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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128103
Riding In The Himalayas With the help of Indian Shepherds ' fearless leader, retired army captain Raaj Kumar, we put together the crew a nd p erm its to enter the fo rb idden zones . Six riders from America flew to the Himalayan foothill town of Kulu . There , we we re met by Kuma r and his safari crew of 12, giving us a gen ero us 2: 1 ratio of staff to riders. We spent a day g etting used to our mounts - Royal Enfield 500cc Bullets with right -hand shift - and learning to ride on the left, pass on th e right. Th e heavy and underpowered bikes were initially disappointing but, on c e the ride got underway , the Enfields generall y had more pow er than w e could use on the Himalayas' punish ing ro ad conditions. Bes ides , no th ing you ride i s g o ing to have a lo t of ponies left at 18,000 feet. Of greater concern was the ability to fire in th in S T O RY AND P HOTOS BY R A ND Y W A RREN I had a blast! I just d idn't know it at the time. By rumor and legend I had heard about the world's highest road .. . or, at least, the highest road considered to be "motorab le . " Its mysterious pat h snakes thro ugh the Himalayas and tops ou t abo ve 18,000 feet. I just had to find a way to ride it. Finally , follow ing leads received bye -mail, I came across N e w Delhi company In d i an Sh ep herd s Camps f, A dven t u res . The ir lo cation was strateg i c bec au se the highest part of this route runs thro ugh northern Ind ia and it is closed to fo reigners . The roads In the Himalayas aren't exactly smooth. Bike- eati ng roc ks are the nonn. If th e rocks don't ge t you, the altitude sickness may. Rid ing Royal Enfi e ld 500cc Bu llets In the Himalayas definitely qualifies as an adventure. Among the four motorcyclists In the tour group who made it to the top of the World's Highest Motorable Road was the author, second from le ft. air wi thout seizing. In retrospect, the En fields behaved quite wells. After a couple of days acclimatizing at 6000 feet , we headed up into the st eroi d hills. Cl imbing above Manali, t he poor pavement of India 's Alpine res orts was soon the good old days. We had been prepared fo r long stretch es without pavement (and I mean long str etches!) , but somehow we stupidly assumed tha t meant dirt road. At va rious times gone by , people attempted to build permanent roads in th is land where v iolent winters destroy an ything in its path . At pave m e nt 's e n d w e found not d i rt but d eb r is su c h a s pav ement chu n k s , ro cks, ta r, dirt, sand, water, and y ak s. Well, th e ya ks were still moving. A lso mov ing , alb eit quite sl owl y, were army truck convoys . They were on their way up to the war zone in the Kashmir , and this was the on ly road not close d du e to she ll ing ( t ho ug h y ou cou ldn't tell by loo k ing at it) . The fighting was on ly 150 miles west of our route, so we faced these convoys often. The trick was to pass the trucks , on e at a time, on a single-l ane, two- way mountain road with no guardrail. We tailed closely wh ile waiting for th e lane to op en enough to pass on th e ri g ht so that the driver would kno w where we we re . As we passed , the truck's side exhaust would invariably belch out a bla ck curtain of diesel .ex h a u st , momentarily blind ing us un til we pulled th rough. This was especially fun on the firs t mountain , 12,OOO-foot Roh tang J o t (translation : "Mound of Skulls"). We got there in heavy rainfall th at almost cons ta ntly del uges thi s mo untain. Add in g t o the fu n was tha t th e ra in filled th e ruts, m ak ing it im poss ible to t ell wh eth er the next of the m any pud dl es wa s a half -in ch or a foot deep. F o rt un ate l y , Ro h t a n g Jot h old s back the monsoons of the Indian subcontinent . Onc e clear of the pass, we entered th e vast Him al ay an d esert , where summer rains are rare. Much of th is desert ranges between 11,000 and 14, 000 feet ele vation in the valleys and , of course , the mountain passes are much h igh er. While our ac cl imatization for 6000 was complete, it did not mean much anymore. Breathing and deh ydration became a fact or, especially when we would take a break from riding. With that moment of rest , our adrenaline levels dropped back to normal and we got a good look at ho w poorly ou r bodies were really ho lding up . But riding with faceshield up forced enough thin air thr ough the nose tha t you almost, nearly, ki nd of, sort of, got enough oxygen. Kumar tried to balance ou r need for rest with our overall nee d to finish that day's route at a reasonable time. More than dinner plans we re at stake : With brilliant sunshine melting t he snowcaps , by late afternoon the runoff would rea ch our "lower" elevation. Puddles wou ld change to rivers . It would be great to be off the ro ad wh ile we could still see it . Vi llages g rew sparse as we rode through barren land: The road 's harsh pounding gave the Enfields a ritual of breaking. And that is one of the beauties of the Royal Enfield: Because the des ign is virtuall y unchanged from 50 y ea r s ago , repairs are simple and incredibly fast to perform. The Indian Shepherds' mechan ic brought up the rear, and got eve ry bike quick ly run ning again . Anyth ing lo nger and he would send us off on his bike while he sta yed behind to finish repairs. Near Keylong , we pu lled into the one and only gas station o f the The route over the Himalayas tops out at Khardung La near the Ancient Silk Road. New Englanders can think about stacking three Mt. Washington's on top of one another. That is the approximate elevation of the road over Khardung La. At J8,380 feet, this pass also dwarfs Pikes Peak (14,110 feet) and the highest peak in the Alps. Mont Blanc ( 15.771). It is almost like riding a motorcycle over Kilimanjaro (19.341) or Mt. McKinley (20,320). The granddaddy, Everest. towers at 29,028 feet but, alas, is not rideable. 30 MAy 9 . 200 1 • c ue I e n e .... s