Cycle Touring in India

So I've decided to scrap my european tour plans, and decided to tour in india instead.

We'll be going in the first three weeks of december, travelling light, staying in hostels. So far that's all we've decided.

Any advice or experience?

touring supposed to be fantastic,
its a country that makes do, so if you need repairs they often can bodge stuff.
the common bikes are these ancient old british machines, you can get parts, also take easily replaced shimano stuff (they might not have too many phil wood spares)
theres lots of folks (read nutty europeans) do massive journeys there, and get welcomed by locals. you have to beware all the usual stuff r.e health and so on, but by all accounts and from being there once you will have an epic time,
next time I go its gonna be for a year at least.

be prepared for plenty of attention wherever you go, especially in the more rural areas. disregard all notions of personal space you may have. look into getting trains to the areas you want to see and then doing rides in those areas rather than full on touring all the time - taking bikes on trains and buses is easy enough. loads of good info on crazyguyonabike & ctc.

I spent a year bumming around India with the missus. You're guaranteed to have an adventure, so just go. There'll be a gazillion people in your face all the time, but they're generally friendly and curious rather than threatening. There will be people trying to relieve you of your rupees in one way or another pretty much all the time, but so long as you keep a sense of humour it's not a problem. Don't know about cycling, but can tell you the main roads are mental - basically if it's bigger than you it has right of way - that's just the way it is. The minor roads will be in shit condition, so make sure you've got fat tyres that can take a punishing. Drink bottled water - I don't think I had a firm dump all the time I was there, but some forms of the squits are worse than others. Eat local food - it's better (and safer) than the "tourist" crap. Have fun... I can safely say it was the best year of my life (so far).

I'd really recommend touring around the Western Ghats/Kerala - should be decent temperature + dry at that time. I backpacked round that way a few years ago and was always wishing I had a bike with me. There's a good journal on CGOAB that I was looking at recently, he did a lot of routes I'd have liked to have done. As long as you don't mind hills then the Western Ghats would be amazing.

Have you been to India before? It'll be quite a lot to adjust to on top of the cycling if not... but it's an amazing place. Much, much nicer the further you get from tourist areas.

From personal experience I can also reccommend Sikkim for cycle touring - light traffic and very friendly people, but weather would probably rule that out in December.

Also I wouldn't say taking bikes on trains is always easy enough... It's entirely possible, but can be a bit stressful. However Indian trains are great.

Also I wouldn't say taking bikes on trains is always easy enough... It's entirely possible, but can be a bit stressful. However Indian trains are great.

As long as you can find a tailor to sew up your bike in calico and sack cloth you will be fine! Certainly easier than getting a bike on Virgin trains from London to Manchester at rush hour...

Obvious but check the weather where you are going, I just got back and some places were really cold (Delhi, Kasauli) while others were really hot. It is madness so I'm sure you will enjoy it.

As long as you can find a tailor to sew up your bike in calico and sack cloth you will be fine! Certainly easier than getting a bike on Virgin trains from London to Manchester at rush hour...

Even with mine still boxed from the flight and with plenty of previous experience of Indian trains it proved to be a bit of a nightmare in Kolkata. Forms filled in triplicate, various staff struggling not to be the one to have to deal with checking the forms, stress over whether to declare the bike's value or not & then being unsure as to whether my bike would still be there & in one piece in Siliguri.
I suspect it would be less difficult leaving from smaller stations.

Having said that, it's still much easier than most UK trains...

Thanks for all the info guys. I've got a lot of research to do.

It will be my first time in india, but I'm very quick to adjust and cycling is instictive. I dare say I'd feel more at home on my bike than on foot. My friend I'm touring with has been to india 3 or 4 times.

I knocked this

up quickly on bikely. Obviously, there's no research gone into this and my time of year is totally wrong (I guess). But how amazing would the landscape be? Check out the elevation profile!

Anyway I do quite fancy Chandigarh as the final destination of the tour, with the rest of the milage as rural as possible with villages/towns at 60ish mile intervals.

Any advice on good information sources for planning the route, including recomended maps?

By the way I absoultely hate taking my bike on trains, even in this country. So I'll be avoiding it wherever possible.

I may even ride out from the airport if it's feasible.

The north-western part of your map (i.e. Hardwar, Simla etc.) runs a high risk of being wet and cold in early December.
If I was going to fly all that way I'd head for the sun down in the south - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, the Western Ghats as ad441 mentioned.
That northern region is one of the poorest and most politically dubious areas in India, and could be quite harsh on the senses. And the food in the south is amazing.
But take spares with you wherever you go, particularly stuff that is metric.

Thought as much about the weather. I was lured by the hills and Le Corbusier....

Too early to make decisions now, but all the advice is very helpful.

I knocked this

up quickly on bikely. Obviously, there's no research gone into this and my time of year is totally wrong (I guess). But how amazing would the landscape be? Check out the elevation profile!

Any advice on good information sources for planning the route, including recomended maps?

Personally I'd say that anything involving rural Bihar is maybe not going to be the best choice of cycling routes...
(though like anywhere, someone's no doubt done it and it was actually fine).

CGOAB's really good for journals.
If you are keen on ridiculous elevation profiles then you should get hold of a copy of 'Himalaya by bike' by Laura Stone which I based a lot of my Sikkim route on - sample page -

Only problem is I'm not sure how many of her routes would be any good in December.

Personally I reckon in December I'd really think about the Western Ghats - there are still some pretty amazing views

Though obviously not to the extent that you'll get in the Himalayas.

By the way I absoultely hate taking my bike on trains, even in this country. So I'll be avoiding it wherever possible.

I may even ride out from the airport if it's feasible.

I've probably made it sound worse than it is on the trains - honestly it's better than doing it in this country & Indian trains are great.

Riding out of most Indian airports is probably not going to be that wise - most flights tend to arrive in the middle of the night + airport locations are rarely that convenient.
Far better to give yourself a day or so to get over the jetlag and re-assemble your bike somewhere quiet.

Never that comfortable with putting my life up on the internet... but in case it's helpful in any sort of way, this was my journal/blog type thing I wrote while I was out there.

like jason says make sure you don't have too specialist equipment on your bike, even campag is pretty impossible to get hold of. components where you can change bearings etc too are preferable...

That book looks amazing, I'll have to hunt down a copy.

Just reading your blog now.

Less usefully I should also mention that the Himalayan bits of India have the best road signs ever.

Chandigarh is a really nice city, quite European in appearance built on a grid system which is very strange for India. We visited there on the way to kasauli as a freinds family is from there. From what I saw there wasn't a massive amount to see or do there to be honest, but the hills outside it are definitely worth seeing.

Edit: best sign I saw was on the road to agra, one of the English beer and wine shops had a sign saying 'discount for drivers'. We took advantage.

Hey.
I went to India at the beginning of January last year and planned on touring the whole lot... up down around... I was told by friends that I should forget the idea of bringing a bike and just go. But I'm stubborn and I did it anyways. I flew into Delhi and it was pretty darn cold and foggy. (Amazingly I left 6 months later, it was 45 degrees celcius. couldn't sleep at night it was so hot). I took a train from Delhi to Goa and then took about 3 and a half weeks and cycled from Goa to Gokarna in Karnataka before realizing that I valued my life more than time spent cycling. Maybe it's because I was a single girl cyclist, maybe it's because of all of the large trucks (remember "might is right" in India), maybe it's because of all the dead-tourist-on-motor-bike shrines or maybe it's because of all the MISSING french cyclist signs posted all over the south, but I decided to pack it in. Yes it was beautiful while it lasted. The locals thought I was nuts and I met loads of lovely people and got invited and attended a few interesting family dinners where I was poked and prodded and educated and had a blast.
I guess if you're going with a group you're safer in numbers, but don't expect it to be an easy ride. There will be sacred cows and motorbikes, trucks, camels, cyclists, carts, cars, buses, you name it, they won't think twice about you so you need to be aware and get ready to swerve into sandy shoulders in a split second. I was nearly left for dead when a car overtook a bullock cart and swerved out and played chicken with me.
If stubborn you're like me, you'll still go. But keep in mind you won't see much... India looks small on a map, but the distances are great and the roads terrible. there are no seriously good road maps. Go to Stanfords on Long Acre. The one I used was called Eicher I think. It's the best there is. If you only have 3 weeks you won't have enough time to do what you have planned much less see anything. If you're going to pay £300min to fly there you might as well enjoy it. I suggest doing India's golden triangle of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra... No need to take any trains (which by the way are the best form of transportation in India... love it!) and I think it's about 200miles in between each place. Remember it will be cold and foggy in the mornings and there won't be loads of places to stay in between these places.
I rode my bob jackson there and here's what I learned:1-make sure you have all your bits sorted you don't want to be missing a seatpost bolt like I was and getting a dodgy replacement from a tuktuk driver,2-Get schraeder valve tubes or an adapter. That's all they have in India.3-don't expect to find any shimano, phil woods blahblah... This is India, they're still riding around on single speed Hercules bikes... Most Indians have never seen a derailer in their lives (unless you're in the north in sikkim, Dharamsala or Nepal)
If you just fancy cycle touring then I'd suggest Morocco or else romania or turkey. I have friends who were just touring there and they loved it!
Anyways Max is telling me to cut it. Sorry for the rant, goodluck and enjoy

Julia

Thanks Julia, there's a gold mine of information in that post. That 'missing' sign would have scared me to.

I am still set on india though. The western ghats looks like a winner.

In the photo you've got two rear panniers, is that all you travelled with? How did you find it? I'd be looking to take a similar amount of stuff with me.

I found that journal on cgoab of a guy doing the kind of route I'd have liked to have done round the South - http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=RrzKj&doc_id=5774&v=EJ

I guess if you're going with a group you're safer in numbers, but don't expect it to be an easy ride. There will be sacred cows and motorbikes, trucks, camels, cyclists, carts, cars, buses, you name it

It's a shame that you had such a bad time with traffic. I think it's very important to pick an area with quieter roads - which once you're into the hills in the Western Ghats would be the case. But even on the busier roads I honestly didn't find it that bad - at least there isn't the aggression you get in London - obviously you have to get out of the way of anything bigger than you (e.g. just about everything), but at least no one hates cyclists in the same way they do here.
(though of course people will be completely bewildered as to why anyone would want to cycle if they could afford not to).

I read about the French cyclist who went missing - I may not have remembered the exact details, but I have a feeling he set out straight from Mumbai on his own and was camping - which I reckon isn't the wisest option.

I definitely wouldn't do the Golden triangle - I think that'd be pretty grim - heavy traffic + if you've not been to India before the south is far easier to start with.

You're right about the golden triangle but if he want's to see any sites then it's the best bet for his money and time. No offence ad441 but it's not the same as backpacking around. And even if you were backpacking then you must have noticed the traffic. India has over a billion people in it. He won't go more than 2 minutes on the coast without namasteing a local or being passed by a vehicle. There aren't too many "quiet roads" in India. If there's 3 of you then I think you'll have a better go of it. The western ghats are beautiful. If I were you I'd fly into Trivandrum in Kerala and just putter around the backwaters. Go to Varkala which is a 45 min train journey up from trivandrum... Talk to Buffalo BIll about it. We hung out there for 2 weeks and I went back at the end of my trip for another 2 and a half during the monsoon. Had such an awesome time there.
Yes I only travelled with 2 rear paniers... for 3 weeks I'd use less. I just bathed in the ocean with my clothes on (because I'm a woman) to clean them off. If you're wearing cycle shorts obviously give them a bit more care, you don't want to be getting any nasty rashes which in the heat can happen very easily. I found it perfect. I had everything in those 2 paniers I had with me for 6 months. Tell your lady friend to wear long tshirts and at least to the knee shorts. She might not want the attention and it's just respectful to the culture. You guys could get away with being naked if you wanted.
This is the map I used:
http://maps.eicherworld.com/about.aspx?leftlink=India+Road+Atlas&leftid=42&id=0&toplink=&mid=42
Enjoy!
Julia

Thanks Guys. Sites and cities really aren't what I'm looking for. I want to be as deep in the mountains as possible for most of the journey.

I've put[ame="http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Western-Ghats-Tour"

%22] this [/ame]together quickly as a starting point for my general direction, I'll spend a considerable amount of time adjusting it to find the quietest roads. etc. I'll probably move the starting point a little further south and maybe finish in Kerala to. The plan is to do 50 miles a day, 5 days of the week for three weeks. So about 750 miles all in.

Mostly I'm excited about the hills:

I'd be heading north to south on the assumption it'll get warmer as I travel and I'll acclimatize better that way.

Cheers for the road atlas link, I'll have a look around for a copy. Any other recommended literature?

My friend was planning on buying his bike in India, any thoughts or advice on this?

Thanks.