HomeBike News19 yr old biker conquers the ever dangerous Spiti Valley on a...

19 yr old biker conquers the ever dangerous Spiti Valley on a Honda Activa

Meet 19 year old Ishant Sharma from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. A biker by heart, Ishant started biking just a year back. He is a proud owner of Honda Activa 125. Recently, he managed to ride all the way to Spiti Valley astride his Honda Activa.

Located at 12,500 feet above sea level, the road to Spiti Valley is considered as one of the most dangerous roads in India. Due to heavy rainfall and snow, the valley is cut off from the rest of India for about 8 months in a year. And Ishant Sharma dared to conquer such a terrain on a Honda Activa. We caught up with this spirited rider recently, and below is an excerpt from our brief meeting.

1. Where are you from?

Answer – I am Ishant Sharma from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.

2. How old are you? Since how many years are you riding?

Answer – I am 19 years old and riding from last 1 year.

3. What do you do professionally?

Answer – Student, doing BCA.

4. How many bikes do you own?

Answer – None, only Activa. Maybe that’s the reason I did it on this.

5. Which is your dream bike?

Answer – Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro

6. What inspired you achieve this record?

Answer – My father is my inspiration. Being a handicapped person(polio in early age), he didn’t let his dreams die of travelling and touring. In his youth days he travelled all over India on yezdi 350, as a pillion.

7. Any special training you underwent?

Answer – No just a couple of small trips before to prepare myself for this one. First ride was till Mussoorie, Dhanaulti, Tehri and in second one I conquered the mighty Chanshal Pass.

8. Why a scooter?

Answer – I say why not? Maybe because I didn’t have any bike till now. But even though I had one, I would still prefer a scooter, as no problem of clutch/gear shifting, ample storage, good mileage.

9. Why Honda Activa?

Answer – It’s pretty reliable machine I would say.

10. Help / funding / sponsors you had?

Answer – None. The trips I have done so far are from my own hard earned money. It would be nice if I get approached by any of the sponsors.

11. A few words on your experience.

Answer – It was a hell of a ride, shooting stones, heavy slush, snowfall, raining and what not. At one moment on an incline I got only 15 kmph speed even when throttle was fully engaged. This ride totally transformed me, in and out. Met many riders en-route including xbhp team. Overall it was a dream come true for me.

12. How you tackled hunger, sleep, weather, etc while on the bike

Answer – Took 7-8 snickers to tackle hunger on road and for the upper regions in spiti. There are only selected food points open when you enter spiti, specially this time of season. So you need to be prepared for it. Weather was horribly bad for first 2 days (rains and snowfall) but after that it was all good, brilliant sunshine.

13. Crusing speed

Answer – On highways 60-70 and in mounatins it varied like somewhere 10,15 and when roads were good it was 30-40 avg.

14. Any special thing you would like to mention from the ride / experience

Answer – There are many. Once we were riding in night and it was heavly raining, and that whole region was landslide/shooting stone region. We saw stones coming down the hill from our right and then one stone hit my activa. That was very scary moment for me. I throttled up and quickly drove that area.

15. Would you want to do it again?

Answer – Yes but not in this season. Probably in summers.

Highlights of his journey to Spiti Valley

– Journey started on 15th March 2017
– The route taken – Shimla-Narkanda-Rampur-Pooh-Kaza
– Total no of kms done – 1750
– Total trip cost INR 7k to 8k

Itinerary

Day-1 Meerut to Shimla
Day-2 Shimla to Tapri
Day -3 Tapri to Pooh (Bad weather and landslide, couldn’t do much)
Day-4 Pooh to Kaza
Day-5 Kaza to langza & Langza – Kaza -Tabo
Day 6- Tabo to Rampur Bushr
Day 7- Rampur Bush to Meerut

If you like to see more photos and follow the story. Here’s my instagram handle mrishantsharma01

Rushlane Google news