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Multistrada to the mountains | Adventure

‘Felix Baumgartner will be impressed by some of these drops.’

Stradaspheric Two weeks, 3100km, one Ducati, five Royal Enfields. Ouseph Chacko rides a Multistrada to Himachal Pradesh and finds that the numbers add up to one stratospheric trip.

Photography harsh man rai, jamshed madon, ouseph chacko

I

can’t feel my toes, there’s ice inside my riding boots and the brown landscape we were riding on half an hour ago has turned unrecognisably white.

The snowstorm’s closing in, the ice on the road has left us with no traction, visibility has dropped to a few feet, and any attempt to ride is being met with uncontrollable wheelspin. We have to find shelter quickly and the closest option is a tiny dhaba with a cold stone floor, 222 AUTOCAR INDIA december 2012

10 kilometres back the way we came.

Time to run.

The mountain is kind today – in exchange for abandoning one Ducati Multistrada, five Royal Enfields and one Bolero Camper up on the 14,000-foot Sach pass, it lets us off with our lives. Lesson number one: never take the mountain for granted.

Lesson number two: motorcycle boots aren’t made for trekking.

I almost missed all the excitement.

My story kicked off a fortnight ago

– I left Mumbai early one morning, heading north on a motorcycle I wasn’t entirely sure of. I lost my wallet. At 5am. At a fuel station just outside Mumbai. It had my bank cards, my driving license and some money. Idiot! Here I am, on a Rs 18 lakh, 1200cc Ducati Multistrada, on what promises to be an epic ride to the Pangi valley in Himachal Pradesh, and I’ve botched it up before it’s even begun.

It takes a day to undo the damage

done and I leave the next morning.

It means a solo ride all the way from Mumbai to Manali, where I will meet the friends who organised this ride.

I’m so glad I’m riding up from Mumbai; I haven’t ridden a powerful motorcycle for quite some time and the Multistrada makes a scary 150bhp. In a motorcycle that weighs only 220kg. It’s also tall, and I’m not that tall, so it is essential that I get to know it on roads I’m used to before riding it close to the edge of oblivion. www.autocarindia.com

Flying solo

On a dark highway in Haryana, I’m accosted by three men, faces wrapped in cloth, and they don’t look too friendly. They want to know how much the bike costs. I lie.

I tell them Rs 1.5 lakh. One of them decides to cancel his booking for the KTM 200 Duke and get the ‘value-for-money’ Mulistrada instead. I’m truly sorry for your loss, KTM. The interior of Haryana is a foreboding place at night. I gulp down the soft drink and run for the safety of the Multistrada’s ‘get-meout-of-here’ engine.

I left Vadodara in Gujarat at 7am today and I’ve been riding ever since, stopping only for fuel. The Multistrada is a tremendous tourer – it’s like your own two-wheeled sofa.

The manually adjustable suspension is pliant, the adjustable windscreen keeps me buffet-free, and the engine has this great big whack of midrange torque that nothing else on the road today can match. On the four-lane highway that I’ve been on for most of today, it’s easy to get the www.autocarindia.com

digits on the odometer to move fast.

Gurgaon is breached in 13 hours and getting into Delhi takes an infuriating three more.

It’s Chandigarh by 10am the next morning, where I’m supposed to pick up spare tyres and a few essential tools for the trip, but the tyres haven’t arrived yet. I carry on without any form of mechanical backup. After all, Multistrada loosely translates to ‘able on any road’, right? What’s the worry?

Cocksureness raises its ugly head.

Anyway, the road upto Bilaspur is a minefield and I’m in Manali by nightfall, tired but not bruised, thanks to the hugely accommodating 50mm Marzocchi front forks and the Sachs rear monoshock. My friends from Helmet Stories, the adventure travel company that organised this ride, are waiting. Tomorrow, the real ride starts. Tomorrow, everything I’ve learnt about the Multistrada so far becomes almost irrelevant.

Desperation sets in with the absolute lack of grip.

Uni strada to heaven

Harsh has a glint in his eye as he ◊ december 2012 AUTOCAR INDIA 223

Multistrada to the mountains | Adventure

‘We can’t afford to ‘The breakadventure our vehicles – from never knowing what comes it’s an 18km walk back to civilisation.’ to expect, except that it will be unforgettable.’

You need three eyes. One to watch the road, one to look for falling rocks and one to take in the stark landscape.

Blue skies to snowstorms – ∆ kick-starts his heavily modified we rode through everything. Enfield LB500. He’s been on this

road before and knows it’s going to be nothing like the last time.

That’s the thing about riding in the Himalayas – the roads and the scenery change drastically every time you come here. The adventure comes from never knowing what to expect, except that it will be unforgettable.

That much is guaranteed.

And so, to the musical orchestra of the Ducati’s twin-cylinder growl and the thump of five 500cc Royal Enfields, we set out on a new adventure.

The Ducati is springing pleasant surprises on me every day. Today’s surprise happens when we get to this bit of slush on the way up to the Rohtang pass. This is my first attempt at riding through the gooey stuff on this bike and my fears, as it turned out, were unfounded. The Multistrada, in Enduro mode, adjusts its traction control settings so finely, it allows just enough wheelspin to maintain momentum, but cuts in

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when it thinks the wheel is going to dig in and get stuck. It’s almost too easy, and I’m so thrilled by this discovery, I’m gushing praises on the bike by the time we stop at the top for pictures. Harsh, Jamshed and Noel are unimpressed. They know worse is coming. We ride the trodden path on the Manali-Leh highway to our first halt on the grounds of the Tupchiling monastery just before Tandi.

From here on, there is no cell phone network or fuel stations for the next five days. The backup Bolero is carrying 80 litres of fuel in armyspec jerry-cans, mostly reserved for the Ducati, and with good reason.

The 13-15kpl indicated by the bike’s trip computer made us want to carry plenty of reserve petrol. As for me, I’m glad to be out of reach.

The places you’ll see

From here on, we ride through vast valleys surrounded by towering peaks, next to wide, frothy rivers on narrow tracks, dynamited through ◊ www.autocarindia.com

Relaxing mudbaths are all a part of riding here. december 2012 AUTOCAR INDIA 225

Multistrada XXXXXXXXXXXXXX to the mountains | XXXXXXXXXXX | Adventure

Rush-hour traffic at Sural Bhatori. You can’t escape it even at 14,000 feet.

Bike cautions rider about ice on the road. Another successful puncture kit raid.

‘The road has all but disappeared, The road up to Rohtang is the last bit of tarmac we will see for the next few days.

We became experts at fixing punctures.

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‘Hey! I can ride a Multistrada too.’

∆ flat grey and metallic red mountains. The road has all but disappeared, the stench and relative bustle of Rohtang is a distant memory, and we’re now almost on our own. We ride through tiny villages, clear streams and rush-hour traffic made up of herds returning home. In these remote villages, electricity is still a luxury, and hospitals are a half-day walk away.

You could, as an option, wait for the rickety Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation bus that comes through here twice a day.

Today’s destination is the tiny village of Urgos in the Mayad valley.

It’s at the end of this road, and we’ve come here because no one else does.

Well, no one but a few trekkers.

They come here because Urgos is the starting point of a day-long trek

that ends in a 60-square-kilometre meadow of flowers that, apparently, puts the famed Valley of Flowers to shame. Next time, perhaps.

We leave Urgos the next morning, heading towards Pangi valley, and tarmac is already a faint memory.

The roads here are just mud, littered with sharp, tyre-slicing rocks. They are so narrow, there’s no space for a bike to pass a truck in some places, and some of the drops are deep enough to impress Felix Baumgartner.

While the Enfields are fine here, I’m scared. The Multistrada, even in its Enduro mode-limited 100bhp, picks up too much speed and too much momentum too quickly. I’m in first and second gears, all hair on the back of my neck at attention, and still managing small, thrilling www.autocarindia.com

Rohtang is a distant memory, and we’re now almost on our own.’ powerslides to get through the tighter corners. This is when the punctures start, but I’ll tell you about that later.

We get to Tindi, pick a spot next to the Chandra-Bhaga river, set up camp and feed on delicious Lahauli aloos, freshly made chutney and a three-course meal by the campfire.

On every one of these five days away from civilisation, we camped, and the best one was at Sural Bhatori. It’s a meadow at 14,000 feet and the temperature dropped below zero at night (I know because the Multistrada’s digital display told me so).

These roads are unlike anything I’m used to riding on – they demand all your concentration all the time. You have to constantly analyse changing surfaces, pick www.autocarindia.com

your line, keep an eye out for rocks falling from above, and try not to ride off the edge while soaking in the sheer brilliance of the surrounding landscape. It’s a workout, it’s thrilling and you soon get used to the taste of your heart in your mouth.

And, when you’re done riding for that day, pick a spot for a camp and indulge in telling tales taller than the peaks surrounding you under a full moon and a campfire. That’s what made this trip special. It wasn’t only about riding, there was fun to be had off the saddle as well.

We had one more halt at Teesa after that and then it was back to civilisation at McLeod Ganj, where I had to part ways with the Ducati.

The now-perforated rear tyre would go no further.

The people you’ll meet

Riina is from Finland. Her surname ends in ‘nen’, which is not surprising considering the other people I know from there are Häkkinen, Mäkinen and Räikkönen. Someone told Rinna about this fantastic road to Leh via Manali. So, she’s flown in to Delhi, bought a second-hand Bajaj Chetak and started her journey a few days ago. We meet her on the other side of the Rohtang pass. We’re waiting for a bulldozer to clear a landslide when she arrives on her beaten-up Chetak, wearing just a light jacket and jeans. She’s taped a torch to the scooter’s dysfunctional headlight, she has not carried spare parts or tools, and the spare wheel is flat.

All my concerns about not being able to handle the Ducati on these roads disappear after meeting her.

Brave girl. And if you’re wondering, she made it to Leh. And she’s never ridden a scooter before!

Our support crew – an absolutely fantastic bunch of people. This ride wasn’t about riding a gazillion kilometres a day. It was about taking it slow and easy, soaking in the beauty of Himachal Pradesh. So, we had a full service team that included mechanics and cooks who travelled behind the last bike in a Bolero Camper. And they were ace at their jobs. All we had to do was pick a spot to camp. Before we knew it, the tents would be up, the steaming hot chai would be ready and we could settle in comfortably.

It was three-course meals every night, a quick check of the bikes in the morning and total peace of mind so we could enjoy the ride. Thank ◊ december 2012 AUTOCAR INDIA 227

It’s all in the name

Distance from Mumbai to McLeod Ganj.

The Pirelli Scorpion Trail tyres were developed specially for the Multistrada. They have puncture-resistant, hardcompound rubber on the centre tread for off-road use and soft-compound rubber on the sidewalls for hard cornering on tarmac.

I had 28 punctures over the course of this trip. All on the rear tyre. The tyre was slightly worn when I picked the bike up in Mumbai and was worse for wear after the 2,000km to Manali. So, what we did was raid the puncturewallahs at every remote Himalayan town we passed through for all their tubeless tyre repair kits. To those who travelled this road on tubeless tyres for the next few days, I apologise.

It got so bad that on the last leg from Teesa to McLeod Ganj, I literally had a puncture every 10 kilometres and, in the end,

the rubber was so thin in some places, we had to seal a single hole with three plugs just to keep the air in. Then again, maybe I took the tyres a bit beyond their comfort zone.

Apart from this, nothing much went wrong on the Multistrada.

There were no serious mechanical issues and not even as much as a misfire from the engine on the whole trip. It even started with one press of the button after a night spent in the snowstorm and -15deg C. It was phenomenal, it was multitalented, it was comfortable and it is now what I lust after.

This brings me back to the morning after we ditched the bikes.

After the coldest night I’ve ever spent, we hitched a ride on the back of a truck to get to the top of Sach. Unfortunately, the ice hadn’t melted completely and the Ducati’s rear Pirelli was almost bald. The bike slid out from under me four times and I finally had to have five of our support crew helping the Multistrada’s now not-so-mighty 150bhp climb the last two kilometres to the top of the pass.

What followed was the hardest 60

minutes of my life. Pushing a 220kg motorcycle up a slippery road with little air to breathe isn’t easy, trust me.

I finally found a track where the ice had melted and there was grip again. It was then a traction control-assisted ride all the way to the police checkpost at Satrundi on the other side of Sach. This bit was, in many ways, the highlight of this ride, because it was unplanned and unexpected and seriously challenging – the three things that I believe make for epic adventures.

The ride to Pangi is a journey that will make you occasionally question your sanity, often make your hair stand on end and subtly encourage you to push your own limits.

Think of it as a personal trial that mixes difficult terrain, new biking buddies and at least a few million stars and you’ll get the picture.

Topping it all though is the absolute elation and total satisfaction you get when you make it to the end. It is, unquestionably, one of the ultimate ways to let yourself know you’re alive. AI

Full moon, campfire and motorcycles. A time to howl.

Drying out gear after the snowstorm. ∆ you Virender, Mohinder, Pritam, Abid, Sajid, Karan and Tashi. You might not know how tremendously epic this trip was for us, but we do.

The Sach Pass

The road up is so narrow that fullsize trucks don’t take this route. In some bits, the mountain has been dynamited to make way for this link to Chamba, so it’s still unstable and fragile. There are waterfalls that you have to ride through, there’s hardly any margin for a slide, and the air thins out as we climb.

‘The ride to Pangi will make your hair stand on end and encourage you to push your own limits.’ www.autocarindia.com

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For more rides like this contact vir nakai 09867639753 or email info@helmetstories.com

Multistrada XXXXXXXXXXXXXX to the mountains | XXXXXXXXXXX | Adventure