HP Ride - Day 1 or so i thought

29/09/09
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Chaos theory or Murphy's laws, I definitely must become an example to quote. The bike doesn't get delivered to Shashi's door step as promised. But thats cause he isnt there.
Everyone was in Delhi by late last night.
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Astad, Manish and I rush (if that makes sense given Delhi's traffic) to Okhla Industrial Area to get the bike. So there is after all the Okhla Phase 1 after 3,2!! The packing was great and nothigs broken. 11am and the bike is finally ready to run.
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And no, we didnt go back home, slide our bags over the bikes and ride away. We spent another 90 minutes to find a way into Karolbagh in the sweltering heat to get Astad's & Manish' bike fixed. Damn the clutch plates, they didnt ever climb a hill on the way. So we are standing at the famous "Bawa Garage" with the Bawa, a frail old man now, bestowing all his unwanted attention on me. His side kick working on a bike that belonged to some foreigner. Bawa was boasting away of all the embassy staff that has been scurrying all over delhi in the bullets he "supplied". There actually are a few news paper clippings and thank you plaques given by the Canadian Embassy staff with a picture of the staff posing with their bullets. All done up by Bawa.
It was fun to hear Bawa (some 80 years old now) crib and say "sab sale behen**** hai yaha".
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And we didnt have the good fortune of the Sardar Bawa fixing the our Parsi Bawa. The bikes tho were fixed by a lesser mortal across the street and it was finally 4pm that i came back to Green Park! Unanimous that we weren't starting today. All we wanted was to go tuck ourselves into a comfy bed. Wasn't meant to be.
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Delhi heat leaves you sweaty, slimy and irritated. So no hope of any sleep. Shashi came home early so we were wandering near the Jama Masjid for a while.
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Day 1 - 9pm, I'm still at home. Re-arranging the luggage in the bags, making calls to Bawa and Sanket to firm up plans. Tomorrow 4am at ISBT they said. Sanket came over and went off to sleep. I couldn't. Never could before a ride. Any ride and this wasnt just any. So whats better than actually watching a nice, masala & hence super duper hit telugu movie to while away the night. Almost time....

HP Ride - Day 0

I was off to Delhi by a Kingfisher Red at 6.40pm on 28th. A night before, the packing lasted far too long than i expected. And the saddle bags refused to accomodate the clothes, spares, sandals & riding gear. Can't wear the gear in the flight can i? So guess what? The saddle bags, riding gear and the knick knacks (i never actually brought them along on the ride now!) were all dumped into the biggest suitcase i had.
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8.30pm and i'm standing in a painfully long queue for a pre-paid cab at the airport, aware that this was going to be another long day. 10.30pm and after some 25 odd kilometers of looking for Shashi's house in Green Park Extn, i was finally settled in. BTW, Kingfisher Red now serves hot snacks for free!!
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HP Ride -- All set.

The bike is already in Delhi, tho at the godown and not sure why not at Shashi's place. Murphy's law at work. Reaches Delhi in 3 days and then rusting in the godown for 3 after.
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The stuff is all over the bed in the study lying besides the saddlebags. Spares, clothes, gear, camera and works. Damn can't find the tank bags when i desparately need them. The entire house is a mess for everything inside the cupboards is strewn on the floors now!
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Not time to pose before the Video Cam. Guess will have to learn run time.
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The team is now 5!
1. Astad
2. Sanket
3. Manish
4. Manish + 1 (No name yet)
5. Myself
4 bullets and a pillion.
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Astad & Sanket left at 6pm on 25th Sept for Delhi. The halt for the night was at Baroda after about 457kms and 1 set of clutch plates later. Astad's already burnt his first set of clutch plates and we haven't even seen a pass yet! I'm carrying a new set tomorrow. The last word today was that they were in Udaipur at around lunch on the way to Pushkar after a hearty breakfast of Khaman Dhokla & Tomato Soas at Baroda! :)
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Manish was off from Hyderabad on friday night and was at Nizamabad for the night. No news today yet.

HP Ride -- Almost time now.

The bike is finally off on a truck for Delhi. The camera has a new KATA backpack. I'm now dusting my jacket, filling my saddle bags, worrying about the weather and getting swayed by suggestions on whether i should go Chamba first or Kaza first. Basically the clocks ticking. Just not ticking fast enough!

Moto-Cam?

A product from http://www.pointofviewcameras.com/
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Gaurav Jani has inspired me to risk a 30k handy cam on my trip to HP this year. I want to try and make a video travellogue on this trip. First things first though. Which means i'm going to try and spend some time in front of the camera to get comfortable.
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Fabricating the mount is going to be a nice little challenge. There won't be roads for at least the first half of the ride from Chamba till Keylong via Killar/Chery. The weather, given the kind of news thats pouring in, is going to be wet and wild.
Guess the requirements for the mount would be:
1. Sturdy and fixes firmly to the bike. Most likely on the handle bar.
2. Removable so that it can be dismounted it once back in the city.
3. If possible, adjustable in width & length to accomodate different sizes.
4. Mounting similar to the a tripod so that the camera can be screwed on top and removed. Remember, its the nut that needs to rotate cause the camera can't in the mount. :p
5. Rubber sides to absorb the vibrations and keep the picture from shaking too much.
6. Should allow me to open the screen and view the recording without having to take it out.

Hmmmm...let me think some more.

HP Ride - The bike is now prepped.

Its hard to focus on work when all you want to do is get away so bad. The last update i posted was on 11th but the prep was always on in the background. I had made sure that the bike was given in good hands to be readied for the ride while i chipped away at "mountains" of work in the office. And guess what? The bike is done and runs like new! Not sure it ran this well the day i picked it up, brand new from the showroom.
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Kunal, the mech, has done a thorough job on only 1 instruction - the bike is going places where even army trucks are rarely spotted. The wallet was drained empty 1 nut at a time. But on rides like this, other than the safety gear, its the bikes condition that decides the degree of pain you may save yourself. Especially in freak weather at 15000ft.
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Here is how much it costs to "new up" an old bike.

HP Ride - The route.

Ok! So here is how long the primary route should be from Delhi. So we are atleast traveling 1890kms+/- 200kms. Needs to be fine tuned since there need to be a number of detours around these places to go visit monastries, gompas, valleys, lakes and what not. Nice!

HP Ride - Weather this week

HP Ride - A (snowy?) ride around himachal.

So i think its going to work out after all. 2 wheeling on/around the red-dotted line.
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It takes months to convince junta at home to let me get away for a week or so in the mountains. It takes a lot of time to find buddies interested in riding along. Then it takes a while for them to work out how long can they be away from the worldly responsibilities. It really is a test of patience cause all you want to do is get your butt on the bike and ride away. Finally the fun begins - Poring over maps and plotting the route, running checklists, getting the bike prepped, chatting on forums with folks up north about road conditions-weather and dreaming of being up in the clouds!!!
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Here it is for 2009. A ride through 2 of the most scenic valleys (Lahaul & Spiti) & 1 scenic, remote & inaccessible valley (Pangi) in Himachal. Plan A for this year was to trek to Pangi but Plan B was better. Just ride to it. Not that i'm going to set any records of being the first one to do so but what the heck, Ladakh seriously isn't about growing up anymore. Too much tar on the way.
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More in the coming weeks......

Tarkarli - 2009 ;-)

Time to do what I love the best. First ride of the season to Tarkarli. Here are two possible route maps. The maps are off Google so the Eicher Road Atlas just might come handy!

Route 1 - 390kms
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Quicker route with maximum time spent on NH4.

















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Route 2 - 447kms
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Longer route but more time spent on NH17. Riskier in the rains but more rewarding.