Cycling in India - bike advice needed!

[fingerbell]

Hello

We are two relatively inexperienced cyclists planning a trip from Mumbai to Chennai around the coastal route from Jan - May, and have some newbie questions.  Both of us have travelled extensively in India before, but never with bicycles!

- What type of bike should we get?  We've read a lot about mountain bikes... we have hybrid bikes (not very expensive ones), would they be OK or should we invest in something else? Some sites say you must get mountain bikes, others say just use what you're comfortable with.
- Is it an option to buy a bike out there, or should we take our bikes with us?
- If it all gets too much, can we take bikes on trains easily?!
- Should we take a tent, or is the weight prohibitive?


Any other advice gratefully received...

L & C

[rualexander]

I cycled from Madras (as it was then) to Goa in 1995, great trip.
I would recommend a bike with 26" wheels but not really necessary, however spares and tyres for 700c might be hard to find, but then again if you go with decent stuff to start with and carry a spare tyre, and have the ability to replace a spoke then it shouldn't be a problem.
You could easily buy a local Indian bike and it will be easy to get it repaired if you have any problems but it might not have the gearing you are used to or the light weight.
I imagine there would be no problem taking bikes on trains but there might be a lot of bureaucracy involved in booking them on, but I don't know.
Very little point in taking a tent, the hotels and guest houses are very cheap and there's something in most towns. Somewhere suitable to camp would be hard to find, it would be pretty hot spending nights in a tent, and the wildlife can be unfriendly.

[acousticmotorbike]

Hi, I've been to India five times in the last 10 years, and I spent nearly 10 months there in 2009 / 2010 as part of my rtw bicycle trip.  I wouldn't recommend buying a bike there, they are big and 'clunky' and about as strong as marzipan.  The heat is extreme in India, especially Goa in May, that is when all the 'long termers' start heading north on their Enfield Motorcycles.

You can put bicycles on a train, for a price, but expect them to be thrown around as it is 'just a bi-cycle'.  Indian mechanics can fix anything though, especially with a hammer and an old Coke can, but DON'T expect a good job! 

I've never used my tent in India as it's so hot (or cold in the Himalayas) and forget about it during the time you're proposing, especially down south.  And do you really want to wake up every morning with 30 locals crowding around your tent, or trying to get into it (out of curiousity). 

To be honest, I put my bicycle in storage in Delhi when I was last there and borrowed motorcyles from friends, and I met other RTW cyclists who put their bikes in storage and rented motorbikes.  The coast road is the main road down the west of India and it is BUSY!!! 

Sorry, if it all sounds a bit negative, but it ain't fun on a bicycle over there!  Whatever your decision, best of luck.

Namaste
Aidan: www.acousticmotorbike.com

[rualexander]

It was February, March, April, when I was there and the heat was not too extreme, probably around the 30'C mark, and cycling generates your own airflow so its ok. I really enjoyed it after the first couple of weeks acclimatisation (both heat and culture), and if you stay off the main trunk roads the traffic was fairly light once out of the towns, in the towns it was chaos!
I would definitely recommend it.

[fingerbell]

Thanks so much for all the advice people!  This is really helpful.

Doing my research, I've come across a lot of people saying avoid the trunk roads, but is this always possible?  I'm guessing cycling along an idyllic beach from village to village is not really how it's going to work...

[rualexander]

Here's a few pics from my time on the road in India, remember it was 15 years ago, so I don't really know what current traffic levels are like, but I reckon there are still plenty of roads like these.

1. Somewhere in Tamil Nadu between Tiruchiripalli and Dindigul (I think)
2. Same as above
3. The road up to Kodaikanal from the south.
4. The road north from Mysore to Chikmagalur
5. The road from Chikmagalur to Shimoga.

All mostly pleasant rural roads with light traffic, note the heavily patched road surfaces! A favourite memory is the truck overloaded with water melons which stopped and the driver jumped out and gave me a delicious juicy cool watermelon!

[onmybike]

I spent five months riding in southern India last year (and early this), but little of it along the coast. Roads were much better than expected and really the bike won't require any extra 3rd-world-ruggedness to cope with them. Head inland up into the Western Ghats and onto the Deccan Plateau if you want to escape the heat. Full account on my CGOAB journal... http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/indiaandbeyond

I used my tent maybe a half dozen times - there are indeed times when you can camp without being found in India, but wouldn't consider it an essential item. On most occasions a simple mossie net would have worked too. Take your own bike from home. Carry decent spare folding tyres from home (especially if you have 700c wheels). Spare tubes too if you have Presta valves.

Train, buses, taxis and auto rickshaws will all take your bikes.

Syd

[fingerbell]

Great advice rualexander and onmybike - and great pics!  This is really useful stuff, I am now more excited than nervous which makes a change!

Thank you very much
L&C

[thomasb]

Hi fingerbell

In late 1999 I flew to Delhi, took trains to the south and, after a couple of weeks standard backpacker travel, bought a local singlespeed MTB-lookalike in Kollam for aroung 40GBP, Kerala. I rode this for the next weeks over the Ghats and around Tamil Nadu. In Pondicherry I sold the bike for about half what I paid for it, making no attempt to haggle for a better price.

I loved cycling in India. Once you get used to the rules of the road and learn to hit the dirt verge when a bigger vehicle approaches, it is really not so intimidating. There is little of the 'road rage' and general aggression that you get in the West, especially the UK. The coastal main road in Kerala was busy and I was glad to leave it. The road over the Ghats was quiet and in TN I planned a route that avoided national highways. Outside cites like Madurai, there was little traffic. Had no tent but took a bivvy bag which was used outside once, in the Ghats (it made a good bed covering in grubbier hotels). Most places are too crowded for wild camping; it goes dark at 6pm and rooms are cheap.

Apart from the general pleasures of cycling, having a bike gives a number of pluses over general 'backpacker' travel in India:
i) freedom from accommodation touts on arrival in tourist cities and ease of riding around to find the best rooms for your needs. Indian cities can be quite spread out
ii) no need to haggle with auto-drivers, struggle with bus times etc when sightseeing
iii) feeling cool during the day as the wind blows the sweat away

If i did this trip now I'd probably bring a bike from home but only cos I now have so many. At the time, buying a local bike proved a good decision: at £40, it felt completely expendable and, hence, worry free. If it got crashed, trashed or nicked, just go to the next town and buy another. It came with racks and mudguards (brought bike bags with me). Brakes were flimsy and probably would have been in poor shape at the end of a longer trip. Lack of gears was not a handicap: even in the Ghats grades are not steep.

Roads will certainly have got busier in the last 10 years, but I doubt there'll be that much difference outside the orbit of bigger cities. Go for it and enjoy!

Hope this helps

Tom

[fingerbell]

Thanks Tom!  Knowing other people have done it and it was OK is really good to hear about.  Your trip sounds amazing.

Very excited now... roll on January.