My Himalayan RD

[mukund]

Hey Folks,

It is about time that i posted up online about my long awaited ride to the biggest hills. What better place to start than here...

Way back in the 1990s, somewhere the idea got lodged into my head to have a "touring" motorcycle... I guess it was after riding the bike and hearing tales of friends like "Captain" Vivek and others going up to the himalayas many many times. Back then I felt that the RD was that dream motorcycle and it has been my dream for so many years.

It was in 2002 that I brought my RD and by 2006 the dream was almost dead. The bike was hardly reliable. She kept getting one disease or another, went from one quack to another and to make a long story short, i had already started the other journey to buy a 4 wheeler which i thought will take me up the mountains. Then in 2006-2007 I joined RDD and brought the CDI and filters for the RD, after that I knew the RD "tourer" dream was back to life.

Well my 4 wheel drives and the escapades with them along with the problem of getting leave for a month have kept me away from this dream since 2007-2008.

Finally sometime in March this year, I got a go ahead from office to have this 1 month long vacation this June.

Since then I started wondering if I need to plonk in all the goodies that i have saved up and take the RD to the hills or take it as is ....

Thanks to Ron, I got an LT-Combo setup with Wiseco hotrods and 5th oversize pistons etc, about a year ago... As it was, the bike was a HT with some blessings from RDD some time ago. Back in 2009, when i had the bike stripped for a paint-job, baba had observed the sleeve having rotated and blocking some of the ports... he had put in some blessings to keep it going for a while... to take this running bike or the "LT-Combo" build with all the goodies was the question. This is the same blessed bike that i seized (due to a poor quality tap) and still ran up the nandi hills in some 1min 42 secs.

Taking the LTcombo or ride the running HT - I adopted the common "Middle Path" - "The Indian buddhi" way.... I think i will keep the LT-Combo build for many many more rides which i hope will happen soon and checkup the running HT

Thus started on opening the RD and "checking it" It was at approx 150on the comp meter .... Ron was quite reluctant to help with my greed of retaining the good setup for later... he felt that the LT-Combo build was ideal for the himalayas and hardly wanted to get involved in some "Jugaad" / "Stop-gap" measures on the RD... somehow, my fortune smiled on me and Ron too decided to help me with the mini-checkup :-) ... opening the RD turned out like a can of worms... the piston showed 0.5 on the top... when Ron measured it, turned out to be a 0.3 size piston. The bore dia turned out to be 0.4 ... was almost at the point of giving up on this setup... thanks to friends and rdd, everything fell into place... get 0.5 mm pistons and can be done... got the ART pistons thanks to Shuvo/Arvind.

I would like to thank Ron from the bottom of my heart for the amount of time he and Prd spent on the bike. More so the amount of time they needed to put up with me eternally looking at them as if they are going to snatch my dream away and flush it down the toilet ... The number of hours i spent bugging them on the telephone... The number of days they came over visited my place where the bike had been stripped. The number of small things baba kept track off like the gudgeon pin clips to the clip on the carb needle amazes me and gives me a lesson on the word "care"

Now the bike has got assembled at home by the experienced mechanic who has also been very patient with me and my shenanigans and yesterday, me and a friend finished some 150kms and again Ron and Prd were there to soothe away my worried forehead... i was riding around 3.5k RPM and felt the bike was hardly there

Thanks RDD, but for you my RD-Dream would have remained only a dream...

Now whatever happens to the ride on the RD, I sure know that it is only now, only after i met all of you that my trust in the RD would even have a chance of giving this ride a shot

Cheers

[chinoy]

Thanks baba.
Switch to motul.
Show off the bike to all the RDD fans.
And have a safe ride up with hill.

[rahulsharma_7]

Wow what a journey man, Congratulations for getting the bike setup for the maiden journey.

Best of luck and get as man pics/vdos as you can of the devil roaring the himalayas.

[ad1tya]

ALL THE BEST Mukunda! Ride Safe!

[crazydiablo]

Awesome dude, cant wait to ride together.

[crazydiablo]

Just happen to hear this bike, another angry engine has been born. I dont think you will be changing to another setup anytime soon.

[Prd]

All set, Mukunda. Fly away mate... You have a real beast on your hands there, and one that's too happy to loft its front wheel.
Like I say, you now have two ultimate beasts in your garage, you lucky... All well deserved, baba, so it nice to see you having fun.

Just remember not to keep the throttle at 3500rpm and rev it up and down through the rev range like its meant to be ridden.

Ride safe up the hill and here's to many more adventures. Cheers!

[varvij_viju]

Muks baba, ride safe and have a blast and please post some pictures of the ride.

Cheers

[dragstar]

Congratulations mukund sir. Wishing you many happy rides

[dafc]

Sounds like a sweet setup take pictures of bike on one wheel

[mukund]

Hey Folks,

Thanks for your good wishes.... past few days have been good fun on the paper work front.. Since I'm planning to take the bike by train to the himalayas, some friends advised that i get the paper work sorted out to avoid any trouble on the way....

My RC book is in almost rags and powdering about ... well it has lived it's life of nearly 3 decades. I need a card in a hurry so went to a tout and got the bike inspected for fitness at the RTO yesterday... they gave me a letter called as a "B-extract" and another "Green Tax paid" receipt which i'm told are sufficient for moving the bike across the country... keeping my fingers crossed on that ... the tout has also assured me that the "Card" will be done by the weekend.

We are supposed to start from Bangalore on 19th June, ride to Madras and get the bikes into the train headed to Jammu. On the 22nd afternoon, we are to start the ride from Jammu towards Srinagar and onwards to the towering mountains... looking forward to it and hope my good health and the bike do well

Cheers

[ajithk]

Have a blast Mukund baba! You are hereby bound by solemn oath to put together a detailed and complete travelogue within a week of returning. Better put notes and pics together everyday.

[vinaykumar]

All the very best, see if you can borrow some nice camera kit from your friends. [other than the stuff you already have]
A nice wide angle lens, filters etc.

[voodoo_child]

Best wishes Mukund for an adventurous Himalayan trip!
A great chance for you to move at your own pace enjoying the nature instead thinking about why others ride fast

[chinoy]

Or slow when it comes to Muks.