Pune bikers Devjeet Saha and Shalaka Zad recently became the first duo in India to have completed the Saddle Sore – a ride certified by US-based endurance motorcycling organisation, Iron Butt Association (IBA). On the Saddle Sore, one has to ride a minimum of 1,610km within 24 hours.
The record was set by the two Pune bikers on 20th May 2014. They started their ride from Pune on 19th May at 10:33pm and reached Bangalore by 10:30am. Later on, they rode back to Pune, by 10:12pm on 20th May.
Talking about her experience, Shalaka, an interior designer and mother to an 11-year-old, said, “When we reached Kolhapur by 2am, we were welcomed by rains and this hindered our speed, as we had to slow down quite a bit. We couldn’t halt as this would affect our ride and hence decided to ride as carefully as we could. Lucky for us, wearing full riding gear offered us some protection and we rode in the rain for almost 150km, not very pleasant, but a fun experience.”
Devjeet Saha says he attempted the long distance to prove a point to people who think it’s next to impossible to do a Saddle Sore on a 150cc motorcycle. “Most people thought that, being an off-roader, it might be difficult to ride the Impulse constantly on highways, hence we decided to attempt this ride to let people know that the Hero Impulse is a motorcycle that can be taken on any terrain, and performs equally well with good stability on highways as well.”
The bikes ridden by them were in stock condition, and before starting the actual journey, they also did a few practice runs to nearby cities to get an idea of riding at night.