Ride Report: The India Ride Expedition

**ryanjpyle** · 09-18-2012, 05:16 AM

Day 16: Today was a fantastic day. Colin fully recovered from his food poisoning and the team completed an incredibly arduous 401km over perfect modern highways and pothole covered dirt roads. In many ways today was a day of extremes, as we had some of the best roads that we've encountered on our journey, as well as some of the worst. Leaving Vadodara very early we headed south on National Highway #8 and completed some serious kilometers early in the day. And again, like most days, the moment we left the National Highway and took a secondary road the quality of road deteriorated and left everyone thinking we were back on day 4 on the Rohtang Pass. By late in the day, as the sun began to set, we finally rolled in to the Sula Vineyards just outside of Nashik. The destination was chosen because the vineyards are situated in the mountains and offered respite from the challenging heat of the last few days. That coupled with the fact that very few people, including both Colin and Ryan, had realized that India is producing some high quality wines.

**ryanjpyle** · 09-18-2012, 05:21 AM

Day 17: Day seventeen of the India Ride was a day of extreme contrasts. We started our day waking up to birds chirping and cool winds blowing through a quiet vineyard. That's right, the India Ride Team spent the night at the Sula Vineyards just outside of Nashik in Western India. The India Ride team enjoyed some fine wines, grown just a few hours drive from Mumbai, but they also had a chance to rest and reconnect with nature after spending most of last week traveling through the bad lands of Rajasthan, were the scorched desert landscape offered little in the way of greenery. Colin and Ryan also completed a tour and learned about wine making general, but also why wine growing in India is particularly unique. It was a wonderful 24hrs of peace, serenity, and brilliant wines. And then the contrast...After lunch, our team headed out from Nashik to Mumbai and the 180km journey took a little over 5 hours as the team faced twisting roads, traffic and a torrential rain storm. Today was just another reminder that India will challenge you, and reward you, in completely different ways several times a day; and that is really why we are in India and doing this journey, because everyday is completely different from the last and there is so much still left to see.

**ryanjpyle** · 09-19-2012, 12:45 PM

Day 18: The India Ride team has finally made it to glamourous Mumbai, and we took the time to soak in some of the big city atmosphere as well as par-take in some of the finer elements of Mumbai living. Having struggled with the traffic last night while arriving into Mumbai the team took time today to work through our footage and get back on top of our long "to do" list. Enjoying lightening fast broadband internet access helped our cause significantly as connections over the last week or so had been very patchy making communications challenging. We would like to give a special thanks to the Westin Mumbai for being such gracious hosts on our quick Pit Stop in "The City of Dreams" and we were very humbled by the warm reception we received from the Westin Team - did you see the Arrival Images below on our page?

**Motofan** · 09-19-2012, 04:07 PM

That is a great picture. I did not recognize the name but googled it and found that it was previously known as Bombay.

India really is a big country.

Hopefully soon alot of KTM/Bajaj motorcycles will soon be coming to the US.

**ryanjpyle** · 09-20-2012, 02:46 AM

Day 19: Today was a quiet day for the India Ride Team. We made the very quick and painless 177km journey from Mumbai to Pune with relative ease. We've enjoyed climbing off the coast (where weather is hot and humid) and back in to the foothills, were we've been greeted by cooler air and much less traffic. The team is settling in for what will become a serious stretch of riding over the next few days. Once we complete an "off the bike" activity in Pune tomorrow, we'll begin our journey south to Cape Coromin - the southern tip of India. We can't wait to explore the southwestern coast of India.

**thedannywahl** · 09-20-2012, 03:29 AM

I'm loving the updates here, but I'm a little disappointed that the "The Bikes" section on theindiaride.com that was "coming soon" has been replaced with a "partners" page.

I want to know about these bikes they're riding - shoot we have more info on their sunglasses and the follow vehicle!

**ryanjpyle** · 09-22-2012, 04:07 PM

Day 20: Well, if it seems like we've been on the road traveling for a long time, you are correct. Can you believe we are only 1/3 of the way through our journey? The bodies are starting to ache and the mind is starting to get a little fuzzy. But today we enjoyed our 20th day on the road with a wonderful "Off The Bike" activity. Today our team visited one of the largest and most advanced car manufacturing plants in all of India, the Mahindra facility just north of Pune in Western India. When we started planning our journey almost one year ago, one of the key aspects of what Colin and Ryan wanted to accomplish with their show was to identify examples of both traditional India and modern India, and today was a leap forward in the modern India category. The Mahindra plant in Pune turns out some 300,000 automobiles a year, which is just a little over 700 per day - a staggering number by all accounts. Today the entire team got an in-depth look at how Mahindra produces its new XUV 500 model (an SUV) and we all learned how the vehicle starts as sheet metal and just hours later breaths its first breath and rolls off the production line. It was an exciting process for anyone who loves big machines, production lines, robotic arms and of course cars.

**ryanjpyle** · 09-22-2012, 04:12 PM

Originally Posted by thedannywahl

I'm loving the updates here, but I'm a little disappointed that the "The Bikes" section on theindiaride.com that was "coming soon" has been replaced with a "partners" page.

I want to know about these bikes they're riding - shoot we have more info on their sunglasses and the follow vehicle!

Hey thanks for the feedback. We had some difficulty with Royal Enfield and let's leave it at that, and we didn't feel the need to overtly provide them with free advertisement :) Unfortunately our sponsor help make this possible and we don't like to give people too much of a free ride if they're not interested in helping us.

Saying that I'm happy to provide you with more information in this forum -

They have been surprisingly durable throughout this trip and for the price, and the ability of local Indians almost anywhere able to fix them, they have made for fantastic bikes for this adventure.

http://www.royalenfield.com/motorcyc...s.aspx?model=8

Any more info let me know -

enjoy the rest

The India Ride Team!!!

**ryanjpyle** · 09-22-2012, 04:14 PM

Day 21: After an exciting Off the Bike day yesterday, the India Ride team was back on the road today...but initially we didn't get very far. The team only made it about 20km south out of Pune before we had our first motorcycle mechancial breakdown of the journey; Ryan's motorcycle began continuously stalling, it was only 930am. Without really knowing what was wrong with the bike we managed to get the motorcycle back to Pune and after asking around we found a shop, "Azad Motors" that specialized in Royal Enfield repair and maintenance. It turned out that Ryan's bike was nearly completely out of oil, and that our bikes had been burning oil for several days as we were at least 1,500km past when we should have received our last oil change. Royal Enfields need far more regular oil changes than most western made motorcycles so Colin and Ryan were astonished by lack of oil in their bikes, and they were also grateful that the problem didn't lead to greater engine damage.

**ryanjpyle** · 09-23-2012, 02:10 AM

Day 22: Long before we began this journey, our friends in India have been constantly asking us, "Are you going to go to Goa on your journey around India?" We've always answered yes. And the response has always been the same, "Oh, you'll have a great time!" We didn't know exactly what to think at the time, but we always wondered what exactly everyone meant. Well, today we finally realized why everyone loves Goa so much; it's stunning. The India Ride team traveled 280km from Kolhapur and arrived in sunny Goa. The weather is perfect, the temperature was desirable and the ocean was magical and the spicy seafood was fantastic. And, jumping in the ocean after an entire day of riding the motorcycles is the best way to cool off. Now, since we are in Goa, apparently we don't have to check in at work, we don't need to check out emails and we can just be relaxed and free. So that's all the update you will get from us tonight.