Few Information

Hello fellow riders,

I understand there are some riders from Hyderabad joining Maneesh aka Iceman. I thought this information might help the folks from Hyderabad. I was at Lal Bazaar last weekend looking for some riding gear for my team.

Lal Bazaar is a Military depot where civilians and our Army personnel shop for civilian/military gear. I saw some fantastic quality boots, woolen gloves, rain wear, woolen socks etc. Keep away from the camouflage designs.

The woolen gloves cost 70/-, woolen socks 60/-, ankle length boots cost starting from 650/- upward to 1600/-. Quality is undeniably top notch as they are used by our military. You can go for the Black colors. These are wholesale stores who export the same to North India where the price doubles upon arrival - as explained to me by the shop owner. There are more than 20 shops on this lane.

I saw many Royal Enfield military bikes with serving officers come and go and I was so excited.

Rain coat cost 800/- for coat design and 450/- for shirt pant design.

Gum boots for 350/- are available in Rajigunj, any industrial gear store sells it. The one I have is from Duckback 550/-. My team purchased the gum boots from Brand "power" which has a steel shield for the toe fingers and quality is really nice.

Gum boots sold at Lal Bazaar for 150/- are of poor quality. Tactical gears are not sold at Lal Bazaar. Many other things like boxes, sweaters, water proof sheets, locks, ropes etc were available. I did not bother to enquire.

As an alternate for those who have no time http://www.oliveplanet.in have some quality gear.

Hope this information will be helpful.

Dear MLAG,

Thanks for the update. My comments in indented BOLD

Regarding gum boots: I am of the opinion that their usage will be only during water crossings. Please correct me if my understanding is wrong.

Dear JK,

You are theoretically right. Only thing is, the number of potential water crossings is so high that half of one's time would be spent in changing foot wear! Hence, the outermost plastic layer would not allow the feet to get wet. The sneakers WILL get wet but do tend to dry out after a couple of hours. And they don't harden up like leather boots do.

One request. Lets not reply for the sake of it.

On my initial Ladakh rides, I used the army boots. They don't get wet as easily as a normal sport shoe, unless one put the foot inside water.
Never they got hard.
Once they get wet, after I had to put my foot inside water. A stop to drain the water out of it and replace the wet socks with dry ones, worked well. Yes, its not as good as a dry shoe. For that one can either use the proper water proof shoes or may be think about travelling in a car instead.

I once tried riding with my foot under a plastic bag. The "feel" is bad and also I didn't felt comfortable riding with plastic as the foot would slip over plastic and also the sock over plastic would slip, needless to say there is no ventilation so soon the foot start to sweat making grip more difficult. So, if you do plan to ride with plastic over your foot, I'll suggest try it out here to see if you are comfortable riding on bad roads with it.

Absolutely. The reason you don't see me replying to stuff that I have no experience about.

Oh that reminds me, still waiting to hear about the magnitude part.

That tour operator and taxi option was a genuine advise. If someone thinks a Ladakh trip is just too different than any other normal road trip and need to worry about numerous things, there are tour operators who will take care of all the hassles and provide support as well.

Ladakh road trip was so much hyped(dificulty per se), and it still is, when I went for the first time that in whole trip I kept of wondering when will I see the difficult stuff.
Oh and thanks for the dictionary pointer.

What's wrong with tour operator advise? If someone isn't comfortable riding alone & he isn't able to find a group to join. What's wrong with tour operator advise for him?

Glad I could help.

Thanks Maneesh :-)

I did read about the instructions on luggage and was little confused, they talk abt sharp objects, potential hazard blah .. which are subjective hee hee.. so put up my queries here. Once again Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and thoughts .. I really appreciate it.. you have been great advicing so many people up here and its such a great thing to take your time.
yes, I meant damaging my stuff in those saddle bags in the air cargo :-(

As per I have seen in my air ticket instruction its 7Kg (cabin Luggage) + 20 Kg (Check-In Luggage). Alchohol might be permitted I am not sure on domestic flights, but in international they do . Perfumes/deo blah yes part of personal stuff !! ( though its flamable hee hee so is engine oil hee, its such a argumentative topic which would never end :-) ) I had put this up so if people watching this thread done Leh before and flew to Delhi can advice on the same if they have ever carried.

The first piece of advice was from Maneesh again.. thanks you so much Sir.

I honestly feel you should be featured in Xbhp Magazine for setting another example at Xbhp forum for answering so many questions.

- Pradeep

Dear nav and MLAG,

May I request you to resolve your differences thru the PM route rather than on the main thread?

No hard feelings.

Thank you very much,

Regards,

Maneesh

Dear Pradeep,

Thank you for the compliments, though I am not sure that all contributors to this thread will agree with your recommendations. I am a little impatient and curt with people who post vacuous queries without doing any home work on their own. I analyse if the query/comment is worth writing about, in the interest of adhering to the general canons of this forum and the parameters of this thread in particular and only then do I voice my opinion.

Again, thanks for the really nice words, much appreciated.

Regards,

Maneesh

The Leh 2012 Planner

Hi everybody,

I've been inactive here, however, when I returned I got this Leh Planner suggested by one my friends.

As a month to go so I thought I should confirm my availability for this trip. I am in for this trip, I have my confirmation for this trip until some thing bad happens.

I hope host has the list of riders by now. Please include me as well.


I am from New Delhi and I like the Idea to carry bikes on train till Jammu. I have my train tickets booked (though its in waiting...I am sure it will be confirmed).

I will depart from New Delhi on 10 Jun 2012. I'll meet you guys in Jammu on 11 June 2012 as per schedule.

I have some long trips experience such as:

New Delhi - Rishikesh
New Delhi - Jaipur, Agra etc.
However, my longest ride in a day is only 300KM. hope to increase this figure.

I'll ride my Bajaj Avenger (220cc) for this trip and every excited for this trip.
I have gone through all your preparation docs i.e Schedule, inventory list etc.

Just warming up to take off these day....

One question, is any one from Delhi in your list so far? if yes, let me know plz.
and if some one know a good place to get all the inventory under one roof will be appriciated. I know the shops its just that I dont want to walk 10 different shops to get all my stuff....

Thanks
Kuldeep

Added my name in the excel sheet as well... thanks

Hi all,

I would like to share some info about transporting the bikes in train from New Delhi(if anyone is planning for that).

From my experience(in Sep 2011) you might find it a problem to load the bike from New Delhi railway station if the bike is NOT in your name and also if you do not hold a CONFIRM ticket.

The person incharge at the booking counter refused to book my bike since I was transporting my friends bike. A written letter from the owner also dint help.

The person at the counter at that particular time might follow this rule, others might not(From Chennai i was able to send my friends bike without any problem). Later I had to send the bike through a private train parcel service.

This is just a heads-up and you might not experience it this year.

Dear Kuldeep,

I have sent you a PM about this. Do read it.

Regards

Maneesh

Joining the group

Dear readers,

I have been inundated with requests on this and other fora from members who want to join my group. It is with a heavy heart that I have been expressing my regrets over the past 2 months.

This thread was up since 15 September 2011. Almost 8 months have passed since which I feel is more than adequate time and notice for serious aspirants to plan and prepare their ride. Almost every single member of the present group came forward by March 2012 and the group was finalised by 01 April. Since that date, we, as a group, have stopped taking in new members. From what was a small team of 4 members initially, the group has ballooned to a strength of 15. We do not wish to make it any more unwieldy than what it already is. Therefore, it would be better if newer aspirants were to form a team of their own and ride that way.

Please perish the thought that I or my group members are acting pricey or throwing attitude( We had to limit the size of the group to a sensible figure (though 15 is in itself too high a number) else there would have been problems of group dynamics) For those who feel this way, I recommend that they interact with members who have done this trip earlier.

On this thread, I will continue to answer queries and help others out in whatever insignificant way I can. Only, please do kindly not request me to join my group; I would really hate to say no but would have to do it.

Warmest Regards,

Maneesh