This year's Pune Off Road Expedition was tougher than last year. Last year the route was much longer, but was largely flat with a few climbs and descends since we were essentially going around the Panshet lake. This year the route was from the lake right up to a temple on top of a hill. There was slush everywhere, at some places, knee deep.
For terrain like this, its very important to use the right tool for the job. By that I mean a light motorcycle with knobby tyres. Dual sport tyres are pointless as the mud cakes in the narrow grooves and you end up with bald tyres. It also helps to have a high front fender to prevent the mud from caking between the tyre and the fender and locking up the front wheel.
If you want to do something like this with your motorcycle I strongly recommend you pay attention to the part of the video starting at 14:18. Check out the group of riders reving the tits out of their motorcycles and not getting anywhere. It was a flat surface. Their motorcycles were light and had all the power that was needed. But all went to waste because of the wrong choice of tyres.
To sum up how the adventure motorcycles of our group did on the Pune Off Road Expedition:
The Tigers gave up before the hard part started
The Himalayans got screwed when the hard part started
The Impulses completed the trail without a problem
Therefore I conclude that more expensive the adventure motorcycle, less is the chance of it completing the adventure. Makes perfect sense. :-)
Henny Gurnasinghani was the star of the Pune Off Road Expedition 2017. She rode her Impulse all the way up to the turn around and back. I even saw her help push a Himalayan up a slope. At the most difficult section where the slush was a knee deep on a uphill incline one of the marshals offered to ride her motorcycle up. She smiled at him and politely declined.
Here are some pics of the madness and mayhem.
