Posts

Showing posts from July, 2012

Leh Ladakh On a Ducati Monster - A crazy dream realized

Image
Disclaimer: This trip has no association with any organization whatsoever. It was a personal, a self funded trip which was solely planned by My wife and me. I have created a FaceBook page as well for our trip. Please do leave your comments/thoughts there as well: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leh-on-a-Ducati-Monster-by-Moreen-Sumit/141181422686385 The enchanting, mystical Himalayas. The mesmerizing beauty of the Himalayas (Leh, Ladakh) is raw and pure. As beautiful as it is, the terrain, climatic and road conditions, to reach there, are equally challenging. The two ways to reach Leh, the Manali - Leh Highway and Srinagar - Leh Highway, both provide the ultimate adventure with altitudes rising above 17,000 ft with an average altitude of 11,000 ft above MSL. If there is one place I like to tour again and again is the Himalayas. I had already toured Leh, Ladakh twice before, in 2008 with a team of four bikers and in 2010 which was a solo ride, on my other bike, the Hyosung Co

Day 11 Sarchu to Manali

Image
Day 11 (July 18, 2012)  This will be last set of pics that I will upload because after this day we shipped the bike to our home and we travelled on a taxi. So today's destination was to reach Manali and no we were not on our bike for this leg. Unfortunately the puncture gave away yet another time and the morning I woke up and saw the tyre was deflated again. Moreen suggested that it would be dangerous to take the bike ahead with such a puncture. And if it does give away in the middle there would be not much of help. And I also agreed. We spoke to a truck driver who was coming from Leh and going towards Manali. He agreed to take us and anyways the truck was going empty. We had to load the bike on to the truck. We started our journey with we two sitting in the drivers cabin and the bike loaded in the truck's loading area. Since there nothing to pack around the bike we used all our luggage that we had so that the bike rests on it and doesn't get hurt  This was a totally differ

Day 10 Leh - Tanglang La - Sarchu

Image
Day 10 (July 17, 2012) When started our journey back to Manali from Leh. Leh to Karu was already covered in terms of pic hence we didn't take it any pics until we reach Rumtse and stopped for breakfast. I was a little worried about the puncture which hampered our Pangong lake segment. Whether it'll be able to hold against the rough terrain or not, what if the same puncture opens up in between, etc. But anyways I put my faith on it and continued ahead. The road till Tanglang La ascent is nice and smooth. The road was even better while climbing until we reached near the top. We reached Tanglang la top pretty smoothly and there we met a biker group. They wanted to click photographs with our bike but we didn't allow them as previously those SUV guys dropped the helmet and broke it. Didn't want that to happen again and also the stand of the bike was bent quite a lot (we had to put a flat rock whenever we use to park the bike, as visible in the Tanglang La top pictures) We co

Day 9 Durbuk to Leh

Image
Day 9 (July 16, 2012) Not much details for the day. We just loaded the bike on Pinchuk's Bolero jeep, thanked Pinchuk's family that they helped us in the time of trouble and headed back to Leh. After reaching leh I went to my usual mechanic shop "Juma Automobiles" and got the wheel removed. After a little searching I got one guy who could fix the puncture by sealing it from inside. Got the wheel fitted on the bike and came back to Hotel. Next day we had planned to start Leh Manali segment. We were a little disappointed that we couldn't visit Pangong Lake. But we just said "Next Time"  Day-wise trip log: Preparation Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11

Day 8 Leh Durbuk (Tangtse)

Day 8 (July15, 2012) Leh to Pangong and the plan was to stay there only and next day come back to Karu or Upshi. We started the day by 6 or 7 and got the bike ready. Checked out of the hotel to start for our journey to one the most beautiful lake probably in the world, The spectacular blue colored Pangong Tso located at an altitude of around 15,000 ft. Filled up the tank in leh and continued on the Leh Highway which also goes towards Manali. We filled up again after reaching serthi, this is the last filling station on the Leh Manali route. The next one is situated in Himachal Pradesh at the place called Tandi about 368 kms from this place. We filled up all the extra fuel cans that we were carrying with us. By this time I was noticing that the bike's tyre pressure is less and decided to get it checked at karu. The pressure was indeed less and I asked the mechanic if he can check if there is any puncture in the tyre. He checked and told, it doesn't look like there is a puncture.

Day 7 Leh - Khardung La. The D-day

Day 7 (July 14, 2012) So today was the D-day, today we had planned to do cross the world's highest motor-able road, Khardung La (18,380 ft). It was the ultimate for the Ducati Monster. I was nervous but not that worried as the bike had already proved to be handling the high altitude with ease. But still this is Khardung La we are talking about. We got the permits from DC office, met my old time friend Rigzin at the office who accompanied us in our first trip in Leh. Got a quick wash done on the bike and we were good to go. Khardung la is 42 kms from leh and we had not planned to beyond the pass itself. Hence we carried only the tank bag containing the camera, some basic spares and water bottles to keep ourselves hydrated. We had a lot of time for the ride to the top hence took leisure breaks and photos. Road was pretty smooth till south pullu. Monster was showing signs of resistance due to the altitude but nothing alarming. The actual test starts only when we cross south pullu till

Day 6 Drass To Leh

Image
Day 6 ( Jul 13, 2012 ): Our next destination was Leh. We had to cover approximately 300kms from Drass to reach Leh. We got up early and packed up things. It was very very cold in the morning. It had rained all night and still overcast with a glimpse of sunlight here and there. I was worried if the bike will start after such a cold night weather. Took out the cover and switched on the battery, the bike was showing a malfunction mentioned "FUEL ERROR". I got scared if something bad has happened. I didn't crank it right away, thought it may just be because of the low temperature. After some time I tried starting the engine though the error was still coming on the console. The bike started in one crank with that error still there. I left the engine running for sometime while we were attaching the bags to the bike. I was relieved to see that the error had gone away as the engine was warmed up. Started our day's journey. Roads was in a bad state for quite a long time, it wa

Day 5 Srinagar to Drass

Image
Day 5 (July 12, 2012) for the Monster it was the first test when we would be crossing Zoji La, first of the several high passes in the Himalayas. I was excited as well as nervous. We woke up early and started early as we wanted to avoid the Amarnath yatra convoy which was there till Sonmarg. It was a beautiful morning with a little cloud cover and sunshine. We reached Dal Lake clicked some pictures and meanwhile speaking to the morning joggers as well. Had breakfast enroute, some nice paranthas. It had started drizzling and the travelers coming from Sonmarg side were telling that it is raining more in Sonmarg. I was a little worried because Zoji La will be slushy and probably difficult to cross. But whatever be the condition the only way is through it  We reached Sonmarg with some stops in between, it was still drizzling but the beauty of Sonmarg was no less. Soon we were ascending Zoji La (11649 ft) and roads started to deteriorate. We were stopped by a road block due to the route bei

Day 4 Udhampur to Srinagar

Day 4 (July 11, 2023) was not a fun day in terms of riding. It was Amarnath Yatra time and as expected it was too crowded as thousands of pilgrims travel to Himalayas. We got up a little late and started late which meant it was bumper to bumper traffic all along. We weren't able to go fast which meant bike was heating up too early due to running in lower gears. Every now and then the console showed up 5 bars (usually bike's running temperature should be 3 bars I guess) in the temperature gauge which meant stop at some place and give the bike time to cool down before we could start again. And we also required rest due to stop and go traffic. Nothing much that happened this day that I could write here. We were very very slow and covered around 230 kms in 10+ hours and this delay was mostly due to the frequent stops we were taking. After reaching Srinagar I went and checked a house boat to stay in but there wasn't a safe parking place for the bike and we decided that we would

Day 3 Dharamsala to Udhampur

Image
Day 3 (July 10, 2012)  Dharamsala to Udhampur We took a detour for Udhampur at Dayala Chak. It was shorter by 40kms I guess compared to usual NH1 through Samba. We took almost the same time but we thought it was better than boring NH1  Total distance was around 220kms. Could have gone to Patnitop (which is 45kms from udhampur on the way towards Srinagar) and stayed there but we decided to stay at Udhampur itself as I knew a nice place, which I stayed in my last trip to himalayas. And in patnitop we would have to search for a place which might be tiring since it is a tourist destination. Next day's destination was Srinagar which was around 230kms from Udhampur Day-wise trip log: Preparation Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11

Day 2 Ambala to Dharamsala

Day 2 (July 9, 2012) we had travelled around 200kms from Delhi and were in Ambala. After a tiring day already we thought it would be better to stay for the night in Ambala itself. And next day we can head to Dharamsala which was approximately 300kms from Ambala.Stayed in a hotel, Hotel Amrapali, situated on the highway itself. It was suggested by @ajay ananth who had stayed here earlier in the month when he was on his Leh trip. Decent hotel with not too high rates for the rooms. Next morning woke up early, checked out from the hotel and started fixing the bags on the bike. We were still getting used to fixing the bags on the bike and hadn't figured out the optimum way to do it. While doing that, I unfortunately dropped my helmet on the ground and the whole assembly for fixing the visor came out of the helmet. We wasted our precious one hour time just to fix the helmet. We started by 8 or something, crossed Chandigarh after enquiring the route for Dharamshala. The route which we dec

Day 1 Bike prep and starting from Delhi

Image
Day 1 (July 8, 2012) We got the bike packed at the railway station itself using the material we had bought before and loaded it onto the train to Delhi. We also traveled in the same train. We were worried about the bike's all along hoping bike won't fall inside the luggage compartment and get damaged. Luckily nothing of that sort happened. At Delhi we unloaded the bike and met Nitin at the station. It was so hot (compared to the climate in Bangalore) that pushing the bike outside the station took away my breath and I had sit down for a while to gather my senses back     And the same was happening with Moreen as well. Bangalore's climate is so pleasant that it takes time to adapt  I was thinking that here in Delhi only I am like this what will happen when we start exerting in the trip  Went to Nitin's home, had lunch with his family, spent short but quality time with them and by 3-4pm we were ready to leave for Chandigarh or Ambala which was our planned destination for D

Bike mods for the trip

First week of July 2012 Here is the list of mods that we did on the bike: Free Flow air filter so that the bike breathes freely at such high altitudes. K&N filters or MWR air free filters are nice ones. I am using MWR air-filters Saddle Bags holder frame. (check the pics for description) Tank bag that can be fixed on a non metallic tanks Extended custom front mudguard. Electric mod so that electric tyre inflater can used using bike's battery. Day-wise trip log: Preparation Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11