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Aargee, I want to do saddlesore; can I do saddlesore in my CBR 250R? I want to do saddlesore & please help me choose a bike for me; how about doing a group saddlesore?
Errr...aaaargggh... I'm mighty frustrated hearing these for last few days
What increases the frustration is that, one dude rides from Bangalore to Chennai, hears about this Saddlesore for first time in his life & he wants to do it next weekend, like riding from his house to local kirana store; and another guy wants to buy a motorcycle specifically to do a saddlesore, whoa
While some here can debate asking what's wrong in achievement, there's something more beyond speeds, achievement & endurance. Let me be fair & look up this topic from the view of Saddlesore enthusiasts, anti Saddlesore crowd & some as Realist.
Pro Saddlesore
Technically speaking, it's a little over 1600 Km to be done within 24 hours. Which means, I only need to keep 67 Kmph so that 24 X 67 = 1608 Km. It's good to hear, but one has to account for few minimal other things such as Fuel, Food & Water.
So let's keep aside 1 hour for food & 1 hour for water; let's say your ride yields 30 Kmpl & has a capacity of using 10 liters of fuel in one go, this means, you'll have to stop 5-6 times for refueling (1600/300). And let's keep aside about 10 minutes for each refuel & that accounts for 1 hour easily.
So from 24 hours, take off about 3 hours that crunches our time to 21 hours. This also means, the speed has to increase from 67 Kmph to approximately 77 Kmph.
Next point is the route. Considering the GQ, outer ring road, outer of outer ring road & outer of outer of outer of...blah blah roads, it's quite possible not only to skip the crowded towns, but also keep the distance without much disturbances. Be it North, South or West (Sorry to my dear brothers & sisters in East & KL ofcourse, I have to be empathetic to you guys). So good roads these days are no longer an excuse.
Riding efficiently around 100 Kmph easily gives an average speed of 80 Kmph on these good long highways.
Considering today's reliable 200+ cc motorcycles, there's absolutely no excuse for not succeeding with a Saddlesore, if this is what you thought...
Anti Saddlesore
For sure the roads are improved, the rides are reliable, durable & comes with other able, however there's one indispensable truth...has the mindset of people improved?
I still see why are you passing through my village, This is my village & I do what I like attitude on the roads. Yes, no one denied it's your village & you live in it, but, let me also pass; and hey, I'm not coming to harass you or I'm Mohammed Ghazni to raid the riches from your village. I'm merely traveling to my destination & let me use the road for few minutes, atleast, let me use it for the sake of toll that I've paid?
And the do what I like attitude is quite dangerous one; drive tractor the way I like; and the Hero Splendor become Tata Sumo just that the Sumo still ride on 4 wheels with 5 people in it, quite talented!
Cursed are those dogs (cats & other small animals) who're born in US & other Western countries; they live in A/C room with TV left ON, living on special diet, have doctor's appointment, demanding for evening walks & some of them even wear clothes like human. They don't have much freedom to move about. Fortunately (or unfortunately for us), this is India & there's too much freedom for them, if you want to say so, and they've no limited mobility & are free to move anywhere. May be that's the reason, they stare at you on a National Highway & consider whether to move out of the way.
Cow is Mother, Mother can go anywhere & that includes any highway; and how does a Cow know to read & write?
Last but not the least, there're bushmen. Those people who wake up early in the morning, find a hide out to finish off their morning ablution, come back sheepishly to the bushes in the median, ensure there's an oncoming vehicle & then try to cross the road. They appear suddenly out of the bushes & try to make 0 to 120 Kmph in 1 second. Whoa!!
As if all these hurdles are not sufficient, there're other vehicles on the road who ensures to give you maximum possible trouble on the road. Most notorious ones ranges from the silent cyclists to loud farting auto-rickshaw.
Want more? Add potholes, signals, speed barriers, one stretch or other being under construction, uneven surfaces, high beam lights, truckers without danger light in the night.
Last but not the least, the speed limit of any two wheeler in this country being 50 Kmph (those specified are only for cars); anything above this speed limit is clearly VIOLATION OF LAW
For The Realists
A typical, one minute stop delays off about 8-10 minutes to destination. This means, 5 times stopped for fuel itself wastes about 50 minutes. Ofcourse, one can make up for this by increasing the speed, but, this is undeniable truth.
Riding for 100 Kmph for one hour is quite different from riding 80 Kmph for 5-6 hours; it requires immense concentration, stamina & energy, which is the ultimate test of all these attempts. But the fact is that, as time progress, it becomes extremely difficult to keep up the focus.
Riding steady for first 12-16 hours isn't great, but keeping the journey steady for the last 8 hours is really tough.
When brain is deprived of sleep, the effects are amazing; your vision becomes impaired, judgement fails miserably, causes anxiety & fatigue, worst thing being you start hallucinating & start seeing things that are not there in the first place.
Weather is one thing that has to be favorable; neither should it be hot, cold or should it rain. And switching the appropriate gears in accordance to weather also means, loss of time.
Riding in dusk & dawn becomes inevitable, and these are the two times in the day where vision is easily tricked even for a seasoned rider with immense concentration. Needless to say when one is exhausted.
On any account one HAS to ride during the night (or dark) at one point or other & certainly at one point it sure will be exhausted & that's the time one HAS to put in more efforts to stay awake, keep the focus, fight against darkness, fight against the high beams & ofcourse keep the speed.
Cop troubles...less said better
As reliable as rides can become, but, nothing can be taken for granted on accounts of vulnerability. Simple things such as cable cut, puncture or chain lube cannot be taken lightly. They simply eat away your time & forcing you to speed up more & more or skip a meal or much needed water break
One of the worst thing that can happen being PUSH to limit; at some point during the ride, you're body will certainly feel like taking a break, but your mind could be fresh & that is when the problem starts; your mind says to do something & your body does something (a gear shift down instead of shift up etc) are clear symptoms of these. And trouble starts when you decide to keep riding & push yourself instead of taking a break
There're some hidden activities during this attempt; taking ATM receipt for instance, computerized fuel receipt & pictures for evidence. Murphy laughs when your frantically search for an ATM & when you find, there's a big queue or the computer at the fuel station goes kaput & ask you to wait for 5 minutes.
BTW, no matter whichever route you do, IBA has their own way to calculate the distance of the route; so it's better not just stop with 1600 Km & do some 20-30 Km addition.
Let's wrap up this whole thing & do a realist calculation here...
Fuel break - 1 hour
Food break combined with Fuel break - 30 min
Let's eliminate the water break with a hydration pack (Cost Rs 3000 approx, unless your friend doesn't mind putting your mouth) - 30 min to refill alone
Butt break - 30 min
ATM receipts & photo - 30 min
Set aside a buffer of 30 min for any uneventful situation - 30 min
Total - 3.5 hours
Deducting 3 from 24 hours = 20.5 hours
That makes an average of 80 Kmph for 20.5 hours = 1640 Km
Now comes the cost...
Cost of fuel - 1640 Km/30 Kmpl = ~55 liters X Rs 72 = Rs 3960 = ~Rs 4000
This is excluding the $25 fee (and courier) to IBA = ~$30 X ~Rs 60 = Rs 1800
And the above is excluding the cost of mobile calls, food, water & consumables such as chain lube & most importantly VIOLATING THE LAW
The net result? You spend approximately Rs 6000 to get your name published in the list of IBA under SS1600 or SS2000 by putting not only your life but also others on the road to risk. And anything beyond these certification are equivalent to sending an invitation to Yamaraj for a G2G!!!
All for your name to get it published in that list. To show whom? To prove what? Is it worth enough? Can it fetch a job? Can it help to clear arrears? I'm leaving the conclusion to the reader to think about as I'm myself left in a mixed feeling of...
- Is it safer to do this ride outside India?
- Can I do a much relaxed ride else where?
- Can I use that money to buy additional safety gears or a bike accessory?
Errr...aaaargggh... I'm mighty frustrated hearing these for last few days
What increases the frustration is that, one dude rides from Bangalore to Chennai, hears about this Saddlesore for first time in his life & he wants to do it next weekend, like riding from his house to local kirana store; and another guy wants to buy a motorcycle specifically to do a saddlesore, whoa
While some here can debate asking what's wrong in achievement, there's something more beyond speeds, achievement & endurance. Let me be fair & look up this topic from the view of Saddlesore enthusiasts, anti Saddlesore crowd & some as Realist.
Pro Saddlesore
Technically speaking, it's a little over 1600 Km to be done within 24 hours. Which means, I only need to keep 67 Kmph so that 24 X 67 = 1608 Km. It's good to hear, but one has to account for few minimal other things such as Fuel, Food & Water.
So let's keep aside 1 hour for food & 1 hour for water; let's say your ride yields 30 Kmpl & has a capacity of using 10 liters of fuel in one go, this means, you'll have to stop 5-6 times for refueling (1600/300). And let's keep aside about 10 minutes for each refuel & that accounts for 1 hour easily.
So from 24 hours, take off about 3 hours that crunches our time to 21 hours. This also means, the speed has to increase from 67 Kmph to approximately 77 Kmph.
Next point is the route. Considering the GQ, outer ring road, outer of outer ring road & outer of outer of outer of...blah blah roads, it's quite possible not only to skip the crowded towns, but also keep the distance without much disturbances. Be it North, South or West (Sorry to my dear brothers & sisters in East & KL ofcourse, I have to be empathetic to you guys). So good roads these days are no longer an excuse.
Riding efficiently around 100 Kmph easily gives an average speed of 80 Kmph on these good long highways.
Considering today's reliable 200+ cc motorcycles, there's absolutely no excuse for not succeeding with a Saddlesore, if this is what you thought...
Anti Saddlesore
For sure the roads are improved, the rides are reliable, durable & comes with other able, however there's one indispensable truth...has the mindset of people improved?
I still see why are you passing through my village, This is my village & I do what I like attitude on the roads. Yes, no one denied it's your village & you live in it, but, let me also pass; and hey, I'm not coming to harass you or I'm Mohammed Ghazni to raid the riches from your village. I'm merely traveling to my destination & let me use the road for few minutes, atleast, let me use it for the sake of toll that I've paid?
And the do what I like attitude is quite dangerous one; drive tractor the way I like; and the Hero Splendor become Tata Sumo just that the Sumo still ride on 4 wheels with 5 people in it, quite talented!
Cursed are those dogs (cats & other small animals) who're born in US & other Western countries; they live in A/C room with TV left ON, living on special diet, have doctor's appointment, demanding for evening walks & some of them even wear clothes like human. They don't have much freedom to move about. Fortunately (or unfortunately for us), this is India & there's too much freedom for them, if you want to say so, and they've no limited mobility & are free to move anywhere. May be that's the reason, they stare at you on a National Highway & consider whether to move out of the way.
Cow is Mother, Mother can go anywhere & that includes any highway; and how does a Cow know to read & write?
Last but not the least, there're bushmen. Those people who wake up early in the morning, find a hide out to finish off their morning ablution, come back sheepishly to the bushes in the median, ensure there's an oncoming vehicle & then try to cross the road. They appear suddenly out of the bushes & try to make 0 to 120 Kmph in 1 second. Whoa!!
As if all these hurdles are not sufficient, there're other vehicles on the road who ensures to give you maximum possible trouble on the road. Most notorious ones ranges from the silent cyclists to loud farting auto-rickshaw.
Want more? Add potholes, signals, speed barriers, one stretch or other being under construction, uneven surfaces, high beam lights, truckers without danger light in the night.
Last but not the least, the speed limit of any two wheeler in this country being 50 Kmph (those specified are only for cars); anything above this speed limit is clearly VIOLATION OF LAW
For The Realists
A typical, one minute stop delays off about 8-10 minutes to destination. This means, 5 times stopped for fuel itself wastes about 50 minutes. Ofcourse, one can make up for this by increasing the speed, but, this is undeniable truth.
Riding for 100 Kmph for one hour is quite different from riding 80 Kmph for 5-6 hours; it requires immense concentration, stamina & energy, which is the ultimate test of all these attempts. But the fact is that, as time progress, it becomes extremely difficult to keep up the focus.
Riding steady for first 12-16 hours isn't great, but keeping the journey steady for the last 8 hours is really tough.
When brain is deprived of sleep, the effects are amazing; your vision becomes impaired, judgement fails miserably, causes anxiety & fatigue, worst thing being you start hallucinating & start seeing things that are not there in the first place.
Weather is one thing that has to be favorable; neither should it be hot, cold or should it rain. And switching the appropriate gears in accordance to weather also means, loss of time.
Riding in dusk & dawn becomes inevitable, and these are the two times in the day where vision is easily tricked even for a seasoned rider with immense concentration. Needless to say when one is exhausted.
On any account one HAS to ride during the night (or dark) at one point or other & certainly at one point it sure will be exhausted & that's the time one HAS to put in more efforts to stay awake, keep the focus, fight against darkness, fight against the high beams & ofcourse keep the speed.
Cop troubles...less said better
As reliable as rides can become, but, nothing can be taken for granted on accounts of vulnerability. Simple things such as cable cut, puncture or chain lube cannot be taken lightly. They simply eat away your time & forcing you to speed up more & more or skip a meal or much needed water break
One of the worst thing that can happen being PUSH to limit; at some point during the ride, you're body will certainly feel like taking a break, but your mind could be fresh & that is when the problem starts; your mind says to do something & your body does something (a gear shift down instead of shift up etc) are clear symptoms of these. And trouble starts when you decide to keep riding & push yourself instead of taking a break
There're some hidden activities during this attempt; taking ATM receipt for instance, computerized fuel receipt & pictures for evidence. Murphy laughs when your frantically search for an ATM & when you find, there's a big queue or the computer at the fuel station goes kaput & ask you to wait for 5 minutes.
BTW, no matter whichever route you do, IBA has their own way to calculate the distance of the route; so it's better not just stop with 1600 Km & do some 20-30 Km addition.
Let's wrap up this whole thing & do a realist calculation here...
Fuel break - 1 hour
Food break combined with Fuel break - 30 min
Let's eliminate the water break with a hydration pack (Cost Rs 3000 approx, unless your friend doesn't mind putting your mouth) - 30 min to refill alone
Butt break - 30 min
ATM receipts & photo - 30 min
Set aside a buffer of 30 min for any uneventful situation - 30 min
Total - 3.5 hours
Deducting 3 from 24 hours = 20.5 hours
That makes an average of 80 Kmph for 20.5 hours = 1640 Km
Now comes the cost...
Cost of fuel - 1640 Km/30 Kmpl = ~55 liters X Rs 72 = Rs 3960 = ~Rs 4000
This is excluding the $25 fee (and courier) to IBA = ~$30 X ~Rs 60 = Rs 1800
And the above is excluding the cost of mobile calls, food, water & consumables such as chain lube & most importantly VIOLATING THE LAW
The net result? You spend approximately Rs 6000 to get your name published in the list of IBA under SS1600 or SS2000 by putting not only your life but also others on the road to risk. And anything beyond these certification are equivalent to sending an invitation to Yamaraj for a G2G!!!
All for your name to get it published in that list. To show whom? To prove what? Is it worth enough? Can it fetch a job? Can it help to clear arrears? I'm leaving the conclusion to the reader to think about as I'm myself left in a mixed feeling of...
- Is it safer to do this ride outside India?
- Can I do a much relaxed ride else where?
- Can I use that money to buy additional safety gears or a bike accessory?
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