New Golden Quadrilateral record: Arnob Gupta traverses 6000km in 92 hours and 30 minutes

Arnob Gupta, arguably India’s most capable long distance endurance rider has added another feather to the big and colorful tuft in his cap. In a rare feat, the dentist by profession and endurance rider by passion, also known as the Flying Doctor has traversed the 6000km long Golden Quadrilateral in 92 hours and 30 minutes. By doing this, Arnob has shattered the previous record which stood at more than 100 hours.

As you would assume, such a lightning fast trip wouldn’t leave you any time for luxuries like taking photographs. Arnob, however, took a few quick photographs of the starting and the end point, and a few other pictures on the way while refilling. Some more pictures include logs of his GPS device which would come handy while laying claim to a new Limca Book of Record Entry.

It’s been a few months since the new record was set, and Arnob is already has his eyes on some even more challenging land speed records on a two wheeler.

Here, in this feature we depict Arnob’s arduous journey in bullet points. Expect a more detailed log in days to come.

The bike used for the endurance ride was a CBR250R with some modifications carried out on it. Changes included a long range tank and a weather screen incorporating a projector lamp with upper dipper and HID.

(Please share your thoughts via comments. Its the least we can do to appreciate the Herculean effort )

(At the starting point, with Parimal Deshpande and Deepak Dongre as witnesses)

• Arnob started at around 9:40 am on 1st April (to probably make a fool of those who didn’t believe that this ride could be accomplished) from Vashi near New Mumbai.
• He reached the NICE road in about 12 hrs and proceeded to Chennai, where he arrived by 1:40am
• The first and only formal hotel halt was at Rajmundhry at 11:30 am. This was1970 km after the ride started for a 5 hour sleep. Arnob was back on the road by 5:30pm
• After restarting, Arnob faced a couple of sleep attacks  in a few hours which happily coincided with poor riding weather (heavy gusting, rain). Arnob made the most of even this calamity and took rest at temples on the roadside. Arnob managed to reach Kolkata at 10:30am.
• One of the rare few heart-in-mouth moments came near Parasanth where a badly made bridge got Arnob airborne for a few seconds.
• Another unfortunate incident was when Arnob has to make a 40 km extra round trip to pick up the forgotten credit card at Aurangabad where he took a fuel stop.
• Arnob managed to catch another short nap at the subsequent fuel-up at Kanpur Dehat.
• Colder weather than expected slowed Arnob down substantially and ate into time. Arnob has planned to pass Delhi when the world was asleep,but he managed to arrive during rush hour. It took him two hours to clear Delhi.
• After crossing Delhi and riding for some time, Arnob took a one hour stopover at a CCD outlet near Behror to have a nap in an AC environment plus use the loo for the price of a coffee.
• After crossing jaipur, Arnob picked some serious pace, averaging over 100kph till Udaipur after which things got slower
• Arnob experienced a messy road post Ahmedabad, with a lot of construction till Baroda.
• Things smoothened out after Baroda, but sleep attacked again making Arnob stop and take some rest before moving further.
• While the ETA was 11:00pm the previous day, Arnob managed to reach the fuel pump at Vashi from where he has left only by 6:00am the next morning.
• Both the scary moments were courtesy pedestrians
• According to Arnob, the biggest pain in the wrong place was a mere 3 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours
• Nicest feeling of the trip was filling up the long range tank and knowing that he could ride non-stop for at least 7 hrs.

(Finishing point, with Deepak Dongre and Amit Chhangani as witnesses)