Chennai: The “Bike Festival of India National Safety Ride” – a cross-country expedition undertaken to promote responsible biking and the use of helmets– on Sunday reached Chennai also called Detroit of India for its auto-mobile industry, after covering more than 3500 kms across India
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The “BFI-National Safety Ride” is an initiative under the ambit of South Asia’s largest bike festival, the Bike Festival of India (BFI), which is being organized in association with Rhiti Sports Management and Event Capital.
The BFI 'National Safety Ride is the longest safety ride in the country till date and was flagged off by Indian cricketer Ishant Sharma in New Delhi on August 31, 2014. It has already covered a journey across the cities of Delhi, Jaipur, Ajmer, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vapi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Ooty, Mysore & Kochi before reaching Chennai.
Participant riders stopped in these cities to visit iconic locations, while interacting with the biker communities and encouraging safe biking especially the use of helmets.
From Chennai, the riders will head towards Hyderabad, Rajahmundry, Behrampur and Bhadrak, before reaching Kolkata for the final leg. From Kolkata, riders will move towards Dhanbad, Varanasi, Kanpur, Noida, Chandigarh and then terminate the journey back at New Delhi. The BFI National Safety Ride will cover an epic distance of 8170 kms in just 30 days, sensitizing the nation and building conscience towards the grave issue of riding safe & responsibly while celebrating the love for biking.
In the automotive hub, Chennai, the riders halted at the dealership of Triumph Motorcycles where they interacted with the biking enthusiasts and citizens on safe biking tips and wearing helmets. Triumph motorcycles is the official safety ride partners of “BFI-National Safety Ride The National Safety Ride finishes on 29th September 2014 and will culminate into the main event, The Bike Festival of India is scheduled to take place on 4th & 5th October at the Mecca of Motorsports -the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) in Greater Noida.
India’s cricket legend and bike aficionado, MS Dhoni,is the face of the Bike Festival of India which is also being termed as South Asia's largest bike festival.
The “BFI National safety Ride” includes 6 male and 3 female bike enthusiasts participating in a nationwide ride on Triumph Motorcycles in an attempt to spread awareness on safe biking. The official BFI ‘National Safety Riders’ riders are Rahul Sharma, Rohan Monga, Jaspreet Aiden, R Venkat Raman, Sheetal Bidaye, Urvashi Patole, Pratish Ambekar, Anjaly Rajan and Sunil Gupta. It’s also interesting to note the participation of women bikers who have come forward to support this cause.
Expressing his thoughts behind BFI, Arun Pandey, CMD, Rhiti Sports said, “Through BFI National Safety Ride, we will touch every nook and corner of the country with an aim to promote safe biking and most importantly the use of helmets. The youth of our country form an integral part of the biking community and play a crucial role in spreading the awareness on abiding the safety norms. The riders during the safety ride will be interacting with youth and biking enthusiasts and encourage them to ride safely”.
Vikram Shankar and Ikjot Singh, conveners of BFI, “Through National safety ride, we not only create awareness on safe biking but also get an opportunity to engage with bikers across the country thus building our community and gearing them up for the mega bike festival which will take them to an international platform.”
Vimal Sumbly, Managing Director, Triumph Motorcycles India Pvt Ltd, commented, “Triumph Motorcycles is proud to associate with BFI as the official safety ride sponsor. Owning a motorcycle is just the beginning of a beautiful relationship, riding safe ensures that relationship last forever. We at Triumph want riders to be well aware of the importance of safe and responsible riding, I think it is a great opportunity to educate and make more and more bikers ride safe every day”
Alok Jalan, MD, Laqshya Media Group, quoted, “We intend to create the largest IP in the biking space which caters to the whole biking community in India and take this to a much larger level. This IP is not only biking and adventure but also lot of entertainment and fun for the youth and biking enthusiasts.”
