Himalayas ride

XC1200 · Jul 28, 2015

jeeezzzzz....that iced over road up the side of the mountain must have had a few hair raising moments.... ;D

Flipside · Jul 28, 2015

Awesome trip, I have some questions:

1. Did you experience any altitude sickness (AMS)? Especially sleeping over in Sarchu.
2. Did you have any safety/military issues?
3. How reliable were the Enfields? How often were the mechanics needed?

lone riderer · Jul 28, 2015

what a coincidence, was just researching renting a bike in Ladakh. We're going over in July next year for a month. Won't be doing an organised tour though, just travelling by bike. Does this outfit rent bikes without doing the tour?

thanks!

FlyRide · Jul 29, 2015

Hi Guys

THere is a huge military presence in the area. Basically there is an ongoing dispute, between Pakistan, India, and the locals, over who owns the area, so LOTS of road blocks and check points etc, but never any issue at all. They value the tourism, and were all very friendly.

Leh has a commercial airfield, you could fly from Delhi to Leh, then very easily hire bikes there, for a few days, to visit the high passes, Nubra valley, and Pangong lake. Bike hire should be less than 1800 rupee - R350 odd per day. No, Ride of My life actually hire bikes from the mechanics who went with us on the trip.

Of the group of about 20 people with us, one guy suffered AMS. He needed to have supplemental oxygen a couple of times, and on two days didnt ride. We were advised to look into taking Diamox tablets, but with lots of research and discussion, we all decided not to take them. I think we all suffered a bit of dizziness, and maybe a slight headache or two, but nothing to worry about at all. At the top of one of the high passes - 17620 ft, we stopped for about 30 min, for tea and pics etc, then carried on, only to find the road was blocked by the military, trying to pull a truck up that had gone over the side - shown in one of the pics. So, we were at that atlitude for about 2 hours, with no major side effects. We slept at over 14000 ft a couple of times - Sarchu, Pangong lake etc, with no real ill effects from the alitude. Acclimatization is important, you need to take a few days getting used to it. Starting in Manali or Srinagar works well - about 6000 ft. leh is at about 11000 ft. Spent 3 nights there.

Overall we were impressed by the enfields. Not the most comforatble bikes, but fine. Light and easy on those roads. Even the guy who had a pillion, managed fine. Slight loss of power at alitude, but no problem We had no really breakdows or hassels with the bikes at all, a couple of minor things - hooters, indicators not working etc. Hooters are essential - everybody uses them all the time, to warn traffic coming around blind corners!! Road conditions very bad sometimes, lots of roadworks on the go all the time, lots of heavy traffic, busses, trucks, taxis, military convoys etc. Easy to have an accident, if youre not aware.

I could put you in contact with the same mechanics, maybe they would hire to you directly, for a well maintained bike. Some of the commercially available ones are apparently not as well maintained.

Hope that helps!

Larry

shanti · Jul 29, 2015

This guy is pretty good - he is a Kiwi living in India - https://www.facebook.com/BulletWallas?fref=ts
Here is his web site - https://www.bulletwallas.com/dynamic/

lone riderer · Aug 2, 2015

Great info there Larry, thanks. We just started researching this region. It's not meant to be a bike trip but it seems like the best way to get around but I'm not complaining

My girlfriend will be riding pillion. I will get in touch with you once we have our ducks lined-up if you don't mind, could you please pm me your email address? We both have high-altitude experience and don't mind the military presence much. We're quite keen to travel to Kashmir also if possible.

Thanks for link Shanti, we'll check him out also.