Nice pre-ride write up... waiting for the rest

Oh yeah.. congrats again

Super write up till now.. can feel how hard you had prepared for this one

^^ Nice , nice ... waiting eagerly for more ....

Congratulations !

Congratulations Vivek Sir,
Last week Neeraj Saini (who used to practise at Bhati Mines for Shjoba) shared a Picasa Link where I saw you in action.
Last year when you said "My aim is to complete the rally" I still remember that look of determination on your face, today I really feel proud to be saying "Aapki Mehnat Rang Layi hai". You have always been an inspiration for many like me, hope to meet you soon.

Great.....But I thought you are still in US for you office work....

Well Congrats for your achievements....so now there is a big party due for 2 things.

Thanks friends. Remianing long story goes on-

This is the first time I had planned for a recce. Lot of well wishers and friends, old time rallyists had been suggesting that I enter Group C or A this year. But I wanted to be on a group D bike. I have always ridden a group D in all competitions till today. No reengineering and no imported stuff. I have always taken the normal road bike to the events. Which means least investment of time in preparing the bike for a rally. Just given it to Castrol Bike Zone and asked them to change everything that can be changed. This time I got cylinder kit, crank case, chain set, suspension springs, footrests changed at the last moment. I also removed the speedometer entirely from the motorcycle.

I reached Shimla 1 week before the rally only to find out that all the routes are closed due to landslides. No practice / recce is possible. I was staying with few more participants from Bangalore. All of them were candidates for podium finish. All of them highly competent and have good riding experience on Chennai tracks. We eventually formed a group.
While completing all the formalities like pre event scrutiny etc, we were having good time. Roamed around Shimla, Rampur and some very narrow country roads. All these dudes were in group A except Aditya who was one stock Karizma like me in group D. Short rides around Shimla to Rampur etc was fun. These guys used to fly on the roads with wr450, 250 and Karizma with YZ chassis. It was fun to watch them overtaking me and then waiting for me. We enjoyed that time even more than the raid itself.

Finally, the 1st October came. The rally starts from 2nd October. The first transport had to start from Gumma approx 55 km from Shimla. We decided to stay at Fagu to cut short the journey the next day. We reached Fagu at around 11 pm on 1st. I had put an alarm for 3:30am in the morning because we had to reach there before 5:30am. Sleepless night and then we woke up at 3:30am and some of us even before the alarm rang.
That was one sight to watch out for. The entire team was very cheerful till yesterday night, chatting, laughing etc. But this morning, everything changed. Everyone was gearing up silently. Packing stuff, preparing bikes. I do not think people even noticed each other that day. That was the only time in the entire raid when I could feel silence. Everyone took off to Gumma. I was the last one to start with Aellois who is generally late packing his stuff.
We reached Gumma after sunrise and parked in the designated location. It was a lovely green valley. One could see the road for a long distance. Being a narrow valley, one could hear a vehicle with free flow exhaust coming from as far as 3 kms.
We were flagged off as per our competition numbers. So I was the 21st biker to be flagged off. The official plan for this day was to let the bikes start first and then flag off the cars. I met Anand and Aellois on the way who had started ahead of me. We all rode together though landslide hit area. On the way, we were wondering how cars will pass though such narrow roads with edges shaved off by landslides.
We reached Kiari. The competitive stage starts from here. Flowing dirt track with occasional rocks on the way and smooth gravel sometimes. The stage starts with 2-3 km of tarmac uphill and then dirt. Passing though the highest cliff in the area, ending at Reo Ghati entry point. I called up my wife to tell her that I managed to reach stage start. Though it is not a big thing, but there have been many incidents when competitors struggle to reach the start of comptt section itself. People suffer flat tires, crashes etc. As I understand, 2 bikers never made it to Gumma itself that day. They lost the way to Gumma itself. I guess they were from Aurangabad. That was a P200 and a discover. I had met these guys in Shimla.
Last year the first stage was from Gumma to Umladwar. This time, due to landslides, some sections of this route were washed out. So the stage was cut short. We had to start from Kiari to join the same route somewhere in between. Generally the first day of the raid is most difficult to survive. The first stage was very rough. Initially I took it really easy, and then I started to push it little bit. During last 10 kms, I overtook 4-5 bikes. Each bike is flagged off after 1 or 2 minutes interval depending on the stage. In case you happen to overtake anyone, you have really made some time on others. One thing I like most about rallies is that people let you overtake easily unlike race events like motocross.
I slowly reached the end of stage where a my friends Kurein and Dr Dinesh from Shimla were clicking the pics. The moment I reached the end of stage, I was keen on knowing my penalties to calculate my buffer on MPL, which was 1 hr for today. Later I found out that this stage had claimed a lot of damages to the participants and their vehicles. Sagar Sathe, a new comer on RX135 lost his time card so he was not allowed to continue. Sunny Sidhu’s Gypsy overheated, a fellow biker Kapil, riding a karizma had an accident one car got oil sump damaged, a swift never made it there, and many more stories. An army gypsy slided towards the ditch and saved by a tree some feet down.
The end of stage was followed by a long transport because second competitive section was cancelled due to landslides. Competitors had to ride 85 kms via Narkanda,Sainj,Luhri,Ani,Nagan to Khaleoni.We were given 2hrs 40 minutes for this. Just before the start of next competitive stage, there were two big river crossings. Starting of the stage 3 was a steep uphill with lot of boulders. I saw Nitin Jadhav taking off and his bike slipped on the first hairpin right hander itself. Later he told me he took inside of the blind corner. The stage was around 28kms. First five kilometers of the stage were really rough. This was followed by smooth dirt tracks. After reaching dirt track, I overtook 2 riders.
The stage ended well. I was very happy to complete the first day today. From here, there was a transport to Manali for approximately 175 kms. I regrouped with some fellow bikers for transport. By the time we reached Manali, it was dark. The start order for the next day generally discloses everything. Whether you are allowed to start , how much penalty do you have and what is your overall stading. After first day, everyone who is allowed to start is given a start order based on how fast he/ she is. The fastest vehicle starts first so that the chances of overtaking are minimal. More than the start order or the results, I was waiting for my service vehicle to arrive. I had to change the tires. I was running duro dirt tires which had partially worn off. I wanted to do next day on brand new tires. Next competitive stage was to be Gramphoo –Losar. Approximately 80kms.

The service crew reached late night because traffic jam at Kullu. I told them to change the tires and retired for night. Next morning the flag off was scheduled for 6:30am. We had to be ready by 6:00 am. That would mean, the service crew will have to leave at 3:30am, cross Rohtang and wait for us at Gramphoo at the start of competitive section and other service car should wait at Losar.

I woke up at 3:30 am to find out whether I am out of rally or am I allowed to take a start. Thankfully I was allowed to start. I was positioned 8th overall in bikes and 1st in my group D. That means I was doing good. Next day I found out that my start order was 21. That meant I had 7 bikes and 13 gypsies ahead of me overall. Everyone had 2.25 hrs to reach Gramphoo from Manali. The flagoff was rescheduled to 7:00am owing to the traffic Jam at Rohtang road early morning due to landslides again.

Though bikers made it on time, gypsies has some difficult time. Later on I came to know there were no penalties levied on anyone that day for being late on this transport stage. Aditya’s MPL saved. He was fellow rider from Bangalore in group D. He was riding a karizma. He had a flat at Marhi. A puncture repair shop charged him Rs 350/- . And the worst part was, the bugger shopkeeper started negotiating only after removing rear wheel and tire from the rim. Aditya had no choice but to give in.
Aditya was really late due to this episode but thanks to the traffic jam, his lateness did not count for MPL. The comptt stage for the day was 80 km and 70 minutes were allowed to complete it. MPL was 60 minutes. That means each competitor had to do the stage within 2hrs 10 minutes to save himself from MPL, if he has no other penalties. I was really tense because several gypsies were staring after me. Every overtake by a gypsy on that road means at least 2-3 minutes lost due to dust cloud created by overtaking car.

The start of the stage was broken tarmac for first 6 kms and then dirt track starts with occasional streams flowing though the road. Later during the stage, there was snow on both sides of the road and many potholes filled with water. I was very careful while negotiating them, but still bike was spluttering occasionally after each such water crossing. I finished half of the stage before the first overtake. That was Chetan Ganpati from team TVS. He was riding a rally spec apache rtr. This guy is an amazing rider from south India. He has won 78 trophies till date. Towards the end of stage at Kunzum downhill, a gypsy overtook me. I could not ride even for 1 minute behind it. Every corner, it used to slowdown drastically. I waited for the dust to settle and then completed the stage. To my surprise, my timing was 1hr 44 minutes. Later I came to know that Chetan Ganapati did it last year in 1hr 33 minutes. The rally leader Bhaskar did it in 1hr 26 minutes on a WR 450. He was approximately 2 minutes faster than the fastest gypsy.


I'll write rest of teh story later

Wow! Vivek, what a story. Totally engrossed. Just like the other night when you were recounting us the raid.

BTW, you forgot to mention your broken wrist!

Woah !!!
Amazing, Mind Blowing... this is some real serious fun.
And none the less "Fantastic Write Up"
Kudos Vivek Sir
waiting for more...

Hello Vivek,

Could you please throw some more light on the service crew hiring?. Did you have two service crews? What's the approximate cost involved? Did you pool with any fellow competitor for crew/spares?

Thanks,
Praveen

Service Crew

@Hydro -

The service crew consisted of a team of around 5-6 people. We had hired a qualis and a Mahindra pick up for service team. The plan was to have a service vehicle at the start and end of the comptt sections. The total cost of service and transportation is around 1.3l. I had teamed up with people from Bangalore. Couldnt' find suitable team mates here in Delhi.Our team had 2 yamaha WRs , 3 karizmas and an enfield. The service team was from Delhi as mentioned by Ken in the first post. Everyone was responsible to buy/arrange all the spares one needs. I was carrying 6 pair of tires, 2 spare rims, 2 footrest frames, a set of front shockers, handbrake levers, gear levers, clutch lever, accelarator cables, spark plug cables an air compressor an dsome more small things.

I hope I have answered your question.

Thanks Vivek. For the detailled insight and the nitty gritty details of what you had to go through. Not just physical endurance, great motorcycling skills, but logistically it seems that a huge preparation is required for this kind of a venture. Do also share about the guys who came with sponsors with their teams etc.

CONGRAGULATIONS vivek sir...

Teams

1. Team overdrive/Hero Honda-

Ashish Modgil(Group A) - everyone knows him I guess.<He is bike category winner>
Karanbir singh(Group C) - This gentleman had tight competetion with Yogesh Lakhani.<Group C 2nd>
Pankaj Trivedi(Group D) - Iliked this man . Always ready with camera. Was running 23rd / 25th on the first day, then I lost count. But he was enjoying himself. As I heard from Rajeev Wadhwa, He fell in a ditch with his bike near Lamayuru downhill. But still managed to complete the stage. By the last stage he had only 1 gear functional. It seems he had broken his gearbox.

A special thanks to this team for providing me with a footrest frame when I needed it most. No other team had it. Only this team had it since Hero Honda had a Group D bike in their team.


2. Team Ceat -
Yogesh Lakhani(Group C) - My favourite biker because he is a very good person. It seems he had good arrangement with ceat with full sponsorship.<He is Group C winner this time and overall 3rd>
Claudia(Group A) - It seems Claudia was not happy with the arrangement. She had always been complaining about something or the other.<3rd in Group A and overall 5th>
Rajan Siddu(Group C),Rupinder(Group D) and the list goes on. And then Ceat team was chasing everyone who used to go close to podium. They wanted people going to podium to wear their shirt and Cap for some money. CAn't be called a team, it was just about buying people for peanuts who reach podium.

3. Team TVS -
The best managed team with one of the best rider I have seen in my life - Chetan Ganpati(Group C).
Chetan Ganpati did not start after day 3. His team mate Ravindra was 3rd in group C and overall 9th.
These people had very good service crew and real rally spec apache RTRs. Chetan Ganpati overtook me half way on Gramphoo Losar stage. He was flying with his bike on that stage. He can easily keep up with Group A imported bikes on a group C bike. I can imagine what will he do on group A.

4. Red Rooster racing-
The best team on raid this year. These people had arranged servioce backup by themself. I had joined their group for service.
Bhaskar Ramani (Group A)- He was the outright winnner till Day 4. He was leading the bikers. He was the first biker to be flagged off to Baralachala from Patseo. Being the first one, he did not get any warning about black ice. Rest of the gang was warned by him after he fell. Had he continued, I think he would have been overall raid winner too beating all the gypsies.This gentleman had some serious skills. On the first day the stages were really tight he still managed to keep smaller bikes behind him.
Prashant Kumar(Group A) - Prashant is 2nd overall bike category and group A. He was riding a WR250.He rode an enfield last year on raid. The transition from enfield to Wr250 wroked out well for him.

I think that was it. These were the team entries. It's good to see sponsors coming up to support riders. Though I did not like certain things about one particular sponsor's representative, but overall it is good to see the scene improving.

Congratulations Vivek Bhai for the accomplishment!

Thanks Vivek for the team and sponsorship details.

Claudia you say was overall 5th. I thought you had better times than her save for one section.

Yes, it was a pity that Bhaskar Ramani fell on the black ice and then he stood and guided others to safety. Some spirit.