This year its going to be a special ride, during the ride I would be completing an association of 10year with Fiero. Together we have traversed this land of lamas thrice and hope to visit some new places this time.

To make things a bit more  adventurous, the road between Manali and Leh isn’t officially opened yet (with less than 2 days left for me to ride on it).

How many times and which all parts in recent past (1month/1year/3years/10years), on your bike have failed you? Normally your answer would be “none” (that’s what it will be in most of cases). But if there are some parts that have failed more than once, in recent past, add them to the list as the first items (for example HT coil on one of my motorcycle). On a well maintained (regularly serviced & with all parts replaced whenever the need arises) bike, you shouldn’t have parts that would have failed frequently (here I’m talking about a bone stock bike).

So, if no part has failed, so far, on my bike why should I even bother to carry any spares? Well, there are certain spares that aren’t very expensive and don’t occupy too much space and aren’t too difficult to replace either BUT if they fail can land your bike in an unusable state. So, it’s better to be safe than sorry and carry them.
Following is a list of such spare parts:

• Fuses
• Spark Plug
• Spark Plug Cap
• Chain Link
• Clutch lever
• Clutch lever mounting clamp
• Brake Lever
• Brake lever mounting clamp
• Cables: Accelerator, Clutch and Brake (if your bike runs on front drum brakes)
• Headlamp bulb
• Engine oil (if you are using one that is not easily available and you think during trip it will require to be changed)

Other than the above mentioned carry spare set of tubes (if your bike runs on tube type tire). Even if your bike runs tubeless tire, it is better to carry a spare tube just in case the alloy wheel is damaged and starts to leak air, fitting with tube can fix the problem.

One point to note is that, it’s important to know how to replace the spare part that you are carrying else often it would be as good as not carrying one. So, learn to change these parts and practice before you head out on that ride which you always dreamt off.

Though the following items are not exactly spare parts, one should also be carrying them:

• Electrical wire
• Electrical tape
• M-seal

One might ask, for a long road trip the above mentioned list is fine but what about Ladakh? My answer is, Ladakh is no different than any long road trip. Yes, the terrain is different, so is the altitude and the help on road side is rare but other than how does it matter what all parts one should carry?

The list is kept short to only those parts that one can carry easily and don’t need much skill to change them and if they fail you might be left stranded. Though one can carry much more parts than the above listed but then are you preparing yourself for the worse? Than what about the “adventure” part of the road trip? In that case may be use a backup vehicle or better use some other mode of travel.

Now, if you wonder where in my city I can find a good place to get my motorcycle prepared or learn how to replace the above mentioned parts. Though I don’t have information for many cities but I can help you with Mumbai. In Mumbai Arpan & Reddy conduct sessions for leh riders free of cost and teach you basics of motorcycle maintenance. For all my long trips (including 3 Ladakh rides), my bike(s) were prepared by them.

and I’m back, back to modern civilization.
The above picture is one that was clicked during the trip, as we climbed up Chang La after it was happily snowed for more than 30minutes. During this trip, I got to experience more than what I was looking for.

I’ll try to pen down the wonderful experience I had during this trip as soon as possible and share them with your all soon, very soon.

It is not that I was very actively updating my blog here, that anyone will notice that I’m away from Internet for sometime.

Still, for those who stay in touch with me via e-mail, IM’s and other mode of communication, please note that I’ll be out of reach for next two weeks. The picture above should give you an indication as to where I can be found, if at all.