Sunday 3rd February 2019
We met up with Narendra Singh, the CEO of Indian Rides.. our host and leader of the tour. He introduced us to Trevor and Andrew, two Brits who were joining our group for the trip; so there are now five of us, plus Narendra.
The Royal Enfield Bullet 500 is a much revered machine in these parts; originally an English company, it is now owned and built in India. It’s a 500cc single with about 30bhp (my GS has 125bhp)..built in the traditional way with none of the modern day frills. It’s rather small for my 6’4 frame but it’s practical, reliable and just perfect for the roads and riding conditions in India; it also has a very noisy exhaust pipe 👍
Lined up and ready 
The Royal Enfield Bullet 500
Our bikes were lined up outside the hotel waiting for us for our 9am start; it was foggy and really cold.. not the ideal start to our first day and for getting the feel of a new bike. As the six Enfields fired up the ground shook and all heads turned to watch us depart. I had only brought summer gloves and soon my hands were freezing..no heated grips on this bike! The fog was misting my visor and needed wiping every few minutes; the road was full of holes and with other traffic looming at us out of the fog. I tried to remind myself of the fact that “it’s an Adventure, not a holiday “ 😎
Then we came to a stretch which was full of water; it was quite deep like fording a river and to make it worse the road surface was broken and there was plenty of mud and other vehicles trying to pick their way through.. not the best place to fall off I thought as I tried to find the right gear for the moment! Somehow we all got through and carried on into the freezing fog; just as we had ridden through one stretch with areas of loose and in places deep sand I was relieved to see Narendra signalling to pull in. He had seen a couple of guys by the roadside who had lit a small fire so we all joined them to warm up. 👍
Gradually the fog started to clear and by 11am the sun was breaking through and it was warming up. The road surface was better and our speed picked up. I was following Fred and noticed that his bike was misfiring and lurching, he pulled in and we all stopped. We had a support vehicle with a mechanic so he took a look and decided there must be some clag in the carburettor. Off it came and was soon in pieces being cleaned, then reinstalled. The bike started and when revved up all sounded good. Off we went, only for Fred to pull in again after a short distance as we gained speed. This time it was decided to swap the carb for a different one.. all in all this cost us 1 hr. We got going again and sure enough Fred’s bike started to misfire again.. then suddenly it miraculously cleared and he roared off up the road, all looked good.
Changing the carb 
Sharing the road with these
Some way further on we pulled in for petrol and Fred admitted that his problem may have been caused by him trying to ride this 500 single like his multi cylinder Kawasaki which revs to a much higher level. We think he was in too lower gear on the Enfield and was probably hitting the Rev limiter which was causing the engine to cut out to protect it.. soon as he found 5th gear everything was fine! 🤔
The Enfield can pull from very low revs and short shifting the gears is the way to ride as the big cylinder thumps away.. lesson learned. At this stop Cups of Chai arrived from somewhere. It’s hot thick sweet tea, just what we needed 👍
After a curry lunch stop we visited a big Fort, being Sunday it was busy. Strangely many of the younger people, boys and girls, wanted selfies taken with us which we were happy to oblige.. celebrity status at last 😎 Back in the car park we noticed the attendant had a rather wonderful moustache, which when it was fully unfurled turned out to be around 18in long on each side; he was happy to pose for pics.
Impressive moustache 
Ready to go again after curry lunch
My new friend 
Rajasthan moustache
We rode on dodging vehicles of all sorts coming from every direction; including the wrong way on a dual carriageway with a central dividing reservation!!! 😱 Cows and goats either sat in the road or ambled across it seemingly oblivious to the traffic. As we reached the outskirts of Bikaner the traffic got heavier and the chaos began.. every man for himself and better use your horn!
Finally we arrived at the hotel, our first day done; time for beer, curry and chat. 😋 Dinner in the hotel turned out to be vegetarian only. We had brought one of the bottles of Kingfisher beer in with us from the bar to the restaurant; the manager ran over and explained that alcohol was not allowed in the vegetarian area so he had to removed the beer bottle.. but we could still have beer as long as it could be served in coffee cups.. strange, but fine with us 👍
Tomorrow we have a 350kms ride to Jaisalmer which is way out in the desert.