Great..Congrats..

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Raneet

You just added a fan to your list.. congratulations..

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tarunkuril

It was only yesterday when i red about an elderly gentleman completing Saddle Sore on Ninja 250R and today A Lady..err..supergirl achieving the feat on Honda CBR250.
Congrats on achieving the Feat.

Keep Riding!!

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