It's a long shot request...
So my mates and I are looking to head up to Pokhara and rent some bikes for a week later in the year and do an unsupported ride up in the Annapurna Region. I'm here in Pokhara now after 4 weeks of trekking and I've been tasked to do some local research but buggered if I can find any reliable and current info on where I might source bikes from? Has anyone done anything similar up this way and can point me in the right direction?
https://royalenfield.com/ton/
www.bikemandu.com/index.php?linkId=6
www.himalayanenfielders.com/bike-on-rent/
Cheers Stu. I spent several hours yesterday asking around Pokhara. It seems my choices are go with an organised tour company or head back to Kathmandu to hire half a dozen bikes. Which would add a full day each way to the ride.
friend of mine did the organized tour, he recommends it as you end up with a cook and a mechanic !
Also warns to hold onto your passport by any means as police and frontier guards will try to confiscate and return against money.....
Did he try and cross any borders on his ride? I've been here for nearly six weeks trekking and travelling and not had a single drama.
Possible if you jump through the hoops to get the paperwork squared away and expect some cash to change hands. I hear going north to Tibet/China is dodgy as f@&k but can be done. I've heard a few interesting stories about it.
Last June I paid a small fortune to go from Kathmandu > Everest Base Camp > Lhasa and back. It was all go up until 2 weeks before departure, then the route changed, still crossing the border but the NW route. Then 3 days before departure it changed again... this time they said they couldn't cross the border, but had arranged flights from Kathmandu to Lhasa.
Ended up riding PoS Yamaha 250's, and an uncomfortable Benelli from Lhasa down to Everest and back. Bike's had parts falling off the first 500km.
The views were amazing, but I paid to cross the Nepal/Tibet border, and see the change of climate/scenery on a Royal Enfield, not from 33,000ft above.
The tour operator did what they could, and didn't collect me the first day, which made me pretty pissed.
I decided to go with a tour operator bcos I had a lot of conflicting information from local agents, and most were unresponsive.
If it was me, I would ask around Pokhara more (it's pretty big and touristy), internet isn't that much use bcos web pages can be totally wrong/out of date/out of business.
You may need to hire a guide... remember roads come and go, and the locals think your stupid tourist with nfi. I hired one in Peru who was invaluable.
I reckon Kathmandu would be the same situation as Pokhara, when we arrived back there was one of the tour group who wanted to take an Enfield on a day trip and his only option was with a guide, and that was 1 bike, not 6.
Here's some pic spam...
