Royal Enfield Rider Mania 2022 Himalayan Dirt Race Experience

The Experience

With all the licences and papers in place, I was assigned a race-ready Himalayan and a technician. Before I handed over the bike to the technician, I made sure the tyre pressure was right for my weight. The technician helped me out with the last-minute things like taping the exposed metal parts. I also got the gear shift lever adjusted to my boots and removed the rubber inserts from the footpegs. Just before I entered the track, the side stand was also tied up to avoid unnecessary scraping. 

We were given two laps to understand the track and also the motorcycle. While I knew the bike quite well, the track was new and a bit scary. I used the word scary because the organisers had just watered the track to settle down the dust. Well, they managed to accomplish that task, but at certain locations, the ground became too wet and that meant a few Himalayans ended the race with a bent handlebar. 

So, the race time arrived. I chose the centre lane because I thought that would be the best way to cross the holeshot. As soon as the ‘5-seconds to go’ board was pulled up, I was ready with that throttle. And to my surprise, we didn’t have to wait for those five seconds. The race began and I was seen battling with a rider on each side. I had aggressively opened the throttle and the rear tyre was busy finding that traction. Thus, I had to shift my weight to the back, and that’s when I got the maximum traction – the result, I got the holeshot. But sadly, I lost the lead as I went in too hot.

Now, the track Royal Enfield had designed was extremely technical. Hence, it was difficult to overtake. The turns were quick and also quite aggressive, with only a few stretches when one could go up to second gear. I was trying to understand the track but soon I had my first fall. It was the high side. Here, I lost my second position and ended up in fourth. But within a lap, I regained my second position. Now, this was achieved by taking the racing line and entering the apex as required. This helped me in being faster than most of the racers. But sadly, I had a second fall just before the second last turn. It was a 180-degree turn and a lot of slushes had built up. Here too, the high side resulted in a crash and then the Himalayan refused to start. After some seconds, the bike did start, but by then I had moved down to the sixth position. Now only with five laps to go, I started riding a bit aggressively. While it did help me regain all the positions in the next three laps, it was a gamble as the track had become extremely slushy to ride. 

Just as the last lap began, the first racer was in my sight. I decided to overtake him in the 180-degree turn (where I had the fall). I was riding extremely close to him and was about to manoeuvre, but he braked hard and I had to as well. Sadly, my rear brake lever had bent in the second fall, due to which I had to use the front brake most of the time. However, this time around, I used the brake a bit more than I had to, and my front got completely washed out. It was a nasty crash. The handlebar was all bent and my right thumb got injured. While I did think of running with the bike and finishing the race, the bike was over my leg and it was difficult to get under it at that moment. So sadly, I didn’t finish the race as planned.

The Learnings

Every experience teaches me something and the Rider Mania Dirt Race had some serious lessons for me. The most important one is controlling greed. I’ll be honest. I was greedy to take that first position. I could have finished the race on the podium but human greed kicked in. Secondly, I need to be less aggressive on that throttle. A lot of people have told me that I’m always aggressive but I didn’t pay much heed. Two back-to-back high sides have proven me wrong. The third learning I had was to set up the motorcycle right. The Himalayan I had was in perfect shape for the race. But I think I was running a bit too much pressure on both tyres. I should have spent more time getting that right.  

Overall, I really enjoyed the RE dirt race. It was fun and adventurous and it taught me to take some decisions in a matter of seconds. If given a chance, I'd love to do this again and I'm sure I will perform better.