An 8-day, 2,500 km epic Rajasthan trip on a rental motorcycle

After a bit of searching, I landed on Rajasthan. Winter, after all, is the best time to visit the state.

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Prologue

“On a bike, no road is too long, and no place is too far.”

With the end-of-year vacation coming up, I started planning some travel destinations. Since most hill stations down South would be jam-packed for the season, I wanted to explore locations up North. I first thought of visiting Delhi/Agra, but the pollution levels in winter were a strong deterrent. Next, I considered the North East, but the ticket prices for the year-end were laughably ridiculous! After a bit of searching, I landed on Rajasthan. Winter, after all, is the best time to visit the state.

We had never visited the country’s largest state, and from what I could gather from the countless vlogs online, a road trip across the breadth of Rajasthan seemed like the best way to experience the Land of Kings. Ideally, I wanted to drive my Rapid all the way, but reliability concerns led me to consider alternatives. One option was to land in Delhi and drive a rental car. I was almost set on this when I came across ads for bike trips through the state. Initially, we were a bit hesitant, as neither of us were fond of two-wheelers. Our last bike trip was to Ladakh, back in 2019. But after watching some vlogs of bikers riding through what seemed like arrow-straight roads extending to the horizon, we thought we'd give it a try.

The next task was to choose a provider. We decided to go as part of a convoy, as we thought it would be more fun and we could meet new people. Plus, safety in numbers. I've heard that interior Rajasthan is a bit unsafe, especially for women. I first contacted Thrillophilia, as we had a wonderful experience with them in Spiti. Unfortunately, they weren’t offering any self-ride trips in Rajasthan, only group packages in a Traveller. A couple of other popular providers also didn’t have bike packages available. Only one provider, Adventure Nation, was offering a package, and thankfully, it was available on the exact dates we could travel.

However, it turned out to be a bad decision, as they had outsourced the logistics to another agency, BackpackClan, who turned out to be subpar and bordering on incompetent. We would have been badly stranded or lost if not for the fact that the rest of the convoy were experienced bikers, including two Rajasthan natives. While the trip turned out great, thanks to the bikers, we definitely wouldn’t recommend booking with either of them. More on this later.

Route Plan

As per the package, it was to be an 8-day trip through the state, starting and ending in Delhi. A grand total of over 2500 km, this was going to be our longest trip ever, regardless of the number of wheels. I was a bit apprehensive, to be honest, since one of the days involved riding 500 km. And while the trip was extremely challenging, it left us with a great sense of accomplishment! The plan was as follows:

1. Delhi
2. Mandawa
3. Jodhpur
4. Jaisalmer
5. Longewala
6. Udaipur
7. Pushkar
8. Jaipur
9. Delhi

We booked tickets to Delhi and back from Coimbatore.

Places Visited

The providers were of absolutely no help with this part, revealing their incompetence and complete lack of commitment. The guy in charge from BackpackClan, Karan, even resorted to copy-pasting ChatGPT replies after we requested suggestions. As I mentioned previously, the group included experienced bikers, including some from the state itself, so we were able to find our own way for the most part. This was in stark contrast to our Spiti trip, where the organizers from Thrillophilia sent us detailed day-to-day travel plans, including places to visit and other important stops along the way.

1. Red Fort
2. Jama Masjid
3. Harlalka Well
3. Thalia Haveli
4. Mehrangarh Fort
5. Jodhpur Clock Tower
6. Jaisalmer Fort
7. Longewala border / War Memorial
8. Udaipur City Palace / Lake
9. Pushkar Lake / Brahma Ghat / Brahma Temple
10. Ajmer Sharif Dargah
11. Hawa Mahal
12. Jal Mahal
13. Amer Fort

The Ride

The trip was terribly organized. We were supposed to be provided with Classic 350s for the trip, but instead I got the 500, while others got a 350 and a Himalayan. All the bikes were in terrible condition. The 500 was held together with wire, tape, glue and a prayer. The vibrations were bone shaking, but the brakes were decent and the monster torque kind of made up for it. It developed an oil leak on the way (ruining my shoes) and the gear lever fell off multiple times. The battery compartment lid divorced the rest of the bike somewhere around Longewala and there was a constant fuel leak from somewhere. Thankfully the mechanic was able to put humpty dumpty back together again till we got back to Delhi.

We got our first clue about Adventure Nation/BackpackClans' incompetence right after we made our booking. Even though all the formalities were completed by November, we received no further information from them until the day before the trip. I had specifically asked the contact from Adventure Nation about the group size and composition and was assured there would be around 10 bikes and 15 people, including several women (I wanted to avoid a situation where my wife would be the only woman in the group). The day before the trip, I messaged the contact again, asking for more details. In a hurry, he created a WhatsApp group, added a bunch of people, and told us we'd receive further information there. After that—radio silence.

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