Triumph Tiger Trails
Triumph India invited us, along with the rest of the Indian auto fraternity, for some mud-slinging at a special media-only Tiger Trails event at Aamby Valley. Madness ensued
Some mud-slinging and off-road madness from the Tiger Trails at Aamby Valley
On a weT weekend aT aaMBY Valley, I was primed in all my riding kit to go play in the mud. The occasion was the Tiger Trails, a half-day worth of off-road fun and instruction on how to tackle terrains that are completely devoid of tarmac. Our instructor was ace rallyist and organiser of the fearsome Raid De Himalaya, Vijay Parmar. Under his tutelage and hawk-eyed gaze, we were to conquer four specially designed off-road stages to help enhance our mud-based prowess. However, before we got down and dirty, Vijay took us through a classroom session to guide us on the intricacies of off-roading, especially on a big, bad adventure tourer like the Tiger.
The classroom session was extremely informative, with Vijay explaining everything from how you sit and stand when offroading: knees tight to the tank and don’t wrestle with the handle. How you turn the bike: sit in the ‘cross’ position, completely the opposite of how you would when on tarmac. He also spoke about what to do when you inevitable fall — kick out your leg from underneath the bike, because metal and plastic are easier to mend than bones and cartilage, and kill the ignition if you find yourself taking a tumble when wading through water.
There were a lot more tips, tricks, and pieces of advice, including wearing the right gear, taking certain safety precautions and setting up ICE (or In
Case of Emergency) protocols.