I don't remember how or when I came to know about rides to Ladakh. I guess it was one of those magazines or an online blog. The idea of riding a motorcycle to such a picturesque place, surrounded by stunning landscapes instantly attracted me. This must have happened sometime after I left college and before I moved to Pune for my first job.
I knew I wanted to do it and started digging up more information. But I had two obvious hurdles. I didn't know how to ride a motor bike and I had no motor bike.
Moreover, it seemed that most people did Ladakh on a Royal Enfield motorcycle and there sure were lots of advantages to using one of these. Given that these weigh almost 3 times my body weight, I had a hard time convincing myself that I would be able to ride one of these. Most people I discussed this with thought this was a suicidal thing to do and something that I would never be able to pull off. The more they stressed on this, the more I became sure that my first bike would be a royal enfield (RE).
Fortunately I came in touch with the Roadshakers, a Pune based Royal Enfield riding club. Lets just say that they are a bunch of the best riders in this part of the world. Over the next few days I was convinced that the REs are the only sensible option for terrains like Ladakh and that riding and maintaining an RE is not very difficult if you have the right people to guide you.
So I went ahead and got myself a shiny new RE Thunderbird Twinspark and went for my first Roadshakers meet in early November. There was no turning back after that. I had a tough time riding the bike and all hell broke loose when I went for the first few rides with the Roadshakers. I had lots of falls and was always the last guy in every stretch of every ride. These were times when my confidence was completely shaken but the constant encouragement that I got from the other riders somehow kept me going.
Slowly and gradually I became better. I signed up for my first long distance trip in February to Rann of Kutch. After that ride I became comfortable riding on the highways and on sand. It took me few more months of riding with the Roadshakers to become comfortable with stones, slush and the corners.
And so, by May I became hopeful of doing Ladakh this year itself. All I needed was some company. I had ruled out joining the Royal Enfield Himalayan Odyssey as they wont be doing the Srinagar-Leh route. Lots of people from Roadshakers were planning to do the ride this year but my dates did not overlap with them. Also, my intention of doing the ride was a bit different . I wanted to have a good balance between rough riding and leisure. It seemed to me that most of these guys emphasized mainly on the rough riding part. Not many of them really cared about the beauty of the place or in interacting with other travelers or the locals.
After a lot of searching I found that Amol, a fellow Roadshaker, had similar intentions as mine and that his dates were very flexible. And so it was decided that the two of us would ride all by ourselves this year. Luckily everything else fell in place for me. I was quitting my job in mid June and my university applications weren't due till late August. So July was a very good option for me. Amol wasnt sure till the last few days whether he would be able to get leave from work but we started preparations targeting the first week of July.
Preparations included getting the bike ready and purchase of a lot of things including spares, tools and riding gear. Another important aspect was hunting for information on the internet. Luckily Ladakh being a popular riding destination there was a lot of reliable first hand information available. I found the most useful stuff at 60kph and bcm touring. And here is the best travelogue that I came across in this period and this is what inspired me to write down my experiences.
I knew I wanted to do it and started digging up more information. But I had two obvious hurdles. I didn't know how to ride a motor bike and I had no motor bike.
Moreover, it seemed that most people did Ladakh on a Royal Enfield motorcycle and there sure were lots of advantages to using one of these. Given that these weigh almost 3 times my body weight, I had a hard time convincing myself that I would be able to ride one of these. Most people I discussed this with thought this was a suicidal thing to do and something that I would never be able to pull off. The more they stressed on this, the more I became sure that my first bike would be a royal enfield (RE).
Fortunately I came in touch with the Roadshakers, a Pune based Royal Enfield riding club. Lets just say that they are a bunch of the best riders in this part of the world. Over the next few days I was convinced that the REs are the only sensible option for terrains like Ladakh and that riding and maintaining an RE is not very difficult if you have the right people to guide you.
So I went ahead and got myself a shiny new RE Thunderbird Twinspark and went for my first Roadshakers meet in early November. There was no turning back after that. I had a tough time riding the bike and all hell broke loose when I went for the first few rides with the Roadshakers. I had lots of falls and was always the last guy in every stretch of every ride. These were times when my confidence was completely shaken but the constant encouragement that I got from the other riders somehow kept me going.
Slowly and gradually I became better. I signed up for my first long distance trip in February to Rann of Kutch. After that ride I became comfortable riding on the highways and on sand. It took me few more months of riding with the Roadshakers to become comfortable with stones, slush and the corners.
And so, by May I became hopeful of doing Ladakh this year itself. All I needed was some company. I had ruled out joining the Royal Enfield Himalayan Odyssey as they wont be doing the Srinagar-Leh route. Lots of people from Roadshakers were planning to do the ride this year but my dates did not overlap with them. Also, my intention of doing the ride was a bit different . I wanted to have a good balance between rough riding and leisure. It seemed to me that most of these guys emphasized mainly on the rough riding part. Not many of them really cared about the beauty of the place or in interacting with other travelers or the locals.
After a lot of searching I found that Amol, a fellow Roadshaker, had similar intentions as mine and that his dates were very flexible. And so it was decided that the two of us would ride all by ourselves this year. Luckily everything else fell in place for me. I was quitting my job in mid June and my university applications weren't due till late August. So July was a very good option for me. Amol wasnt sure till the last few days whether he would be able to get leave from work but we started preparations targeting the first week of July.
Preparations included getting the bike ready and purchase of a lot of things including spares, tools and riding gear. Another important aspect was hunting for information on the internet. Luckily Ladakh being a popular riding destination there was a lot of reliable first hand information available. I found the most useful stuff at 60kph and bcm touring. And here is the best travelogue that I came across in this period and this is what inspired me to write down my experiences.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment