I"ve decided to write logs of all my roatrips soo I'll be starting off with the most recent one where I got Leh.id..

The Riders
Its was me an Giovanni Odoni, My roomie and a very close friend.Lets have a brief intro of bothe of us

Giovanni(CBZ):
Its his first bike trip ever and has a very little riding experience maybe couple of hundred kilometers till date, However he is a Mountain Biker so riding on Mountains won't be a problem for him. He is a fun guy adventure lover and super duper excited about this roadtrip


Javed(P200)
ITs my Second trip on hills I've been to Abott mount and pancheshvar before and have an experience of more then 8000 touring kilometeres (now its around 11000 kms). I'm riding for the past 2-3 years so I was very happy and excited about this trip.





Destination:

Ladakh ("land of high passes") is a region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent. It is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the area. Historically, the region included the Baltistan (Baltiyul) valleys, the Indus Valley, the remote Zangskar, Lahaul and Spiti to the south, Ngari including the Rudok region and Guge in the east, Aksai Chin in the east, and Nubra valleys to the north over Khardung La in the Ladakh mountain range. Contemporary Ladakh borders Tibet to the east, the Lahaul and Spiti to the south, the Vale of Kashmir, Jammu and Baltiyul regions to the west, and the trans–Kunlun territory of East Turkistan in Central Asia on the other side of the Kunlun range across the Karakoram Pass in the far north. Running southwest to northeast, the Altyn Tagh converges with the Kunlun range in Kashmir which runs southeast to northwest forming a "V" shape which converges at Pulu. The geographical divide between Ladakh in the highlands of Kashmir and the Tibetan Plateau commences in the vicinity of Pulu and continues southwards along the intricate maze of ridges situated east of Rudok, wherein are situated Aling Kangri and Mavang Kangri and culminates in the vicinity of Mayum La.

Why Ladakh

Well Ladakh is each and every riders dream destination, Maybe because of kahrdung-la (worlds highest motorable pass). I heard a lot about this place so and I knew that its a remote are so it'll be fun. But it was not only an adventure trip for me but also a spiritual journey to rediscover my own self. I was sick and tiered of my monotonous life so (it was my hiddend agenda) I also wanted to know what I really wanted out of my life.

The Trip

Our plan was to start from Delhi early morning on 15th August and reach Manali on 16th day then Pang on 17th and finally Leh on 18th after that Pangong So or some lake and back to Delhi by 25th however it turned out to be something Totally different.

Planning and Acquiring Equipment

We were planning to rent a bike for Gio however we realized that its gonna be a super expensive affair so we decided to go for one of our friends bike and get it fixed although it was a better deal but still everything has its pros and cons. the bike went all the way but on mountains she was kinda slow buit still we enjoyed a lot and have lots of sweet moemories attached to it . Once the bike were decided we started to hunt for the equipment. We had nothing wiht us so we had to but everything starting from the tankbags, saddlebags and spares.
decided to go for local saddlebags as we needed it only for one time and I didn't had enough cash for Cramsters so keeping the budget in hand we decided to buy saddle bags which can be used only once. I bought a tankbag and then some more useful stuff like

Bunjee Cords
Spare Tubes
Puncture Kit
Foot Pump
Spare Visor
Spares like - Accelerator & brake cable, Foot pegs, Brake and Clutch levers etc
First Aid kit - Forgot to get diamox and really regretted it later

Once we had everything we decided to test Gio's bike so we were our on NH8 to test his machine she was clocking around 100 kmph and was doing great so I was glad that the bike was in a good shape. There was a small incident which made Gio realize that 80 kmph is safe and also the basics of Overtaking.

then it was time to double check the riding gear.. I was palnning for this trip since Jan 2008 so i got everything starting from Gloves to Boots.. I also got Balaclava for myself and the best part I had two pair of everything and I never knew why I bought stuff in pair but now it was clear that I was destined to ride with Gio and I was shopping for him as well so we were all good for the trip.

D-day
On 14th night I decided to stay back coz it was not a very good idea to leave right after shift coz I won't be able to travel beyond Chadigarh so we stayed back on 14 by 15th our landlords servant damaged Gio's bike soo we had to get his bike fixed on 15th which is the independence day so all the service centers were closed on that day. In the end we got a quick fix by a local welder it was temporary but was strong enough for us to give the courage to start the journey on the same night.