Tweet
Hello fellow Riders.
Possibly one of my first posts here. But I hope its a grand one ?
So the Dream started back in 2013 when I first visted Ladhak, as a photographer (my photography Bio: www.500px.com/abhishekpatel ) I was a biker back then but big financially to fund a bike trip. But a plan was to soon visit ladhak on my "OWN" Bike, while i had endless chances to visit on a rented bike from Manali, i Passed on the chance. A note to others, as to why Ladhak is THE destination for any biker, is because of the extreme weather, the roads, the vastness of landscape, the roads, the challenges, it makes a bike ride all the more memorable. And yea riding on one of the highest roads in the world, its a different feeling altogether.
I got married in 2015 and fast forward to 2018, i just got the Duke 390 2018, doing good with my Photography firm. On one lazy sunday in April, i was analzying how i was doing on the biking front, then all of a sudden, I decided to ride all the way to Ladhak on my new bike, along with my friend Yatharth. My Wife at first wasn't keen on the idea as we were expecting a baby soon in Nov 2018 (Baby Girl arrived on 15th Nov 2018) But I explained to her why i had to do this, as big responsibilities are coming up, I guess this was the best time. She Agreed eventually.
Next big task was to convince my dad, well even when you are doing good and can finance your trip on your own, you still gotta ask dad right ?? haha, well I never told him until almost a few weeks before the trip.
So we started Planning the trip, as I have been to the ladhak region 3 times, 2 times Manali to Leh, 1 time Manali to Simla via Spiti Valley, I had an idea about the roads and how to plan the routes.
Soon on seeing my Insta Stories, one of my photograpy friend, who also recently got the Duke 390 wanted to join too, so now we were "Crazy" Riders who decided to ride all the way from Surat to Ladhak
Something About Me:
I am a Travel Photographer turned professional since 2012, I have been into photography since 2006. (Crib Time) I have been featured several times in Better Photography Magazine, and recently got featured on NatGeo YourShot. I am a professional Photographer since the past 6 years with finding of my own first in 2017 named "CameraKruti"
I have enjoyed my work as its a part of my once and still is "Hobby"
My Travel Photography portfolio can be found on www.500px.com/abhishekpatel
Preparations:
Having Been to Ladhak before i know there arent much you can prepare yourself for other then Cold and altitude problems. Food is ample available on the route so we didnt take any packed food.
My Bike
I swapped the rear tyre with Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR.
I was constantly on search for a good offroad tyre that would be great on flats too cause 50% of our trip would be on flat roads, so we dont want to loose on grip for offroading capabilities, We tried options from Ralco and Ceat, but this was the best tyre we came accross, it has excellent grip no matter the terrain, be it Wet, gravel, slush, it took on any road like a boss, and boy it looked amazing on the bike.
Got the Zana rear rack long time ago, but added the Saddle Stays later for the trip, it has good finish but there are some improvements that i feel they should address, more on that later.
There werent much options on saddle stays at that time other then zana.
So here are the additions I did for the trip apart from Stock.
Saddle Stays: Zana
Rear Rack: Zana
Rear Tyre: Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR
Front Tyre: Stock
Saddles: Rynox DryStack (Excellent Bags, but very bad quality rain cover)
Tank Bag: Shad Tankbag E04 (Enough to hold phone, powerbank, wallet and Permits)
Seat: Fego Float (Must have for a long ride, I use it 24/7)
Camerabag: Lowepro Flipside Trek 350 AW
Frame Bags: Viaterra Framebags (Very very useful for spares)
At first we decided to leave Surat on 15th June, but stepped back 3 days to 12 June as it was expected to rain good this year (And yes, that really bothered us on day 3, more on that later)
So once everything was fitted, i went for a test ride around the city, to test the tyres and oh boy they were rock solid even at 140kmph, and even on corners at 100kmph, the tyres were tested thoroughly, no wonder they were once stock tyres for BMW GS1200R
The Rear Tyre, loved the scorpion skin inspired treads.
the packing started 3 days prior to the trip, so i dont have to rush on things at last moment.
Day 1 will follow tomorrow.
Possibly one of my first posts here. But I hope its a grand one ?
So the Dream started back in 2013 when I first visted Ladhak, as a photographer (my photography Bio: www.500px.com/abhishekpatel ) I was a biker back then but big financially to fund a bike trip. But a plan was to soon visit ladhak on my "OWN" Bike, while i had endless chances to visit on a rented bike from Manali, i Passed on the chance. A note to others, as to why Ladhak is THE destination for any biker, is because of the extreme weather, the roads, the vastness of landscape, the roads, the challenges, it makes a bike ride all the more memorable. And yea riding on one of the highest roads in the world, its a different feeling altogether.
I got married in 2015 and fast forward to 2018, i just got the Duke 390 2018, doing good with my Photography firm. On one lazy sunday in April, i was analzying how i was doing on the biking front, then all of a sudden, I decided to ride all the way to Ladhak on my new bike, along with my friend Yatharth. My Wife at first wasn't keen on the idea as we were expecting a baby soon in Nov 2018 (Baby Girl arrived on 15th Nov 2018) But I explained to her why i had to do this, as big responsibilities are coming up, I guess this was the best time. She Agreed eventually.
Next big task was to convince my dad, well even when you are doing good and can finance your trip on your own, you still gotta ask dad right ?? haha, well I never told him until almost a few weeks before the trip.
So we started Planning the trip, as I have been to the ladhak region 3 times, 2 times Manali to Leh, 1 time Manali to Simla via Spiti Valley, I had an idea about the roads and how to plan the routes.
Soon on seeing my Insta Stories, one of my photograpy friend, who also recently got the Duke 390 wanted to join too, so now we were "Crazy" Riders who decided to ride all the way from Surat to Ladhak
Something About Me:
I am a Travel Photographer turned professional since 2012, I have been into photography since 2006. (Crib Time) I have been featured several times in Better Photography Magazine, and recently got featured on NatGeo YourShot. I am a professional Photographer since the past 6 years with finding of my own first in 2017 named "CameraKruti"
I have enjoyed my work as its a part of my once and still is "Hobby"
My Travel Photography portfolio can be found on www.500px.com/abhishekpatel
Preparations:
Having Been to Ladhak before i know there arent much you can prepare yourself for other then Cold and altitude problems. Food is ample available on the route so we didnt take any packed food.
My Bike
I swapped the rear tyre with Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR.
I was constantly on search for a good offroad tyre that would be great on flats too cause 50% of our trip would be on flat roads, so we dont want to loose on grip for offroading capabilities, We tried options from Ralco and Ceat, but this was the best tyre we came accross, it has excellent grip no matter the terrain, be it Wet, gravel, slush, it took on any road like a boss, and boy it looked amazing on the bike.
Got the Zana rear rack long time ago, but added the Saddle Stays later for the trip, it has good finish but there are some improvements that i feel they should address, more on that later.
There werent much options on saddle stays at that time other then zana.
So here are the additions I did for the trip apart from Stock.
Saddle Stays: Zana
Rear Rack: Zana
Rear Tyre: Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR
Front Tyre: Stock
Saddles: Rynox DryStack (Excellent Bags, but very bad quality rain cover)
Tank Bag: Shad Tankbag E04 (Enough to hold phone, powerbank, wallet and Permits)
Seat: Fego Float (Must have for a long ride, I use it 24/7)
Camerabag: Lowepro Flipside Trek 350 AW
Frame Bags: Viaterra Framebags (Very very useful for spares)
At first we decided to leave Surat on 15th June, but stepped back 3 days to 12 June as it was expected to rain good this year (And yes, that really bothered us on day 3, more on that later)
So once everything was fitted, i went for a test ride around the city, to test the tyres and oh boy they were rock solid even at 140kmph, and even on corners at 100kmph, the tyres were tested thoroughly, no wonder they were once stock tyres for BMW GS1200R
The Rear Tyre, loved the scorpion skin inspired treads.
the packing started 3 days prior to the trip, so i dont have to rush on things at last moment.
Day 1 will follow tomorrow.
Comment