TVS Motor Company would be proud. One of its hot selling motorcycles has created history and entered the Limca Book of Records for a feat that would put many adventure bikes to shame. A bunch of six enthusiast bikers from Kolkata have helped the TVS Apache RTR 200 4V earn the highest-altitude-ever-reached-by-a-motorcycle. The earlier record of 21,233 feet was set in Mt Andes in the Atacama region, Chile.
Of course that meant equipping the motorcycle with a set of off-road boots capable of chewing and spitting the bad roads that came along. The standard 17-inch alloy wheels were also swapped for spoked 18-inch wheel up front and 16-inch wheel at the rear. Suspension, both front and back, of the motorcycles were also tweaked to make it battle ready for conquering the mighty Himalayas.
The six member team comprising Santanu Roychowdhury, Subrato Boral, Manas Sen, Achinta Saha, Indradeb Chatterjee and Srikrishna Biswas, all from North Calcutta Disha Motorcycling Club took it upon themselves to get this mountainous task done. They rode for 1,612km via places like Manali, Sarchu (14,700 feet), Tso Kar (14,860 feet), Korzok (14,836 feet) and Kyirchu (15,110 feet) where they set their base camp. The team successfully scaled the summit on August 29, 2016 after battling harsh weather and crater like roads that come with the high-altitude mountains.
They finally scaled 21,524 feet in Rupshu valley in ladakh, with their motorcycles smashing a previous record along the way to claim a place in the book of records for the “Highest Altitude ever reached by a Motorcycle” category. Upon scaling the summit, the team hoisted the Biswa Bangla flag and the Indian tricolour at Chamser Kangri in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir. They submitted their claim on December 2016 and the jury gave their verdict this month, announcing that they had made it.