Three of us have just returned from a 2 week trip around Northern India riding Royal Enfields that we rented from Tony Bike Centre, and I wanted to share our good experience as I found it hard to find information about rental options.

Everyone seems to recommend Lalli Singh but he was apparently too busy to answer any of my emails. The guys at Tony Bike Centre had everything sorted and ready for when we arrived from email correspondence, and a £60 reservation fee (refunded later) through Western Union. Rajesh and Mala Trehan who run it were great and really helpful over email, giving us some sound advice about road closures too.

We rented 3 Royal Enfield 500 Machismo bikes and rode them from Delhi to Spiti valley and back. The road to Spiti Valley (Shimla – Rekong Peo – Kaza) is a rough ride (gravel, sand, rocks, water) interspersed with rare sections of tarmac and varying a couple of thousand meters in altitude. We were really impressed with the bikes durability throughout the trip given the conditions.

The deposit was 20,000 INR (£200) per bike, of which we got about 19,000 INR back after the inspection. The rental was at 1150 INR per bike per day which we felt was good value. The bikes themselves looked a bit scruffy, but worked fine. We had them all serviced at a Royal Enfield Mechanic in Chandigarh on the second day to sort out some minor annoyances and have a check over which cost less than 500 INR per bike. After that all the repairs were due to our riding.

On the last day back in Delhi we’d had enough of the heat wave (45 degrees), and Tony Bike Centre sent round 3 mechanics to pick up the bikes from our hotel, free of charge which was great. I’d recommend to fellow travellers with limited time as Rajesh and Mala were happy to accommodate us, and within a few hours off the plane, we rode our bikes to our hotel.

They have 3 websites/names but Tony Bike Centre is what we used.

Homepage::Tonybikecentre
http://www.tonybull etcentre.com/
http://www.delhibulletcentre.com/

Hi,
Thank you very much for the info. Despite the fact of satisfaction and sense of belonging riding your own bike across other countries, hire/rent bike seem to be a good option considering time and budget factors.

Cheers

Amzah