Feat on wheels: Two bikers travel 20K km in 40 days

KALYAN: Charting uncharted roads in the country, two bikers have achieved a first-of-its-kind feat by traversing 20,400km in 40 days, covering 33 different places.

The unique expedition, called India Peripheral Ride, was flagged off on March 28 from Surat and culminated at Kalyan on Monday. The riders from Highway Bandits, a Kalyan group of bike enthusiasts, also vroomed to Nepal and Bhutan.

Prem Pandey from Kalyan, Vatsal Jogani from Surat and Aniket Gurav, a Badlapur resident, undertook the journey on their Fatboys, one of the most iconic motorcycles from Harley Davidson from Surat. Two of the riders completed the entire expedition. Gurav could not complete the entire journey due to health problems.

“It took weeks of meticulous planning to finally put together a route map which ran across the entire periphery of India; hence, we named our achievement as the India Peripheral Ride,” said Pandey, 48, founder member of Highway Bandits.

“We decided to travel across our own country instead of travelling abroad because we wanted to explore the beauty of our nation,” added Pandey.

An old hat in biking, Pandey has covered five of the world’s most inhospitable mountain passes, including Tanglang La, Baralacha La, Nathu La, Chang La and Khardung La. He has ridden over 50,000km across India and succeeded in the Iron Butt Challenge by riding 1,720km in 23 hours. He has completed 80% of the Zonal Rides.

“The ride not only tested our riding skills but also examined our mental and physical ability. Changing climate conditions and diverse cultures along the way are few of the challenges we had to overcome,” said Vatsal Jogani , 31, director of Diamond City (HOG Chapter). He is the only rider from Surat to complete the Big5 Challenge in 2015.

RISHIKESH CHOUDHARY (From left) Aniket Gurav, Prem Pandey and Vatsal Jogani pose after completing the journey.