India: Delhi through Kashmir on a Royal piece of.... - Page 6

Joe Motocross · 01-20-2011, 08:17 AM

I guess we were'nt really too surprised about the Enfield reliability. I think we were just hoping for better luck in getting bikes that might not break down.

" I presume by the foreshadowing that something really bad happens to the bike....." Yeah, we had to drop the engine and split the case!! I don't know if anything worse can happen aside from crashing the thing!! ;)

The overall experience was out of this world and I wouldn't change a thing. Next time, no Enfield though.

arn · 01-20-2011, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Motocross

Next time, no Enfield though.

Just a hunch you'll enjoy your holiday a lot more. There's much to see and do, and there are very interesting people apart from bullet mechanics

I don't think most people come halfway around the world to spend a third of their time in India exploring the inside of grubby roadside repair shops. At least, I've not seen any ads exhorting visitors to "spend three days in a muddy dimly lit shop floor surounded by flies and assorted oily, defunct bike innards to watch highly skilled mechs take apart and reassemble broken down bullets using only a large hammer and a screwdriver and feed you 1 litre of tea every 2 days at the same time"

oregoncoast · 01-20-2011, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arn

I don't think most people come halfway around the world to spend a third of their time in India exploring the inside of grubby roadside repair shops. At least, I've not seen any ads exhorting visitors to "spend three days in a muddy dimly lit shop floor surounded by flies and assorted oily, defunct bike innards to watch highly skilled mechs take apart and reassemble broken down bullets using only a large hammer and a screwdriver and feed you 1 litre of tea every 2 days at the same time"

To each his own I guess

One man's adventure is another man's nightmare.

Can't wait to hear about getting the bike back together and whether it ever ran again...and how much the cost was for that engine rebuild

snurdle · 01-21-2011, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buuurrrt

This was our first experience with the Indian people who don't know anything about bikes wanting to tear right into the motor and fix the problem. Usually adding to the problem significantly. .

I don't think that's India's sole domain. I've had the same thing in Bolvia with a GS and California with an old car, everyone loves to help.

Great report, kudos for pressing on, bet you wish you checked the chain/sprockets and brakes before leaving just to get the wear rate. But some of the other stuff..... Honda have a bike called a "stunner"?

off topic.....Chanderjeet, where did you get that cool Avatar from?

arn · 01-21-2011, 08:32 AM

The nice thing about these small town garages is that no matter how difficult or complicated the job, they'll take a crack at it. Where an authorised service centre in the city may shoo you away making some excuse or the other most of these guys will repair ANYTHING motorized, from tractors to motorcycles.

If parts are not available, they'll improvise and get you on the road. Watching them troubleshoot and rectify problems can be a learning experience

996DL · 01-21-2011, 08:39 AM

I must have come across this thread while skimming "new posts", when all my subscribed threads were already read.

If it would've been just another monied bunch of westerners, buying new Asian bikes to enlighten themselves throughout India, It wouldn't have held my interest at all.

But two couples buying/renting already thrashed Royal Enfields, with full teardowns/rebuilds in remote villages and the trip is only just begun, SUBSCRIBED !

Seriously I don't do ride reports, it's just not why I'm here on ADVrider, but this one's got some real charm and certainly appears to be a real page turner. Safe journeys to all involved !

996DL

rednax · 01-21-2011, 11:31 AM

Old pieces of yunk, but it seems it turned into a nice experience

and for sure into a really good story nicely illustrated.

Subscribed !
By the way, isn´t the long line of customers outside the workshop just due to the fact that India is crawling with longlived Enfields ?

Joe Motocross · 01-21-2011, 11:32 AM

DAY 7:
We wake up and see the other group of Enfield fanatics off. They've had clutch work, brake pad replacement and a few other items taken care of. We'd learn that the Enfield clutch was one of the most problematic issues with these bikes as we'd start to see clutch covers off EVERYWHERE!! One of the girls is riding her own bike, pretty impressive considering the terrain and the road conditions.

We stop by Yogi's to check in. It's now the daytime scene with guys patiently waiting and lots of repairs going on. More Enfields stop in for this or that. Yogi tells us his boy is on his way over Rohtang and he's expecting the part late this evening.

So we've got a day off to take in this beautiful valley that Keylong sits in.

Keylong is isolated for the entire winter when the snow comes as the big mountain passes are closed. There is lots of avalanche activity and I could only imagine what it would be like to keep those passes plowed.

Here are some locals getting hay stockpiled for the upcoming winter. There was quite a bit of local farming happening around the village.

We walked around on little trails that wound down to the river with sites in every direction

This was the roof top of our accommodations. Great day to do a little laundry.

The people running the Nordaling Hotel were very nice and the food was EXCELLENT!! Tough to beat it's location also.

This was a great day to regroup, stretch, get our minds reset.

Buuurrrt and Maja took a ride down the valley to the confluence where the only gas station was.

We decided to have them fill up all of our containers so we'd be ready to depart when and if we got the bike fixed. Well, as I already said, we WOULD fix the bike no matter what and filling up with gas demonstrates that we were in the mind set of pushing on.

We were hoping to make it to Leh which would be as far north as we intended to go. We'd then work our way back south on a different route. With all the rain that had fallen recently, many of the roads were washed out. We would have to make a detour and lengthen our route to Leh as one of the big passes was closed. We were told a large section of the road was no longer there.

Buuurrrt and Maja climbed up to visit a monastery on their way back up to Keylong. Very stunning views from this little spur road.

Here's Buuurrrt taking it in, doing a mental reset. Awesome!!

We regrouped at the Nordaling and stowed our fuel. We went down to Yogi's to see what the status was on the part that was getting machined. He informed us it was done but the machinist wasn't able to get to it until late that afternoon and it was too late for Yogi's apprentice to ride back that night. He'd come in the morning. I was wondering if he'd make it to Kulu, get the part machined and make it back in a day, but things were coming together. We'd start wrenching again in the morning.

Joe Motocross · 01-21-2011, 11:38 AM

Oh yeah, we were also getting mentally prepped for the next big pass not that far up the road, Baralachala. After Rohtang, we were already anticipating a challenge. All you had to do was mention the name Baralachala to one of us and our hair would start to stand on end. (You gotta almost whisper it in an eerie tone: Baralachala!! BARALACHALA!!)

gs2008 · 01-21-2011, 01:43 PM

Excellent Write up. Keep it coming. Subscribed

rogerdodger · 01-21-2011, 04:55 PM

If there’s one thing I hope people learn and take away from India. Its that we are the only ones responsible for our lives and what happens in them. You can either live whining about it, or like the Indian’s look on everything good and bad with the same smile.

Baralacha!? its all easy after Rohtang

Joe Motocross · 01-21-2011, 05:08 PM

Well said Rodgerdodger! We deal our own destiny. I hope I don't come off whining about those Enfields. We chose them with prior knowledge and I wouldn't change a thing. Part of the adventure was the challenge of keeping them running. I just don't like em'!!

TLTom · 01-21-2011, 07:02 PM

[QUOTE=snurdle

off topic.....Chanderjeet, where did you get that cool Avatar from?[/QUOTE]

I asked myself the same!!

http://www.hermajestysthunder.com/

and...

thanks for making the effort of posting this great ride report.

thenation · 01-21-2011, 10:00 PM

Suscribed!

coolgoose2 · 01-22-2011, 12:36 AM

Great thread..

Anyway I am going to ride Ladakh in my beast this summer..

01-21-2011, 04:55 PM	#86
rogerdodger Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Nov 2006 Location: Atlanta USA/ London UK. Currently in Australia Oddometer: 455	If there’s one thing I hope people learn and take away from India. Its that we are the only ones responsible for our lives and what happens in them. You can either live whining about it, or like the Indian’s look on everything good and bad with the same smile. Baralacha!? its all easy after Rohtang __________________ Ride reports India Malaysia and Thailand Nepal Back home Georgia to Florida its not what I do, its the way that I do it.

01-21-2011, 07:02 PM	#88
TLTom Norse of 60 Joined: Oct 2007 Location: East Toronto, by the water Oddometer: 195	[QUOTE=snurdle off topic.....Chanderjeet, where did you get that cool Avatar from?[/QUOTE] I asked myself the same!! http://www.hermajestysthunder.com/ and... thanks for making the effort of posting this great ride report. TLTom screwed with this post 01-21-2011 at 07:18 PM

01-22-2011, 12:36 AM	#90
coolgoose2 Old Monk Joined: Dec 2009 Location: India Oddometer: 13	Great thread.. Anyway I am going to ride Ladakh in my beast this summer.. Attached Images

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01-20-2011, 08:17 AM	#76
Joe Motocross ^OP Gnarly Adventurer Joined: May 2007 Oddometer: 180	I guess we were'nt really too surprised about the Enfield reliability. I think we were just hoping for better luck in getting bikes that might not break down. " I presume by the foreshadowing that something really bad happens to the bike....." Yeah, we had to drop the engine and split the case!! I don't know if anything worse can happen aside from crashing the thing!! ;) The overall experience was out of this world and I wouldn't change a thing. Next time, no Enfield though.

01-21-2011, 08:32 AM	#80
arn Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Oct 2007 Location: Traffic jam capital of the world, Mumbai Oddometer: 340	The nice thing about these small town garages is that no matter how difficult or complicated the job, they'll take a crack at it. Where an authorised service centre in the city may shoo you away making some excuse or the other most of these guys will repair ANYTHING motorized, from tractors to motorcycles. If parts are not available, they'll improvise and get you on the road. Watching them troubleshoot and rectify problems can be a learning experience

01-21-2011, 08:39 AM	#81
996DL Buell me Joined: Aug 2006 Location: too far from the Rockies... Oddometer: 2,020	I must have come across this thread while skimming "new posts", when all my subscribed threads were already read. If it would've been just another monied bunch of westerners, buying new Asian bikes to enlighten themselves throughout India, It wouldn't have held my interest at all. But two couples buying/renting already thrashed Royal Enfields, with full teardowns/rebuilds in remote villages and the trip is only just begun, SUBSCRIBED ! Seriously I don't do ride reports, it's just not why I'm here on ADVrider, but this one's got some real charm and certainly appears to be a real page turner. Safe journeys to all involved ! 996DL

01-21-2011, 11:31 AM	#82
rednax Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Dec 2007 Location: Gothenburg Sweden Oddometer: 109	Old pieces of yunk, but it seems it turned into a nice experience and for sure into a really good story nicely illustrated. Subscribed ! By the way, isn´t the long line of customers outside the workshop just due to the fact that India is crawling with longlived Enfields ?

01-21-2011, 11:32 AM	#83
Joe Motocross ^OP Gnarly Adventurer Joined: May 2007 Oddometer: 180	DAY 7: We wake up and see the other group of Enfield fanatics off. They've had clutch work, brake pad replacement and a few other items taken care of. We'd learn that the Enfield clutch was one of the most problematic issues with these bikes as we'd start to see clutch covers off EVERYWHERE!! One of the girls is riding her own bike, pretty impressive considering the terrain and the road conditions. We stop by Yogi's to check in. It's now the daytime scene with guys patiently waiting and lots of repairs going on. More Enfields stop in for this or that. Yogi tells us his boy is on his way over Rohtang and he's expecting the part late this evening. So we've got a day off to take in this beautiful valley that Keylong sits in. Keylong is isolated for the entire winter when the snow comes as the big mountain passes are closed. There is lots of avalanche activity and I could only imagine what it would be like to keep those passes plowed. Here are some locals getting hay stockpiled for the upcoming winter. There was quite a bit of local farming happening around the village. We walked around on little trails that wound down to the river with sites in every direction This was the roof top of our accommodations. Great day to do a little laundry. The people running the Nordaling Hotel were very nice and the food was EXCELLENT!! Tough to beat it's location also. This was a great day to regroup, stretch, get our minds reset. Buuurrrt and Maja took a ride down the valley to the confluence where the only gas station was. We decided to have them fill up all of our containers so we'd be ready to depart when and if we got the bike fixed. Well, as I already said, we WOULD fix the bike no matter what and filling up with gas demonstrates that we were in the mind set of pushing on. We were hoping to make it to Leh which would be as far north as we intended to go. We'd then work our way back south on a different route. With all the rain that had fallen recently, many of the roads were washed out. We would have to make a detour and lengthen our route to Leh as one of the big passes was closed. We were told a large section of the road was no longer there. Buuurrrt and Maja climbed up to visit a monastery on their way back up to Keylong. Very stunning views from this little spur road. Here's Buuurrrt taking it in, doing a mental reset. Awesome!! We regrouped at the Nordaling and stowed our fuel. We went down to Yogi's to see what the status was on the part that was getting machined. He informed us it was done but the machinist wasn't able to get to it until late that afternoon and it was too late for Yogi's apprentice to ride back that night. He'd come in the morning. I was wondering if he'd make it to Kulu, get the part machined and make it back in a day, but things were coming together. We'd start wrenching again in the morning.

01-21-2011, 11:38 AM	#84
Joe Motocross ^OP Gnarly Adventurer Joined: May 2007 Oddometer: 180	Oh yeah, we were also getting mentally prepped for the next big pass not that far up the road, Baralachala. After Rohtang, we were already anticipating a challenge. All you had to do was mention the name Baralachala to one of us and our hair would start to stand on end. (You gotta almost whisper it in an eerie tone: Baralachala!! BARALACHALA!!)

01-21-2011, 01:43 PM	#85
gs2008 Adventurer Joined: Jan 2011 Oddometer: 70	Excellent Write up. Keep it coming. Subscribed

01-21-2011, 05:08 PM	#87
Joe Motocross ^OP Gnarly Adventurer Joined: May 2007 Oddometer: 180	Well said Rodgerdodger! We deal our own destiny. I hope I don't come off whining about those Enfields. We chose them with prior knowledge and I wouldn't change a thing. Part of the adventure was the challenge of keeping them running. I just don't like em'!!

01-21-2011, 10:00 PM	#89
thenation n00b Joined: Feb 2010 Oddometer: 5	Suscribed!