kurtrules

Great captures there, specially the flower macro!

phoenixflight

awesome...simply awesome...hopefully one day me and caesar make it there...

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Phoenixflight

varun_r15

wow..!!
very nice..!!

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'Santa

Its great to have you guys back....

May this thread become 'Sticky' too!!!

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pistonheadz

Flashback - December, 2008. I had already shifted to Bangalore six months back. This coupled with work pressure had really taken its toll on the communication channels with Kolkata. Got a welcome break in December and managed to land in Bong land to make it up. Life would have rolled on at its usual pace had it not been for the notorious “adda” sessions bengali’s are famous for. It was a standard evening session with friends and cups of chai, we happily cursing our lives, till someone popped THE question…
“Why not hit Ladakh next year ?”. Bloody bugger, what do you know about Ladakh ? Do you have any idea how much it costs ? And what about leaves ? they are surely gonna throw us away if we tell them this plan. And yes, what am I going to tell my parents ? they are going to freak out for sure. No way I am going to do it. Like my father will put it, it’s a serious case of “infantile disorder” !! I was about to impart a superb gyan session on the points above specially my favourite part where I get to say “We are growing old, and its high time we start acting mature”. Boy I can be such a saddist !! But, but, wait a second, something stopped me from carrying out this devious ploy. Something deep inside me had cracked and the all so familiar smell of adventure had already started to leak out. It was clouding my senses like an all consuming passion.
My thoughts take me back to April, 2007. Our first ever trip to the Himalayas. Sikkim. At that time Sikkim was right at the edge of our imagination, anything beyond that was unthinkable. But as we zipped across the Himalayas, our thirst for THE ultimate adventure had grown within us. Fueled by the images and experiences shared by our peers, the first seeds of LADAKH were born. At that time it seemed like a distant dream which naturally went into the backburner all thanks to our changing priorities in life. But something kept it ticking at the back of our sub-consciousness. Every now and then I would wake up in the morning trying to recollect a weird dream I had last night. A dream so mystic and timeless that it left me with a lot of questions. Questions that could not be answered sitting at home. And now sitting on the wooden bench in the chai shop, I can see the answers to my questions.
I sat there silent. Can this be for real ? I mean this is not just any trip where you ride for some days, enjoy the scenery, have fun and come back a happy man. This is LADAKH !! the biggest road trip one can do in India. You just don’t ride into Ladakh for fun. Its all about survival among the highest motorable roads in the world, subzero temperatures, no road conditions and ofcourse scarce oxygen content. I don’t know if I’ll come back a happy man after all this, but I am sure to come back as a changed man !!

Thus started the countdown to the biggest adventure of our lives. Finances were tight, so were leaves, we didnt even have family approval, infact I didnt even have a bike in Bangalore. Who cares.. attidude is everything and we had loads of it.

speedo_rocks

Great to see...HOW! becoming a cult....

pistonheadz

Problems ? well.. yes and no.
Yes, because there were instances of tyre punctures, clutch & throttle cable failures.
No, because we were fully prepared for such eventualities and the 'problems' were sorted out in a jiffy.

For example, we managed to repair a punctured motorcycle tyre using a manual foot pump @ 13,000 feet above seal level.
downtime for puncture 1 : 60 mins
downtime for puncture 2 : 20 mins - am still running that tyre tybe combo !! (done a pondicehrry and a mysore trip after that !!)

Battery drain : push started bike. replaced battery at next town.

Clutch cable change (Leh): replaced a frayed cable with the spare in under 15 mins (still running the same)

Throttle cable snap (Drass) : this was the easiest - 15 mins flat (again.. still running the same). too bad we shorted out the fuse while routing the cable through the headlamp casquette. fuse was replaced with spare one.

Damage to footpegs : make shift solution and a wee bit of ingenuity saw us manage it till we got back to civilization.

So it should be noted that apart from the clutch cable rplacement in Leh, no other places had mechanics / puncture-walla to deal with these scenarios. so the point is that even if you carry all the spares, it would be of no help if you cant put them together.

so guys.. whoever is planning to hit ladakh, please make sure that you are comfortable with getting your hands dirty. it can happen to any bike anywhere.

Will post the details of these problems and our solutions in later posts.

pistonheadz

January 2009 :

Tentative dates of trip were decided as the early weeks of September, 09. I had nine months to get things in order. But first i needed a bike !! My ex-Sikkim apache was bak in Kol. she had already done her part and a 150 cc and 35k kms on the odo she felt a tad underpowered and a bit old for this. Plus i wanted a comfortable bike which can be ridden for 15 days over the most challenging terrains without pain. Moreover i intend to keep this as my means of transport here in bangalore and also for the long trips i intend to do every month. Hence, i had to rule out my babe. she has served me wonderfully for three years, and now i pass on the keys to my brother.

Time to move on.
Booked my black beauty (Bullet 350 Standard) on 15th January, 09. Brought her home on the 31st. My sole incentive for such a choice was highway competency. i didnt care about fuel efficiency neither did i care about a clunky gearbox (you dont change much gears on a highway). I needed a machine that can do 100 kmph comfortably for hours at a stretch/ 600-700 kms in a day without much rider fatigue. Please note that i have been riding motorcycles for over 14 years and am quite comfortable with performing small repairs / adjustments on my bike. so i can live with the occassional subtle idiosyncrasies. an added plus were the 19 inch wheels which proved their worth in the no-road conditions.



Next post.. Making her highway ready

koolbhas87

We salute oyu man...gr8 job done.......keep riding...nd share with us like this.......we will be waiting.....

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pistonheadz

Prep time : Making her highway ready

“Make sure you put some decent miles on it before you rip her in Ladakh”.. echoed a friend’s advice. Very true. My bike was brand new and needed to give her a taste of what she should expect for the rest of her life. Plus I needed to be thoroughly aware of her characteristics – her strengths and weaknesses.
I needed to put her through her paces and take her right to the limits. If anything breaks, it rather be here than at 17,000 ft.
Right after the first service at odo reading 480 kms, I take her out to the Nandi hills. 75 kms from my place. Ride went off smooth. Kept speeds below 70 kmph (company recommends 60) apart from the occasional bursts to 100 kmph. Things observed :

Good things :
Extremely comfortable
Smooth at all speeds (who said bullets vibrate like hell ?)
Loads of tourque (climbed up Nandi hills with a 80+ kg pillion in 3rd / 4th gear.
No oil leaks !!!

Sad things :
Front brakes are pathetic – definitely needs disk brakes
Engine didn’t quite feel eager – Need to work in this
I felt the engine overheat at times – Need to work on this
Headlight was less than adequate – fogs lamps ? new bulbs ?

Overall it was a pleasant experience. But a lot needs to be done before I can blindly depend upon her.

So the next six months were spent implementing various improvements followed by repeated stress tests on the highway.

Improvements done : (can be taken as a preliminary recommendations for any standard 350)

• Change the rear tire from the stock Dunlop 3.25 to MRF 3.5 – handling improved by a huge margin. Now I can handle her like a bicycle. Both my footpeg rubbers have become flat at the extreme ends, you know why. Cost : 1200 – 400 (for old tyre) = 800/-
• Changed the clear lens of the turn indicators to orange – purely cosmetic but completes the classic look. Cost : 20X4 = 80/-
• Fit an extra horn – stock one was pathetic. Sometimes I myself could not hear it from inside the helmet. Cost : 240 + 100 (Relay) = 340/-
• Fit a small chain cover at the clutch end – prevents the oil from the chain to spill onto your trousers.
• Headlamp bulb change – headlamp bulb conked off in the final test run before Ladakh. Had been doing flat out 120 for hours at a stretch with the lights on. Changed to Halonix 35/35W 12V bulb. This sorted out the inadequate lighting issues I was having earlier.
• Disk brake – a life saver if you are into high speed riding. Cost : 7000 + 500 (labor) – 1000 (old drum and spoke set) = 6500/-
• Changed to short bottle muffler – this had dramatically changed the character of the engine. Now she revs sweetly now with no hiccups. Only difference with the original muffler is that this one has 3 filters compared to six filters in the original one thereby making it a bit free flow.
• Adjusted the timing to a slight advance for high speed travel – overheating issues were gone. Bike pulls cleanly in all gears. Midrange has improved. Please note too much of advance will cause knocking – bad for engine. So I had to go up in steps till I found the sweet spot.
• Carburettor tunings – after repeated trial and error, I came across the perfect mixture strength. It should be a quarter turn more rich than the stock company position. The plug is chocolate brown when cold and light brown after heating up. Bike pulls strongly till 100 and goes on till 120 (speedo indicated). P.S. : I don’t let my mechanic tune the bike. He invariable ends up making her lean.

Most of these changes were done by myself over a period of six months with loads of trial and error. This made sure that I don’t spend on unnecessary things and at the same time don’t miss out on the important ones. This also gave me a working knowledge of the mechanicals of the bike and the peace of mind knowing that I can take care of her if something bad happens. After six months and 8,000 kms of testing in various conditions (covered a decent part of south India this way), I could finally conclude that she is ready for THE FINAL test.

Btw, she still doesn’t leak oil !!