T
he ride hadn’t started yet and I’d already been hit with a bout of Giardia. If you’ve ever had the infamous “Delhi Belly,” you can commiserate. If not, I’ll spare you the gory details. Fortunately, anybody can walk into a pharmacy in India and buy a course of antibiotics for the equivalent of two dollars. Since I was a child, India had seemed like an exotic place, completely opposite from where I’d grown up, and I desperately wanted to see it. In my mind, there was nothing more exciting than a mountain bike touring trip to the Indian Himalayas with a couple of friends. After seeing amazing pictures of the journeys completed by other cyclists, we formed a plan to cycle the northern Indian Himalayas from Manali to Leh. My friends Aaron and Jorge agreed to come along. After months of planning, training, and practice trips, we were as ready as we could be. I’d toured the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route three years earlier and learned much from that experience. Gone were the six and a half pound twoman tent and the copious amounts of “doohickeys” and “springa-ma-jigs” (including a kitchen sink – a special German made one!). All of us were riding steel frames with 26” wheels, big tire clearance, rigid forks, and Rohloff 14-speed internally geared hubs. I rode a custom Inglis/Retrotec, Aaron rode a Surly Troll painted a great shade of military green, and Jorge found a used Thorn EXXP fillet-brazed beauty. Three strong and light Hilleberg Akto mountaineering tents would be our private cocoons for the next three weeks. Nobody wanted to share a tent, mainly due to my strong camping odors. I don’t blame them! Upon landing in Delhi, we were bombarded with tropically humid air, oppressive heat, and a density of humanity I’d never experienced before. It was thrilling! I saw a family of four, including a mother, holding her infant and a toddler sitting on dad’s lap, all comfortably perched atop a small motorcycle, sans helmets. This was not an uncommon scene. Amazingly, we didn’t see any accidents. After assembling our bikes at the Sham Nath Villa in New Delhi, we took in the sights for a couple days, including sampling some of the finest local curries, a bicycle rickshaw ride, and a visit to the local bicycle shop where one could procure a new “Hero” brand bike modeled after an old Raleigh gentleman’s cruiser for about $75. Getting to the Bunyan Velo 131