Preparing a Motorcycle for Mountain Roads

A motorcycle that is perfectly happy commuting 20 km a day in a city is not automatically ready for 400 km a day on a mountain road with 25 kg of luggage on it. Nothing dramatic changes - it is the same bike - but every marginal component is asked to work considerably harder, for considerably longer, further from a workshop.

This is what to do about that, in the order you should do it: the service, the gear, the luggage, and then the riding itself.

The service, two weeks out

Two weeks, not two days. If a service finds a problem, you want time to fix it and a few hundred kilometres to confirm the fix before you leave. A bike that comes out of the workshop the night before a Spiti run has an untested repair on it.

Tyres

The single most important item. Tread depth across the full width, sidewalls free of cracking and bulges, and enough life left for the whole trip plus a margin - a hard tour can eat a rear tyre far faster than city use. If a tyre is borderline, replace it. This is not the place to get the last two thousand kilometres out of something.

Tube or tubeless changes what you carry. Tubeless lets you plug a puncture at the roadside in ten minutes; tubed means carrying a spare tube and either the tools or the willingness to wait for help.

Brakes

Pad thickness front and rear, disc condition, fluid level and colour. Dark, old brake fluid absorbs water, and water in the fluid boils under the sustained heat of a long descent - which is precisely when the brakes fade. If the fluid has not been changed in two years, change it.

Chain and sprockets

Check slack against the manual, clean and lubricate properly, and look at the sprocket teeth - hooked, pointed teeth mean the set is worn and will chew a new chain. A chain that is stretched at the start of the trip will need attention every two days during it. Carry lube regardless.

The rest

• Engine oil and filter - fresh, and check the level every morning of the trip.
• Air filter - a clogged filter costs power exactly where thin air has already taken some.
• Clutch cable and free play - and carry a spare cable. Hairpin climbs are hard on clutches.
• Battery and all lights - including brake light, which is the one that fails unnoticed.
• Spokes and wheel bearings if you have spoked wheels. Check for looseness before, not after, a broken spoke.
• Suspension - fork seals not weeping, rear preload set for the load you will actually carry.

Riding gear is equipment, not clothing

• Helmet - certified and not previously dropped. A visor you can see out of at dusk; a clear visor if you carry a tinted one.
• Armoured jacket with shoulder, elbow and back protection. It is also your windproof layer, which matters more at altitude than anywhere else.
• Gloves - armoured. A warm and a waterproof pair, or one that is honestly both. Cold hands lose fine control of the levers.
• Riding boots - above the ankle. Sneakers on a loaded bike on gravel is how people break feet.
• Knee guards, always. Riding jeans are not protection.
• Rain gear that goes on over all of it, packed where you can reach it in thirty seconds.

For what to wear under the jacket as the temperature drops, see the layering section of the Himalayan packing list.

What to carry on the bike

• Puncture repair kit and a compact 12 V compressor. Close to essential beyond a day ride.
• Spare clutch lever and brake lever. Both are cheap, tiny, and trip-ending when snapped.
• Spare clutch and accelerator cables, spare tube if you run tubes, a few spare fuses.
• The bike’s own tool kit plus a decent multi-tool, a small adjustable spanner and a set of Allen keys.
• Chain lube, zip ties, electrical tape, a length of strong cord.
• Bungee cords and a cargo net, plus dry bags for everything soft.

Luggage: where it goes matters more than how much

A loaded motorcycle handles differently, and how differently depends almost entirely on placement. The rule is low and forward.

• Heavy items low, in saddlebags on either side, balanced left to right. Uneven side loading is noticeable in every corner.
• Light and bulky items on the tail. A tall tower of luggage behind the rider raises the centre of gravity and makes the bike vague at speed and lazy in direction changes.
• Nothing on the handlebars, and nothing on your back for a long day. A heavy backpack transfers every bump to your spine and shifts your weight high, exactly where you do not want it.
• Secure everything twice, and check the straps at every fuel stop. Vibration works knots loose over hundreds of kilometres.
• Increase rear suspension preload and raise tyre pressures slightly for the extra load - check the manual for the figures.

Riding the mountains

Descending

This is what actually catches people out. Going up, the engine does the work. Going down, the brakes do - and continuous braking on a long descent heats pads and fluid until they stop working properly. Select a low gear and let engine braking hold the speed, using the brakes in firm, short applications rather than a constant drag. If the lever starts feeling soft or the bite point moves, stop and let everything cool.

Hairpins

Slow before the corner, not in it. Get the braking done in a straight line, pick a low gear, look through the turn to where you want to go, and roll the throttle on smoothly as it opens up. On a climbing hairpin, being in too high a gear means either stalling or a fistful of clutch, and neither is good on a gradient.

Surface hazards

• Gravel collects on the outside of corners and in the middle of hairpins, exactly where a bike would naturally go.
• Water crossings - walk anything you cannot see the bottom of. Cross steadily in first or second gear with constant throttle, feet up if you can, and pick the line a local vehicle just used. Crossings are lower in the morning; glacier-fed streams rise through the day.
• Diesel and oil spills on climbs, especially at hairpins where trucks strain.
• Loose edges after monsoon. The road surface may be fine and the shoulder may not exist.
• Livestock and dogs on blind corners. Assume something is round every one.

Traffic

Horn on blind corners, stay wide of the drop side, and give way to climbing vehicles - a truck that stops on a gradient may not restart. Buses and trucks will use the whole road on a turn, and arguing about who was right is not a useful position from which to have an accident.

Riding in a group

• Stagger the formation on straights and go single file through corners and narrow sections.
• Never ride in a tight pack. The third rider cannot see what the first is braking for.
• The slowest rider sets the pace. If that is not acceptable to the group, the group is the problem.
• Fixed lead and fixed sweep. Nobody passes the lead; the sweep leaves nobody behind.
• Agree regroup points rather than relying on phone signal, which will fail.
• Never ride beyond your own comfort to keep up. Everybody will be at the next stop.

Altitude, for the bike and the rider

Above roughly 3,000 m, carburetted bikes run rich and lose noticeable power; fuel-injected bikes compensate and lose less. Either way, plan on slower progress and higher fuel consumption than the map suggests. Fuel availability is the real constraint in Spiti - fill whenever you are below half rather than when you are low.

For the rider, altitude sickness does not care how fit you are, and riding while genuinely unwell at 4,000 m is dangerous for the whole group. The altitude section of the Himachal road trip guide covers the symptoms and the only real treatment, which is going down.

Before you leave

Do a full shakedown ride with the luggage on - at least 100 km, including some climbing. It will find the strap that works loose, the preload that is wrong and the bag that fouls your leg, while you are still an hour from home rather than three days from a workshop.

Then go through the road trip safety checklist for the non-vehicle side of it, and find riders heading the same way on upcoming trips or through a bikers club.