22 May,2015 07:49 AM IST | | The Guide Team
International Female Ride Day (IFRD) is a campaign to highlight and profile female motorcycle and scooter riders
(First from left) Chithra Priya and (fifth from left) Ravi Rawat, Director Operation, The Park Hotels
International Female Ride Day (IFRD) is a campaign to highlight and profile female motorcycle and scooter riders. This campaign was introduced by Vicki Gray, director of Motoress (an international online women's motorcycle magazine) to ensure the growth of women in motorcycling.
(First from left) Chithra Priya and (fifth from left) Ravi Rawat, Director Operation, The Park Hotels
The event was first brought to India four years back and has been gaining popularity since. This year, to make it even bigger, and to encourage more women to join and ride, Chithra Priya, an international endurance motorcycle rider, and Sukhmani Gill (Chandigarh) invited Gray and had organised a 10-day tour around Maharashtra and Gujarat.
This included a meet-up with overnight stay at Daman, along with Gray, to encourage and promote participation of more female riders. On the last day of the tour, they organised a Motorcycle Meet-Up at The Park hotels, Navi Mumbai, an 80-room luxury boutique hotel in the satellite city. The hotel provides an elegant setting for both business and pleasure and its unique location makes it a dynamic urban getaway from the city.
Chithra has been motorcycling for 15 years now, and holds three Limca Book of Records for motorcycling, along with various other records in the field, including being the first girl to race and win amongst men (Irungattukottai, 2005).
The first Limca Record is for riding through the highest motor-able road in the world, Khardungala, along with the Bikerni Women Riders club. This trip was shot and telecasted as a television show called Riders.
Chithra's second record is for endurance riding a motorcycle for 1,600 km in 24 hours from Bangalore to Pune and back to Bangalore, becoming the first and only female motorcyclist from Asia to hold the International SaddleSore Record title. The third record is for doing a ride from Kanyakumari to Leh in 154 hours.
