Bigadda's Yamaha India Bike Rally crosses the chequered flag
Covered over 4,500 kms across 7 states and 40 cities in 21 days First reality show on Social Networking Site receives an overwhelming response Snehashish Das from Delhi & Shawn Mendes from Mumbai adjudged winners
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John Abraham with the winners of Bigadda's Yamaha India Bike Rally
-- It was the ultimate test of grit and determination when the rallyists of Bigadda's Yamaha India Bike Rally (IBR), which was flagged off on 7th Dec completed 21 days long journey covering over 4,500 kms across 40 cities on Yamaha bikes, at Mumbai. The India Bike Rally, which was India's first reality show on a social networking site, offered the bike enthusiasts from across the country an opportunity to explore different cities and villages and discover the real India, on Yamaha bikes.
The winning team Snehashish Das from Delhi & Shawn Mendes from Mumbai has been bestowed with Yamaha YZF-R15 and Fazer; First Runner up Karan Mendon & Amrita Kolhe from Mumbai; Second Runner up Thilak Raj Rao from Bangalore & Sonia Jain from Delhi; Third Runner up Akshay Kaushal from Ahmedabad & Aalap Vinay Davjekar from Pune and four other lucky online users have won YZF-R15, Fazer, FZ16, FZS and Gladiator SS. The winner were decided on the basis of the overall number of votes received on his or her blog posts, photos and videos, by 5 million plus users of Bigadda.
The rally covered an extensive stretch across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The first time rally received an overwhelming response from people across the country; with over 8,000 registrations. However, only 20 (13 young men and 7 women) from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune had made it to the final twenty, after a gruelling round of auditions held in November.
20 finalists were divided into 10 teams; each team consisting of 2 members stopped at a village or town ('pit stops') each day according to their route map. The tasks at these stops were designed to give participants local flavors and experiences, whether it was kite making in Gujarat, an orange harvesting festival in Nagpur, a cow milking contest in Gwalior, or a roti making competition at a dhaba en route from Delhi to Chandigarh. Each team of bikers captured their experiences through photos, videos, and blog posts that were featured on Bigadda on a daily basis.
Shivanandan Pare, COO, Bigadda said, 'IBR cultivated the passion for adventure and exploration not only in the 20 finalists, but also in the loyal fan base that followed the entire rally on Bigadda, and that has been its true success. The rally marked the first time that a reality show has been launched on any social networking platform and has created a benchmark for this format. Bigadda will continue to launch and support activities that are youth centric and create the opportunity for youngsters to empower themselves."
Pankaj Dubey, National Business Head, India Yamaha Motor, said, "The aim of this rally is to spread biking culture and through such events we will take the sport, currently followed by only experts racers in India, to the biking enthusiasts. The true success in any motor racing event is in getting people involved and a part of that was certainly achieved. It was nice to watch the spirit of motor racing among these young riders. Competitive yet respectful."
"The interest in motor sports in India is catching up and the number of young people pursuing active lifestyles is also increasing. Yamaha has been promoting a wide range of activities related to motorsports with the aim to strengthen the image of Yamaha as a sporty brand and promote safe racing culture in the country. Through activities such as these, our consumers get to experience the true racing instinct of our products, loaded with true Yamaha racing DNA", he added.
Through Yamaha IBR, India Yamaha Motors aimed to push motor sports in India to new highs and provided an ideal platform for racing talents to hone and test their skills.
BIGADDA's Yamaha IBR Champions: Snehashish Das (Delhi) & Shawn Mendes (Mumbai)
BIGADDA's Yamaha IBR Super Riders: Karan Mendon (Mumbai) & Amrita Kolhe (Mumbai)
BIGADDA's Yamaha IBR Cool Cruisers: Thilak Raj Rao (Bangalore)& Sonia Jain (Delhi)
BIGADDA's Yamaha IBR Road Riders: Akshay Kaushal (Ahmedabad) & Aalap Vinay Davjekar (Pune)
Notes to Editor
About Bigadda:
BIGADDA, part of the Reliance ADA group, is the largest and the fastest growing web and mobile Indian social networking site. BIGADDA.com enables networking based on Individuals (Friends and Friends of Friends) and Interests (self-expression by Create - Upload - Share of Videos, Photos, and Music. Some of the features of this Youth destination include Blogs and Scribbles, which help the users express, comment and connect, ADDAs (communities) and Forums - all of these catering to one of the most important needs of the youth today - 'Identity Creation' and 'Self Expression' What sets BigAdda apart from other networking sites is that it has community and social media drivers which are relevant and important to the Indian Youth. The rationale being that the target audience looks upto these as inspirations and influencers. Bigadda spans the genres of communities (Addas) like sports, fashion, photography, books, art, apart from just music and movies. It does not focus only on one genre, thereby making it a site catering all tastes and interests across categories. As per the brand promise "LET'S CATCH UP", Bigadda brings in the Indian youth across all genres, seamlessly through the ethos of Indian values and the pride of being Indian.
About India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd.
Yamaha made its initial foray into India in 1985. Subsequently, it entered into a 50:50 joint-venture with the Escorts Group in 1996. However, in August 2001, Yamaha acquired its remaining stake becoming a 100% subsidiary of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, Japan (YMC). In 2008, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. entered into an agreement with YMC to become a joint investor in the motorcycle manufacturing company "India Yamaha Motor Private Limited (IYM)". IYM operates from its state-of-the-art-manufacturing units at Surajpur in Uttar Pradesh and Faridabad in Haryana and produces motorcycles both for domestic and export markets. With a strong workforce of more than 2,000 employees, IYM is highly customer-driven and has a countrywide network of over 400 dealers. Presently, its product portfolio includes VMAX (1,679cc), MT01 (1,670cc), YZF-R1 (998cc), Fazer (153cc), FZ-S (153cc), FZ16 (153cc), YZF-R15 (150cc), Gladiator Type SS & RS (125cc), G5 (106cc), Alba (106cc) and Crux (106cc).
