My IBA Saddlesore log:
I was a novice; first year into touring on my bike, when I read about Dr.Arnob Gupta’s IBA Saddle Sore run. At a time when my longest ride so far didn’t exceed what he did in 24 hours, I thought something like this is not a piece of the pie I’m going to get a taste of. I’ve lived in Bangalore all my life, and started touring with a group of like minded individuals. Apart from the joys of touring, somehow we always improved ourself on endurance riding as well. There was a significant change when I shifted to Pune in Feb’06. A change which made me do a series of Pune-Bangalore rides on my bike as my parents still lived in Bangalore. On one of these rides, I made it to Bangalore in approximately 10 hrs and 40 minutes and the rush was nothing like I had felt before. Previously, on a similar ride, I rode from Ooty to Pune in about 21 hours. These rides had made me realize that there was a goal which I could try and achieve which was one step ahead of what I had done so far, till then. A goal which I was exposed to, two years back and was completed so far only by two guys. It was then, in the 2nd week of May 2006 that I decided to chase the Iron Butt Saddle Sore dream.
The dream however wasn’t as smooth. In a period spanning May to July 07, I seized my bike's engine twice. One was on May 1st, when I had to spend a day at a petrol pump near Kolhapur to have my block fixed the next day. A timing chain and crank failure on July 28th 07 saw me going through a similar phase again, of bearing the frustration of having an engine failure on a ride. I was a changed individual after these two incidents. Valuable lessons were learnt. I was advised by many to sell my bike and go for a new one to avoid the head aches of bikes failing on a ride. Not wanting to give up on a bike which I bought 2 years back and which just about crossed the 40K km mark, I decided to get the engine overhauled and have a fresh start regardless of the cost. This bike had shown me South India in 2 yrs like I had never seen it before. I didn’t want that journey with my bike to end there.
With the bike overhauled and in good running condition, the time frame of Dec 21st, 22nd and 23rd Dec 07 appeared to be a good time frame to attempt the Saddle Sore. I could get some sleep on the day before the ride, ride 24 hours and rest the next day as well. With this in mind, The route I planned was Pune-Lonavala-Pune(bypass)-Nelamangala(near Bangalore)-Pune. This was in excess of 1600 kms and would safely get me back home without much frustration. The preparation for the ride included changing the front brake pads and changing the rear tyre. I was already running a 60/55W lamp on my bike and had my seat cushioned with extra padding when I originally thought of doing this ride in May.
I had a bad cold a few days prior to the planned ride date, due to which I was reconsidering whether to attempt the ride or not. I took all the medication and rest I could to be better and it did help to an extent. I started the ride at 10:29pm. The intent of starting at this time was ride as much as possible on the good patches at night. The roads leading from Haveri to Chitradurga, through Ranebennur and Davangere had several rough patches which affected average speed and was risky doing at very high speeds at night on a 24 hr run. Leaving at this time ensured that I did the bad stretch during the day in both directions, and I’d be back in Pune a few hours after sunset and could get a good night’s sleep.
I started from the HDFC ATM at Pashan, Pune and headed towards Lonavala, where another HDFC ATM was my first turn-around point. From here I rode towards Bangalore. My subsequent fuel stops were near Satara, Kolhapur and Dharwad. With a cool and moon-lit night, I was effortlessly doing 100-110 kmph on my bike’s speedometer. On the stretch past Haveri, it was still dark and I decided to take my first long break there. I gorged on some healthy home made food which my mom had specially prepared when I told her I’m going on such a ride. It was around 6:20 am and I was treated to a beautiful sky.
The sunrise around Ranebennur made it a little hard for me to keep sight on the bad patches on the road. I was pretty much facing the sun for about 30 minutes and had to brake very hard at the last moment at some of the deviations and bad patches. I had metally prepared myself not to indulge into tea and coffee brakes and make use of as much time as possible. My next stop was at Reliance Petro at Chitradurga. Once past Chitraduga I let my bike open freely and was doing 115+ constant. I was in Nelamangala within two hours and at the 12 hr mark I was beyond 900 kms on my odo. I made it to Deepa Service Station at Kunigal Circle, Nelamangala; the junction of NH4 and NH-48. At this point I decided to have a good look at the state of the bike, as I was quite harsh on the bad patches and several stones had hit the underbody of the bike. A leak in the oil seal near the front sprocket saw oil leaking over the centre stand. The oil had made its way back through the chain and the rear sprocket sprayed it all over the rear end of the bike. I was running without a chain guard. I was contemplating having the bike washed and the leak checked, but that meant losing vital time. So, I decided to carry on; feed plenty of oil to my bike from time to time and make it to Pune. Some photos at the junction and at the Nelamangala tollgate on NH4 and I was ready for the return ride. I was a little behind schedule as per my calculations and I was all prepped to have a hard return ride. I was at Chitradurga around 1:30pm. I had decided to make it back to pune by 10pm to avoid last minute worries on getting the final time slip. I was prepared to skip all breaks for food, except for the point when my cold really got to me. I was doing 115 on all good stretches and reached close to Kittur at around 5pm. The roads were very inviting and I could maintain good speeds here. I let go of the fear of my engine seizing. It had seen plenty of torture through the day. I topped it up with some more oil on the Hubli bypass, and dashed my way to Kolhapur.
I had finally started enjoying the rush I felt many months back. The sun was down when I reached Kolhapur and maintaining high speeds was quite hard here. Maintaining high speeds here was like playing a video game. Nevertheless once outside city limits I let the bikes unleash its prowess. I was doing 115 on the straights at nights, fully crouched in some stretches of empty road. My aim was to reach Satara at the earliest as I would cross the saddle sore mark there. I was at Satara at around 8:30pm with more than 1700 kms on my odo. A sense of relief passed me. I had not had food since 6:15am and not picked up any phone calls till then. I had two hours to reach Pune and decided to go for it calmly.
On the stretch from Satara to Pune, things began to happen. I lost my gear lever while riding. I realized it while I was happily doing triple digit speeds and had to slow down to down shift. I started riding slowly and decided to make a few calls and get opinions from people I knew could help. I was advised to keep the pace and get back to Pune and I did so. I ran over a dead dog on the road at high speeds. My bike flew and landed and luckily I was still in control. I was thanking my stars for not having a fall at such a stage on such an important ride. This jump had dislodged the spring of the centre-stand and the stand was dragging along the road making loud noises. I stopped at a petrol pump on NH4, filled some fuel, got a slip and tied a little thread to old the stand up. However that didn’t last too long, and I finally tied the shoe of the stand on the left side to the loop of my cramster saddle bag. This held well and the worry of it draggin was off my mind. It was again time to rip and make it to pune. I was a little worried about the traffic situation as I was riding only on the 5th gear. I had to keep the pace and distance from vehicles ahead of me as couldn’t afford to slow down and accelerate or ride uphill without momentum. I was however ahead of what I had planned and made it to AXIS bank ATM at Bavdhan, Pune by 10:02pm
I was finally greeted by friends and fellow bikers once I made it home. I met Praveen Sathaye, Vibhu Rishi, Ashvin Nadig and Navendu Singh. Their help and support made me complete this ride successfully. My face was black. My bike was black with some lost parts and with oil all over the tail. My eyes were red, but I had a wide smile. I gave a quick call to Dr.Arnob and told him I had completed it and I was greeted with equal excitement at the other end of the phone. A happy 24 hour run ended here.
Praveen Shirali
