Talk about touring -
- In 1966, 22 year old student Jay
Babu, who took his Jawa 250 on a solo, 12,700 km across India! His true
to life adventures are put down in this book - http://ww
- Do we know that back in 1977 8
guys, led by Pravin Karkhanis on 2 Jawas and 2 Yezdi B Models did Mumbai - Rome
- Mumbai?
This is their first hand account (in
Marathi) http://www.bookganga.com/Preview/Preview.aspx?BookId=310111102740&PreviewType=ebooks
- In 1978, a group of friends headed
by Arun Naik, started a Motorcycle group called the Merry Mobikers Club, from
Delhi. These guys organised shorts runs to Jaipur, Agra and then Katmandu, and
then did the long haul stretch to Kanyakumari called the '9,000 km Southern
Run' that was flagged off by Kapil Dev. Finally in 1981, they did the Ladakh
trip!
- In September, 1983, 5 gentlemen
from Chandigarh, all on Yezdis, took out a 6000 odd km. journey, deep into the
Himalayas, through Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and returned via the Gangetic plains!
- After that three guys on two bikes
( 1978 Model 250cc & 1990 Model 175cc ) successfully completed two
expeditions, 18,500 Kms around US & Canada in 1990 & then 14,000
Kms in Australia in 1994, led by Arun Khadse http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1870134913484.2097041.1244451350&type=1
- And then in 1994, the World Record
for the First, Fastest over six continents, Deepak Kamath (25) and
G.H.Basavaraj (34) of Bangalore covered 42,038 km over six continents on their Yezdi
Roadking motorcycle in an expedition called "The Yezdi Castrol Continental
Ride". http://bjymc.blogspot.in/2015/07/around-world-on-yezdi-with-deepak-kamat.html
Hats off to these guys!!
- In 1996, another group of 3
friends also did the Delhi - Chandigarh, Manali, Rothang Pass, Keylong,
Changla, Leh, Kargil, Dras, Zozila, Khardhungla, Pangang TSO and back to Delhi
route on different bikes, that also had a Roadking!
- In 1997, two friends took a Yezdi
CL II and a Bullet from Mumbai to Ladakh. . Their first hand account, with
some hilarious escapades that included running in the Yezdi during the ride
after a seized engine, riding through ice cold rivers barefoot and then riding
on dangerous roads while unknowingly high on weed, is all here - http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=796437
Elsewhere around the world, Miguel
from Uruguay - in the East Coast of South America, did a 3,500 odd kms trip on
his Jawa 350 to Paraguay and Iguazu Falls, on the border of Brazil and
Argentina. His account, (if anyone can read Spanish) is here http://uruguayosenjawa.blogspot.in/
- With the formation of the Yezdi
Jawa Owners Club of India, in Mumbai somewhere in 2003, the idea for the
Endurance rides for Jawas and Yezdis was born, which soon saw 3 series -
E04 - Mumbai - Goa - All India Yezdi
Monsoon meet
E05 - Mumbai - Khardungla via Manali
& Leh - 7 bikes
The die hard biker that he is, Mr.
Ashok Naidu created a record of sorts in the Limca Book of Records, when he
took his 1952 CZ Jawa Plunger Suspension Model in the year 2005, up the highest
motor-able pass in Leh.
(The honour of the oldest bike at
Khardungla belongs to a '47 Perak owned and ridden by Mandar Phadke of Pune in
the year '07. Naidu and his Perak held the record till that time as he had
travelled with the original team in '05 on his '52 Perak. '07 also had a '54
Jawa 353 complete with fishtail silencers and the smaller hubs ridden by
veteran rider Shyam Karandikar who was 67 years old, a '61 353 ridden by
veteran rider and Motocross and Company racer Baban Dixit along with Arun Mane
and Bhau Satalkar in the age group of 65- 70 years, Dixit being the eldest at
68. The other Jawas in the group were a '62 ridden by Umesh Pawar, a '63/ 67 by
couple of other friends.)
E06 - Mumbai - Kanyakumari - Solo by Rajesh Khedekar
In 2006, Srinivas Kini did a solo
ride from Chandigarh - Leh - Jammu on his trusty Yezdi Classic
E07 - A planned ride through Nepal
from Tibet - Manasoravar - Kailash - Everest Base camp was on the cards but unfortunately never materialized!
2007 also had 21 assorted bikes
organized by an outfit called Motours, among which was a Yezdi Roadking that
did the Chandigarh - Leh & back stretch
For those with wanderlust in their
hearts, this is a touching trip when in 2008, a couple from Poland, wanted to
do something adventurous and came out with this - a 10,157 km ride ,
through 17 countries on their faithful Jawa TS 350.
2009 saw Arul Jegadish and a friend
did the Ladakh trip on a Roadking and a Bullet
In 2010, Varun Umesh, from Mysore,
did a 5000 odd km round trip from Bangalore to Leh, solo on his Roadking.
Come 2011 and we had Brian from the
BJYMC and his wife do the Leh trip on his 1996 Roadking along with 3 friends
from the Rotary club of International Fellowship of Motorcycling Rotarian
In the same year, Sreejith
Karunakaran and a couple of friends took a Yezdi Monarch and a Roadking round
the Chandigarh - Manali - Rohtang - Leh route
The 2012 had quite a few takers for
the Himalayan route this time -
- Varun Umesh again had the urge to
take his Roadkling on a solo tripto the Himalayas, this time to Spiti the
beautiful desert mountain valley in Himachal Pradesh,
- Rohan David did the trip from
Delhi To Leh & Ladakh on his 1978 Model B together with other friends https://www.facebook.com/rohandav/media_set?set=a.10150918968544141.421921.644314140&type=3
- Arun Gowda also did the trip with
a his Roadking among other biker friends in 2012 https://www.facebook.com/arun.ncet/media_set?set=a.4114289852006.2169663.1125984580&type=1-
Walter Clint Fernando on his Roadking https://www.facebook.com/walter.c.fernando/media_set?set=a.10151105642719193.449928.611109192&type=3
- Roshan Kamat and 5 friends on 4
bikes, that included his exquisite '72 model Jawa
By 2013, 8 Roadkings were ready to
ride in a group from Leh to Kanyakumari, with members from different clubs,
including Sreejith Karunakaran, Brian
Thomas, Vepavi Calicut Choppers, Anirudha
Anil Kokare, Ambre
Sahil -
Pavel Suchý, is currently on his
45,000 km tour around the world on his 1978 Jawa 350!
September 18th, 2015, Rishad
Bhumgara from Mumbai gets on his 1985 Yezdi Cl II as he starts off on his epic
45-day, 9,500 Kms from Mumbai to Myanmar! For the first half of the journey,
till the North East, his better-half Delzeen Mirza accompanies him, as
pillion - till the start of the North-East and from there onwards its a solo
ride straight into Myanmar!
Even as this is being edited,
Kaustubh Thengodkar, from Pune, is enroute to Kochi on his solo South India
ride, that's crossing 3,500 kms. And the beauty of it? He is riding his 1974,
250 cc Jawa, that he loving calls 'Paddy'. Waiting to catch hold of him in Mangalore....
:-)
Company shut down, hard to find
repair shops, difficult to source parts, considered defunct by most, but
whatever.... The Jawas and Yezdis can still do it, as good as any other
motorcycle! And yes, they still run like hell!!
(if anyone has any more details
about other rides, please add to this, with the links)
