A tour around north India on Royal Enfields

[brake034]

I think mine is a regular 500 Bullet

Yep, a regular RE, it's leaking a bit! If the leaking stops it's time to get concerned.

 

[KTMphil]

Time to take the Enfields out for a test ride before we're in the middle of nowhere in the mountains








Good job we did, the float valve on the carb was jammed on my bike --- Indian mechanic bashing the carb float chamber with a 17mm wrench









& Som's clutch cable snapped - nothing the Indian mechanics couldn't fix in a matter of minutes

 

[KTMphil]

They're actually not as bad as I thought they'd be and fun to ride, Som's liking hers a lot



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Some young ladies from the hills who were a little shy



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Back off home with their cows


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[KTMphil]

Not quite sure what they are farming here, Som says probably honey


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Up into some small hills compared to what's ahead of us


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Tomorrow, NE towards Shimla, the old British, summer HQ during the colonial rule




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More to come........

 

[Lone Rider]

Not quite sure what they are farming here, Som says probably honey


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More to come........

Som, as usual, is right. The boxes are bee hives - you see them here also sometimes in the north of Thailand

 

[LivinLOS]

Nice, and you? A 612c.c. cafe racer :-)??

Something for the weekend Sir ??

 

[KTMphil]

A loop south of Shimla on the Enfields today & things are looking pretty good now

 

[KTMphil]

Back to the story - Up early in Nalagarh in the converted fort (into a 36 room hotel, really like this place and the vision they had)















Royal Enfields all checked and prep'd by the Indian mechanic









Piles of spares loaded in the support truck

 

[KTMphil]

Local Indian ladies out and about in the morning in Nalagarh









Then off NE towards Shimla







It's a beautiful 1 1/2 lane wide, curvy road to Shimla, really enjoyable as we took the old back roads

 

[KTMphil]

We thought this was rubber trees but found out that it was an ingredient used to make turpentine and lacquer
















Drink stops
















The silver tanked Enfield was leaking engine oil badly, the Indian mechanic trying to discover the source of the problem

 

[KTMphil]

This was the first Tata Nano we saw, the USD$ 2,000 car that was supposed change the lower/ middle classes world









The silver Enfield was now pissing out engine oil, time for some surgery

 

[Captain_Slash]

The silver Enfield was now pissing out engine oil, time for some surgery



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Good thing you have got those mechanics going along with you Phil

 

[The Bigfella]

Did you find out the name of the tree that provides that ingredient for turps?

 

[KTMphil]

Good thing you have got those mechanics going along with you Phil

They get them going again in no time Colin. ....you need them for sure.

 

[KTMphil]

Did you find out the name of the tree that provides that ingredient for turps?

I'll try get the name of the tree

 

[Lone Rider]

I'll try get the name of the tree

It looks like one of the many pinus species and I guess that it is the Pinus Roxburghii as that one is common in India and Pakistan - the tree is also known as "chir pine"

 

[The Bigfella]

It looks like one of the many pinus species and I guess that it is the Pinus Roxburghii as that one is common in India and Pakistan - the tree is also known as "chir pine"

Spot on.... this from wiki.

It is also tapped commercially for resin. On distillation, the resin yieds an essential oil, commonly known as turpentine, and non-volatile rosin. The proportion of rosin and turpentine oil in chir pine is 75% and 22% respectively with 3% losses, etc.
The turpentine is chiefly used as a solvent in pharmaceutical preparations, perfume industry, in manufacture of synthetic pine oil, disinfectants, insecticides and denaturants. It is one of the most important basic raw materials for the synthesis of terpene chemicals which are used in a wide variety of industries such as adhesives, paper and rubber, etc.
Chir pine rosin is principally used in paper, soap, cosmetics, paint, varnish, rubber and polish industries. Besides these, other uses include manufacture of linoleum, explosives, insecticides and disinfectants, as a flux in soldering, in brewing and in mineral beneficiation as a frothing agent.
Presently, India imports resin which is far superior in quality as well as cheaper than the indigenous one. Quality of resin depends on the pinene content. Imported resin contains 75-95% pinenes, whereas chir pine resin contains only about 25% pinenes.

 

[KTMphil]

Dirt (prob rust more than dirty fuel) in the fuel tank blocking the fuel filter when the tank got low and we were on reserve

 

[KTMphil]

Gassin' up

Nice twisties

More great views

Terraced gardens

 

[2wheels]

There's a few of these buzzing around the streets in Chiang Mai now.




Very nice pic!

 

[KTMphil]

Got some internet at last - Kalka eastwards to Shimla:


The leaky Enfield's problem turned out to be associated with the gear selector

The mechanic made a seal out of a thin alloy which did the job & we were off again

 

[KTMphil]

Lots of vegetarian food in India, many dishes are veg with a batter coating and fried

This was some kind of fried bread, they eat a lot of fried food

Most of the villages have water pumps

Views on the way to Shimla

 

[KTMphil]

Lots of locals around with the orange tint (looks like she got some color tips from the guy in Mae Rim?)

 

[KTMphil]

The thin, windey road was further hindered by all the landslides making single lane only in many places

Looks like this all floods when the monsoon is pumping

Getting there, brick works in the background

55 km to go to Shimla

 

[KTMphil]

Melting the tar with a log fire to repair the roads

More views as we head east towards Shimla

 

[KTMphil]

There must be literally hundreds of bridges spanning the Satluj river in north east India, if you're into bridges, there's one every 20km or so & not 2 are the same

With the gradients so steep, finding toilet stops for the ladies became problematic

 

[KTMphil]

Heindrick checking if the tiny mountain road will be possible

Looks good, so up we go onto "the ledge"

Quite spectaular

Waiting for the group to catch up on a broken/ landslidey section

Just a few minutes

 

[KTMphil]

First views of Shimla as we climb up in the Himalayan mountains

Much bigger than expected, the "city" sprawled the whole basin

 

[KTMphil]

Heindrick has us booked into the Landmark Hotel in the center of town, excellent choice

Decent rooms

 

[KTMphil]

Shimla's British heritage / the summer HQ's is described in this previous post


http://www.rideasia.net/motorcycle-...d-north-india-royal-enfields-2.html#post31063






What a strange Indian city! If you were blindfolded and taken there, you'd swear you were in the UK - I was looking for the Dixons & Argos

Shimla's municipal building

Police station & government office

This one has a very strange British influence for sure

 

[KTMphil]

Shimla, old England

Christ's Church Shimla

Lower down the Indian section

 

[KTMphil]

A female, Indian Police officer

Shoe mender on the main drag in Shimla

 

[KTMphil]

Some other Indian Police officers - very proud, good to see

 

[KTMphil]

Outside one of the main temples in Shimla

 

[KTMphil]

More Indian cuisine

Even the firefighters have Royal Enfields in Shimla

 

[KTMphil]

The next day with a free day because of the change of route, we do a loop south of Shimla

No traffic - a rider's dream

 

[KTMphil]

Back in Shimla after a great 175km ride, looking down on the golf course

Wasn't sure if that was a helicopter for the flood rescue efforts or some very rich Indians from Delhi up for a round of golf

 

[KTMphil]

Shimla

We'd been warned about the aggressive monkeys in Shimla

& they were right, this one didn't even like having his photo taken and charged at me

Som bought some apples

Monkeys recognize the apple newspaper wrapping and charged at Som she had to throw them the apples

This one was looking pretty pleased with himself

 

[KTMphil]

The old coffee house in Shimla, you could smell the history in there

India shopping below

Military HQ in Shimla

Charcoal delivery in Shimla

 

[KTMphil]

The next day NEwards from Shimla to Sarahan

Wet nasty start to the day, Som not happy at all

We're right in the clouds

Our mechanic doubles as a chayawalla

Clouds starting to lift

Later delightful as usual