Hello all. Long time reader first time poster here.

My name is Rhys, from England but have been living in Sydney for the past four years riding a Triumph Street Triple R. I've recently jacked everything in and gone travelling with the Mrs, Danielle, for a year.

We're currently travelling South East Asia on foot but the plan is to fit in a few bike trips while we're away. We bought a Yamaha Tenere (called Ken) while we were back in the UK which is currently sat in the garage waiting for us to ride around France watching the Tour de France in July.

After that we are planning on sending Ken to Florida where we will ride across to burning man festival in Nevada and then hopefully all the way down to Ushaia in Argentina.

Aaaaaanyway, on to the point of the post. We are travelling through India and the Himalayas as the next part of our trip. I would love to do Ladakh to Leh as I've heard it's amazing.....only issue is the official tours charge ridiculous amounts and we are on a tight budget. I've had a search on here and can only find one post but it doesn't go in to detail of pricing. Does anyone have any experience of doing this? With a cheap tour company? On your own back? How much did a bike cost? Is it feasible to do it alone? We don't have our bike over here at the moment so I guess I'm after bike hire prices/places or really cheap tours anyone knows of.

I'm currently blogging daily about our travels and have been for months here www.365daysoffwork.com . I'll make sure I do some detailed posts for horizons unlimited with pics and details of the motorcycle parts of the trip when they happen later this year.

Thanks all, looking forward to finally being a contributor rather than just a reader after all these years.

Please tell me tht how many people want to go and for how many days?? do you want to travel whole himalaya of INDIA, like manali, shimla, rohtang, dharamashala, mcleodganj And LEH LADAKH??
mail me @ amitbhp@gmail.com


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Yes; Indiamike is a great source of info also...

You need to give me a better idea of where you want to start and finish. Some start in Delhi where renting is easier and probably cheaper with a better and bigger selection of bikes. But riding out of Delhi can be very stressful and frantic, but if you are very confident, it is a good 6 hour slog to Rishikesh, where after the frantic highways narrow down into more gentle mountain roads, although are still the most dangerous in the world. Of course you don't need to go to Rishikesh, heading straight to Manali (on the bike) you would just head straight north into Himachal.

For this reason, some people prefer to start in Manali, which is 3-6 days ride across extremely remote and austere mountains. The 'roads' are rough and parts are even enough to put a enduro through her paces, so you really ought to pick a solid Enfield which is running 100% perfect. Let me know what route you want... you can rent Enfields in Delhi for around 350-700 INR per day, long-term. Again I'd recommend getting something new, probably a 500 Electra bullet (I don't like the thunderbirds but that's just me). A well-maintained 350 will do the job but you might appreciate the extra power the 500's have - especially on the highways.

A good route would be Delhi/Manali > Leh > Srinagar > Dharamashala > Manali/Delhi depending where you began. The good thing about India is little paper work and the bikes are more or less ready to go (mostly already have luggage racks fitted) and riding Enfields is a blast. Accommodation is very cheap so no need to camp or bother with all that sort of business. Although if I was doing it again, I'd probably take a bivvy bag + good sleeping bag and emergency shelter/blanket in case I broke down in the middle of nowhere. Guess this is up to you - most people probably don't. Please take a water filter / steripen because Leh has very poor water and a massive problem from pollution with travellers discarding plastic bottles.

Remember you have some very high passes to deal with which do not open until mid to late July. The Lakakh forum on INDIAMIKE is a good place to keep track of this. No one will stop you going up earlier but until it is officially open do not expect any help from the Indian Army if you get caught in a snowstorm, breakdown, etc. Some private jeeps do ply the route earlier so you can count on at least the chance of someone coming by, but a lot of the places to stop/tea houses along the way will also unlikely to be open. This would be dangerous unless you are experienced in high-altitude survival and do a lot of homework before hand imo

Hey mate,

I recently did it on a privately owned bike and in terms of day to day costs it can be done no the cheap staying at guesthouses along the way and cheap food.

I'd like to warn against the option a lot of budget travellers seem to take of buying an old Enfield as I saw some absolute junkers broken down and even with fairly good mechanical knowledge the owners were left stumped.

The hire company bikes can be just as bad as I found out from people I met broken down along the way, so unless again, you have knowledge or its on one of those tours that have a support car, it can be tricky.

Or it could be done on a slightly more modern Indian bike (one of those commuter type ones)

I have blogged my trip at 7days1shower (split into a few parts)

From Brazil to the Himalayas : 7days1shower
Making tracks through the dust : 7days1shower
Himalayan Green : 7days1shower
Road to Tibet : 7days1shower
Highest road in the world : 7days1shower

Not sure how much detail I can provide but if you have any questions, send them through on Facebook www.facebook.com/7days1shower

Am from India and a avid biker. Just did a trip from India to UK on my 1995 Royal Enfield. Have done Leh too. It has been a great ride.

A good bike is the most imp. I can help you with that. They are available at 1500 INR PER DAY. There are many cheap ones as mentioned from 350 to 700 INR but I would hire the best.

Let me know if you need any help.


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I have a FB page -The Silk Odyssey about my 76 days to London on my motorbike from my home town Vadodara in Gujarat, India.

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