Tweet
Everything has a beginning. So is the case with my love for riding to Spiti. It all began some two decades ago when I read this article of riding to Spiti on a Bajaj KB 100 RTZ by Bill Aitken in one of the then auto mags (sadly I don't remember the name of the mag and it shows nowhere in the pages I have) published in late 1990. Read it to get a feel of what it was like for motorcycle tourers in those days. Bill Aitken is a travel writer of repute who was born in Scotland but chose to make India and especially the Himalayas his home. His favorite steed was his trusty 1965 Jawa that he rode around the hills of India for quite a while. He later bought a KB100 RTZ to supplement 'Mary Poppins' as he called his Jawa. (Incidently the fact that I too had a KB100 RTZ Delta when I read this article made an all the more strong an impression on me. And 22 year old motorcyclists are prone to 'impressions' 
)
An intrepid traveler on motorcycles, his laid back style of writing comes out well in this little incident quoted below by Aitken. It also features in his article that I have reproduced below.
The above quote has been taken from this link here.
This ride goes back to when petrol was about 10 bucks to a liter, almost all highways were single-laned without a divider, long distance telecons were limited to scarce STD booths and information about places like Ladakh and Spiti were through word of mouth or magazines/books. Those who have been to Spiti might find it funny to read that he rides from Chattru to Batal and calls it a day! But riders in those days had been brought up on a staple diet of the Rajdoot, Bullet or Yezdi. None of these were as reliable as the clockwork Jap machines nowadays and pushing the bike beyond its limts was always a concern. Read on to feel the sheer simplicity and candour of the narrative and rare will be one who will not wish for such times to be back again. Over to Bill.
Trading Places by Bill Aitken
) An intrepid traveler on motorcycles, his laid back style of writing comes out well in this little incident quoted below by Aitken. It also features in his article that I have reproduced below.
The above quote has been taken from this link here.
This ride goes back to when petrol was about 10 bucks to a liter, almost all highways were single-laned without a divider, long distance telecons were limited to scarce STD booths and information about places like Ladakh and Spiti were through word of mouth or magazines/books. Those who have been to Spiti might find it funny to read that he rides from Chattru to Batal and calls it a day! But riders in those days had been brought up on a staple diet of the Rajdoot, Bullet or Yezdi. None of these were as reliable as the clockwork Jap machines nowadays and pushing the bike beyond its limts was always a concern. Read on to feel the sheer simplicity and candour of the narrative and rare will be one who will not wish for such times to be back again. Over to Bill.
Trading Places by Bill Aitken
Comment