Motorbike Trip- Manali, Kaza, Spiti, Kinnaur, Sangla

Hippie at Heart

Hullo there, onset of summer and then into frying pen lockups is going to be a reality sooner. I was thinking about going down south, Bombay and around but when I remembered last year getting out of an old battered Fiat taxi with a registration number MCP 666, my loath ness about that over run city came a rushing. I want to get back to hills again. Here is the plan, I prefer riding a motorbike and would like to do a trip starting from Delhi to Manali, kaza (not leh) spiti, and kinnaur distt of Himachal.

If anyone riding a bike would like to come around and join me on that is welcome, but here is a little Disclaimer, if you are still an active tree hugging hippie, high strung army drop out, drug lord or carrier, homosexual bohemian, whiner and a total nit who wont know carburetor from crank, with due apologies in advance you don’t need to get back to me!!

But if you have even a passing interest in way of hill life, people, nature and happy go lucky sort of chap and like to go on this trip can drop me a line on private msg here. Duration of trip is about 15 days and includes nearly 2000 Kms on Odo, starting in about June first or second week once I settle the leave issue with office. I wont expect you to turn up kitted like a GP racer on R1 or Hayabusa but I expect you know a thing or two about maintaining your bike where there is no service available in remote areas.

Cheers

vishant

cud i sit with u on ur bike...

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Alan D

I'm not surprised you haven't had many takers so far. You have effectively ruled out most of the members of indiamike.com with the above restrictions

Have a great time though. It's a beautiful area and we did the same trip last September by bus and taxi.

Yours etc
Active tree hugging hippies

Hippie at Heart

heh Alan, I did Leh Srinagar 2 yrs ago as well, and some (claimed?) punter of NYSE fell along from leh to srinagar, and you can trust me it wasn’t funny to fix his chocking carbs like 30 times till Delhi or to keep that Marco polo off trying to paw Muslim woman in cities like Drass even. I am never against a good spirited thwack but if it involves local Muslim woman and combined with a drool, then I have serious reservations about my safety ! They say life is a big learning curve, I don’t want mine to look like a heartbeat blip

I wont mind no takers since it guarantee a blessed stupor and some Manali cream too, ahem ahemm, a spliff for ol time sake wont harm my city bred consciousness I guess, thanks for your wishes, cheers!!

soulfood

Hey there -- I haven't looked at the map yet but if you could squeezze in Dharamshala in your route, it'd be a dream trip.

I'm too young to have been a hippie, am neither high strung nor an Army dropout, never did drugs [heck, I don't smoke or booze either], am only attracted to the other sex but not too much, am pretty easy to be with and am very interested in people and nature and hill life.

I have a Yezdi [Road King 250] which is in decent condition. But I'm close to being a total nit when it comes to maintainence. I DO know carburetor from crank, however and can change the tyre or clutch wire with ease but not much else.

Hey, I even went on 1000 km long bike trip once with 3 more friends [not this bike though]. We completed the trip in a crazy 55 hours, the last 10 hours of so of which almost killed one of us as this guy fell asleep while riding! But we learnt our lesson -- never to ride when you should be sleeping.

Hippie at Heart

Hi soulfood, I wish if I had Dharamshala on itinerary as well, but sadly I don’t have. And don’t worry about what you know about your bike, yazdi is an amazing piece of robust machine and simplest of them all in my opinion. Even a standard piston will service you for good 60+ grand Kms given Yazdi’s lower compression heads. Idea is always carry basic toolkit and few extra spares. And don’t burn your clutch plates.

Just an advice, it will be better if you do that circit in Aug or around… that way you can loop in Chamba and manimahesh mela at Janamastmi as well, great weather and some easy trekking too, should be fun.

Cheers

soulfood

Thanks for all your advice! I don't have any immediate plans so it will be in the later half of the year if it happens at all. I'm not sure about doing it solo though. Do you ride alone most of the time?

What about camping equipment...is it preferable to carry something with you or do you always try to find a place to spend the night.

Thanks

Hippie at Heart

Yes soul, now a days I increasingly find myself doing solo trips but some company isn’t too bad but I go solo mainly becz then its easy to just about knock anywhere when you want to stay and nobody whine and cring about those flea bites one get sleeping next to sheep in the pan. Hope you get the drift !
I have learned and stopped carrying camping equipments on bike trips, you wud need them only on trekking trips, I guess this need to carry stuff bourn out of the idea to isolate yrself from crowds and do your own things yourself and somewhat from the hesitation to let go of fixed ideas.

Just don’t be a paranoid about security and let go, what one might steal from you high up in hills except some cash and a fancy camera? Don’t worry they cant carry away yr mobike. There was a long post I have given about mountain motor biking in some web forum, will get you that if you interested.

crvlvr

Sounds like an awesome adventure (well i just happen to be watching Motorcycle Diaries). Do you have any dates in mind? That would be paramount, as I'll have to fly down for this trip.. How many people are you planning to round up? I do meet all your criteria..

soulfood

Yes, I'd really appreciate that. I tried Google but couldn't find it.
Thanks.

Hippie at Heart

Soul that website is down and I never bothered to keep backup of the write-up, will post you as soon as that site is back. So long J

Crvlvr, there are no dates fixed yet becz I have to fix my leave issues with the company yet, this year it snowed hell lot in Himalayas so they might open up the passes bit late, say about 10-12 days later then usual. What dates you have in your mind? “as I'll have to fly down for this trip.. How many people are you planning to round up?” …. I wasn’t thinking a big group, for one am not taking business interest in here secondly I hv found it’s a racket anymore then 3 people out there and slightly unmanageable.

What you say?

kaushiks

Hippie, rest assured , over crowding won't be a problem. You will be probably be alone. I myself am interested.
However, I have been seriously planning for four years now. I can't plan holidays so far ahead and I can't get guys who can get holidays at the same time. And with such a small weather buffer available it is almost impossible.
Still, hope reigns supreme. What bike do you have?. I have none. Plan to buy a second hand bullet and throw it away after a few trips.
I hear Karizma is cool too.

Hippie at Heart

Bullet the old brit thumper is a piece of junk anyways, what good it will do throwing away more junk!! But then again just a matter of choice, motor biking there you need a smaller but peppy and torqy bike not a thumper unless you are 90+ kilo. Kari is nice bike but expensive. Up there i don’t trust personally anything that’s too complicated, for my own touring i have an old Yamaha Twiner. Still I feel nothing to beat those perky small RX100 or RXZ 135 CC two stockers once you master the idea that feels like riding a jumpy frog.

kaushiks

Hi hippie,
Have you done such long trips with a two stroke bike like RX100. You won't reach. I myself have an RX100, but won't use that for this.

soulfood

Okai. Thanks.