Ride Report: The India Ride Expedition

Have a great trip, I'ver heard Leh is beautiful. We actually had planned on going but we couldn't obtain filming permits and visas so we had to hold back. However, we've heard that the route we took is actually more difficult as the Leh route is very well travelled, especially by a lot of tour groups. I'm sure you'll be fine and have an amazing experience. Thanks for the advice on Pushkar, we're off to Kuchaman city today.

all the best
mindactivated said:
Awesome!! :)

I'm flying to India next week for a 4 week trip... heading to Leh & the Ladakh region for a 19 day trek, and one of the things we want to do in Leh is to rent a couple of motorcycles and go for a scoot - much farther north than Manali. I couldn't imagine driving up all the way to Leh from what you describe!! I'll definitely be checking this out, stay safe on the trip!! :)

By the way, not sure if it's too late, but you should swing by Pushkar, it looks like it's going to be on your way: http://goo.gl/maps/Ch7bS

It's a beautiful little town with a lake, and they have some of the best mango lassi there.
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Day 10: Today our team passed through beautifully raw and rugged desert landscapes, and while their day started off normally, on their arrival to Bikaner things began to get a little bit weird. Upon arriving to Bikaner the team proceed south to Deshnoke and visited the Karni Mata Temple, also known as "The Rat Temple". If you have a phobia of rats it's best that you stop reading this email now and move on with your other work, but if you are curious to see what one sect of Hinduism looks like, then please carry on. This sect of Hinduism believes that humans, when they die, are reincarnated in to rats, and vise versa. So hundreds of worshipers per day visit this temple and feed the rats, pray to the rats, and touch the rats. While we try our best not to judge, we must conclude that this was a very strange place indeed, that made for some excellent television.


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Day 11: After traveling about 152km from Bikaner south on Highway 89 our Mahindra vehicle stopped registering gears and was completely immobile by 1145am. Sure this was some bad news for our team, but the good news was we were just 10km outside of Nagaur and after making a few calls to our friends at Mahindra we had a truck come out and tow us within 60 minutes of making our initial call. After being picked up and towed in to town we were taken to the Mahindra dealership and they immediately had 8 people working on our car and had us back on the road in just under 3 hours. Within 5 hours of being stranded on the road The India Ride team was back on track with a new clutch and our spirits were very high.


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Day 12: After making quick repairs to our Mahindra yesterday we were back on the road today in spectacular fashion covering a massive 400km between Nagaur and Udaipur. The journey consisted of everything from one lane roads through farming villages to brand new expressways. It offered our team an exciting look at both new India and traditional India as we drifted between larger urban centres and traditional agricultural communities. We had to push hard today to make up lost time with our breakdown yesterday and we are very pleased to say that Udaipur is a stunning location and one of the more exciting stops on our journey.



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Day 13: After traveling over 2,500km in our first 12 days on the India Ride, our team took a much needed rest day today. Today was a chance to reflect on the amazing journey we've had until this point in our adventure; and today was a opportunity to refocus and re-energize on the challenges and rewards that lay ahead of us. I've attached a shot from one of most beautiful days of riding: We had just crossed over the Rohtang Pass and we were heading north, the landscape changed from high-altitude alpine rocks and slate and lush green mountains and lakes. India continues to pleasantly surprise our team on a daily basis, and after our brief rest, we are getting ourselves ready to begin the remaining portion of our adventure around India.


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A great typical Indian breakfast on Day 1 just North of Delhi.
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A shot from the top Rohtang Pass after a long 50km and 4 hours battling tough roads, traffic and weather.
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A shot from the other side of the Rohtang Pass. Some very happy riders to see this on the other side.
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The team road into Udaipur, HP after a very long day. They arrived just before sunset and the village was winding down the day all around them.
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A great scenic shot of the picturesque villages on the mountain in the Chamba Valley.
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An Indian border guard with a great mustache and sunglasses at the Wagah border. The border ceremony was amazing!!
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Some local kids checking us out as we stopped for a drink of water.
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As the team entered the desserts of Rajasthan, camels became a very common way for people and cargo to get around.
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The team try and figure out what to do with a burnt clutch in 38 degree heat.
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Some local school kids helped us pass the time while we waited to get our Mahindra support vehicle to be towed.
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I think the team found a future Bullet rider!!!
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The view just before the team jumped off a cliff in Manali.
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Some road construction on the side of a mountain on the way up the Saach pass.
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A man in traditional Sikh attire standing in front of the Golden Temple.
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The Wagah border crossing ceremony had a special spot for foreigners :)
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A shot of some intense border guards during the Wagah border ceremony.
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The lineup to pray int the main temple at the Karni Mata (Rat Temple)
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Our great Mahindra support vehicle cooking in the dessert sun while waiting for help on it's burnt clutch.
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The team recruited some kids to help push the car into shade while it waited for a tow. It was hot very hot.
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Day 15: After a much needed hiatus in Udaipur the India Ride Team is back on the road, where we belong. Today the team traveled an epic 380km on National Highway #8, heading straight south from Udaipur to Vadodara, Gujarat. The roads were wonderful in the early mornings coming out of Udaipur but they deteriorated later in the day as the traffic increased, the road quality decreased and the temperature went through the roof!!! Today was also notable because Colin managed to get food poisoning at some stage along the journey and today he was suffering for pretty much the entire day of riding. To be riding in India is one thing, to be riding with symptoms of food poisoning is something completely different. He is putting in a fantastic effort and we'll have to wait until morning to see how far we'll be able to aim for tomorrow. We've got plenty of meds and he just requires a bit of rest. We'll update on this situation tomorrow.




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i am not sure if this ride report is supposed to have photos or video but ... they are not showing up for me.
 
Good job. Sounds like a good adventure
 
Refrain from eating anything from food carts + only drink bottled water....
 
Day 16: Today was a fantastic day. Colin fully recovered from his food poisoning and the team completed an incredibly arduous 401km over perfect modern highways and pothole covered dirt roads. In many ways today was a day of extremes, as we had some of the best roads that we've encountered on our journey, as well as some of the worst. Leaving Vadodara very early we headed south on National Highway #8 and completed some serious kilometers early in the day. And again, like most days, the moment we left the National Highway and took a secondary road the quality of road deteriorated and left everyone thinking we were back on day 4 on the Rohtang Pass. By late in the day, as the sun began to set, we finally rolled in to the Sula Vineyards just outside of Nashik. The destination was chosen because the vineyards are situated in the mountains and offered respite from the challenging heat of the last few days. That coupled with the fact that very few people, including both Colin and Ryan, had realized that India is producing some high quality wines.




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Day 17: Day seventeen of the India Ride was a day of extreme contrasts. We started our day waking up to birds chirping and cool winds blowing through a quiet vineyard. That's right, the India Ride Team spent the night at the Sula Vineyards just outside of Nashik in Western India. The India Ride team enjoyed some fine wines, grown just a few hours drive from Mumbai, but they also had a chance to rest and reconnect with nature after spending most of last week traveling through the bad lands of Rajasthan, were the scorched desert landscape offered little in the way of greenery. Colin and Ryan also completed a tour and learned about wine making general, but also why wine growing in India is particularly unique. It was a wonderful 24hrs of peace, serenity, and brilliant wines. And then the contrast...After lunch, our team headed out from Nashik to Mumbai and the 180km journey took a little over 5 hours as the team faced twisting roads, traffic and a torrential rain storm. Today was just another reminder that India will challenge you, and reward you, in completely different ways several times a day; and that is really why we are in India and doing this journey, because everyday is completely different from the last and there is so much still left to see.


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sid_for_speed said:
Refrain from eating anything from food carts + only drink bottled water....
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thanks for the tip - we've all been very careful but it's India and I think at some point it just will catch up. Colin got sick at a pretty nice hotel, you can just never let your guard down :)
 
Seems like the Bullets are more durable than the Mahindra...
2 clutches in less than 5000 km, was it covered under warranty?
 
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