When I’m travelling by myself, I tend not to do a lot of planning, I just go with the flow.
BHPian amyntor recently shared this with other enthusiasts
Sharing the details of my trip like I promised.
The thoughts of riding from my home to Ladakh have been making rounds in my mind ever since I started riding motorcycles (which wasn’t too long ago btw, in 2022). I finally decided to put an end to my imaginations and do it before I turned three decades old (in 2025).
Last week of September is when I would start, I said to myself. I asked a friend of mine, who was equally smitten by the idea, if he’d like to join me. I didn’t get a resounding yes from him, which was a bummer.
Solo it is then.
When I’m travelling by myself, I tend not to do a lot of planning, I just go with the flow. If I meet a good companion on the way who’s more organized than me, I just follow them. If I don’t, I ride till I get bored and find place to crash (not literally) for the night.
This was the outline I had for my trip:
1. I go to Hyderabad first and buy some winter wear, medicines, and other essentials for the trip
2. Leave from Hyderabad and reach Himachal Pradesh as soon as I can
3. Relax in Himachal for a week and get acclimatized to the altitudes
4. Then make my way to Ladakh
5. Return home whenever I want to
And so it begins.
Day 1:
I kicked things off from my sister’s house in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh and rode to Hyderabad.
Distance: 492 km
Total distance: 492 km
Day 2:
Technically, it’s not day 2 of the ride because I stopped in Hyderabad for the reasons I mentioned earlier and I had to wait until weekend to resume my riding. A lot of uneventful things happened here when my phone took a nosedive off the magnetic mobile holder and its camera shattered in thousand pieces. I had to buy a new phone. Sigh. I blame this on the terrible windshield I installed. I thought I was upgrading my ride but ended up with a comedy of errors.
Moving on, I started from Hyderabad at 6 in the morning. I was feeling particularly daring, so I ditched the navigation and went full-on adventurer mode. I managed to reach Sagar, Madhya Pradesh at 10 PM, fully exhausted and my back hurting. NH44 in MP isn’t in the best of conditions with broken roads and bumpy rides.
Distance: 900 km
Total distance: 1392 km
Day 3:
I hopped out of bed at 6 AM and after a refreshing shower, I was ready for the day of riding. My destination was New Delhi. I was going to meet a mutual friend and stop there for a couple of days. My plan was to get the bike checked and serviced before heading to Himachal Pradesh. But when does anything go according to plan? KTM app showed that most service centres are fully booked for the day. I called a few places nearby, and each one gave me the same news—they couldn’t get my bike back to me the same day. The bike wasn’t due for service for another 2500 km, and it was running like a dream, so I decided to roll with it.
Distance: 630 km
Total distance: 2022 km
Day 4: Target Himachal
The next day I was up early at 5:30 in the morning from RK Puram, Delhi and managed to reach Shimla by 4 PM, making plenty of stops to soak in the breathtaking views along the way
Distance: 370 km
Total distance: 2392 km
Day 5:
Remember how my friend stayed behind while I started my solo journey? Well, I video called him every day, showed him the stunning landscapes and sent pictures of my rides. That magic worked and caused so much FOMO that he caved in and agreed to join me from Manali
So, I took a couple of days in Shimla explore the town and squeeze in some work.
On the day of departure, I was back in the saddle at 7:30 AM. It had been raining since the night before, but I was geared up and ready to take the challenge from the rain gods. I arrived in Manali by 2 PM.
Distance: 227 km
Total distance: 2619 km
After two more days of waiting in Manali, my friend finally joined me and brought along three more friends with him. So, we became a gang of five in Manali, ready to conquer the mountains.
He shipped his bike (Honda CB350 H’ness) from Hyderabad to Delhi and rode it from Delhi to Manali to meet me. The other two guys rented a Classic 350 from Delhi.
We went paragliding in Solang Valley, rode through some backgrounds and mountain roads in Manali to get a good look around town.
Then we started making plans on where to go. We learned that the rental bike wouldn’t be allowed into Ladakh. Feeling a bit defeated, our destination changed to Spiti instead.
Day 6:
We started off at 8 AM in Manali. The adventure started early for our group, when the Classic 350’s throttle went haywire. It started going full throttle just as we left Manali. It felt scary and dangerous. We managed to get the bike back to Manali and parked it outside a mechanic shop, waiting for it to open. Eventually, the mechanic confirmed our suspicions. The throttle wire was busted and needed replacing. While he got to work, I started chatting with him about our plans and how bummed we were about missing out on Ladakh.
And then, just like that, everything changed again.
The mechanic casually mentioned that since the rental bike had a white plate and not a black/yellow one, no one would stop it from entering Ladakh. My eyes lit up. I looked at my friends and they understood that the plan was going to change again despite them not knowing much Hindi.
We jumped back on our original plan — riding to the land of the high passes!
A lot of events transpired in our Ladakh trip. Us getting separated and lost was one, while the highlight was when we were stopped outside of Leh by some protesters and were blocked from leaving the area. Getting stranded in remote villages while I went door to door trying to find accommodation for the night is another one. There’s a lot to write about the trip but they would more appropriate on a travelogue thread.
Some pictures from the ride
It’s not everyday you see a view like this in the rear view mirror (unless you are from Ladakh of course)
After weeks of filling myself with rotis, chapatis, and dal, what I found in the middle of nowhere in Ladakh brought life back to my taste buds.
Andhra ginger pickle in Photoksar. It felt unreal.
That’s me. Promise I don’t have a green face IRL.
Getting back to relevant bits. How did the bike perform? Three words – like a charm. It turned heads everywhere I went.
Coming to the service experience, I reached Chandigarh just in time the service was due. It was 4 PM and I called the service centre closest to where I stayed in Chandigarh. To my surprise, they agreed to service the bike and return it on the same day if I hand it to them in next 30 minutes! So, without further ado, I promptly got out of the hotel and reached the service centre as soon as I could. They attentively listened to whatever I said and opened the job card. The service advisor there remarked that it’s the second gen 3 Duke 390 they were seeing that had so much mileage in less than a year (It was around 23 thousand kilometres then). They finished working on the bike and returned it in under 100 minutes! That must be a record.
Here’s what changed (apart from the usual stuff like oil, filters etc.):
- Replaced the front brake pads – sintered. The previous ones lasted from 12400 to 23000 kilometres. Not bad.
- Rear break pads – organic.
- Spark plug
Overall, it costed 6268 rupees.
The next day I left Chandigarh for Delhi. But as the fate would have it again, my plan was changed because I was invited to a wedding in Chandigarh. So, I returned to Chandigarh again. While the whole wedding shebang was going, my Duke chilled in a parking lot for a couple of days. When it was time for me to say goodbye to Chandigarh one last time, I was welcomed to this in the parking lot.
I immediately jumped on the saddle and made it to same the service centre again. I also noticed that the grinding sound the chain made when I was returning from Himachal Pradesh, had invited itself again. Oil leakage and chain sound do not make a good ride and the folks at the service centre nodded in agreement. This time around they had more bikes to tend to and it was almost lunchtime. So, it took them about 4 hours to finish tending to the bike. The culprit was a busted oil seal. I asked them to change the whole chainset and the sprockets too. They obliged again.
Total damage to the wallet: INR 3607
I rode 3000 kilometres again to get back home. Overall, the whole trip was 7000 kilometres across the country.
Last pic for the post. Who’s a handsome devil?
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