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We as a couple have been bike-touring for some time now.. We started quite late though, we were in our late twenties/early thirties when we first got in our heads to ride from Mumbai to Agra and back. We accomplished this Mumbai-gujarat-Rajasthan-Delhi-Agra and back (the same way), 3500+ Kms trip in Nov 2007.
We have had cages (cars) since long, that we use for home-office and normal chores; but when it comes to touring, bike has always been the first choice. Having gone through a number of ride reports of people riding for years or atleast months together, I started to dream of doing one such ride.. shared with wife who was equally enthusiatic except that we couldn't do it then, as we were expecting a baby.. so it was decided that we would do this when our
child was atleast 1-1/2 years old. We were hoping that then, she could be left with grand parents, while we were gone. (And also we hoped that when she grows up, she won't remember that we left her behind :-|). This was early 2009, when the planning started.
In 2010, when our daughter was 1.25 years old, we left her with our parents to do a leh ride (http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...ke-others.html). It only seemed fair that we should do the best ride in India before venturing out of the country (it would have been a shame otherwise). It was a great ride but time constraints (limited leave from work) resulted in us pushing that extra mile every day, which was hectic and not enjoyable.
It was then that I made up my mind. For our dream ride, we would have to quit our jobs to have absolutely no time constraints. With the way the Indian economy was, we gathered it would not be much of a task to find jobs when we returned.
The trip was to start Nov 2011. However, lady luck wasn't on our side. Ona ccount of certain unfortunate incidents (one of our cars was stolen, we had a major accident in another), we were able to quit jobs only by Feb 2011. [In my case, my organization agreed to give me a sabbatical for 6 months, so I didn't have to quit - something that my wife still holds against me.. but more on that later].
With sabbatical taken care of, we had to decide on the destination and itinerary. Europe and South America were good contendors but the paperwork was too cumbersome for all of South America, and we could not work on the visa - so that was crossed out. Europe was too cold for riding in Mar/Apr, so that was crossed out for now. So it was agreed that we could ride across USA for 3 months (easiest of the options as both of us had our visa) and then go to Europe after 3 months, when the weather was warmer.
While I would have wanted to take my bullet Machismo 500 on this trip, it was too much of a hassle with carnet and shipping. Also, we figured that it would be cheaper for us to buy a bike there and sell it before we returned.
With more and more unavoidable delays creeping in, I reached US on 14th Mar 2011, without my wife. The idea was to use the time buying the bike and getting the ground work done, while my wife would wrap up the stuff back home and reach on 22nd Mar 2011 after leaving our daughter with her parents.
We both had issues in US immigration as they found it extremely difficult to accept that anybody from india would just want to come to US to ride across their country (my wife had even more difficulty explaining our intent). Anyways, I guess after going through our bags which had things and equipment to support our stories, they were convinced, or so they pretended.
I bought the bike on craigslist - a 2003 Honda ST 1300 - which I believed was appropriate for two up riding for long durations (after riding it for 2 months across many parts of US, we believe it was a great choice). Buying a bike, in most of the states in the US, is very easy for tourists. You just need to provide them with an address where they can ship your registration paper (In many states even a hotel address can be used. You just need to get the hotel guy to mail the reg paper to you later). For the time, they will give you temporary papers.
All said and done, the trip commenced on 28th March - finally. We are now 2 months into our ride and realize that 3 months would not do justice to this huge country, so Europe will have to wait. The below map indicates the states that we have riden in the US.
Wanted to share this with everyone here as I know a lot of people who love riding, but are deterred by logistics, planning, sponsorship etc. We all see/read others doing it and think that its great, but we couldn't do it - they can do it because they must be rich or they can get sponsorship or they must know the right kinda people or they are already based out of US / Europe / ABC etc. But here we are - neither of the above things - but still doing it. Yes, it is expensive and we have had to save for 2 years, but it was worth every penny. We are not so young anymore (more in early to mid thirties), we had other challenges but none of it is insurmountable if the desire is strong. As for us, we were also enthused by the fact that fact we may be the first Indian couple doing something like this. We may be wrong or we may be right, BUT we did it purely because we love to ride. We are sure that we will make memories that will last us our lifetimes (not too sure of that though, since they may only last till our next big ride :-))
I would love to see more Indians do it (if they are not already doing it). I chose US / Europe since I was travelling with a woman but if I were to travel alone or with other guys, the countries to go to would be endless (and much cheaper too). Even in US, we have realized that we may spend less in months what some Indians would spend for 10-15 day tour to the USA (we do a lot of camping, cook atleast one meal and generally be thrifty)
My wife is writing a blog of the trip at The Crazy Biker Couple and I mostly update our current ride status at Journey of an Indian couple riding thru US - ADVrider (will also try to be active here)
Some of the pics from our ride:
We have had cages (cars) since long, that we use for home-office and normal chores; but when it comes to touring, bike has always been the first choice. Having gone through a number of ride reports of people riding for years or atleast months together, I started to dream of doing one such ride.. shared with wife who was equally enthusiatic except that we couldn't do it then, as we were expecting a baby.. so it was decided that we would do this when our
child was atleast 1-1/2 years old. We were hoping that then, she could be left with grand parents, while we were gone. (And also we hoped that when she grows up, she won't remember that we left her behind :-|). This was early 2009, when the planning started.
In 2010, when our daughter was 1.25 years old, we left her with our parents to do a leh ride (http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...ke-others.html). It only seemed fair that we should do the best ride in India before venturing out of the country (it would have been a shame otherwise). It was a great ride but time constraints (limited leave from work) resulted in us pushing that extra mile every day, which was hectic and not enjoyable.
It was then that I made up my mind. For our dream ride, we would have to quit our jobs to have absolutely no time constraints. With the way the Indian economy was, we gathered it would not be much of a task to find jobs when we returned.
The trip was to start Nov 2011. However, lady luck wasn't on our side. Ona ccount of certain unfortunate incidents (one of our cars was stolen, we had a major accident in another), we were able to quit jobs only by Feb 2011. [In my case, my organization agreed to give me a sabbatical for 6 months, so I didn't have to quit - something that my wife still holds against me.. but more on that later].
With sabbatical taken care of, we had to decide on the destination and itinerary. Europe and South America were good contendors but the paperwork was too cumbersome for all of South America, and we could not work on the visa - so that was crossed out. Europe was too cold for riding in Mar/Apr, so that was crossed out for now. So it was agreed that we could ride across USA for 3 months (easiest of the options as both of us had our visa) and then go to Europe after 3 months, when the weather was warmer.
While I would have wanted to take my bullet Machismo 500 on this trip, it was too much of a hassle with carnet and shipping. Also, we figured that it would be cheaper for us to buy a bike there and sell it before we returned.
With more and more unavoidable delays creeping in, I reached US on 14th Mar 2011, without my wife. The idea was to use the time buying the bike and getting the ground work done, while my wife would wrap up the stuff back home and reach on 22nd Mar 2011 after leaving our daughter with her parents.
We both had issues in US immigration as they found it extremely difficult to accept that anybody from india would just want to come to US to ride across their country (my wife had even more difficulty explaining our intent). Anyways, I guess after going through our bags which had things and equipment to support our stories, they were convinced, or so they pretended.
I bought the bike on craigslist - a 2003 Honda ST 1300 - which I believed was appropriate for two up riding for long durations (after riding it for 2 months across many parts of US, we believe it was a great choice). Buying a bike, in most of the states in the US, is very easy for tourists. You just need to provide them with an address where they can ship your registration paper (In many states even a hotel address can be used. You just need to get the hotel guy to mail the reg paper to you later). For the time, they will give you temporary papers.
All said and done, the trip commenced on 28th March - finally. We are now 2 months into our ride and realize that 3 months would not do justice to this huge country, so Europe will have to wait. The below map indicates the states that we have riden in the US.
Wanted to share this with everyone here as I know a lot of people who love riding, but are deterred by logistics, planning, sponsorship etc. We all see/read others doing it and think that its great, but we couldn't do it - they can do it because they must be rich or they can get sponsorship or they must know the right kinda people or they are already based out of US / Europe / ABC etc. But here we are - neither of the above things - but still doing it. Yes, it is expensive and we have had to save for 2 years, but it was worth every penny. We are not so young anymore (more in early to mid thirties), we had other challenges but none of it is insurmountable if the desire is strong. As for us, we were also enthused by the fact that fact we may be the first Indian couple doing something like this. We may be wrong or we may be right, BUT we did it purely because we love to ride. We are sure that we will make memories that will last us our lifetimes (not too sure of that though, since they may only last till our next big ride :-))
I would love to see more Indians do it (if they are not already doing it). I chose US / Europe since I was travelling with a woman but if I were to travel alone or with other guys, the countries to go to would be endless (and much cheaper too). Even in US, we have realized that we may spend less in months what some Indians would spend for 10-15 day tour to the USA (we do a lot of camping, cook atleast one meal and generally be thrifty)
My wife is writing a blog of the trip at The Crazy Biker Couple and I mostly update our current ride status at Journey of an Indian couple riding thru US - ADVrider (will also try to be active here)
Some of the pics from our ride:
. Your wife's blog is very lively with a good mix of fun.
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