39 replies to this topic

[pulsurge]

Hi All,

Before starting my bak-bak and knowing that this isn't some Oscar award- but I wish to thank the following people for making the run a success at a point where I decided to give up and just ride back home.

Dr. Arnob Gupta: Well his talks and meetups are an inspiration in itself. Nonetheless his suggestions and advices are worth in gold.

Glen: My fuel sponsor- he knew I wanted to do it but didn't have enough to spend on it, he immediately agreed and said let me know when do you plan- I'll sponsor. Plus another round of thanks for being my start witness at Vashi.

Revel: For turning up at the start point and flagging me off. Also like last time he provided a nice restover at his cozy and wonderful house. And yes, also for providing me his cozy pair of cargos.

Sanket: For giving me night vision i.e. the HID ballast.

Parimal: For the first aid kit, the tank bag, a standby mobile phone and a list of long smses to read on my halts.

Vinod: For providing "the-very-difficult-to-find" and a clean scratch-free AGV visor and a whole lot of good wishes.

Alkesh: For his good wishes and tonnes of PJs on sms to ensure that I don't feel sleepy on the trip

Amit Ved/Arjun/Vinit: Thanks a lot for your wishes guys!

***********************************************************************************************************************

The pics here, in case you want to see them without reading the boring narration below No scenic pics really...all receipts.

And there's my start witness and fuel sponsorer....Mr. Glen D'Souza




My starting point (Vashi Petrol Pump)- 11:04 hours (taking bike's clock into account as there was time variation in the receipts)



At an absolute stop for 46 mins...gas tanker trailer toppled across the highway after Pune. The jammed expressway earlier bought down my average speed around 60- this one made sure it came down to 50 :'( I knew it was going to be hard work later on



First refuel halt at Nerla, Near Kolhapur. 314 kms in 4 hour 34 mins. Even after being steady at 110 kph- the avg speed still is 68.76 kph



Fuel Receipt at Chatra. 652 kms..Sector avg speed: 65 kph, total avg speed 66.76 kph



Lovely piece of stretch...the NICE Ring Road. Wish something like this in Mumbai. Downside...bike toll charges came to 50 bucks. Unaffordable on daily basis!



Refuel at Bangalore. 993 kms (Sector avg speed: 73.86 kph. total avg speed: 69.04 kph)



NH46...what a stretch



...and another. NH46...how rightfully indexed. Am sure even Rossi would love to ride on this stretch



At Sriperumbudur



F'ing frustrating experience. Half an hour to withdraw cash



The ATM receipt. 1275.7 kms- sector avg. speed: 63.60 kph, total avg.speed: 67.75 kph



Just backup evidence after the ATM withdrawal



Refuel at Hosur. 1543 kms- sector avg. speed: 74.51 kph, total avg.speed: 68.83 kph



Refuel at Davangere. 1842 kms- sector avg. speed: 53.08 kph, total avg.speed: 65.67 kph



Refuel at Belur. 2029 kms- sector avg. speed: 78.46 kph, total avg.speed: 66.67 kph (Note: Karizma tripmeter resets after 2000 kms)



Short stop at a toll Naka, Karnataka. The toll guys were kind enough to offer me tea and water.



Final refueling at Shell, Pune



Well it was a wise decision to conclude it at Pune. Sector avg speed: 78.45. Total avg. speed: 68.37..phew just made it



Bike takes rest, in the meantime I buy cashew to munch on. The whole trip, I only had a piece of chikki, coconut water and 3 cups of tea



With the end witness, Mr. Chandrakant. The Supervisor at the pump!



My route. Google maps says 2456 kms....my trip meter says 2433. Well am not complaining



The log sheet



The complete set here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/pulsurge/TheBunBurnerSprint#

Well to start off the ride, things weren't particularly good. It was a hard day's work at office and the earlier night only had sleep of 5 hours. Was feeling tired already and plans of leaving at 4 and taking 2 hours of sleep at Revel's place flopped. By the time I reached Vashi it was close to 10...and that ruined the plans of starting off at Lonavla. I was apprehensive about jams on expressway which would waste time. And how true it turned out to be. My avg speed from Vashi till the start of the ghats was 85+. After entering the expressway, a pile of traffic was awaiting to tell me "Deepakbhaiya, go home and sleep, its not your day today". It took more than half an hour to ride from the expressway entry till the tunnel which normally doesn't take more than 5 mins.

Once through I sped up to bring the avg speed to at least near the 70 mark. If expressway was bad, the next to come was even worse. Approx 50 kms from Pune, one gas tanker trailer had overturned right across the highway. The cops had sealed the high at both ends and kept people away from the crash site. All for safety, no one needs to be toast in case the tank goes boom. But then my dear loving God, why all this today? Stationary at one place without moving and inch....exact time lost- 46 mins.

Stopped at Nerla before Kolhapur to find that despite being around the 110 mark for most of the time, my avg speed wasn't even 70. Crossed into Karnataka and my eyes couldn't stand being open even for a second. Pushed as much as I could- but gave up after a few minutes. Pulled over to a bus top and slept for 15 mins. Those were amazing 15 mins of sleep....I felt fresh as if I have been sleeping all through the night. Took out a piece of chikki from my bag and that was my breakfast, lunch and dinner. The water bottles purchased and bungeed onto the bags had fallen off somewhere- so could splash water in the eyes either. Fortunately had a good rinse at Chatra- my next refuel break.

Riding on the NICE Ring road was lovely...beautiful roads. Well the biggest surprise was to see everyone being so disciplined..no speeding or lane cutting etc. I got this hint myself that the stretch would be under monitoring- saw couple of patrol vehicles, I guess they are called Interceptors. Stayed in control- didn't want to land up with them and losing on time.

Refueled after exit at Bangalore and sped on my way towards Chennai. NH7 as usual a beautiful stretch, unfortunately too much traffic this time. NH46 was even better, but again traffic and the small towns in between and the people crossing the road recklessly kept me in check. My average speed wasn't doing any good and I made up my mind to return from Sriperumbudur. Pumps before the town had no card payment facility- rode straight into the town and waited outside the HDFC ATM- at least ATM slip should work as evidence. 8 people before me in line- avg. 2 mins per person and thanks to the last 2 ladies in line who had come to play Super Mario on the ATM screen. Well my tolerance was being tested to the maximum...and as soon as my turn comes. 3 guys step out of a Sumo with a big suitcase for topping up the cash and the security guard immediately puts up a board saying "Temporarily Unavailable". He was polite, but wasn't willing to listen to any requests of mine. Finally withdrew 100 bucks and started off on the return. Tanked up at a pump nearby. The traffic had increased manifold and it was past 6 pm....and my mind started calculating. S'budur till I hit NH4 would be close to 350 kms and even with an avg. speed of 75 would take no less than 4 hours. Add to that riding in dark and through the same stretch with increased traffic would be a comparatively difficult task- an to addup the entire ride- the complete distance would be 1200+ kms to be done in approx 16.5 hours @ avg. speed of 75 kph. Add to that fatigue which I had already acquired on my way towards- seemed very difficult and there I thought that I might give up on the attempt. Thought about Pune and there I saw my hopes revived. Blasted out of the petrol pump and just went flat out. The sun went down and the HID woke up- it helped in 2 ways, one was it was doing its duty well- and second it was keeping the pedestrians in check. I could see people just holding back as I approached them, turning their heads and might be saying "heck, what was that?" Well I hit Hosur pretty much on target i.e. around 3 hours.

Refueled at Hosur, padded myself with warm clothing- on the NICE Ring Road, exiting to NH4, going jumping over the speed breakers on the service road every now and then screaming in frustration seeing the vehicles on the toll road just fly away. This had to end somewhere ahead...and what a nice ending to this stretch. A container had toppled over on the stretch and the traffic was withheld- thankfully it didn't take more than tens mins for the cops to let the bikes go. Deciding not to ride below the 110 mark, I carried on hoping for the best and things went pretty well except for hitting an unmarked speed-breaker near Chitradurga at the same decided speed- went airborne but thankfully landing back on the bike. Another instance, an unmarked diversion saw me go straight into a dusty stretch. Stopped to see a cloud of dust behind me only to realise that I only had created it. Saw a Volvo carefully negotiating the road and descending into a diversion....a u turn and back on the main stretch.

Well with all the instances of bad luck gone past and the roads getting better, I realised that I had an outside chance provided nothing bad happens and I don't waste time. All went well with 2 very very short breaks in between. Was in Pune at 10.30 and decided to ride more for another 15 mins to add to the distance as IBA deducts based on their findings. Stopped over at a Shell Pump and thought of calling Jayaram for being the end witness. Well my cell battery had gone dead, and the standby cell doesn't have his number. Caught the pump supervisor and he was more than happy to be my end witness. Refueled and finally took a breath of relief. Bought a packet of cashew nuts to eat- hadn't eaten anything except for the chikki the day earlier. Smsed friends about concluding the ride and rode to Revel's place for a rather long stopover.

Was an eventful ride and to confess I thought I wasn't destined to make it. But then my friends and their good wishes saw me through. Thanks a lot everyone. Sounds silly- though am not too satisfied coz the result didn't come out what I had planned. I had clubbed the SS2000 (2000 kms in 24 hours) into this one plus my plan was to ride all the way till Nellore and back making it close to 3000 kms. Anyways as its said "Alls well that ends well!

Edited by satyenpoojary, 22 March 2011 - 05:13 PM.

[Revmaster]

Congrats Deepak! Would want yo put this on the main Motoroids site.. can you provide me a slightly more concise version.

[pulsurge]

Sure...will be an honour. Will work on it.

[razorBlades]

congrats!

amazing stuff Deepak saab, and awesome info for the next bun burners!

i am tempted now!

[ch.madhur]

Speechless:hail:

[nav75]

Congrats once again.

Can you loan me your lady luck for a few days?

[satyenpoojary]

Please share the excel file

Darn! Congrats man! Awesome... but does the log mean you missed out by hardly <100 KMs?

[pulsurge]

@Gopisaab: Thaankooo Thaaankoo!

@Madhur: .................. well thanks

@Navpaaji: Why not? Take her

@Satyenbhai: Didn't fall short. BB is 2400 kms/ 1500 miles. Well the excel sheet is attached as the log sheet above!

[sheelpriye]

Congratulations Deepak

I believe you are the 3rd guy to complete BB in India.

[pulsurge]

Thanks Sheel...I guess there would be many out there who would have done before me. In the end its about who gets certified

[Silver Phantom]

pulsurge said:

Thanks Sheel...I guess there would be many out there who would have done before me. In the end its about who gets certified

Its Like you aint a chor, until your caught. up-till then your a Politician

[arn]

@ deepak: No, there are not as many as you think. The people who did not submit the documentation have not done so for a VERY good reason (and most usually only ONE reason at that!). However, claiming that one did a SS or BB = instant street cred, and if questioned about lacunae in the story, it is the questioner who looks small, like he is trying to steal somebody's "hard earned" glory. How many people put up their proof photos like deepak for all to see?

While there may be one or two who may not have set out to do an SS initialy, but wound up covering the distance anyways (so no documentation), how many do you think these are? Riding for a SS means only the odd break, and long hours even after fatigue keeps prodding you in the ribs. Not "normal" touring, or riding by any stretch of the imagination, so those who did it by "chance" are a small to nonexistent minority.

To give an example of how far people will go to spread such BS stories you only have to read the story of a guy on a Fiero (TVS sponsored, no less), who claimed to have done Mumbai Blr in a little over 10 hrs at an average over 95kph. This includes the ghats, crossing Pune, and single lane roads thru almost the entire stretch (this was in 2000). ON A FIERO

Anybody here managed to get an average of over 95 for 3 hrs on a dual carriageway?????? Any R15 owners who have done that?

Thats the problem. Without thinking or doing basic math, there will be comments like "well done bro :)", "you rock dude!" in more than one forum for such people.

All this was a time when there were very few endurance bikers, so there were just a handfull who had a concept of what is possible and what is not. Just a couple of years back there were people who went around gathering sponsorhip claiming that they would "do" the GQ in less than 100 hours, something they had absolutely NO intention of doing at all right from the beginning if you follow their trip log - that claim was only with the purpose of getting sponsorship. "They" went on to "complete" the run in something over 150 hours. I use quotation marks because I have not found a single photo of the end with both bikes in it.


This sort of thing ultimately hurts the biking community as a whole.

@nav: Lady luck needs SPACE on your seat , you have the weapon for it, go do it!

[satyenpoojary]

The Endurance riding scene has just started evolving!!! Kudos!!!
Like arn aptly said, the ratio of claimers: the ones actually do it is badly skewed! Sadly the claimers are more vocal about the claims! Without even having a just math work on paper on the trip!

Thanks Deepak for the info, I was wrongly assuming it to be 2500KMs!

[nin]

Congratulations Deepak ! Good to see the log here up so fast!

[pulsurge]

Those were nice words Doc!

@Satyenbhai: Glad to know it stands clarified

@Nin: Thanks man. Also I've already emailed the documentation within 2 days after the ride