We continued our ride, Mr. X was facing a peculiar problem with his front brakes. Whenever he used to apply the front brakes the brake lever used to get stuck and as a result the front wheel was not free even upon releasing the lever. We stopped again, he tried but could not manage to fix it. I knew that he had got his bull serviced and even changed the brake pads. But apparantely that was for the rear brake, the front brake was not even touched. I was shocked, as he knew well in advance that we are going in for a 1600- 1700+ kms ride. We continued our journey with Mr. X loosing his front brakes, as he will only use it in case of an emergency. The plan was to reach Pooh by day end and we were taking it easy. We had covered quite a distance in the morning so it was time to take it easy and to find another spot to relax. The roads were broken in patches and as a result Mr. X was leading, while I was being cautious with my baby. As I approached a bridge, the left side of my shoulder bag gave away and the entire weight was on the right side. This resulted in my right hand accidently applying the front brakes and the front end giving away, as all this happend on a left hand turn into the bridge. To prevent the fall, I released the brake and straightened the bike, thus ending up on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully there was no vehicle approaching me from the opposite end, otherwise it would have been catastrophic. I composed myself, took care of the shoulder bag and was preparing to move when I saw Mr. X comming back. I signaled that "all ez well" and we moved on, only to cross the bridge and relax on the other end.
The bridge

Mr. X mixing juices


Gosh we were quite hungry and we could not see a decent dhabha/ hotel, etc. We did ask quite a few of the locals and they directed us to the next town. But the towns were so small that they used to come and go without us having anything. We even crossed Wangtu. Wangtu was quite crowded and the only place(s) to eat were few floors above the national highway and I was not in favour of leaving my bike unattended, thus we carried on.
At the confluence of Indus & Satluj



Another incident happened in a small village (probably karcham) just before the Karcham Dam with Mr. X. A pedestrian was trying to stop him and he got confused and pressed the brakes and revved the engine at the same time. This resulted in the bull dying down, refusing to start. We found a decent dhaba, had our lunch. Mr. X called up his mechanic in Delhi and found out that his bull has blown a fuse. Post lunch, he was trying a 'jugaad', while i searched the entire village for a fuse. Surprisingly, there were quite a few electronic shops in the village, but the desired fuse was unavailable. Mr. X's 'jugaad' turns out to be good and we are good to go.
The next stop is quite soon at the dam.




to be contd.

























































































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