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A record on wheels
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Two bikers who rode across the length of the country talk about what drove them to achieve the impossible
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Daredevils Karanbir Singh and Pankaj Trivedi who set a new Limca record
Journeys are often the stuff of poetry and legend. The more intrepid, the better. Recently, two bikers proved that nothing is impossible.
They travelled the length of the country in merely five days.
“I love riding, adventure and the outdoors,” says Karanbir Singh. Lucky contestants of Complete Gulf Overdrive Endurance Xtreme Challenge 2008,
Karanbir Singh and Pankaj Trivedi not only rode their way to victory but also got their names etched in the Limca Book of World Records.
Apart from biking, Karanbir also writes for Overdrive, a car and bike magazine.Organised for motorbike lovers, the event was sponsored by Gulf Oil Corporation and Overdrive.
The event was flagged off on May 27 at Kanyakumari and culminated on June 1 at Leh.
Karanbir and Pankaj covered the distance of 3,874 km, from Kanyakumari to Khardungla, in merely five days, five hours and 45 minutes.
The new record beat the existing one by nearly two days.
Exciting journey
Asked about the experience, Karanbir says, “It was exciting. Biking and adventure make a great combination. After every 20 km, everything changes. You get to meet different people, hear different languages and see different attires.”
He also recounts some difficulties they experienced. “The weather conditions were harsh. At some places it was 40 degrees Celsius and at some, minus 10 degrees Celsius. Sometimes we rode on for several hours without any sleep or rest. The task was very challenging,” he says.
Pankaj adds, “I remained optimistic about winning this battle.” We traversed nine states and 22 cities. It wasn’t always pleasing. But it offered immense diversity in terms of not just road networks, but culture and food.” They stopped for a total of 15 hours in the entire journey, mainly for sleep.
Simple strategy
Pankaj says, “Our strategy was simple. We couldn’t and didn’t ride at a high speed so that we could remain in total control. Luckily, the journey was not too tiresome.”
The contestants were riding Hero Honda Karizma bikes and Karanbir feels that the bike works well even under extreme conditions. In future, they would love to travel across the border, probably to Africa or some other place, most definitely on a bike again.
SANA AHMAD & ISHITA AGARWAL
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