Manali-Leh: Should you do it alone?

The most consistent, popular question I was asked on Indian roads was this: Average kya deti hai? (how much average/mileage does it give?). The second was variations of: why are you doing it alone? For future riders of Manali-Leh, I will try to attempt an answer to this loaded question. Should you do it alone?

Like for most important questions, the answer is yes and no and it depends. Let me first slice it in different ways.

The terrain. 70% of the road is excellent and far better than anything that you'll come across in India. The other 30% is what makes Manali-Leh a cut above any other motorcycle trek. Before Rohtang, there are areas where there's a slush of mud and with insufficient speed your motorcycle can roll back. I saw a sardar family get off the car because it didn't climb. It requires a reasonable amount of driving and balancing skill. There are really, really rocky areas. There are large water patches and you'll worry that it'll get into the motorcycle (stop for a bit before driving through if your motorcycle is exhausted). There could be snow (rare). You'll pass through desert land - Ladakh, a cold desert with low oxygen levels. You'll climb up, down all a lot.

The weather. It's pleasant mostly but it'll get bitter cold. If you don't have good gloves, you'll have to keep moving your fingers all the time so the blood doesn't freeze. Double or triple soxing is a good idea. When you crap outside in the wee hours of the morning with your butt exposed, it's the ultimate chill!

The body. Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) may or may not affect you depending on your constitution. You will not feel that thirsty but keep drinking water in a disciplined fashion at regular intervals. Carry cookies, crackers, chocolates, dry fruits - you'll feel like eating those and you should keep eating - sugar is good. Carry electrol (Glucon D) - the sugar will help. Diamox takes about 6 hours to kick-in so plan accordingly and take a Diamox and Dispirin (aspirin) together. I took it twice. The only spot where I faced any AMS was near Tandi gas station and almost nothing after that. Don't overeat. Under low oxygen, your body will perform differently - normal tasks such as tying your shoe lace will seem extremely complicated - just be aware of it. Doing regular exercise everyday (I chose AoL breathing excercises) is a good idea as it sets the rythm of your body.

The motorcycle. The behavior of the motorcycle will change just like that of your body's. For its basic function, the motorcycle will suck air, mix it with petrol, create a spark, burn the mixture and use the thermal energy to thrust itself forward. What happens is the air is rarefied and if the air filter is blocked (clean it), the carburretor will find it difficult to breath. One option when this happens is to remove the filter altogether. When tune the carb in such a way (turning anti-clockwise) as to open it, it'll suck in more air freely - imagine as having bigger nostrils and lungs. Your motorcycle's performance is bound to be suboptimal because you are tiring it continuously on a changing terrain. Your shock absorbers will get screwed. Jumping too much on rocks will also ruin your wheel and rim - watch out for this. I got mixed answers for what air pressure is optimal - one theory pro-higher tire pressure is the tire will bounce through rocks and pebbles (there are many, many) and will avoid a puncture, the other theory against-higher tire pressure is a tight tire will get heated faster so it will burn out quickly - both seem logical. Develop a sense of how the motorcycle is behaving by constantly being aware of it and observing it - its most important indicators are how it drives and how it sounds - surprisingly the latter tells you a lot. At one point, I'd tightened the brake so much that the chain and tire started heating up - though nothing happened, I intuitively felt something was wrong so I stopped. And I was right...when I looked for a bit I saw smoke coming out a heated chain - this was in Pahalgam, Kashmir and I took it to a local mechanic and let him meddle with the brake. Check your vehicle at the end of the day - check the tires for any pebbles etc., check the clutch and accelerator cables, check how your brakes function and brake lights, periodically check your spark plug, clean the air filter (take it to a tire pressure guy and he'll blow air into it) - it also helped that Ashok, the mechanic I found in Leh cleaned the tube leading from the air filter to the carb - that's where mine had a problem. If the vehicle's performance is suboptimal also consider cleaning the carburretor.

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So finally, what am I saying? Should you do it alone or not? The terrain, weather, body, and motorcycle are such that if you have to be screwed, you'll be screwed regardless of whether you are alone or you are with 10 people. Each of these factors is a BIG unknown and you can only attempt to reduce your risk but never eliminate it. You cannot realistically carry all the spares that you might ever need. If an avalanche or dump of snow or rocks or a glacier melt comes from somewhere nothing you do for your vehicle matters. Riding in separate distances can also leave you alone at the time of need in spite of driving in a group. But in your mind you'll feel a lot more relaxed when you drive in a group because that false sense of assurance does help.

However, it's dramatically a different experience to do it alone. Though I feel bad for Bhaskar that he couldn't make it, I was happy that he didn't because it gave me an opportunity to have a fundamentally different experience. Like Samir said when you ride with someone regardless of who it is, you are diffusing some of your energy. It's true. When you are alone you are doing it across a different circle of experience. It stretches the boundaries of your mental energy to different zones. It stretches your risk propensity to different levels and that reflects in other spheres of your life. When you are driving with the wind in your face and look back to see no one behind for miles and miles together and look ahead to see no one ahead of you - no one to any side, the thrill is different. Moreover on a philosophical level, you are alone anyways - you come and go alone - so being in the company of someone only gives a false sense of security. It let's you push the responsibility away from you. When you are alone you take the responsibility - you become the source of strength - not only for yourself but to those you'll come across along the way and after.

Finally when you look at the people who work for the Border Roads Organization fighting their battle with Nature with kids in their arms and tar on their faces, when you see great works of art and religion - the Gompas lost somewhere high up in the mountains and think about the people who built them, when you meet armymen who fight and protect our borders at minus 60 degree cold weather with ineffective equipment, when you see Ladakhis walking miles and miles doing what they do - agriculture of wheat or a vegetable that struggles to grow in a cold desert, when you think of the earlier civilizations that established themselves there many, many centuries ago when a motor never even existed - it puts things into perspective. Riding alone can easily be the easiest thing.