“The real challenge is how long you can stick around with your bike. It is not so much about speed or time,” saysR. Ramoo. He is just back from a long distance ride where he clocked in 3386 kms as he zipped through Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Salem, Ulundurpet, Trichy, and Tirunelveli and made it back to the city, all in 45 hours. “It was liberating. The ride gave me an opportunity to learn more about myself and my strengths,” says the 31-year-old biker.
Ramoo took up the two-day biking challenge of Iron Butt Association (IBA), a U.S. based organisation which is dedicated to safe, long-distance endurance riding (http://www.ironbutt.com). “It is the Saddlesore 2000 where you cover 3220 kms in 48 Hours. I completed the distance in 45 hours,” he says. A biker has to become a member of the IBA to complete these certified rides. “To qualify as a member, you have to complete 1600 kms in 24 hours. I chose the Salem, Trichy, Chennai, Coimbatore route which I am familiar with and completed 1,707 kms in 18 hours quite comfortably.”
In his college days in Trichy he rode home over the weekends to Coimbatore on his bike.“Last year, my wife Swarna presented me a KTM Duke 390 and from then on there has been no stopping me,” he says.
He enrolled as a member of the Riders of Manchester City biking group. “When I read about two bikers taking up the IBA challenge in the newspapers, I was hooked,” says Ramoo and he joined the IBA group on Facebook right away. “My ride was tracked by IBA members through GPS link. Sankar S.G., IBA member and founder of Riders of Manchester City was there to flag me off when I started my ride. I left at 3.35 a.m. on Sunday and returned to the city past midnight on Tuesday. I am the third Indian to have successfully completed this ride in India,” he says.
The two-day ride was full of challenges. It was a new route and his plan to maintain his speed at 120 km/ hour was difficult. “I reached Hyderabad at 2 p.m. instead of reaching there an hour earlier. The weather was overcast and to make up for the lost time I skipped lunch and quickly started my ride back to Bengaluru and made it by 9 p.m. My friend welcomed me with dinner. Chicken gravy and dosa never tasted so good. It was my first meal of the day.”
After leaving Bengaluru, he stopped at Krishnagiri, took a three hour nap, and started next day at 4.30 a.m. “On day two, I was low on confidence as I had only completed 1, 800 kms on the previous day. This meant I have to ride more. But the only advantage was that it was a familiar Tamil Nadu route. I had tender coconut at Salem, my first drink of the day. I gulped three in succession. It was already 1.30 p.m. and I had another 900 more kms to go.”
The second day of any ride is tough as your body starts aching, says Ramoo. He took calculated two-minute breaks and did a few warm-up exercises at toll gates to keep up. He reached Tirunelveli in the evening, took a 45-minute break, ate chicken biriyani and started the ride back. “The paddy fields and windmills with the sun setting down in the background filled my eyes but I had no energy to stop and take some snaps. The wind was so heavy that whenever I tried to speed I was pushed towards the median of the road. The last 300 kms was the toughest. Every minute felt like an hour for me, but I kept going.”
The biker says it was his passion and commitment that helped him achieve this feat. “May be it’s in my genes too. My grandparents have gone on scooter rides from Coimabtore to Puducherry. My dad would ride till Ooty on his TVS 50. I want my parents to acknowledge my rides. May be after seeing the article they will give permission for my next rides,” says a hopefull Ramoo.
Riding is his stress buster, says Ramoo. “ I feel relaxed and happy and come back feeling fresh.” He is a stickler for rules and safety. “I invested a lot on safety equipment such as a helmet, jacket, gloves, boots, ride-on-air seat and so on. Whenever I set out, I wear my full gear. I have to remember that someone is waiting for me back home and I have to be safe. My wife and kids are supportive. They stayed up all night till I returned.” He regrets that riding on the city roads is tough as few follow road rules.
He hopes his next challenges will include the fastest Golden Quadrilateral (March, 2017) & Kashmir to Leh (August, 2017). “The Fastest Golden Quadrilateral in Motorcycle covers around 6000kms connecting Chennai – Kolkatta – Delhi – Mumbai – Chennai. Most of the roads are new to me, that is the challenge for me. The current record for covering this distance is 89 hours. I want to break it and set a new record. ”
