Good photography mate.. i am happy that Duke performed flawlessly throughout the journey. Being FI bike i am sure it didn't suffer the Altitude sickness unlike the carb bikes.

Cheers,

Just a doubt. Duke FI is open loop I think. so does it differ/ adjust automatically to that low possible airflow.
Doen't matter much as it has performed flawlessly

nice

awesome hdrs

Photos are not visible to me somehow.what could bee the reason

Awesome pictures yet again... and just about enough words to describe your trip log... waiting for more!!!

Awesome pics, no words to describe the greatness of pics...
I'm eager to get leh'd anirban after seeing ur post.....

Wow !!! Mouth watering pics A n i
How well did the tyre's assisted during the trip ?

Absolutely stunning !!!!!

Great to see a WB- number plated bike standing besides those famous spot/frame.

Amazing...

Rated & Subscribed

Anirban, absolutely beautiful pictures. And it's a Pied Kingfisher that you captured.
Sorry, we could not go to a better place to eat.

What a travelogue. Awesome pics. You proved the sports touring nature of the duke. Amazing man. Cannt the duke suspension be set a little softer for the offloading you did?Just thinking out loud. And the whole trip you did solo. EXHILERATING. Some day would like to walk in your shoes or should I say thread in your shoes

Unbelievable shots.. speechless.

Hey rider, your pictures were beautiful ! It actually showed the other side of the beautiful kashmir and leh God Bless You !

awesome pics anirban, simply outstanding, could you please let us know more about the Duke's performance? ANy issues you faced, apart from those related to posture/suspension?

Part II : To Hunder

WARNING : LONG POST !

Time taken : 2 days. Spent the night at Diskit. My hotels guys were kind enough to allow me to dump one bag with them so I was only carrying fuel, spare parts, tools, medicine in the saddle bags and my lowepro. Was a big relief.


I woke up and looked outside through the window and it was pretty dark. I checked the time, 6.00am. Raining. Instant mood killer. I decided to wait it out, riding solo to the official highest motorable road in rain was something that I was not looking forward to. 3 hours pass, and still it wouldn't stop. Finally at 10am the sun came out and I started riding, after having a word with my hotel manager.

Till south pullu the roads were good. Bike refused to rev in 6th cog but till 5th it was climbing fine. Submitted the copy of permit at pullu TCP and the off-roading started.


South pullu to North pullu is dirt+mud+stones+water+ice. Typical high mountain pass road. But no challenging stretches like say Chang La or Tanglang La. I was really careful, as duke's tyres are almost slick. Well, they were doing fine.

My snow mobile. But it was gloomy and cold. At one point, I saw these particles floating in the air and coming down. Soon realized it was snow and I was very happy. Had never experienced this before. Well it stopped after 10 minutes and I reached India gate.

The Khardungla climb as seen from India Gate. I'm not very sure, but the green patch far away seems to be leh while the place where a few vehicles can be seen is south pullu. The sun I guess was tired of hiding and finally came out and made things much much better.

Duke at the gates, while going up!

Stupidest mistake of the whole ride. I saw this board saying K-top, 3 kms and I was overjoyed. Now who parks his new Duke 200 like that on a Ladakh ride? Well I did. And notice the van carrying cycles(yeah, people cycle down from the top) just coming out of the corner? Long story short, it passed and my bike had its first fall (and only, till now). And the LHS RVM conks off. My custom bar ends helped to save the clutch lever. I had stopped smoking a month prior to the ride and it finally helped, I was able to lift the bike up in first go (took me 3 tries in sikkim, at 15,000ft when it slid on ice) that too without much gasping. But somehow I wasn't very pissed, because I was about to reach the top, after dreaming about doing the same for years!

Bike at K-top. First KTM Duke 200 to reach the top? Who cares anyway. I stopped for a few minutes. Bad scenes, couldn't find the yellow-red big board. Either covered in snow or has been taken down. Met a couple of dudes who were riding from Delhi and asked them to click a picture of me. Had water, and started riding towards north pullu.

Going down.

Taking a break from work! These bro workers were sleeping. Life can be very tough for some. Also notice the semi frozen lake.

Just after crossing north pullu. Also spotted the first marmot!

I raced on. Loved riding on black top after doing south-north pullu. This place was gorgeous.

The beautiful Shyok river, just before Khalsar. You eventually get to ride beside it for about 5-7kms or so. Had noodles at Khardung village.

Nubra Valley is so beautiful that I fail to describe it with words. I'll let the images do the talking.

This little birdie was chirping around.

My faithful sting. Always ready to pounce!

Bike looked and felt awesome without luggage as I had checked into a hotel of Diskit and dumped my luggage before heading to Hunder.

Horses grazing around

Reached Hunder and parked my bike. What a beautiful place. Went camel-seeing :P

KTM at Hunder..

Sands of Hunder!

Now these camels are very cute. I bet their big male counterparts of rajasthan would go bonkers if they see them.

It takes two to tango!

A baby!

Wonderful place this. I tried to exploit the dynamic range!

Yours truely, there!

Duke with the sand dunes!

Golden hour image.

Returning to Diskit.

Diskit gompa as seen from my hotel.

the hotel.

The gompa by night. The night at diskit was lonely. Food was okay. Booze was godfather. I was unable to sleep for hours after waking up at 2.30am. This would happen on other nights as well. I went outside and I saw the clearest sky that I have even seen in my life. I was too lazy and was too cold to shoot it then. One other regret of the ride. Music kept me company till I slept at 5.30am, woke up at 8, had breakfast and started riding.

First snap of the day and its gaddhus! Cute animals.

Somewhere around khardung village. These mountains looked marvelous.

Around khalsar. Reached north pullu and spotted a CBR and what a surprise, its Chetan and bangalore guys. Met them for the first time, they were going towards nubra while I was coming back. Had a nice chat. Decided to have tea at north pullu cafe and prepared myself for the offroading that would continue for next 3/4 hours. Also chatted with a big group of bikers from NZ who were admiring my KTM!

The climb from north pullu was actually worse than south pullu side, despite it being sunny.

The road to the top.

Snow capped peaks where clouds float around? Well, I was riding there! Taking lonely breaks at places like this is something which should be experienced.

Reached the top and these bikers were waving at me. A big group of riders from Bangalore, and they are xbhpians too. Had a nice long conversation after days, felt good. Really genuine dudes. They gave me a lot of information about the road situation of the Manali side. It was really bad for them and they advised me to take the srinagar route again. Should have clicked a pic with them.


Bike at India gate, while going down. Only stopped here to click after K-top, as I was pretty tired. Duke is probably the bike with the stiffest suspension that can be bought in India for less than 2 lakhs and doing offroad on the stock setup is a pain. Note here that I was riding on the softest possible suspension setting.



Surprise! KTM Duke and Pulsar 200NS together in Ladakh!

Well, I knew a couple of Xbhpians were in Ladakh riding the 200NS from MG da, and it was Satyen and Rishav bhaiya. Nice dudes. Had tea with them. They were going to nubra. I would have liked to click better pictures of Duke and NS together in Ladakh but they were going to Nubra while I was coming back, so didn't request them to move their bikes. Good downhill tarmac after riding for hours on bad roads, Duke and I reached Leh sooner than expected.


Next Part: http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/2...tml#post848349

Super duper awesome... keep it coming