Cracking the Code on Covid Travel

It seems impossible to have a conversation about Covid and more specifically about travel during it without touching a nerve somewhere. The topic is as polarised as climate change, racial equality, immigration and pretty much every other social theme of our time. I am not going to wade into that mire. It’s way too tiring. If you are a person who believes that until Covid is ‘over’, the world should remain ‘sheltered in place’, you might be better served spending the next 10 minutes in your garden. But for those of you who accept our new reality and despite this will continue to live your life, read on.

If you have not travelled much in the last 22 months, especially internationally, one basic fact should be understood: the rules have not only changed, they refuse to remain static. So, if an international adventure is stuck in your near-term mindset, don’t despair. With a lot of stamina and some clever sleuthing, catapulting yourself from your Covid penitentiary into our beautiful world is a few clicks away.

Making a commitment..and when

Let’s be honest: the airlines and companies like AirBnB have been pretty horrible throughout this pandemic. I personally have lost thousands on flights that had to be postponed or cancelled, losses that have posted as revenue to the carriers but a big expense to me. And I know I am not alone. It took a while to figure out the best tactic: don’t book more than 3-4 weeks out. As we all know, our current world can become a very different place in a short period of time so a brief gap between booking and travel constrains this risk. And of course, choose a tour company (like ours, for instance) that has the deepest disdain for large, inflexible airlines and one that treats its clients the way we would want to be treated. This means 100% flexibility of your booking in the Covid world.

Getting ready for departure

Disclaimer: All facts may become fiction without notice.

We field questions daily about the rules for travel. The question ‘do I need to be vaccinated’ is invariably among them. Obviously, whether you vaccinate or not is a personal decision. But if you decide not to, you will encounter a strong (quarantine) headwind wherever you go.

Let the fun begin!

Step 1 – Get International Travel Insurance.

This was a strong recommendation well before the Covid waves started crashing over our beach party. This coverage usually cost about USD75 and covers you for illness and injury during your trip. So ‘if’ you take a tumble and need to come home in first class wearing a cast, or ‘if’ you contract the dreaded Omicron or some other letter in the Greek alphabet and require some hospital time, you can rest assured that you will not have to max your credit card getting the care you need. Allianz is a good one that we use, but there are many out there.

Step 2 – India & Nepal – Your ticket to the big show

Time to get real: if you want to travel internationally, you are doing yourself a disservice by not getting vaccinated. That said, this is your choice so if you are down with the facts and don’t mind sitting in a quarantine hotel at your expense, have at it. Once you are past this, the process is straightforward: get a PCR test prior to your flight (how long before varies but usually no more than 72 hours), complete your Passenger Locator Form for the destination country, get your visa and off you go. See? Simple.

Step 3 – Staying safe on road

Once we’re on the road, everything is pretty much as it always was. Kathmandu or Delhi traffic madness (the best video game in the world), stunning vistas, winding roads, sublime food, beautiful smiles. Wearing a mask in hotels and restos is left to the guest although they are still required in taxis and busses. We wear them to keep the dust out of our lungs but short of that, your adventure rolls on as your dreams imagined. Let the awesome unfold!

Step 4 – Getting ready to make your way home

We expect the service level of our hotel partners to be equal to that of our tour company. That means we take care of everything. 24 hours before you depart, our base hotel in Kathmandu, Delhi or wherever will arrange for a reputable local lab to come to the hotel and take bio samples from our entire ride crew. 8 hours later, the results are delivered and you are ready for re-entry.

Step 5 – Navigating your arrival

This is where things become variable based on your home country. Most require the completion of a Passenger Locator Form that essentially captures all your personal data including your vaccination status, your negative PCR result and proof that you have booked a PCR test to be taken upon your arrival back home. (As I write this, the UK has just done away with this silliness but who knows, the madness may yet return.)

The happy ending to this bureaucratic ball of twine is that it really isn’t that difficult. Like adventuring around India or Nepal for 12 days on a motorcycle, it may seem daunting but once you’re done you’ll give yourself a pat on the back and wonder what all the fuss was about. And as far as the riding is concerned, you’ll kick yourself for waiting so long and start planning your escape to do it all again!

Whether crossing the 18,000ft Khardung-la Pass in Ladakh, traversing the Thar Desert in Rajasthan or winding through the endless twisties of the Western Ghats mountain range in southern India, I never tire of shouting the same phrase through my helmet intercom to my partner Josh at the lead of our ride group: ‘You know what, Josh?? We have the best jobs in the world!” And he never gets sick of reassuring me that, ‘yes, Roro, we sure do!” So what could possibly top sharing what we love most with a group of like-minded people? Creating a new experience from a blank sheet of paper. This is called running a ‘recce’ or reconnaissance ride.

‘What’s that all about?’, you might ask? Well a lot, actually. It all starts with places we love to ride and believe adventurers would love as well. Let’s take Nepal, for example.

While Two Wheeled Expeditions is based in Delhi and our coverage of this vast country is quite substantial, Nepal is a very difference place. I had ridden through a lot of it during an around the world ride in 2008 and both Josh and I have covered parts of it for our own for personal adventure in the years that followed. That gave us the foundation to know we love the place and market research tells us we are not alone, so we were in agreement: Let’s build a Nepal expedition.

As you’d expect, the clean sheet of paper doesn’t stay clean very long. We knew we had certain constraints (difficulty, duration, distance) and standards (our ‘best accommodation and restaurant available’ policy, making cultural connections, staying off the beaten trail, etc.) So like any adventurer, we started with research. We contacted everyone we know in Nepal to get insider guidance, we researched dozens of hotels, we mapped out various route permutations and we defined our ‘must have’ experiences. Then came the fun part: 3 best friends meet in a hotel in Kathmandu and begin to make it real. In this case, it was me, Josh and one of our favourite people in the world, Igor from Toronto.

Now obviously we can’t spend cash on our recce rides like we do on our client rides. We stay at cheaper hotels but visit all of the best ones around and build relationships with managers and owners. We don’t use a support vehicle so we have to carry everything we need on the bikes and we have no mechanic so we carry our own spares and tools. Of course, getting a tour of a magnificent hotel like the Baber Mahal Vilas in Kathmandu – one of my favourites on the planet – may give us a good sense of what the experience is like, but to test a restaurant you must eat. Accordingly, our food budget is always lavish (I tell our accountant to post the invoices under ‘Research & Development’) and so it should be: we are foodies and cuisine is the heart of any culture and cultural connection is at the heart of our rides. After each experience, hotel, meal, chai stop, stretch of road, we take a break and discuss our impressions. Was it boring? Dangerous? Did it inspire wonder? The notebooks capture all this info, the exact locations of each feature, the distances and timings of each ride sector, GPS coordinates, landmarks, the menus, the costs, the locations of hospitals and workshops, site entry fees, the contact details of people we meet..everything. This info later forms the basis of a very detailed Expedition Guidebook.

Finally setting off on the recce is a sense of pure adventure: we go where we want to go in pursuit of the best experience possible. Do we get lost? Yes, often. But getting lost is part of the adventure because nine times out of ten, we are led to something completely unexpected, something that MUST be on our tour. Of course, we won’t divulge all of our ‘secret stashes’ here because there is always a competitor looking to copy our rides – yes, industrial espionage exists in the adventure touring business…we have even seen our own tour descriptions copied and pasted in other web sites – but believe me when I tell you that accidental discovery is the essence of the recce: Look at a map, detect an interesting geographical feature or a village hidden in the forest and off we go! The long, mountainous road from Lumbini to Chitwan National Park sparked one of these beautiful finds. Long stretches winding on a narrow highway through the forest revealed a dirt road turnoff into the dense jungle and Josh raised his arm to have us all stop and huddle. A unanimous ‘yes’ and we set off into the unknown.

The sinuous path through the dense flora was idyllic. We crossed over streams, made our way across fields of tall grasses and broke though beams of sunlight that penetrated the tall trees. A forager encountered in the middle of the forest pointed the way to his local village and there we had tea and biscuits, watched the evenings chicken dinner be slaughtered and befriended the local kids. The 26 km detour through this magical place, a secret path less travelled, has been a fixture on our Nepal ride ever since.

I will never stop telling Josh that we have the best jobs in the world because, as I define it, the best job in the world is not a job at all. It is a passion that you would pursue even if it was totally devoid of any monetary incentive. But there is something special about the recce ride. It is about building an experience kilometre by kilometre, relationship by relationship and momo after yummy momo with your best friends. And we cannot wait to begin our next one because a Sri Lanka expedition is right around the corner.

Thanks to the pandemic, some things may take a while before they return, if they ever do. Crowd surfing at a live concert, eating without care on busy streets, or hanging around to say “bless you!” after someone sneezes still seem part of the distant future.

For most of us, traveling has been restricted and reduced to either going through old photos or exploring our backyard or rooftop. During this time, incessant research on our dream ride has been our primary way to cope with the travel ban.

But the travel industry will resume in time because it plays a key role in people’s mental wellbeing and sense of purpose. And one of the first types of travelers who are most likely to get back on the road is the adventure motorcyclist. Research shows that 75% of travelers are seeking remote destinations with fewer people. Something adventure bikers around the world have been pursuing ever since motorcycles were invented.

The question is, how will adventure travel in India and Nepal be different compared to pre-lockdown back in March 2020? Here are some plausible predictions as we anticipate travel reopening eventually.

More personal space. In theory, you may get a little more than elbow room now that social distancing has been drilled into us for over a year. This does not mean traffic becomes any less chaotic or interesting in the billion-plus nation of India and 29 million in Nepal. It just means that a bunch of bikers having chai on the roadside won’t gather a crowd of curious onlookers in under 30 seconds.

Less “chalta-hai” attitude. This common Hindi saying implies an easy-going and nonchalant approach to everything. “Chalta-hai” is about making do with the bare minimum. The “new normal” may make that attitude less acceptable. For adventure bikers, it could mean not leaving things to chance but doing due diligence. From getting vaccinated, being first-aid trained, to learning basic motorcycle repair and maintenance, being better-prepared will ensure a less worrisome ride. For those posting their trip online, expect to be held accountable for how responsibly you travel and not just where you ride.

 

More empathy. As riders head out this summer there will be a heightened awareness of their privilege to be able to do so. To show their gratitude many may support NGOs working with the marginalized or take up a local social cause. The recent past has made it clear that even the smallest act of kindness can make a massive difference. Leaving only the paid professionals to navigate through the post-pandemic wreckage isn’t an option for the healthy, no matter what their profession. And as bikers pave the way for other tourists to return, the hospitality industry will hopefully begin to view them as partners in reviving tourism and there would also be more unity in the adventure motorcycling ecosystem.

 

These are sobering times, especially as India and Nepal continue to wrestle with the second wave of the pandemic. Much has changed, a lot has been pruned and shaken off and most of us have come to some conclusion about what we want to cherish and nurture. Besides family, community, and our vocation, one of the things many of us hold onto is the inexplicable desire to ride out on a motorcycle adventure once again.

The first time you fly into Kathmandu you will be amazed by this wonderland! It’s all that you expected and much more. The hustle bustle, the ancient culture and just the sheer number of people going about their business.

You may have landed with the sole purpose of riding a motorcycle or decided to add it to the tail end of your trekking trip. Either way you have some reservations. You recall travel documentaries showing dramatic traffic footage getting in and out of Kathmandu Valley.

Here are 5 tips to make your adventure less stressful and a lot more memorable.

1. Test Ride a day prior to departure

Even a 15 minute ride around your hotel will get you mentally prepared and put you a little more at ease the next morning. Two Wheeled Expeditions does a bicycle tour around the old town before giving you an orientation on the motorcycles.

With the test ride done your questions become clearer as opposed to imagining scenarios from inside a taxi. Most people are surprised by how quickly they adapt to the Nepali traffic.

2. Leave Early | Return on Saturday

You don’t have to leave at the crack of dawn but by 8am you should be crossing past the various roundabouts which will get progressively busy with each passing minute.

If you can choose your day to return into Kathmandu, Saturday is ideal when the city has least amount of traffic. It’s the one weekend day in Nepal.

 

3. Express yourself

Saints, gurus, priests and all those close to achieving Nirvana beware! If you’re the type who has accumulated religious brownie points, this highway is where you lose them. Your dark side will come rushing out as jeeps, trucks, cars and buses will seemingly scrape past you.

Your survival instinct may kick into overdrive and inspite of the Himalayan beauty all around you may only sense the bus hovering right behind you. Time to express yourself and don’t stress yourself.

By the end of the day you will be grinning from ear to ear but at the start you’ll be glad you’re the only one who can hear you inside the helmet.

4. Chia (tea) Thakali (meal) Breaks

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise but riding a motorcycle burns up calories. How else can you explain the need to stop for tea and meals every hour? Hourly breaks also makes safety sense.

Choose a chia shop or restaurant with more Nepalis and avoid those that are set up for Western tourists. The quality, price and taste are far better in places catering to local travellers. How do you know which ones are which? The local shops usually don’t have menus.

There are enough options on both sides of the road so find one on your left side. This makes getting back into traffic a lot easier.  Frequent stops reduces the stress and you’re able to process and adjust to the rhythm and rules of riding on a Nepali highway.

5. Overtaking

After couple of tea stops and even a plate of ‘Daal-Bhaat’ you’re ready to do what you thought impossible 24 hours earlier. Overtake a bus!

Always expect someone overtaking from the opposite side even on a curve.  Ensure you have a clear view ahead before pulling back that throttle and honking past the bus or truck. This lets the driver know you’re there and they usually slow down to let you go past.

Get used to buses speeding past you and then abruptly stoping to pick up passengers. You will overtake the stationary bus only to have it rumble past you few minutes later. Relax and enjoy the world’s best video game!

Hopefully these five tips will inspire confidence in you to attempt what many presume is too daunting. Test ride, leave early, express yourself, take breaks, overtake and enjoy the beauty and wonder of Nepal!

We asked Igor Spasojevic, a passionate adventure rider based in Canada why he wants to keep riding with TWE. 

What motivated you to do a ride in Rajasthan and Nepal? 

To be honest India wasn’t really on my radar. I wasn’t planning to visit it. My list of destinations to see was ever growing, but India wasn’t on it. Then, one sunny Tuesday in May, I think, I received an invitation to join the expedition to Rajasthan. It was a fantastic opportunity to ride motos with friends in an exotic land and I couldn’t let it pass. Following the joy and euphoria of this experience, when the opportunity came up to do it again in a less manic way and in a country that I had actually intended and desired to visit, which was Nepal, it was a no-brainer. 

 

Why did you choose TWE? 

They’re a bunch of ne’er-do-wells whom I have grown to appreciate as friends. I like the CEO with a “fuck everything” attitude, pink mohawk and a KTM. The TWE guide is one of the best humans in the world, great artist of life and an excellent guide. He works better without a GPS and takes better photos with his antique iPhone than with a DSLR. 

 

What do you ride at home?

KTM 790 Adventure R with some minor mods

Your next ride with TWE? 

Oh god!! Ha ha ha…once the borders re-open and once I can take some more vacation time, I’d love to visit Bhutan with TWE! or Ladakh! or Sri Lanka.. anywhere really. Marrakech? 

When you hear that eight out of the ten tallest mountains in the world are inside Nepal’s border, it’s easy to think there’s not much else. A possible reason why most visitors tend to only hover up in the Himalayas.

But for some who prefer motorcycle boots to trekking boots, the flatland known as the Terai offers a unique adventure like nowhere else in Nepal. The ride in these plains is as thrilling as the mountain roads that wind down to them.

It gets interesting from Bhutwal as you get on the straight road to Lumbini, the birthplace of prince Siddhartha Gautama, who later became the Buddha. Much of this road cuts through endless fields and tiny villages with gleeful kids waving at you as you ride past.

Eventually, you reach the Maya Devi temple and its compound is as serene and orderly as the outside is dusty and chaotic. The UNESCO heritage site with archeological remains from the 3rd century BC mainly attracts Buddhist pilgrims from across the globe and not the usual tourist.

Reaching here covered in the dust thanks to being on a motorcycle and then walking barefoot through its sacred ground is one sure way to embrace a sense of sojourning.

From Lumbini, you keep riding east, past the buffalo herders, countless cycles and tractors until the East-West Highway goes through dense forest. A turnoff takes you down into more fields and villages to finally arrive at the Chitwan National Park. This 93,200 hectare of parkland is another UNESCO protected site that is a surprising contrast to what Nepal is typically famous for.

The best chance to spot animals in the wild in Chitwan is from the safety of a safari vehicle. The last thing you want is to be chased by a one-horned rhino or herd of wild boars or cross paths with a bear or a tiger. If you do ride in the outskirts of the parks “buffer zone” make sure you are accompanied by a local.

The indigenous Tharu people here are known to be genetically immune to malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Legend claims it has something to do with the amount of home-brewed alcohol they used to drink. Regardless of whether you’re in the mountains or in the plains of Nepal, one common factor which is consistent everywhere is the resilience and kindness of the Nepali people.

From Chitwan, the dusty highway once again takes you past the paddy fields and slowly but surely winds its way up to the forest belt and then up the hills. By the time you reach Hitauda, you have had your fill of Nepal’s best stretch of flatlands and experienced the other side of its geography.

So next time someone says, there’s nothing but mountains to see in Nepal, tell them about the Terai.

Two Wheeled Expeditions rides Nepal in April, October and November 2020

A mere 80 kilometers separates the Everest Panorama Hotel in Daman from our 12 day ride’s final resting place back in Kathmandu, but those 80 k’s don’t come easily. The descent from 2,500 meters down to 1,400 comes via hundreds of hairpin bends over cracked road weaving through some of the most beautiful scenery found anywhere in the world. And when the switchbacks finally end, the cacophony of the afternoon Kathmandu rush hour is waiting to greet you. Dubbed “the world’s greatest video game” by yours truly, each gritty, smoky, tangled meter is a test of your sense of humour: trucks, busses, cars, bikes and cows all jostle for the same narrow path of undulating pavement. The ride captain’s shout of “200 meters to go!” to the rider group is met with a quick calculation of 10 minutes to go…step by step through a logjam of traffic…as we near the conclusion of our 900 km circumnavigation of the magical nation of Nepal. The dusty, mud-covered bikes now neatly parked in the cobbled lane outside our hotel, the dusty, mud-covered bikers make their way through the elegant arches of the pristine Baber Mahal Vilas Hotel, our Kathmandu base.

The greeting by Prabin, the operations manager, and his team is like having your parents welcome you at the porch of your childhood home after a long absence. Hot towels wipe away some of the road grime, a welcome drink of watermelon juice washes down the highway dust and we walk into the breathtaking courtyard of the 110-year-old former royal palace. With those few steps, the chaos of the city outside dissipates like the dirt washing down my shower drain. Travel & Leisure magazine may have captured it best when they wrote “Calm is the first thing you notice at Baber Mahal Revisited, a complex of shops and restaurants not far from the city center. The serenity is disconcerting …This is Kathmandu?”

For the clients of Two Wheeled Expeditions, yes, this is Kathmandu.

An architectural feast for the eyes, the nine open yet intimate courtyards of the property exemplify the architectural styles of the Rana Durbar, Newari, Terai and Mustang regions. Having just ridden through three of the four, the designs take us back to our stays in Pokhara, Bandipur and Lumbini over the past 12 days. Fountains, frescoes, statues, chandeliers, libraries and paintings of the palace’s former owners create an atmosphere that is the definition of ‘boutique’: the common areas of the 13 room hotel invite you to explore and find a quiet spot to call your own while you read, write or simply relax after the arduous final leg of our journey.

The Baber Mahal Vilas Hotel is the anchor tenant of Baber Mahal Revisited, an interconnected extension of the hotel filled with shops, restaurants and open courtyards. It is a destination in of itself drawing upmarket shoppers and diners from around the city to its consummate tranquility. The bustling Thamel neighbourhood may be a good place to haggle for trinkets, but if you want to select something perfect for a special person back home, this is the place to do it.

And while the grounds of the property are a magical jewel box, it only becomes a superb hoteling experience when the human element is added. Everything from the period costumes worn by the staff to their kind, welcoming demeanor and the meticulous way they look after your every need puts the Baber Mahal on a service level with some of the finest hotels in the world.

We often like to say that riding with Two Wheeled Expeditions is about ‘Grit by Day, Opulence by Night’ and, in Nepal, no hotel enables that experience like the Baber Mahal Vilas.

Two Wheeled Expeditions has rides through Nepal scheduled for April, October and November 2020.

Often curious friends and bikers ask me if they should or could become a motorcycle tour guide. Some have clocked wild miles, vlogging, blogging and accumulating their fair share of fans along the way. Now they wonder if this could be a career option. Many also add they hate their current job and need a change. Over the years I have given all sorts of answers but here are five clues to knowing if being a fulfilled tour guide is in your future. You enjoy people, you are patient, you are curious, you have credibility and you are a grateful person.

You enjoy people

Motorcycle tours are only about motorcycles. At least that’s what everyone thinks. But a tour leader’s ultimate goal is to fulfill what was promised to the guests. And that goes beyond handing over a sound motorcycle and riding in the front.

If you genuinely enjoy people you will not be partial towards your ‘type’ of folks but be able to connect with pretty much anyone you meet along the way. You will also need to be instrumental in bringing a sense of camaraderie among the diverse bunch of riders from across various cultures and nationalities.

From restaurant waiters to hotel staff, ticket operators to guides, from shopkeepers to mechanics, wherever you go, you are dealing with people. If they aren’t happy to see you repeatedly, tour after tour, it could be that you view people as a means to an end. As mere service providers, human resource and business opportunities. And less as persons who deserve dignity for just being.

If you enjoy people you will be able to develop the right tension between caring with excellence and inspiring the same in others and never belittling anyone.

You are patient

Chances are in any tour group there will be those who will test your limits more than others. The guests could be total angels but how do you handle random tourists out to ruin your vibe? Unforeseen events like a roadblock, sudden change in weather, fuel shortage or your own mistake and oversight.

If you are the edgy type who must perpetually be in control, then being a tour leader is probably not for you. To keep leading tours you need patience. Lots of it, all the way, every day!

Patience comes as you seek reasons to celebrate people and not just endure them. Patience is not passively waiting for things to improve but taking the initiative to intervene wherever necessary. Patience requires being courageous and calm under pressure for the welfare of others, in this case, for the sake of your guests and team.

You are curious

You cannot take people where you haven’t been. For that, you must nurture a sense of healthy curiosity and keep learning. And I don’t mean you simply carry your phone around to Wikipedia everything when someone asks a question.

How do you maintain a sense of wonder for a place you may have visited dozens of times? By expecting to discover something new. Also by attempting to do something you have never tried before. It could be trying a new dish or learning the nuances of the local language or belief system.

Many years ago a bunch of Australian riders dared one another to climb up a nearby mountain to a waterfall and stand under its icy shower. It wasn’t part of the plan but I did it and you know what? It was utterly refreshing, hilarious beyond words and completely changed how I saw a familiar route.

Don’t just direct people from the sidelines like a bored school teacher, join the class party! Pay attention to the details around and to the questions that are being asked. Being curious doesn’t just happen, its nurtured daily, especially through traveling and reading. And nothing engages people like being asked to share their life and worldview.

You have credibility

The sense of connection a group feels with one another and with a place has a lot to do with the guide’s credibility. And credibility cannot be bought or earned with a swipe of a card. It is trust, respect, and authority, gained over the long haul.

Credibility is intrinsically linked with generosity. The generosity of our time, talent and our treasure. As each one of us is different so are the ways in which we can be generous. But without exception, someone with credibility is usually a generous person. They have gone above and beyond the bare minimum requirement and invested in an intentional and consistent way.

Credibility is nurtured within us before it is acknowledged and endorsed by others. Our inner conviction regarding the price and the sacrifice we are willing to make for what we value matters. Being a tour leader is an unconventional vocation and there is a price to pay to pursue this passion.

And it is strengthened as we also know that no matter what, there are things we won’t compromise on. As someone once said, “if you stand for nothing, you fall for anything”. Credibility isn’t cheap and over time it makes you a far sharper tour leader than someone who is in it for the quick thrills and cool photo ops.

You are grateful

A grateful person maximizes what they have through innovation and by inviting collaboration. A complaining person will always find fault and focus on what they don’t have. All of life is a gift. And if by some chance you get to ride a motorcycle for leisure, seize the opportunity!  Gratitude keeps a check on our sense of entitlement. It keeps us on course when things don’t go our way and keeps us humble when we are winning.

When you are grateful you don’t waste time comparing yourself with someone else’s journey. You’re glad you are where you are without perpetually chomping at the bits to be elsewhere. Gratitude for the past and the present fills us with hope for an adventure-filled future.

There are many other practical skills and requirements that I have omitted but the above 5 traits will ensure that you are truly fulfilled as a motorcycle tour leader.

Do let me know your thoughts and feedback and happy riding! Even better, join us on an expedition and experience the magic for yourself!

Did you ever watch a MotoGP or World Superbikes race and notice how racers slide the rear tire out as they enter a turn so they can target the front wheel toward the exit and get on the gas earlier? Well, there is a 99.9% chance that you will never do that. But if you have a few hours under your belt on a dirt bike, there is a 99.9% chance that you will. That is because while riding a street bike is about all traction, pretty much all the time, dirt biking isn’t.

But every once in a while as you’re just settling in for a nice ride on your <<insert your bike here>>, almost always unintentionally, the tires WILL lose some traction, or the brakes WILL lock up, or the bike WILL go all squirrely over the metal grates of a bridge. The first time this happens, you will likely have one of those adrenalin shot moments as your biochemistry’s self-preservation function kicks in. There is a way to mitigate that millisecond or two of fear: get on a dirt bike and condition your mind and body for what a lack of control feels like.

If you are reading this, chances are you’re already a rider – maybe even a very experienced one. But whether a nube on a Rebel or a crusty on a Road King, spending some time on the dirt will almost certainly raise the level of your street game. Here are some reasons why.

1. Learning to Crash– It will come as no surprise that crashing on a street bike almost inevitably hurts. Even if your skin and bones are in tact, a small spill adds up to a big bill. One simple departure from pavement to gravel on some mountain twisties converted my pristine Ducati into a ragged trackbike rebuild in the blink of an eye. A dirt bike on the other hand is designed to crash and being clad in the armor of a gladiator from head to toe tends to make you a bit more resilient as well. The point is that no one WANTS to crash. But in any risky activity, it helps to be prepared for the worst and the best way to accomplish this is to experience it. After you’ve fallen off a few times and brushed yourself off, you’ll be mumbling ‘I got this’ inside your helmet in no time.
2. Learning to Feel– Riding a motorcycle is not a linear experience between inputs and outputs – there are a number of unpredictable variables in play all the time that will catch you off guard. As Mike Tyson once said, ‘everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’ When you think about the myriad inputs involved in riding – clutching, braking, traction, engine revs, gear selection, throttle, lean angle, etc – it’s amazing we can keep the thing upright at all. Riding in the dirt allows you the ability to exaggerate these actions and their reactions so you can begin to ‘feel’ that relationship. This harmony between human and machine translates directly to your street riding relationship until, with enough hours, you and your bike become one.
3. Learning to Read– Riding a twisty mountain road is a beautiful thing and unless you’re in the business of getting your knee down, chances are each successive corner will be quite similar to the last: there likely won’t be a mug bog, a gully, some low branches, a jump or a stream in your path so you can usually relax a bit. When you begin to gain confidence on a dirt bike and start to pick up your pace, you’ll begin to notice that relaxation is not part of the deal. Information is coming at you hot and heavy and only the brakes will stem the flow. This skill of reading the terrain, managing inputs to the bike and handling its reaction to them is an enormously valuable asset on the street.
4. Learning your Limits– GP racers must be at 99.9% of their own and their bikes limits all the time if they want to win. I would suggest that most people operate at under 75% of their street bikes’ full performance capabilities and that’s a good thing since modern sport bikes possess much more power than race bikes of 20 years ago. We like to know we are riding a street-legal race bike even though we have zero intention of getting our knee down on the Nürburgring. When you ride a dirtbike on some open terrain, you are free to get closer to 90% + of your bike’s potential. With practice and the confidence that comes with it, sliding on maximum braking, climbing hills at full throttle or using every inch of fork travel as you launch your bike over the next jump will become second nature. Once you have experienced 95% on a dirt bike, hitting 80% on your street bike won’t seem quite as unnerving.
5. Learning to Ride – As mentioned at the outset, most of those who read this are already accomplished riders. But if you are not, or are mentoring someone just getting into this crazy world we live in, the dirt is quite simply the best place to learn how to ride a motorcycle. In addition to the skill-building points mentioned in the last 4 bullets, learning to ride on the dirt is not only insanely fun, but it is inherently much, much safer than taking straight to the street. Dirt is softer, you are much better armored up, the speeds are a fraction of street speeds and going off line and hitting some bushes is a lot less painful than hitting a car, a tree or some other object that will win the impact war.

Of course, the best-case scenario is that you live in the best of both worlds and, like me, have street bikes AND dirt bikes in the garage. But if hard choices come with hard constraints, find some way – beg, borrow or steal – to get some dirt bike hours under your belt. In addition to looking totally awesome in the gear, you will quickly discover that there was a much better rider inside of you just fighting to get out.

On the highway, the Interceptor 650 gets a lot of attention. Possibly because I am riding the brightest of the 6 color options, and so is my ride buddy, Anshuman. The two “Orange Crush” twins remain the topic of discussion for our group of 16 riders as we make the 12-hour ride up from Delhi into the Kumaon hills.

The first impression of the bike is “wow” with a wide grin! It looks like a tastefully designed motorcycle for the more traditionally-minded biker. And I like it. That is until I notice its rear.

Unlike what you see on the Royal Enfield website, the Interceptor delivered on road has 2 major eye-sores. First, there is the mandatory “sari-guard”, a factory-fitted grill supposedly to protect ladies who will drape up in 8 meters of a sari and sit sidesaddle. No one checks that one can barely put one foot on the back peg, let alone both feet.

Secondly, there is the cheap plastic flap screwed below the rear number plate. My guess is that it serves the dual purpose of a mudguard and also wards off the evil eye.

Before you add any aftermarket parts, throw these two pieces of trash in the garbage and let the bike look like the charmer it’s meant to be.

With the superficialities out of the way, over the next couple of hours of riding, I am impressed by the response of the engine. Effortlessly smooth, there seems to be enough juice left even when you think you’re maxing out on the throttle. And when you need the brakes, they’re there too.

Sheldon, while lending me his bike the day before, had advised me to put all my preconceptions aside and ride it with a clean slate. Coming from a guy who has owned and ridden a wide range of motorcycles and has the technical know-how, I realized he was right. The Interceptor is indeed a brand new motorcycle from Royal Enfield.

As I navigate through some hot and bothersome traffic snarls, the Interceptor remains surprisingly calm. No tantrums and threats of overheating or clutch slips.

Anshuman doesn’t suffer from trying to make up for the years he wanted to ride but couldn’t for various reasons. His time is now and he adds with a smile “This is my first motorcycle and I think it’s a keeper. Well worth the money and experience…it has hooked me for sure!”

With breakfast over, we all hop back onto our bikes and immediately the novelty of how the bike looks or how the engine performs is replaced by how sore my posterior is. The Interceptor’s seat is slightly more padded than an ironing board, and a lot narrower. Thankfully this can be solved with a wider, more padded custom seat.

By midday the riding position feels a bit awkward and only when I stretch my arms out and sit far back on the seat do I save my legs from getting scraped by the front footpegs. But sitting like that makes the riding even more difficult especially once we hit the mountains.

As it happens in riding groups of our size, I keep losing some of the guys. And while making my 5^th U-turn to chase another errant biker heading in the wrong direction, I drop the Interceptor on a slope. With no leg guard, the flimsy foot brake bends easily. It reminds me of a tablespoon and both the bikes have bent foot brakes by the third day.

Looking at the instrument panel, a gear indicator, maybe even a clock might be helpful. And at the end of our ride, we find that the petrol gauges on both the bikes are faulty. Any more frills on this old school bike seem extravagant.

So is the Interceptor 650 parallel twin the most responsive motorcycle from Royal Enfield? Undoubtedly, yes! And with a few aftermarket adjustments, it can also be the motorcycle one can play with for a lifetime.

Get the specs on Royal Enfield’s site Royal Enfield Motorcycles

Check out Josh’s recent review of the Himalayan Review of the Royal Enfield Himalayan

Ready for Royal Enfield tour in India? Check out our life-changing rides on our Expeditions page.