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Apparently there are tigers in the area I'll be travelling!
They're quite rare though right?

Very, very rare - I think there are few left in the South.
There are more leopards, but you're very unlikely to come across them. My girlfriend saw one briefly in Parambikulam, but that was very lucky. I think elephants are likely to be the only conceivable wildlife danger and even then it's a very minimal risk compared to road traffic.

A few Southern highlights -
Christmas carols in Marayoor

Western Ghats from Tamil Nadu

Parambikulam sunset

Nilgiri langur

Kannur

Madurai temple

God... I really want to go back after looking at these again.

I'm quite excited about seeing wildlife, but elephants?....

Apparently there's less chance of being killed if you hold your ground and shout at the elephant.... not very reassuring.

I'm a little dubious about that... but probably depends on the elephant. I was walking in Parambikulam with the park's naturalist + one other guy and an elephant appeared out of the trees about 10 metres away. You wouldn't think an elephant could just appear without making a noise, but they can. I was going for my camera when I realised the naturalist looked absolutely terrified - he whispered to walk away slowly, which we did and luckily it didn't pursue us. Apparently it was a young male and was flapping his ears in an aggressive manner... afterwards I asked what we could have done if it had gone after us and it seemed the best we could have hoped for was not all of us would have been killed if we'd separated.

angry mother elephant (was in a vehicle this time)

They're beautiful animals, though they're not doing too well in the Western Ghats as far as I understand. They usually migrate between areas, but agriculture has blocked off a lot of their traditional routes, which brings them into conflict with people and generally works out badly for the elephants.

I got my map at Stanfords on Long Acre in Covent Garden. they're usually pretty helpful there. Sorry ad441.. must have misread your post earlier. Ditto on the manali-leh highway although altitude sickness would be a huge issue I think. STE5 I think your man ad441 is right about madurai to kodai kanal and munnar... it's beautiful...And it's hot. I wouldn't set too many big days up for yourself.

P.S I MISS IDLY. It's a steamed fermented rice cake that you have for breakfast with coconut chutney and sambar... YUM!

No problem, yes - isn't there a really scary bit in the middle of the manali-leh route where you go into a valley but you're still at 4000 metres + at the lowest so if you get sick you're stranded? Defintiely not a ride I'd want to do solo.
In Sikkim I found 2000 metres was about the altitude where I started to notice it, though it affected me more off the bike than on it - while riding it just seemed like regular tiredness. But then I don't think I really cycled over 3000 metres at all and the leh road is all above that.

I totally agree about not setting yourself any big targets for distance or anything - I tried to look on cycling there as the most pleasant way to travel and see stuff most tourists don't get to, rather than as some sort of endurance challenge.

I love idly, It seems very hard to find good ones here - I think Ragam in Cleveland Street is probably the best I've had. I had a go at making coconut chutney the other day, didn't come out quite right.

Adrian

ad441 (Adrian?) - I've just been reading Himalaya by Bike this morning, excellent. Obviously little use for the Western Ghats but awesome book nonetheless. I can feel a Himalayan trip coming up for 2011. Like you said in your earlier post, I think I'd be better off experiencing south india before the adventure of himalayan india. The Sikkim route looks amazing, did you deviate much from this?

Yes, that book's pretty inspiring - I'd love to do the Manali-Leh highway one day.

To start with I did the route in the book and then I added on detours and extensions later on, mostly based on talking to locals - one very good, semi-offroad one to Rinchinpong, an extra loop up through the middle of Sikkim and a detour round Kalimpong at the end. I said I'd write some stuff about them for the book's website, though I've failed to get round to it yet (I'm not sure if she got round to doing the website either). On the other hand I failed to cycle in the far North of Sikkim, which I still feel bad about - The price of permits to do it solo was too high + the very variable weather conditions might have stopped it being much fun. I know a lot of tourist jeeps got stranded up there shortly after I went due to roads collapsing - they get a lot of landslides.

Sikkim's really interesting - it's as much Nepalese and Tibetan as it is Indian and doesn't have a lot of the difficulties you get cycling in the rest of India - aside from the main road upto Gangtok, traffic's really light.

But South Indian food is much better - not that it's bad in the North, just that Southern food is amazing. Don't know if you're bothered about wildlife, but you'll probably see a lot more in the Western Ghats. Spent a while in Parambikulam widlife reserve when I was there and saw a lot of exciting things (malabar giant squirrels, sloth bears, etc). Actually I was going to say that you've got a slight danger of encountering elephants on some of those roads through the hills, which isn't necessarily a good thing... I've never read an account of fleeing from an elephant by bike, but it's not something I'd want to do.

I've put this

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 think if you're willing to adjust it a lot as you go along that's a good starting point, though if you're really into climbing hills I'd think about a route that involves going Madurai>Kodaikanal and then from there over to Munnar on a road that's meant to be 4wd only. I think that cgoab journal I posted up involves that route. Though roads on the plains of Tamil Nadu will be pretty busy and not that fun.

One place I really liked in the hills was Marayoor - it'd be a very pleasant cycle from Munnar (which I didn't like so much).

The further North part of your tour isn't an area I know much about, but Wayanad is nice (and will have some quieter routes). You could maybe think about finishing around Kannur in Northern Kerala, spending a few days relaxing there (I can PM you a suggestion for somewhere very nice), then catching a train back along the coast from there.

I definitely wouldn't set too rigid a schedule for distances. Some days 50 miles + will be fine, other days it won't. At least one of you will get ill at some point and that'll take a few days out of your schedule.

I wouldn't count on much temperature difference between north and south - elevation will be far more significant.

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

Don't... not if you're doing any hill climbing - you're very unlikely to get gears and it'll weigh tons. In the bigger cities you can get tolerable mountain bikes, but I still wouldn't think about touring on them.

I do know of people that have toured on Indian bikes - in their favour they're sturdy & incredibly easy to get repaired, but it'll be slow and not very comfortable. Particularly if one of you is on a higher quality bike I think it could be pretty frustrating.

One thing I was going to say - however tough/ridiculous your cycle route ends up being, you'll always meet someone (usually German) doing something 10 times as hard. In Sikkim I met a guy who'd just cycled to India via Pakistan and Iran (apparently Pakistan's horrible for cycling, Iran is great). In Darjeeling I met a German woman who was about to cycle solo through Bangladesh in the hot season. I also heard stories of a Japanese guy who'd cycled Sikkim on an Indian bike, though apparently he spent 90% of his time pushing it. Anyway, I was always reassured that nothing I did could be as bad as any of those.

As for reading, I don't know of any specific cycling books about the South, but V.S. Naipaul, Paul Theroux and Alexander Frater are all well worth reading.

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.

No, I never said it was - but I have done quite a bit of cycling in India and spent a lot of time (without a bicycle) in quieter parts of the the Western Ghats and I can promise that there are plenty of nice, quiet roads. As a rather poor analogy, it's a bit like cycling to Brighton - you can go straight down the A23 or you can take the backroads and barely see any traffic (though of course there's far more opportunity for getting lost this way).

Actually for a more accurate analogy there'd have to be no accurate maps of these backroads, anyone you ask for directions would give wildly contrasting information & the surface of the backroads would be incredibly variable in quality, but they'll be there.

There'll also be plenty of horribly busy roads as well & sometimes there's no alternative, but one advantage of getting into the hills is everyone has to go a bit slower.
Any of the main coast roads will be pretty horrendous, but I'd really suggest only dropping down to the coast for a bit of relaxation at the start/end.

Your other advice regarding panniers, clothing, etc is spot on.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

I'll take it if it's the 16 or 17 inch - Have PM'd you.

Check the bearings & the bit the bearings roll on inside the hub... I had cones that kept on coming loose and I was lazy and just kept tightening them up a bit without investigating further, ended badly (wasn't moving at the time thankfully).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adownie/3271853314/in/set-72157618835299443/

I'd like the barbag please - is that including postage?

Freehub it is.

Then I'm definitely still interested - would be happy with rear only or both wheels.

(if both then I'm happy to freecycle on my non-matching old front wheel)

Further evidence of correct usage...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adownie/2526112878/in/set-72157618835299443/

I'd also be up for just taking the rear if someone else wants the front.
(I think the bolt through axle is compatible).
Forgot to ask if it's got a freehub though? If not then I'm out.

I would really like these...

They'd go on this bike (cannondale under the stickers)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adownie/2834229858/in/set-72157618835299443/

Which is currently without a usable rear wheel after this happened (alivio hubs are rubbish)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adownie/2833387837/in/set-72157618835299443/

Any good?

As the original thread got lost...

Most of the stuff in the photos is gone, but I still have 2 sets of half toeclips, one with normal bolt pattern, one with weird old fashioned one. Chrome slightly pitted, but otherwise in good shape. Would like a few quid for these. Not recommended for fixed riding...

Free to anyone that'll take them (Soho/Brixton) - set of Exage levers with no hoods and horribly uncool gel saddle in pretty good shape (small tear at front, otherwise fine) that might be good for a friend/relative who only cycles short distances or has not yet been persuaded that a firmer saddle is better.

Anyone got a set of mountain bike wheels to sell? Looking to spend not much over £50, ideally less, need disc hubs of reasonable quality (definitely not Alivio), don't need tyres or cassette. At the moment I'm sharing one set of wheels between two bikes and it's getting annoying.
Cheers

Somebody with a wheel on their back riding a Rick Powell on Waterloo Bridge tonight, spinning his knees off to keep up with the guy with the post office bag (who used to ride a fuji track, but seems to be on a fluorescent yellow bike now). Either on here?

Sort of on here, frequently lurking in classifieds anyway. Knew I'd end up in this thread sometime... Wheel+heavy backpack+low gearing=embarassing failure to overtake after drawing level...

I was probably going to list one tomorrow, assuming I get time to set up my new wheel tonight. Black open sport rim, generic fixed/free hub, good condition, brake surface untouched. Hadn't really figured out how much to sell it for, but am open to offers. Any good?
(silver hub/spokes I'm afraid)

I'm after a 120mm Goldtec rear track hub - ideally with a 126mm or 130mm axle.

Or a whole wheel built on one.

Cheers

Could be a chainstay/chainring inteference issue, hence he needs to run a 45mm chainline rather than 42mm?

Much more concise than my explanation...