Spending the
day in Manali, the doorstep of the Himalayas to get some bike maintenance done
and gather the requisite supplies and paperwork as we head north. Wonderful town, it is packed with tourists,
mainly Indians but has your spattering of Europeans running around and
evidently there are two 'Murricans from Seattle here....... I’ve been
looking for them. Hotel is great, internet
goes out every 5 minutes, we are at roughly 7K, air is clean, 75 degrees and
life is good.
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| Crappy View numero uno out to the west from our balcony, rooms running us 18 bones, little more for Dub Ya cuz the Canadian dollar is screwing him right now. |
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| Little teaser, just to the left of the jagged snow peak is Rhotang Pass, that is where we are headed, hope the 5 ponies the Hoopty will be making at 16K will get me over the top. | | |
Took bikes
to the local Enfield joint, this dude is cool, Jimmy……….lives in Dehli, but
comes up here from May-Oct to wrench bikes.
After being a test platform for the NTSB a few days ago, Winston’s bike
has zero brakes, needs replacement parts for the spares we had to use and mine
needs the carb adjusted and the gas cap leaks Petrol all over my twig and
berries like there’s no tomorrow. We
roll in, 30 minutes later we have replacement clutch lever, two quarts of oil,
tire gauge, which by the way he picked up while test riding my bike, new gas cap
and his time…….out the door for 18 bucks. Side note, forgot to add that the Indians have a hard time pronouncing Winston....it has a strong V tone to it.....Vvvvvinston.
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| Wazzup Jimmy, front of shirt over the right pocket says Dr. Enfield |
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| Vvvvvinston, WTF have you been doing to the front end of India's finest......did you hit a bus or what? |
While Jimmy’s
wrenching on the steeds, we figured we’d find our own new steeds. Yak it is……..not the one in Fremont slinging Teriyaki,
these things are huge. I asked the guy
if it could carry a fat dude like me….he said “no problem, Yak lift bus crashed
in ditch." Hung with the Yak and wandered
around the park for a while before swinging back to see Jimmy.
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| Dude, where's my KTM? No, I never take this shirt off, I love it, sleep in it and it's KTM orange. |
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| Leeeeerooooyyyyy Jennnnnnnnkinnnzzz! |
So......remember the lost key from crash numero dos on the way to Mcleod Ganj? We get hooked up with a locksmith key cutter dude. He rolls up on a bicycle that has a freaking grinding wheel, knife sharpener and everything bolted to the back and when he puts it on the center stand and pedals, its grinds shit......seriously? Vvvvinston hands him his key. This guy....NO SHIT.....looks at it for about a minute grabs a uncut new key and proceeds with a small file to whittle away one toof at a time. Took him 30 minutes and he checked his work twice, once about 20 into it and then when he was finished. Holy Mother Scratcher, where was this dude when I was in my garage at 3am cussing, trying to fit aluminum panels in my Cobra. Dub Ya puts it in the ignition of his NTSB test bike and BOOM........smoov as butter. Cost him four bucks........200r.....when this dude pulled up he looked really down...no expression and a really sad look in his eyes. Winston handed him an extra 100r for a tip and he lit up like a Christmas tree and didn't stop smiling. We asked if we could take his picture and he got even happier. He insisted Winston take a knife he made him for the extra Hondo W threw at him. High point of my trip so far!
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Yo Bro, we
need a lock smith, not a QVC Cutlery Sales Model!.....and if you scratch my G-ride parked to the right, I'm gonna hand you your ass.
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Looks about
this size.
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| Here’s
the “Blade” he cut for Winston. It was a
piece of steel when he started, "You guys may need this when Himalaya Deliverance happens a few days from now. |
I've always admired people that build stuff with their hands, the good stuff of course, that turns out nice and is functional. Sad to say it has become a lost art. I have been to home depot a million times over the years getting keys cut when we were moving all over hell and gone, half of them took 20 minutes to get the door to freaking open. I hope the gentleman above feels pride in what he does, because I was impressed!
Tomorrow we climb............
