Vijay chronicles the training experience that was held ahead of the 2024 GS Trophy
BMW would like us to ride sand at 2.2 bar or 30 psi approximately
AS EVERYONE KNOWS, ONCE YOU HAVE participated as a contestant in the GS Trophy finals, and represented your country, you can never be eligible, again, for the same honour! So what do past contestants do to retain their connect with this epic event? They enrol themselves in the IIA course and try and qualify as instructors, so that they may one day help curate the event, as part of the GS Trophy organiser team.
Adib Javanmardi, in 2022, was a finalist and a team member of the Indian contingent, along with Chowde Gowda, Rameez Mullick and Vir Nakai. They did India proud in Albania by raising the bar considerably, both in their team performance and the resultant respect, given to Team India.
Adib, in 2023, attended the gruelling testing at Hechlingen and qualified as an instructor. In the same year, he along with BMW Motorrad instructors Ouseph Chacko and Ajit Bhardwaj designed a fabulous course for the qualifier finals held in Gurgaon. The three winners, Dev Venkatesh, Anand Dharesan and Shahan Khan were chosen for their skilled riding, endurance and tenacity to be Team India at the GS Trophy, to be held in Namibia later this year. Rishaad Mody was chosen as the media member of the team, whose job it will be to ride alongside his team, and document their travails and successes during the gladiator matches held over 7 days in Namibia!
Once the qualifiers were over and the finalists chosen, it was noted that all the winning team members were from the south of India, and though they had experience riding in waterlogged muddy conditions, they did not have the experience of riding the open desert and dunes that Namibia is famous for!
Adib, remembering the torture tests, that we put him and the other members of Team India through, in 2021, immediately called and demanded that a similar training be organised for the present team in the backdrop of the Thar Desert. BMW Motorrad India showed support by picking up the tab and releasing a couple of bikes from their stockade! Bravo!
At last a manufacturer was showing that they were interested in promoting excellence, irrespective of cost, rather than getting the ‘Procurement Team’ to haggle and haggle and haggle till peanuts are paid to monkeys for the exercise!
Inspired by Adib’s enthusiasm and BMW Motorrad’s support we packed our 4x4s and left for the sands of Jaisalmer! To ride the dunes once again. The desert raiders gathered at Bikaner; a huge effort being made by Dev and Anand, who loaded two bikes into an Isuzu V-Cross and drove down all the way from Bangalore, to Rajasthan! Team Xplorearth, motorcycle fanatics from North India, motored down from Shimla and Gurgaon, respectively, to Bikaner!
The next day was, at first, extremely demoralizing! Initially the first dune to be attempted by the GS 1250 riders was the big one at Miyakhor. The big powerful bikes just dug in and stayed there. Too much weight compounded by tree stump pulling power. Hours of struggle passed as we let the riders try every trick they knew to try and climb the dune.
Finally, when nothing seemed to work we called them back to the foot of the dunes and started the training.
Drop tyre pressures. BMW would like us to ride sand at 2.2 bar or 30 psi approximately. Sand would like us to deflate pressures to 10 psi. The fat 19 inch tyre up front hates being deflated and the one at the rear couldn’t care! We compromised at 20 psi and a neutral standing-on-the-pegs riding position. Start in second gear was the next recommendation. It worked almost immediately. These are the best riders in India. Just some tech assistance had them climbing the dunes with far greater ease than before. But it wasn’t enough. Doing 100 metres in soft sand is not the same as riding 300km a day in the stuff. Every day. For seven days.
The next two days started on deep sandy trails, rocky outcrops and back into a sea of ergs – small dunes that come at you in an endless wave! We rode trails that had been churned up by the Indian Army doing tank exercises in the desert. The tank tracks had left corrugations to add to the innumerable ruts that criss-crossed the path taken. The team fell, picked themselves up, fell again and again, till they realised that no single rider could pick up his bike himself!
And that is when they started to become a team! They watched out for one another, helped pick up their fallen comrades and rode like demons. This continued for two physically exhausting days – until they could ride 150km on various desert surfaces with absolute confidence.
My advice to them. Build up the stamina, build your riding skills and build your team – going around in tight circles is no longer going to be enough. The South Africans – winners of the last GS Trophy – are just waiting to eat the competition.
And the competition is you! ⌧