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Article in local daily : 8 bikes,9 bikers all set to conquer Khar dung la.
2 years ago : friend of mine does BLR-KDla-BLR on a Suzuki Fiero.
Dec 2005 : my bro-in-law will be biking Mumbai-Calcutta-Mumbai via Kanyakumari.

Wow!! I keep hearing these kinda things very often,but only with bikers.Even foreigners love to bike in India.Car expeditions are heard of very rarely & that too being sponsored ones (By Airtel,Speed,Autocar etc)..Why is it that none of us in Team BHP are talking about it ?.Most of the members here are definetely for power & performance as we can see it in the various forums.No offence though,but I feel there are members who are interested in expeditions & we should start dicussing.

There are two detterents though:money & time.Yes,it will cost a bomb & will need a lot of time.But,nothing is impossible...all we have to do is plan in advance & skip the annual foreign jaunt ..& we can get going....in our own country.We can start small....for southies..Karnataka,tamilnadu,Goa,kerala & maharashtra could be done.Northies,apologies,as I donot know much around Delhi.Then we can plan on the bigger expeditions.

As for me,I have done innumerable road-trips in the south .Believe me,it is addictive.I'm off to Dhanushkodi this long weekend.

So, what say gentlemen ???

A similar trip made via car becomes a long drive, but made via bike becomes an adventure. Many of us make long trips often via car but we do it in the safety of covered enclosure, sheltered from the elements, and with much more powerful machines. The bike riders are open to elements (rain/sun/cold), no luxury of any kind (A/C, back support), less safety, basically any long drive turns out be an adventure.

We often do team-bhp drives covering minimum of 200KMs, however due the relative safety, it doesn't sound much like an adventure. Once I drove 1500miles (2400KMs) in 3 days in a car, I don't think anybody would consider it anything more than a very long drive. A bike would have been another matter.

There is a gentleman in the indiahighways Yahoogroup who has gone all over India at least thrice in his 1999 Matiz. His most recent trip was to Khardung La pass.

Whenever I plan a trip on a slightly unfamiliar route, I take his advice. His trip logs have to be seen to be believed.

I totally agree ... Biking is soo much more an adventure. I feel its best done in a company of like minded enthusiastic people .. Have done a 750 KM trip on bike along the plains as well as the hills and believe me it is something to be experienced ...

All my car trips have dwarfed in comparison but I guess I have got used to all the comforts of a car ...

Plus ...Safety is one thing that was never on my mind then but has become a big concern for me now ...

To each on his own ...

I agree..biking could be fun but I guess it too much risk to take....I guess thats grey hairs speaking but neverthless makes sense to me.


However it still not a bad idea to start with expeditions, let start with small distance ones and test the waters in terms of how it goes/participation as fun is in numbers :-)

I'm glad there is some positive feedback here.I agree biking is more adventurous,as I used to do it in college days...now,I am used to the comfort of cars & love to hear people going on car expeditions.

Last december,we drove almost 3000 miles in the US.I found it boring.It's good for people going from point A to point B..just the destination & not the journey,but here in India,you have the sights,the sounds,the obstacles..which makes it an adventure by itself.If, four like minded people & good drivers are around,it is fun & if you have a group of cars with like minde people,it should be better.

Thanks hrag...I shall check on the gentleman in yahoo groups..


Chandan

In addition to time & money, there's another factor of buy-in. sorry to make this sound like a project proposal, but buy-in is very important, unless you like to and can do trips alone.

There are a lot of people who don't like road journeys so how does one get others to start enjoying road trips?

And why do we need to look for known places? An unplanned trip to a nearby unknown place is as good an expedition as any other.

chandan, the gentleman's name is Mr. Kumar

Thanks,hrag...got into the group...seeems interesting.. :)

I agree driving in the US is boring ... gets monotonous and you have keep yourself awake on the endless highways ... India is much better any day