You've clicked some amazing set of photographs.
Awesome Work buddy

great great!!!
what a achievement!!!
sure thing to do list before I die..!!!
let me know when you are in next will join u !!

Again not to mention out of world photography!!
being unbiased but best photos on XBHP!!!!

thats a stunner brother and hats off to you for that.Soloing that too on a ktm duke 200 means a lot and is a slap to people who claim touring is not quite a good idea on the Duke 200.
Its about the rider not the ride.Well said and equally well proved by you. I also have dreamt of Leh oh bike. I would be buying a duke soon too, and this would come as a great help to me.

When is the next lot coming Anirban?

Thanks!
Thankoo Prasenjit Da

This is a Ladakh trip, some sections will be challenging. Go through my logs, recent logs posted by other xbhpians, and the road condition threads of bcmt to get updates in detail. All the best!
Thanks a lot Ananz!
Thank you.
Thanks Ankit. Best in class acceleration, brakes, excellent chasis and the spot on ergonomics, all will make you smile when you're doing 8-12 hours per day on the saddle for weeks. It certainly is not the best touring bike, more so on paper. But after test riding it for 5 minutes, I was convinced that this is the bike on which I'd like to spend long riding hours. It all comes down to personal preferences.
I apologize for the delay, will try to finish the logs asap. I have uploaded a HD video though, do check it out.

I did not have any separate mount/camera for videos, just figured out a 'jugaad' on the road itself But could only take videos on good roads as I needed my left hand on call and relatively free in order to take videos. A few clips are tilted, Sorry for that But do watch in HD!

Clips are:

1. Barlacha La
2. Sarchu Valley
3. Landslide at Rohtang
4. Just after Kullu
5. One of the water crossing at Changla where this Innova was stuck and I was next!
6. Riding beside Pangong Tso, Lukung area.

KTM 200 Duke. Ladakh Ride. Solo. Clips. - YouTube

Thanks a lot for the share Anirban, made me feel riding down the road .

Couple of things I would like to know:

1) Let us know what was the *jugaad*. You did not hold it in your left hand because you were shifting gears while shooting the video. So how did you manage to do it?

2) Have any video of Zoji-la?


**The ride along Pangong took my breath away!!
Waiting for the next lot

And yes!! I DID watch in HD .

Part IV: Pangong Tso

Time taken: 2 days. Spent the night in a tent at Lukung. Now that the fuel pump at Karu is operational, one can skip returning to Leh and head towards Pang directly. But I didn't do that, because I had the option of dumping my luggage at Leh and I was only carrying tools, spares, fuel and camera/lenses.

I started for pangong reasonably early, the water crossings of Chang La get worse as the day progresses. Tanked up at Karu, till the brim of my KTM. Post Sakti, the climb was quite steep, although there was tarmac. During my entire ladakh ride, power loss was felt the most here. Anywhere below 5k rpm in 4th gear and above, the revs refused to rise. The off-roading started from Zingral check post. Climb was steep, but power loss was hardly an issue because I wasn't going above the 3rd gear, roads were in terrible shape. A healthy mix of mud, stones and ice was in the menu. To make matters worse, I was there quite early, so lots of ice on the road. Add to that, 4-5 water crossings while going up. This ended up being the toughest pass this year for me. I was concentrating on riding carefully, so didn't take any stops to click pictures. I guess this happens to other riders as well, people only click pictures after the bad sections are dealt with. One particular incline only had big stones, with ice in between gaps which continued for about 200 mtrs and ended in a nullah. Underbelly took a hit here, despite the high GC. The fat 150 section rear tyre did surprisingly well though.

Reached the top, had the complementary tea and soon Chetan, Avinash and the guys from the bangalore group showed up from the other side!


Unplanned Xbhp g2g at 17,586 feet! Duke 200, Honda CBR250R, R15 V.2, Apache RTR. 3 riders from Bangalore, 1 from Mumbai and 1 from Kolkata. Indian sports touring redefined, eh?
They informed me that the road till Pangong is in good shape, except the Changla descant.

Descending chang la.

After the last water crossing. Managed to clear all of them without getting my socks wet! I was using Orazo Picus, although they are not very water resistant but dry off very very quickly under sunlight.

This frozen lake named Tsolak was just after Chang La. Started riding and I didn't want to stop, even not to click pictures. Tsolak-Lukung has to be the stretch where I enjoyed riding the most in my entire ladakh trip. Good tarmac all the way. Tangtse loops was more enjoyable than Gata loops or Hangaro loops because of the freshly laid tarmac and the excellent handling of my machine. Scenic beauty, again, nothing beats Changthang.

Stopped here next, and met this TBTS riding Uncle from Dehradun. Only other rider I came across in the entire trip who was riding alone. He rode up to leh with a group, but was riding solo now for some reason. We had a long conversation. Bid him goodbye and started riding again.

At first sight of the lake, I was jumping on the bike with joy, literally. I had never seen such huge natural deposit of the color blue in my entire life.

My KTM there.

I got myself a personal tent for the night at Lukung, Rs.1000 including dinner and breakfast(which were pathetic). But the view from the tent was this.


Roamed around the Lake throughout the day. Offroaded through the sand, albeit carefully.

On the path to Spangamik, which was a torture for the KTM.

The narrow never ending giant mother of a Lake that is Pangong.

Another spot

KTM touched the salt water at almost 15,000 feet.

The brown headed gulls.

Flapping around.

They were loud as well!

Flyby.

Yours truely, there at sunset!

Bike again!

As luck would have it, I was there on full moon. It looked amazing.

Whatever I could manage at 200mm.

It soon turned into this. To say it was a surreal experience would be an understatement. I returned to my tent. Had food. There was nothing much to do in the cold darkness, so I tried to sleep, only to find myself awake around 3am. Tent was shaking and making all sorts of noises because of the wind. Went outside and there was this unreal light surrounding the place. I was freezing, still I failed to return under the warmth of my blanket.

Oceansize - A Penny's Weight.

I woke up late. Could only start riding by 11am. Last view of the lake. Was getting worried about the water crossings.

Sand beside the road, and sometimes on it.

Marshlands of Changthang.

Changthang.

This place is a landscaper's paradise. You can point anywhere and click, and there will be a reasonable picture. I wasn't concentrating about composing shots at all. Its like a never ending desktop wallpaper and you get to ride your motorcycle through it. I remember carrying an empty water bottle for 30kms or so to the next town because I couldn't get myself to throw it anywhere. The views, coupled with complete silence of the place made for an experience which I cannot describe with words.

The BRO board says it all.

This stream continues beside the road for 10-15kms.

Had to click the KTM with wild horses!

Last picture before Chang la. Spot the sheep, the bike, the truck lying belly up!

Climb to Changla was again arduous. I reached the top after 1.30pm. And the water crossings on the other side were more than knee deep at places. Check out the video, has a short clip. Got my socks, boots wet. I wish I had a picture of me crossing those nullahs with the KTM. Didn't want to stop anywhere anymore. Reached Leh sooner than expected. And with more fuel than expected. Distance to empty was around 100kms. Gave me confidence about the return journey through Himachal Pradesh.

Next Part: http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/2...tml#post869464

Legend ....

Such a Beautiful Pics there ... Inspired noob like me to go there once in life, motivative pics there... And yes the best one is the Blue lake ... (same here never saw any blue sea/lake yet)

You got really skill in Photography sir, very well taken, every pic defines the Nature & Quality... Great Write up too, The Third last pic in now my Desktop Background...

Yes He Who Dares Wins, Completely defining Natures & beauty of North India through out your logs...

Hats off in your Respect ...

Waiting for Log now ...

thumbs upp for that....

Top notch there....nice photographic skills bro...
Also some questions regarding the bikes performance during the whole trip....if it had some problems...how about the high revving street engine doing touring??...engine heating issues??...how much often did u decided to take a break from riding...also did u featured a puncture if so how u repaired it??...
Handle grips are quite dissapointing...so at such a big drive did it hurt.??
And how much your duke clocked before u took it to leh?...got it serviced before setting off to leh?
Pros and cons u would like to mention...
Thats lot of qustns...lol..
But u might help me out as ill be buying one soon.
Waiting for the next episode...

This is a thread I need to really go thru in detail. Am planning the same, on a Duke in another 10 days!

Kudos man! Great one! Deep respect!

amazing captures bro... some very neat processing

amaaazing pics bro!! and really neat HDR stuff. one of the best travelogues i've ever read!

slightly OT, but are you there on instagram??

Man you are clicking HDR's like there is no end to space on your memory cards.
Awsome pictures !!!