Riding India soon!!!...
 

Hello all,

I’m planning with a friend (a girl friend) a trip to India, renting 2 bikes, for 3 weeks, next November/December, avoiding big cities, starting from Goa, heading to Hampi and Ooty. Offroad (but not trial) tracks welcome. Further we would like to ask you more suggestions.

Some questions we would like to have your opinions:

- Apart Hampi and Ooty, any other hints in the south region?

- Is it viable (or worth) to distribute it in 2 weeks + 1 week visiting different areas in India?
- How do you see the possibility, after visiting South India and with air link to Rajasthan, of one week exploring Rajasthan, with preference to Jaisalmer. Any other suggestion regarding Rajasthan, or even of a worthiest region?


Another major question is the rental of bikes. We would like to have previous reservations in order not expending days locally trying to rent the bikes.

- Enfield is really the better choice to rent? Other choices?
- At Goa, what’s the better choice for renting? And at Rajasthan?
Thanks for your help!

We've decided already to leave Rajasthan to a future trip to India, this time we'll be focused in the south of Goa.

About the bike we would like the Enfield 500, with left side gear command and electric starter. Looking at the Enfield sites I think the only one available is the Classic 500, do you think we can rent two with bags to carry our staff?

Thanks again!!

If you are going to ride single and honestly a 350 would be enough. You might save some cash. Also, most of the Classic 500 enfields are just 350's with 500 stickers :S

350's would be ENOUGH for getting around the coastal area of Goa.

And yes, getting bags wouldnt be a problem.

Thanks for your help, Chanderjeet!

We are in Goa! This is amazing!!!

We found two 350 Thunderbird at a very good price, 500 Rs per day, The bags will cost us 2500 Rs, but the problem is that one of them has 'yellow number plate', which means that is not allowed to go out of Goa state anf even if we manage to pass the insurance has no value.. The guy that is renting the bikes said that the problem is solved at the border with a cost no more than 200 Rs, and one bike with insurance is enough... But I'm not confortable with the idea of riding a bike out of Goa with no insurance...

Any help? Anyone had a similar situation?

Thanks!

In all of the many times Ive been to India/Goa, i have never heard of anyone with insurance !!, and if you head east out of Goa over the ghats then youll probably not get checked anyway. And if you do just let the Rupes do the talking.

Well... I didn't see any insurance either but people here talk about them and even say it's one of the items police are always checking at the border. But it's true rupies can overpass any problem, that's I could already confirm ;-)

But things seem to be in the right way, we've already 2 Enfield 350 we hope will be ready tomorrow for start riding :-) Goa is beautiful but we want more action ;-)

Bikes ready to go :thumbup1:

Enjoy ! :funmeteryes:

Thanks Wayne! Just returned home! And enjoyed A LOT:thumbup1:

Papers weren't a problem since nobody asked for them at the five state borders we've passed... Plenty of lucky, everybody said.

You're welcome, Luis. Pleased you had a good trip and no problems. Would be interested to know where you went and what you did. Where are you now? Cheers, Wayne :thumbup1:

Hello Wayne,

I'm already home, Lisbon, Portugal.

I will post something more detailed first at our portuguese forum and after translate it to advrider.com, but we have made this:

Anjuna - Dendali - Hampi - Chitradurga - Mysore - Connor - Kodai Kanal - Peryiar (Park trip) - Komaracom (backwaters boat trip) - Calicute - Udipi - Palolem (beach bungalows) - Anjuna

17 days, 2650 kms, perhaps 100 hours riding :-)

Some photos (loading more in few days) here

Cheers!!!

Luis,
Could you share your experience with bike rental in Goa and bike performance?
Michal4

Hi, I'm off to Goa in February. It's not planned as a bike trip, just a family holiday for 2 weeks. We're staying at a hotel on the outskirts of Calangute.

Anyway, I'd like to hire a bike, just to get away from the tourists for a day. I've ridden a 500 Bullet before and I'm quite happy with that. Just looking for some information on where to hire, what I should pay and some recommendations for a day trip.

Any advice about riding over there would be appreciated too!

Cheers,
Craig

Sorry, Michal, I wasn't acessing the net last weeks and only now I saw your message.

Is your question still relevant?

Thanks,

Using Satellite phone in India is forbidden
 

Andy Pog a UK citizen traveling in India was arrested this week for using a Satellite phone while in India. You must have special permission to use your phone if you are carrying one or you face 4 years in jail.

Hi,
Please tell us where did you rent bikes, what papers you had (insurance), were bikes OK? How much was a rent and did you pay deposit.? Would you recommend the place from, which you rent bikes?

Where did you go?
Any adventures during the ride - best day/worst day?

my email: grajecki(@)gmail.com

Luis,
Are you there?
I'm still interested what was your experience

Thx
Michal

Just got back from Goa on Monday.

Finding somewhere that hires bikes legally shouldn't be a problem. I really wanted to hire a Royal Enfield but because I was on a family holiday, I decided against it. OK, I admit it, the girlfriend said no after seeing traffic in Calangute :blushing:

Most common bikes seem to be Honda Activa scooters, Yamaha RX100 and what appears to be a Honda CG125 but with a C90 type engine.

Also quite a few small engined Fazer and FZ lookalikes. Spoke to one of the locals who asked me what engines and power outputs Fazers in the UK had. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him!

The traffic is a chaotic compared to Europe and its not just the locals. Some of the tourists on bikes are nothing short of incompetent by any countries standards.

Hope it's not anyone here but I did see the English driver of a 4x4 re-pass a local on a scooter who had overtaken him and then deliberately open the drivers door into the riders path then shouting a load of abuse at him. If it is someone here, you're a muppet.