Two bikes already in India

[MEZ]

Hi there, there will be two motorbikes coming available around the second week in december if anyone is landing around this time and are in search of two wheel trip transport. Its a wild stab in the dark but you never know.... Will through in an Indian sim card too. Post back for details if anyone interested..!!???

[theroadwarrior]

Hi,

My friend and I are landing in Delhi on the 25th Nov and will be looking for a couple of bikes from then on. What bikes do you have and how much would you be looking for?

Cheers,

Asghar

[planethopper]

What are the stats on the bikes? Model, year, shape, price, etc... I'll be arriving in Delhi on the 22nd. only need one though. Also looking for riding partners, safety in numbers.

[MEZ]

Hello gents, the bikes in question are Honda Hero Hunks, fantastic bikes for the roads here, if you have Enfields in mind then please forget it, they will fall to pieces on some of the roads we have had to travel, trust me..!! 2008 models, a matching pair, 13,000/15,000 klm's on clocks as we purchesed them. We have fettled them replacing many service items as we have travelled but to be honest these little bikes are bullet proof and cruise at 80/90 kph all day long. Use a bit of oil but but thats to be expected. We are leaving Goa tomorrow heading south making Chennai on the 9th dec, the bikes are then joining us on the train to head north to first Mumbai then Delhi on the 14th dec. I can give you contact details of the dealer we used in Delhi if you like as your arrival date doesnt quite match ours. Regards Mez.

[theroadwarrior]

Hi Mez, if you could forward on some details of where you picked your bikes up from, i'd be very thankful. Planey hopper, if you need someone to ride with, get in contact at abdiasghar@hotmail.com

Cheers fellas,

All the best

[witold]

Two points:

I did North India on Honda Hero. They are just OK. They have paper clutches. I burned out mine 2 times while doing some dirt. Other minor problems came up pretty regularly also... But no problems once I got out of the mountain roads that are hard on bikes. Pulsar 220 is cheaper and better IMO.

Second, watch out what sort of paperwork you get with the bike. Many (most?) tourists get screwed by scum Karol Bagh dealers who don't give them entirely proper paperwork so they are stuck "selling back" to the same dealer for chump change because no one else can buy your bike because of improper or incomplete paperwork. (Despite doing a good bit of research, I got caught in this scam as well.)

[Tybalt]

I arrive into Goa on the 29th! Can't think of a better way to spend 3 weeks than riding around in India!

I'm quite interested in a bike, and any advice or stories!

[SamL]

Originally Posted by MEZ

if you have Enfields in mind then please forget it, they will fall to pieces on some of the roads we have had to travel, trust me..!!

Sorry Mez, that's an opinion and certainly not fact! Spent many years riding Enfields in India and will undoubtedly spend many more. Enfields like all bikes need to be looked after, they will then look after you.

[MEZ]

Hi Sam, your absolutely correct, it is just an opinion. I've ridden both types of bikes on Indian soil and it would always be my preference to take the little Hero's. I love the Enfields but the Hero's were specifically designed and built for the people and roads of India. We covered 7,500 hassle free kms on Our bikes and excluding the punctures they performed faultlessly. It is at the end of the day down to personnel choice.

[pecha72]

I always kept my mouth shut, but I heard it probably 20 or 30 times in India: "you should ride an Enfield" (I was riding a V-Strom 650 with my GF as a pillion).

As a matter of fact I HAD ridden in South India on an Enfield before that trip. The V-Strom was about 100 times better for the road conditions in India. Oh yeah, and it had carried both of us there, with all our luggage, and even spare tyres on board, from Europe. It never missed a beat, all we did was regular maintenance. The Enfields needed careful looking after, every day, or they´d leave you by the side of the road diagnosing the fault (happened many times, too).

Nothing against them, I think they´re fun in their own way, and some people even do long trips with them..... but it´s just ridiculous to claim, that they could somehow be compared to modern bikes, which they (the Indian domestic market Enfields I mean) cannot. Even the 100-220cc Jap bikes, built under licence in India, will be much more modern, and require less mechanical skill to operate.

I guess its a kind of ´romantic´ idea, that some people have, to tour India with one; certainly seemed like that for many Indians, and some tourists as well. But the Enfield represents old technology: yes they can usually be easily fixed, and parts are easy to get all over India... but the flipside is, they´ll also need that fixing quite a bit. And their ability to carry weight, and how it affects handling, in fact the chassis as a whole, is also something that by today´s standards is very outdated, plain and simple.

(Just my opinion of course, I could be wrong, too, and no offence to anyone).