15 Shalini Singh
Although I have been associated with Western Motorsports for quite a long time now, this was my first time on two-wheels. After a lot of deliberations, I finalised to go with the trusted RE (Royal Enfield). Tour de Thar 2015 had to be on a bike, no matter what I had promised myself in TDT 2014. Desert Storm model was the obvious choice, given our group is from the land of sand. Given the stature of RE, I decided to call him Chowdhary.
We were 8 bikers in all with, 2 4-wheels and a support vehicle carrying our luggage, tent equipments and supplies. The support vehicle was quite a help as we didn’t have to carry all the luggage on our bikes. Each day we rode for about 200-300 kilometres max. The convoy was lead by an experience biker and tailed by another. I was purposefully kept in-between the convoy for my safety. My fellow bikers kept me motivated through out, especially when the terrain got challenging. They supported me throughout with the little tricks to keep the bike balance intact. I can’t thank them enough for without them I may not have had attempted this.
I rode about 800+ kilometres on Chowdhary, through the 6-day 2000 kilometre ride. Testing my amateur skills on various terrains – loose gravel and sand – tumbling off my bike a couple of times, I am pretty charged up for TDT 2016.
Written by Shalini Singh
WM note on author - Shalini Singh is one of our experienced female SUV driver and has long association with WM and JBR. Last year she had switched from four wheels to two wheel rider. The above is her experience in short, riding RE Desert Storm, nicknamed Chowdary during our annual Tour de Thar 15 event.
