Pune duo conquer Saddle Sore on a 150 cc Hero Motocorp Impulse
One may think doing a saddle sore on a 150cc motorcycle specially designed to be an off-roader maybe an impossible feat, but not for Pune bikers Devjeet Saha and Shalaka Zad, who are the first duo couple in the country to have successfully attempted the Saddle Sore – a ride where one has to ride a minimum of 1610 km or 1000 miles in a period of 24 hours.
The record ride was set by the two on 20th May 2014 and nevertheless was achieved after much patience and practice. The two started from Pune on 19th May at 10:33 pm reaching Bangalore by 10:30 am the next morning. They rode back towards Pune, reaching the city by 10:12 pm on 20th May. As Shalaka, an interior designer and a mother of a 11 year old says “This was a good experience for me as it’s the first time that I’ve attempted such a ride, and the feeling still hasn’t sunk in that I’m the first woman from the city to have done the saddle sore!” Further adding to her experience she says “When we reached Kolhapur by 2 am, 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 our full riding gear offered us quite some protection and we rode in the rain for almost 150 kms, not very pleasant, but a fun experience.”
Devjeet Saha who is no newbie when it comes to setting long distance motorcycle records pursued this ride to prove a point with people who say that it’s next to impossible to do a saddle sore on a 150 cc motorcycle. He further elaborates “Most people thought that the Impulse being an off-roader, it might be difficult to ride it 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.”
Both Shalaka and Devjeet echo common views that the Impulse is an extremely comfortable vehicle and its performance while on the ride has been extremely satisfactory. The bikes ridden by them were in stock condition and the two also underwent practice rides during the night to closeby city locations in order to get a hang of night riding. The Saddle sore is recognized by the Iron Butt Association and the two have already submitted their documents from the ride in order to obtain a certificate from this prestigious association.
Kudos to them.
Firdaus Shaikh
