Day 2, 3
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| Rohtang Pass - November 7 to 10, 2004
Day 2, 3 |
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| This time, Yogesh got through the river without getting either of his feet down. My bike stalled in the middle of the river and got water in both my shoes. I am all of 55 Kgs and here Yogeh's nearly 100 Kgs had a big stabilizing effect riding on rocks in the river. I just hoped that my feet won�t freeze by the time we reach Manali. A few Kms later there was another wet patch - I was looking for black ice again - there was none, but just as the wet patch began to get over, I had this eerie feeling that something was wrong and grabbed my brakes first the front and then rear - but simply nothing happened and I was just gliding along directionless just 2 feet away from oblivion. Honked hard to warn Yogesh behind me and quickly got both my feet down. I just glided on my feet and tyres till I reached the safety of some solid ground. Had cramps in both my thighs, stopped a bit to gather our nerves and proceeded. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Now that the hard part was over, we were looking forward to reaching Manali fast and enjoying the warmth of our hotel rooms and suddenly, Yogesh's clutch cable snapped! We inspected the damage. The wire snapped just near the clutch lever - there was nothing we could do, but ride clutchless. We did up to 30 max and reached Manali in about 2 hours. Pulsar is an easy bike to ride clutchless, as I knew when I tried on his bike - no jerks nothing - just smooth shifts most of the time; almost didn't feel the lack of the clutch. I even reached 5th gear @ 60 Kmph without a clutch. Had to use the throttle a bit for shifting down from 3rd gear. On enquiring, we were referred to a famous local bike mech - Raju. Got to his garage to find it closed for the day. So we parked Yogesh's bike at the hotel and went to a local restaurant in my bike to have dinner. Came back to our hotel rooms - I had a rotten headache and Yogesh a pain in the neck. We had our favourite painkillers and crashed in for the night. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Got up at 7 next morning, had tea and went straight to Raju. He specialized in bullets. And he had some awesome modified ones. He had the best equipped spares and mods shop that we have ever seen. He had everything, from free flow air filters to three pronged silencers, handle bars of every kind, horns and what not. He was also into bullet rentals @ 500 per day for Leh. We were shown some of his collections; he had a treasure trove of bullets and spares. Rx 100s were the only other bike he rented other than bullets. We took videos clicked a lot of pics and thanked Yogesh's broken clutch cable for all this. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cabled fixed, we had breakfast + lunch, and decided to visit the hotsprings some 2 Kms away. Nothing much to see here. Just people bathing in the hot water and women washing clothes. We got to the river bank near our hotel, took some pics, collected some stones and headed back to the hotel to check out. It was a steal - the hotel, for 500 bucks a day. Facilities included, Color TV, Geyser, bath tub, carpeted rooms, room service phones, lifts, attendants in uniform.... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| It was 12:45 when we checked out and we decided to just rip and rip all the way. Rode non stop till kullu. Did some shopping there, purchased some shawls and Kullu caps. Kept ripping - the scenery was beautiful. Much of the ride was along the river banks of river Beas. I spotted a small waterfall pouring into the river from the adjoining mountain and decided to take a small break. Clicked some photos and after 5 mins, we were on our way. Or so I thought. After riding for about 3 minutes, I realized that Yogesh was not following me. So I slowed down so he could catch up. Still no Yogeh. I came to a stop and waited - still nothing. Decided to turn back and soon my mobile began ringing. I knew Yogesh was in for some trouble. Reached back and found Yogesh, just a few meters from where we had stopped for the break - his bike won't start. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| I pulled out the ignition cable from the Spark plug joint and checked for spark - nothing. No current coming to the cable. It had to be the ignition coil or the alternator. Rolled the bike downhill, put her into 1st gear and released the clutch lever. The headlight was on. So it should be the ignition coil. I decided to head back for the last town to check if there were any bike mechs - there were garages, but nothing for bikes - just cars. Yogesh stopped a Mahindra pick up truck, but there was no space for the bike in the truck. Had a talk with Yogesh on the phone and decided we should tow the bike to the next town till we could find a mech. So I just had to buy a rope and head back to where Yogesh was. But, bad luck again - the shops in this town's closed on Tuesday. Got back again to the next town and got some rope. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| By now, I was about 15 Kms away from Yogesh. Headed back to Yogesh with the rope and then the fun began. It was quite an experience. I tied one end of the rope to my saree guard and Yogesh fastened his end to his legguard. Now, towing a bike(150 Kgs) with a rider on it (100 Kgs) and his luggage (8-9 Kg) - total 260 Kgs up a hill is no easy task. And up hill was what we had for a start! Once we got going, we just kept going till we saw a mech. It was ok as long as the rope was tight. But once there was a slack, Yogesh had to take care that it didn't get under his tyres and every time the tension came back, my bike would pull to the side on which his bike was behind me. And this thing happened everytime we went downhill or everytime we hit a turn. The worst case was when there was a downhill road, then a turn and then uphill right after the turn. My bike would veer of towards the center of the road or even to the other side at times! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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