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**sunilg** · 04-26-2017, 11:47 AM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

some beautiful pictures there, guys!

Travelogue approved.

**sushilayarottil** · 04-26-2017, 12:23 PM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Originally posted by sunilg View Post

some beautiful pictures there, guys!

Travelogue approved.

Thank you for the approval Sirji!!

**sajalsheth** · 04-26-2017, 04:00 PM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

@sushilayarottil ji

**saikarthik** · 04-26-2017, 07:06 PM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

One doesn't simply look at the pics of leh just once.

Beautiful pics and waiting for the log.

How was sach pass??

**Fazer89** · 04-26-2017, 11:13 PM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Some Teasers from my cam...

Pitstop at Sarchu

Enroute Hemis Monastery

Pangong Tso

Pang, where the famous Moore plains begin

Moore plains

Hope you like the log, subscribe to the thread as we dish out day 1 & day 2 tonight..!!

Cheers,
Rohan

**sushilayarottil** · 04-27-2017, 12:40 AM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Originally posted by sajalsheth View Post

[ATTACH]229155[/ATTACH][ATTACH]229154[/ATTACH]

@sushilayarottil ji

Thank You @sajalsheth

Originally posted by saikarthik View Post

One doesn't simply look at the pics of leh just once.

Beautiful pics and waiting for the log.

How was sach pass??

Thank You @saikarthik

Sach was tough and demanding... You will see what all we went through while crossing Sach in coming days. Do watch out for the same!

Cheers,
Sushil Ayarottil

----consecutive posts auto-merged-----

Day 0 - Day Before The Ride

As most of us would agree that trips like these are result of days and months of planning and preparations and we were no different. This included route planning, purchase of new gears, preparing our bikes for the ride, etc. etc.Would like to leave you with some of the pics from preparation phase.

A blurred image of the three of us taking efforts to jot down the route. Probably 2 weeks before the D day.

Fast Forward a Week ahead. The two beauties getting new rear shoes. Michelin Pilot Street Radials!

Day 0 - The last minute preparations - Spares

Aux Lights fitting Jugaad

I had taken a leave a day prior leaving for Leh and was in Mumbai. I had to pack up all my bags and I wanted to fabricate a carrier to carry 2 liters petrol cans. I managed to convince a local fabricator to make one for me. Spent a good 4-5 hours in the afternoon in fabrication and this was the end result.

Final result of local Jugaad for carrying Fuel Cans.

Took a small test ride and found it good enough. Things like these should be done much earlier and tested properly before starting the ride. Else you would have the deal with all the unexpected issues later on. Which I did. Lesson learnt the hard way!

Bought all the necessary items needed for the next 18 days on road. Packed up my bags and I was all ready for the journey of a lifetime.

All these will be loaded on a bike!!! :O

Rohan's Preparation

Time : 01:00 AM
Another 3 hrs for the journey to begin!

Cheers!
Sushil Ayarottil

**Fazer89** · 04-27-2017, 12:45 AM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Super !! Bring on the Rest !!

**sushilayarottil** · 04-27-2017, 12:59 AM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Day 1 - Mumbai-Chittorgarh July 6th 2k16

We had decided not to take an early morning start as unlike me both Rohan and Neeteesh and office the day before.

As we were taking NH3-NH79 route to Chittorgarh we decided to meetup at Kalyan phata at 7. Left home at 6:30 tanked up and left for Kalyan phata.

Fully Loaded Bikes

My D390

Rohan's D390

I reached the meeting point and was joined by Rohan and Neeteesh shortly. It was raining so we had to take out our rain gears.

First pic of the day/ride

First halt was before Kasara ghat for some breakfast. Even though we were riding together we had breakfast at two different places. Rohan and I halted for breakfast just before Kasara ghat waiting for Neeteesh to join us. We did not realize and Neeteesh zoomed ahead just to cross Kasara ghat. Just to save some time asked Neeteesh to have his breakfast at some hotel while we finished ours. First goof-up of the ride. :P

Did not take much pics on day 1 as we did not want to reach Chittorgarh too late in the night.

Roads are good throughout except for some bad patches in between. However there are a lot of rumbler strips till you exit Maharashtra and enter MP.

After Munching around first 350kms of the ride

We continued our journey further and stopped for lunch at some place before Ratlam.

Unlike south there is always some sense of insecurity while in northern part of the country. This might be personal opinion; however this perception changed to some extent in coming days.

Continued further.

Just after crossing Ratlam, I was leading with Rohan behind me. After some time got a call from Neeteesh saying his bike had stopped and it refused to start up. He had missed out on fueling up at the last bunk and he had run out of fuel.

Petrol cans used for the first time in the trip

Continued further without taking much halts and managed to reach Chittorgarh by 9:30. Checked into a hotel booked by CHD and retired for the day after dinner.

Final Pic for the day

Even though it was a long tiring day covering close to 950 plus kms, it was not as eventful as the coming days turned out to be.

Even longer and event full Day 2 will be served next!! Do watch out for the same! Adios for now!

Day 2 : Chittorgarh - Amritsar (The Longest Day)

So it had become obvious that inspite of our plans to leave early for the day and cover maximum distance we could only manage to leave hotel by 10 in morning.

This McD joint was inside a mall, so here we were fully geared up in the drive thru ordering burgers and fries.

We got the burgers packed and sat near a roadside Sugarcane juice center. Mc Spicy Chicken burger and Sugarcane juice surely makes an awesome combination.

We carried ahead after the short lunch break keeping Rohtak/Panipat as target for night halt. Intense heat and dehydration was making life difficult for us and we were forced to take water breaks almost every 30 mins (Big time missed having hydration pack along with us). Crossed Behror-Neemrana stretch and we reached a junction from where we had to take a left which would take us to Rohtak via Rewari-Jhajjar.

Time was around 5:30 pm and we were drenched with sweat and dehydration was killing us. We decided to take a short nap at the toll plaza to ride after sunset to beat the daytime heat which turned out to be a pretty good decision. Carried ahead after loads of water and a cup of tea.

Bad quality Riding Pants. Gave away on day two itself.

Same old questions... Kahase aaye ho... Kaha jaa rahe ho... Kitna Mileage deti hai

Roads from Rewari to Rohtak were a breeze and we could maintain steady pace. It was close to 10 pm when we reached Rohtak. We had two options; One was to head inside Rohtak and find a place to stay (which would take around an hour to find room and settle) and the second one was to carry on and try to reach Panipat and if body permits carry on ahead till Amritsar. A quick decision was made to carry on and decide once we reach Panipat.

We reached Panipat at around 1 and hit NH1. We were pretty hungry and hunt for a dhaba started. As it was close to 1 am we had little hopes of finding a one at that time but to our surprise we found many open on NH1. Here we were in a completely new territory at mid night with only fear of getting robbed or stabbed or what not. I know this might offend some people but that was the feeling among the three of us. And fortunately we were proved wrong as the dhaba owner served smoking hot Aaloo and Paneer parathas which we relished to the core. Post the late dinner we carried ahead with an aim of reaching Amritsar by morning.

NH1 was amazing to ride on and SENA intercom devices proved to be a blessing keeping us all awake with the non-stop bakar. Crossed Karnal-Kurukshetra and we entred the 5th state on our trip.
PUNJAB!

Amritsar was still 250 kms away but we were determined to reach by hook or crook. I must say it was an altogether different rather scary experience to ride at this point of time at a completely unknown place. Numerous halts were taken in between to beat the sleep.

Halts in between!

Crossed Ludhiyana-Jalandhar and reached outskirts of Amritsar by around 7 am.

Completed the next agonizing 45 kms and reached Amritsar by around 8:30 am. The next big challenge was to find a place to crash down. Found a decent enough hotel in the by-lanes of Amritsar and crashed for the day.

Another grueling day comes to an end. After spending 1100kms and 21 hrs on road...

Up Next!
An evening spent at Darbar Harmandir Sahib!

Cheers,
Sushil Ayarottil

**saikarthik** · 04-27-2017, 10:57 AM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Sure!!!
Looking forward to it.

I have Michelin pilot street on my bike - phenomenal grip and confidence. It will let you know clearly before its gonna wash out - I mean the feedback or front end feel.
But some of my friends didn't like pilot street. How did u feel on good tarmac in tight corners??

**sajalsheth** · 04-27-2017, 11:26 AM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

It is getting interesting

**rajpal** · 04-27-2017, 01:16 PM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Awesome...

Keep the pics coming...

**sushilayarottil** · 04-27-2017, 02:53 PM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Originally posted by saikarthik View Post

Sure!!!
Looking forward to it.

I have Michelin pilot street on my bike - phenomenal grip and confidence. It will let you know clearly before its gonna wash out - I mean the feedback or front end feel.
But some of my friends didn't like pilot street. How did u feel on good tarmac in tight corners??

I am someone who is not much into cornering. What I want is a Better life from the tyres which the metzies lack.

Rohan would be the best to answer your query on grip and confidence. He did the entire Ladakh Ride on New Michelin Pilot Street Radial and Stock Front Metzies (16k kms old).

I had to change the front tyre to MRF Revz in Mandi during return leg as the stock metzies had completely worn out.

Cheers,
Sushil Ayarottil

**Fazer89** · 04-28-2017, 01:08 PM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Originally posted by sushilayarottil View Post

I am someone who is not much into cornering. What I want is a Better life from the tyres which the metzies lack.

Rohan would be the best to answer your query on grip and confidence. He did the entire Ladakh Ride on New Michelin Pilot Street Radial and Stock Front Metzies (16k kms old).

I had to change the front tyre to MRF Revz in Mandi during return leg as the stock metzies had completely worn out.

Cheers,
Sushil Ayarottil

I still have the Michellin on the rear, the grip is good & the durability is even better. Only thing it being a flat profile vs the metzies/MRFS round profile, it affects the top speed & slides out when cornered hard. All said and done, if you are not on tract & are ok with a lower top end its a good purchase. So good that you wash the tyre & it becomes brand new. No punctures either till date almost 16k kms run now through all types of terrains.

+ Durability
- Same price you get Metzies H rated tyres

Give or take - Michellin is a better option for tourers... rest i would say stick to Metzies

**sushilayarottil** · 04-29-2017, 01:38 PM

Re: NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Day 3 - Darbar Harmandir Sahib - Amritsar

Slept till about 1 pm as we had to take our bikes for check-up. I had to get the High coolant temperature error sorted while Neeteesh had to get this chain sprocket changed. We skipped lunch and went to our respective service centers only to meet by around 6 in evening. The guys at KTM were kind enough to take our bikes on priority after we told that we had to carry on ahead for Chamba the next day. The mechanic said the high coolant temperature might have occurred due the dust getting set on the radiator fins and the fan. So after a wash and check-up we left the service center. My bike seemed to work fine after riding it through dense traffic in that afternoon heat.

By that time Neeteesh was also done with his work at Hero service center. After a quick round of paratha we returned back to the room only to see the glorious Golden Temple at night in all its glory.

After getting our bikes serviced at KTM Amritsar.

We were fortunate enough to have the Langar as there was not much crowd at that time. After having our tummies full with the simple roti sabji and porridge at langar we returned back to our rooms to get some sleep.

......

Coming up next - Another day of adventure, a burnt clutch cable along with some light wires and some more adventure

Cheers,
Sushil Ayarottil

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NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

NHT Himalayan Odyssey : Mum-Leh-Mum Journey of a Lifetime!!!

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