Tour-ist Trophy

A fast road tour is about big in-saddle hours and good average speeds. Here are ten things that will change how you tour.

- Shubhabrata Marmar

I’ve done a whole bunch of fast road runs, essentially transport stages where getting from a place to the destination is about efficiency and speed rather than detours, selfies or tourism. Over the years, I’ve refined this practice down to a fairly specific pattern.

1. 1,000KM DAYS ARE POSSIBLE WITH ALMOST ANY MOTORCYCLE 

India typically has 11-12 hours of daylight and that’s good enough for a fast day out on the motorcycle in natural light. I am unwilling to ride after dark and that’s makes a 800km day easy and a 1,200km day hard work. But they are very much possible. What you need to focus on is maintaining a high average speed and having an alternate stop point. And remember that the trucks on the highway hold maybe 80kmph but cover vast distances daily so a 6,000PS motorcycle isn’t required, neither is trying to cruise at 6 million miles an hour.

2. DEALING WITH THE DARK