Blessed are those who live in the laps of nature, and even more blessed are those who are able to reach those geographical locations on the earth’s sphere which remain untouched by man population. No matter where on the earth you reside, no matter which continent you belong to, you must experience this fantastic journey into the laps of nature, secluded from any kind of social contact, without much of technical advancement and literally less of mankind existence. Such places turn out to be heaven on earth and I was a privileged soul to get onto one such road trips where I was destined to reach the lush green valleys of nature.
Coming back to where we were, I am not going to give you a detail discussion of what exactly my on-road adventure trip was like, rather I along with my team bring to you HELP. Help as in exactly tell you the stuff, objects, tools, and techniques you should know and carry along with you while deciding on to such a trip just in case you encounter any unfavorable or unfortunate situation, you are cool enough to help yourself.
Following are the details about stuff and tools you need to carry, about the tricks and techniques you need to know, and the kind of situations you might encounter for which you need the right kind of presence of mind.
1. Getting the Right Kind of Bike
The most important element for a road trip is a Motorbike. This is probably your only companion for the next 8-10 days, therefore it’s damn important to have the right kind of companion i.e. the right kind of bike. You need to do a lot of research before selecting the right kind of bike because only a few bikes are specially designed to be on the hilly roads, not all can withstand the adversities of the road travel. If you own a Bike that’s compatible with any kind of road or no road area then you are good to go. But since you don’t own one, don’t worry there are a lot of private companies that give such bikes on lease. All you have to give them a certain amount of money and an identification proof or anything else as per their terms and conditions.
Catch– The catch here is you need to make sure, that the bike you are hiring particularly belongs to the leasing company and is not a 3rd party registered vehicle. The main issue here is they might have outsourced the bike and rent need to be paid for it, and therefore the leasing company might be overcharging a certain amount from you
2. Riding Gears
Thermal Gloves 0 to -20°F
It’s important to own these thermal heat lock gloves for it keeps your hands warm and soft even in minus temperatures. These are multi-layered with cotton lining and have elastic fit at the wrist, making sure the main purpose of keeping hands warm and soft during harsh winter drives up hills. Preferably they should be anti-slip, the only drawback that they have is that most of them are not sensitive to touch screen making it a difficult to use smartphones for navigation purpose.
Helmet
Make sure you get the right helmet, cause this is the first precaution you need to take to avoid any injuries. Precautionary measures that you should see before buying the right kind of helmet-
Should be according to DOT Safety Standards
The shape should be such that the chin should be safeguarded
Should be properly cushioned to keep the cold air out
Proper ventilation should be the core concept of the structure.
Lightweight for less stress should be put on the neck muscles
Scratch and fog resistant for a clear vision.
Armour Pants and Armour Jacket
For the protection of the lower body parts and to make sure your bums don’t swell during long motor rides, it’s important to get the right kind of Armour pants.
They should be made out of Lycra since the Lycra padding ensures protection of tail bone in case of some serious unfortunate events and the mesh keeps the Armour pants airy so that you don’t feel uncomfortable.
Armour-Jacket
Getting the right Armour Jacket can be a little pain. For all you need is chest, waist, elbow, shoulder, and spine protection jacket and at the same time, it should let your body breathe and be comfortable. It’s better you look forth for full polyurethane jacket for they are impact resistant and provides support to the upper body and are comfortable at the same time.
Anti Skid Boots
Not all kind of boots is made for riding bikes. There are certainly certain characteristics that should be present in all kinds of boots that qualify them as motor driving boots:
Water Proof
Highly comfortable and Cushioned from inside
Padded at ankles
Should have reflector strips on them
Apart from these must have must have Riding Gears you can even get the following as an extra protection measure:
Helmet Goggle Glasses
Facemask
Knee Pads and Elbow Guards
3. Spare Parts
Before you get to know that you have bought the right kind and quality of spare part for your bike, the foremost important step is learning the basics techniques of checking and solving the problems you might encounter during the journey, and usually you don’t find a professional help in such high natural vegetation areas, so you need to help yourself in fixing the bikes.
These problems including Changing Puncture, cleaning the chain which becomes accumulated of dust and other small particulars. Apart from these you should know how to change the motor oil, Just in case your bike’s clutch wire or accelerator wire breaks due to excess usage, or there is a short circuit in the spark plug you should know all the tricks and techniques to change these parts and always carry extras with you just in case you don’t find professional help in the long-distance travels.
Besides all of these make sure you carry the below listed spare parts, as for your own convenience:
Extra Engine Oils
Puncture Kit
Extra Head Light Bulb
Chain Spray
Extra Spark Plugs
Accelerator Cable
Clutch Cables
Spare nuts and bolts
Spare Wires
Brake Pads
Duct Tape and Insulation Tape
Pliers
Led Light Bar to be used in case the head light bulb is broken
Motorcycle Cover
4. Camping Gears
Before you see the sun is setting and soon the dawn comes to place, you should stop and find a suitable place to set up your camping site. You better find a place that is just suitable according to the weather but also see that some physical damages don’t come your way while you are taking your nap from the long ride. It’s always advisable to take permission of the local people asking them if it’s safe enough to set-up a camp at that particular site and is the place safe for the night.
The camping tools
For making your camp worth the trip it’s important to have a list prepared before hand for the essential tools and stuff you might need to make your camp worthwhile. These include:
Camping Cookware
Camping-cookware
Camp Tents–
Make sure they are 100% polyester made, airy and spacious enough for you to lie down properly. They should even be water resistant to protect you from harsh outside weather. Make sure you know how to set up a tent because experimenting there can be dangerous.
LED camping Lanterns
LED-camping-Lanterns
Alkaline Batteries
Alkaline-Batteries
Portable Ceiling Fan with LED light
Portable-Ceiling-Fan-with-LED-light
Hand Saw
Lightweight Portable Sleeping Bag – This one should be really comfortable and should always keep the body heat intact inside to keep you warm.
sleeping-bag
Inflatable Pillow
Inflatable-Pillow
Inflating Sleeping Pad to be used as a Blanket
slepping-pad
Camping Stove
Camping-Stove
Fuel Tablets
Fuel-tablets
5. Important Documents
There are certain Documents you need to carry along with you for your own lawful protection so that you are not held by cops thinking you are someone who has come there to conduct some unlawful activities. The documents should include
Driving License
Vehicle Registration Certificate
Pollution Check Certificate
Identification Proof
8-10 Photographs
6. Accessories and Gadgets
Coming back to the fun part of the trip there are certain gadgets and devices you need to carry along with you during your trip to make sure you don’t miss out on certain things for which you might regret later, namely:
GPS with batteries
Camera Kit with batteries
Power Bank
Multi-pin Charger
Electric Extension
Torch, Chargeable and Batteries both
Camera Memory Cards
Tripod Stand
LED Flash
7. First Aid Kit And Toiletries
You never know what kind of unexpected situations you might encounter. By the grace of God everything should go fine but just in case you have some kind of injuries or any other problem it’s important you have a First Aid Kit to deal with it:
Basic Cotton, Bandages, and Band-aids
Betadine
Scissors
Liquid Antiseptic
Pain Killers
Basic Medicines For cold, cough, fever and Vomitings
Relief sprays
Medicines for relief from attitudinal sickness
Coming to Toiletries everyone has his or her own personal needs, but the basic calls of nature to be answered in such a place requires the need for following stuff:
Toiletries
Brushes and Toothpaste
Paper Soaps
Toilet Papers
Normal Soaps
Anti allergic Creams
Roll-ons and Sprays
Face wash and Shaving Kits
Sunscreen with SPF 30 or more to protect from the UV rays in higher altitude regions
8. Food, Clothes And Other Essentials
When it comes to food stuff it basically one’s personal choice to have what so ever they wish to have but since there is no nearby market to buy food, pack certain kinds of instant foods for your own benefit:
Instant Noodles
Ready to Cook Food
Ready made Vegetable Pasties
Sachets of Sugar, Sauces, Salt, Pepper, Butter, Fruit Jams, Milk Powder, Chocolate Powder, Tea, and Coffee etc.
Wholegrain Wheat Biscuits
Dry Fruits and Nuts
Chocolates and Energy Bars
Woolen-clothes
Clothing should preferably be according to the area or geographical place that you are going but things like extra warm caps, jacket, socks, warm inner should definitely be there in your bag as extra clothing. Apart from this carry a good number of towels and Hand towels.
Other Essential elements that you really need to carry because you find these stuff easily and these are highly recommended for your convenience:
Money- Since you can’t get an ATM service everywhere. So carry a good amount of cash.
Extra bike Key
Physical Map of the place that you are traveling to.
I hope these lists are of some help because these are truly based on my personal experience. As per your needs you can always add or subtract the stuff, and I really you have a wonderful trip ahead of you. Have a safe and fun journey.