evanparker

Hello fellow motorcyclists! My name is Evan and I live in the USA, in Southern California. I currently work as a Mechanical Engineer, I am single and I am 26 years old.


I wanted to join your website for a few different reasons.

The first reason being all of the beautiful photographs you guys have taken of your beautiful country and your beautiful motorcycles. You guys have taken some truly breathtaking pictures, and really all have awesome motorcycles. It is exciting to see after seeing the same old thing over here for so many years.

The next reason is that I have long been curious about taking a month trip to India to explore your country, and i was hoping that seeing your trips and photographs would give me some good ideas. I've toyed around with the idea but it hasn't come together due a little bit to lack of funds, but really mostly to lack of knowledge. I don't know the first thing about traveling there, I wouldn't even know where to start. I am hoping that this will get me headed in the right direction, and that maybe you guys can answer some questions for me down the line. I airplane ticket is about $1400 US dollars, which seems to be about the price of a brand new motorcycle in India :-D. Not a cheap trip at all.

Lastly, since I found your website I have been incredibly excited to see how much you all appreciate motorcycling. In the USA motorcycling is a bit of a niche activity. I would say while probably 95% of American adults have drivers licenses, probably less than 2% have motorcycle licenses, and even less actually own a motorcycle. It is a strong interest, but for most it is just a hobby.

I own a car, but it really just sits quietly most of the time. I ride my motorcycles all year round, but most people think I am crazy to do so. The thing that people here are the most suprised at is that I don't mind riding in the rain. In southern california it really doesn't rain more than 15 times every year, and I have a rain coat, so it's not that bad. People just can't seem to figure it out, but then, they have never ridden a motorcycle. I'm sure if they rode one they would start to understand the feeling.


I look forward to reading your website, and seeing more of those awesome pictures! IF you guys have any questions about the USA i would love to answer them. I will probably, as time goes by, have plenty of questions for you about India.


Here are some pictures of me, in parts of California with my main bikes.




me in san francisco (which is a 8 hours drive from southern california)




and me with my old suzuki (one of my favorite bikes ever)

Aryan

Introduction Approved.

Hello Evan, welcome to xBhp. It would be great to meet you, if you do decide to come to India anytime. We all hope to see you around.

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gsferrari

Hello Evan...nice to see SoCal represented here on Xbhp

If you plan your air travel well ahead of time and look at budget airlines - you shouldbe able to score a sub $1000 round-trip fare. Don't travel when most of the Indian students are traveling (Summer and Nov/Dec) as most of the seats will be taken and the few remaining ones will be pricey. Off-season trips will be cheaper (Feb / Sep / Oct) but make sure your chosen destinations will be open during these months (assuming you are planning to visit wildlife sanctuaries etc.).

Most popular tourist destinations have websites...so do your planning and I am sure the guys here will be happy to help out with advise, accomodation and whatever else you need to have a fun trip.

Cheers!

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md_farooq

Hi Evan,

Welcome to the world of biking. Have a nice stay here.

rachitkohli

Hi Even, Welcome to xBHP.
If you think of India & Motorcycle at the same time, you have landed on the perfect site. I assure you, you will certainly get all the required information as there are members on this site from every possible corners in & out of India.
You look like an Avid Tourer..! India has many astonishing places to go around on a Motorcycle..!!

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Bunny

Welcome to xbhp!

You can easily tour India for a month on a rented bike in the same amount of money that u will be spending on an airticket! Do u have any concrete plans on when you would want to come to India?

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AnuragAshok

Welcome to the home of motorcycling in India.

Spot on! check our ride reports, photographs and not to be missed are the first impressions on various bikes. Level of photography is way above average here.

Your decision making barrier is lack of funds or lack of knowledge about the country?

100-150 cc domestically produced bikes here are probably in the region of $1400. SBK's and other bigger bikes are probably more expensive than in the US thanks to the high import taxes.

Traveling on a bike is not considered expensive here and you can find many cheap and decent accommodation all along your route you may decide to take. Members will be more than happy to advise you help you book. Gas is about $1 per liter.

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evanparker

mod thanks for approving the thread!

I don't have any concrete plans yet at all. I don't even know what rides or destinations would be good to undertake. I don't even know what airport to fly into :-D

Any suggestions would be more than welcome. Dirt roads, cold weather, heat, are all welcome on any of my motorcycle trips.

From what I can tell, the majority of the domestic motorcycles in india really don't go over 200cc or so, this will be quite a change from what I am used to. Though i have owned many smaller bikes, scooters, and mopeds, i've never really toured on something that small. My commuter and main touring bike is 1000cc, and it';s definitley spoiled me. 800 mile (1,250 km!) days are no problem if i need to do it.

With typical Indian road conditions, about how many KM can you comfortably do in a day?

What are typical accommodations like, how much do they cost? I'm not a fancy guy, i'd even settle for a tent half the time.

The thing I like about traveling isn't so much seeing the tourist destinations, but it's seeing how real regular people live. The tourist spots are so often just a facade put on a city or a location. To me the real inhabitants of the area, and how they live day to day is the real face of any place I try to visit. I'm sure any tourist spots are nice, but i try to avoid them, typically.

And, a thing i've been wondering for a while, it seems like you all speak english incredibly well on this forum, is that the norm in most areas of india? are there other languages that are common that i should know coming over there?

here is a picture of the mountains north of Los Angeles in california, i think it's a bit big to post on your forum.
http://evanparker.werd.net/images/mo...t/S6300329.JPG
http://evanparker.werd.net/images/mo...t/S6300335.JPG


if any of you are interested in reading more about USA motorcycles i have a blog.
Evan Parker's Blog

balajidiwakar

Welcome Evan....well regional languages are mostly preferred in bit interior areas only and that changes from place to place dialects and languages too(state to state)....major cities and nearby places ppl do speak English.......you can get all sorts of accommodations.......

Indian Road Conditions....depends on which part of India you are riding now....like now its rainy season so it might bit difficult to cover roads.......but i guess it will be better if you can provide atleast a small plan, like which all places you want to visit

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leon_nerd

Welcome to xBhp Evan !!!

Just like music, biking is a passion that knows no boundaries, race, caste, creed, etc etc....lol....you get the point. It is fantastic to see you hopping onto this forum.

India is huge place to ride in. I mean people living in India itself haven't parsed all the places they can. So, you gotta make a choice when you come here to ride. I would say you should check out the Himalayas and ride to Leh Ladakh for an eternal experience. Timing would have to summer since the roads are a problem during the winters. Also, you can escape from the Indian Summer . You can get the Royal Enfield to ride on. And the accommodation will be cheap too, probably $3-5 per night. The total trip should take around 20 days and approx $400.

The language barrier might be a problem but then again you will enjoy the conversation with the locals who are familiar with lots of foreigners riding to the Himalayas. Don't worry we will teach you Hindi very well so that you don't have any problem . Coming to the road conditions and traffic, I will say that 500kms (around 300+ miles) should be comfortably enough on highways and around 250kms(around 150+miles) on the mountains, especially if you are not accustomed to the Indian roads and traffic. Keep an eye on various threads here to get an idea about the traffic, safety concerns and similar other stuff.

Yes you will have to hop onto a lower CC bike but that's gonna be fun. If you are a shutterbug, you will be stopping so often to click. Plan your ride and don't worry. We at xBhp would be helping you out and possibly might ride along with you, if you are not a lone rider. Keep posting your thoughts and queries and go through the threads. I am hoping to see your around .

Btw, I checked your blog. I can see you are an avid biker. Which year that Connie belongs to? And any updates on the Suzuki restoration? Pls do post about your steeds here.

All the best Evan and have a happy stay.

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