Our kit gets loads of abuse over the summer, so it innevitably needs the odd bit of TLC. The nice thing about the BOB trailers we use for the self-supported tours is that they’re made from chromo, which makes them repairable ‘in the field.’ We’re got a bunch of different Yaks (our herd), and the one in need of attention was a ‘first generation’ model; we’ve had it for years and it’s done us proud.Noticing that the base was starting to come away from the main frame, we headed down to our local friendly welder. The fringes of all Indian settlements are lined with rows of darkended, dingy auto-works where jeeps lie in open surgery, and bald tyres are patched up for another year or two. Scruffy and grungy, this underbelly is not the India of tourist brochures. But it’s a chance to see a whole other side of a city where you’d never normally have reason to go.
We stopped at one, thick with smoke from both the welding machine and the incense wafting out of the workshop shrine. After a quick once over, Ramesh was soon scrabbling around on the floor for a few strips of scrap metal to reinforce the base. A small crowd of nosy neighbouring shopkeepers had gathered, offering advice. Donning a pair of vaguely dark sunglasses, sparks flew and the trailer was bodged back together in no time. The cost? About 50p. And while Indian welding certainly can’t match the neat TIG welding of the original, it looked like it would do the job.
Off to the paint shop then.
Our helpful onlookers pointed us down the road to Ashok Motor Workshop, one of the many rickshaw specialists in Manali. The idea of a simple touch up to protect the exposed frame from rusting was soon replaced with a complete respray; after all, we have a company image to think about… As with most things in India, it was a ‘while you wait service.’ Sweet milky tea was called for from the chai-wallah hut round the corner; an elderly man appeared with a wire carrier, and the piping hot chai was served in grubby old glasses.
First the old decals were painstakingly scratched off, then the airbrush was filled with paint – Rickshaw Black, appropriately enough. It was propped up along a piece of rusting scaffolding, surrounded by posters of Hindi deities. No mask, along a dusty, polluted road: that’s India for you. Half an hour later and £2 down, we had our shiny, glossy BOB back in action.It had been an intereting experience seeing the inner workings of a rickshaw repairers. With only one coat to her name, we don’y expect it to last long.
But I guess it will just give us the excuse to go back next year for more…
Archive for October, 2006
A trip to the LFW (local friendly welder)
Published October 28, 2006 Bike Talk Leave a CommentTags: bob trailer, india, welding
Taking advantage of a sliver of sunshine that permeated a week’s forecast of drizzle, Cara and I headed out to the Brecon Beacons for the day. We met up with Simon (who joined us on Manali-Leh last year) on what turned out to be a suitably epic ride. In fact, it was a route suggested to us by wheel-truing supremo Neil, also on the tour; an ‘infamous classic’, as one of the mountain bike mags put it. And while the climbs weren’t of Rohtang’ian proportions, they were steep enough to have us scrabbling for grip and peddling at the speed of crawling babies. Or off the bikes altogether.
The ride began in Mynydd Du Forest (GR 252285, not far from Abergavenny); scenery doesn’t get much better than this little pocket of Wales. The ridges here are like huge shark fins, shielding the late afternoon sun from one side of the valley, throwing it into cold, deep and dramatic shadow. Grassy shutes fed down into valley floors, where forgotten backlanes meandered beside translucent rivers. Dappled autumnal colours and a clean, crisp light brought out the best in the auburn ferns. Indeed, it was all rather lovely.
I took the Big Wheeler for a spin, but was blighted by three punctures in the space of a mere kilometre. Simon executed an elegant endo, adding another dark, angry bloodblister to his set of stigmata-style wounds from an earlier incident. And Cara managed to almost impale herself on some barbwire as she hurtled down a slippy, slabby, rocky descent strewn with giant mismatched steps.
Simon’s host of computers reported us that we had covered a commendable 40km, with a respectable 1300m of climbing. We were up at Crug Mawr as the bikes’ shadows were longest, hurried back to the car park just before dark, gulped down a few warming cups of coffee and a chunk of carrot cake, before heading for home…
Pics by Cass and Simon. Simon’s blog is here.
As hair was starting to sprout through the vents of my bike helmet, Cara took the shears out last night and went to work at my Spitian-grown dreads… What resembles the remains of a fairly sizeable roadkill is now stuffed into the bathroom bin.
So I’m back to *normal* – all I could do with is a close shave from an Indian barber. I think I’d skip the extras though. As well as the usual nose hair trimming and eyebrow plucking, the last barber I went to offered to squeeze my pimples (no thanks, I’ll do that in private, not surrounded by a crowd of onlookers). I also resisted the lure of a head massage as I’d tried one before. First my head was slapped about like a basketballer dribbling a ball, then my eyes were pushed into their sockets, Vulcan-style. Never again…
But visiting a local barber is one of the ‘must-do’ activities in India. Go ferrel, leave your washkit behind, then look forward to some TLC when you’re back in Manali. Here’s Duncan, enjoying a face massage with industrial strength skin products:
Freddy was looking unusually nervous as the pre-pubesent teen loaded up the cut-throat razor with a new blade. He was worried about his insurance: ok for mountain biking and snowboarding, but would it cover ‘extreme shaving’?
Still, they both came out looking new and shiny, and ten years younger:
Most people who come to Northern India want to ride from Manali to Leh. But there’s so much other great riding nearby that’s quieter, more off the beaten track, and isn’t quite so tough. With this in mind, we’d really like to run a tour across the lesser known Sach Pass next summer.
Here’s an outline:
The trip will be 15 days long, and cross two big passes (4000m+). Terrain’s a mix of paved and unpaved surfaces – so think roughstuff touring rather than mtb’ing. Although it’s an absolutely fantastic ride, the fact that no-one knows about it means there’s very little information on the web. Which makes it harder for us to get a group together; so this post is to gauge what kind of reaction you have. We rode it last year (a little late in the season, mind) and posted some pictures.
What we love about about crossing the Sach Pass is the extraordinary variety of geography and culture it emcompasses, over a relatively small distance. From the greeny lushness of the Kullu Valley, to the drier climes of Buddhist Lahaul, to the all-but-empty Pangi Valley. After crossing the wonderfully rugged Sach Pass, there’s even a 100km descent (that’s right) south to temple-packed Chamba. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it’s the most beautiful pass we’ve ridden in Northern India. The last stop is Dharamsala, home of the HH Dalai Lama and all things Tibetan. It’s a challenging ride with plenty of climbing – but overall altitudes are a little lower, so it’s easier to get your head around.
The best time of the year to do this trip is mid September to mid October: after the monsoon, but before the snow. The dates we’re suggesting are the 18th Sept to 2nd October. The price will be around £750, all in. We’ll run it as a minimal, jeep supported trip, with Norboo our cook on hand to rustle up our evening feasts and Phunchok to carry our gear. We’ll camp most of the time, with some guesthouses too. Unlike our Spiti ride, the route isn’t technical (from an mtb point of view) – though we’d recommend mountain bikes or touring bikes with wider tyres for the very mixed conditions.
Please let us know what you think…
We’re off to Mexico!
Well, at Christmas at least. Hiram, who was on our Manali-Leh tour, has invited us to his hometown of La Paz, Baja California. He’s promised to show us his favourite local trails and beaches; a blend of sea kayaking, kite-surfing, island camping, mountain biking… Bliss. Then we’ll head over to the mtb-mecca of Copper Canyon, in the Sierra Madre mountain range. Apparently it’s deeper than the Grand Canyon, and more than four times its size. What’s more, it’s in the coolest named state in Mexico: Chihuahua. Maybe I’ll find my pooch there!
Here’s Hiram in India, proudly clad in his country’s colours.
