Jetgala - FALL-WINTER 2022

75 R O Y A L E N F I E L D H I A M L A Y A ATruck of A Bike My ride was a Royal Enfield Himalaya; a 400cc single-cylinder bike with long travel suspension, low-end torque, and a counterbalancer to tamp the vibration of a single-cylinder thumper. It’s the ideal truck of a bike to take on the treacherous mountain passes of its namesake. Chugging along half-built roads, its tagline ‘built like a gun’ felt particularly apt.As I rode, I found myself simultaneously distracted by sublime scenes of snow-capped peaks, dramatic rocks and icy rivers while maintaining my focus on the road. The variable road conditions forced me to develop an acute sensitivity to the bike.Any off-pitch sounds or even the slightest change to the rhythm of the throttle raised alarm. On a series of hairpin turns, a sticking throttle failed to close on a screaming rev which could have been extremely risky. Another time, a floppy centre stand resulting from weak springs threatened to snare rocks and rubble, but the danger was quelled with a lashing of baling wire. Moments like these revealed the duality of riding in an environment like Ladakh, where one could go from being in tranquil awe to sheer panic in less than a second.At some point, I could no longer tell one apart from the other.