Hitchcocks Forum

In January I am planning a trip to Kerala in India and hope to hire an enfield for a 4 week trip. I want to do this solo as the arranged group rides are pretty pricey and I prefer to travel on my own. I will be flying in to Kochin. Has anyone any tips or info for this particularly a hire place they can recommend. No advice regarding my sanity of riding a bike out there is required and I am an enfield owner with around 300,000 miles under my belt (not all on the enfield).

An interesting ride whilst waiting for a reply.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKXG3fd8rTs

Plenty of bike hire places to choose from, but do your research and be VERY careful, as there are lots of sad stories. Many operators will want to hold onto your passport, and they will want a huge US$ cash deposit. (Dont expect to get it all back...)


A friend has been running regular Bullet tours in Northern and Southern India for over 20 years (Indianmotorcycleadventures) and some of the stories that he can tell are not pleasant...

I might suggest buying a bike & dumping it at the end of the ride, or selling it

I'd second that suggestion...

How would you feel if some Indian fly tipped a mini metro in your garden at the end of his holiday? Why do you think you can do it in India?

Get on Horizons Unlimited-HUBB, there are plenty of reviews of hire companies and people who can reccomend one.

Andy

Hi Andy, If someone left me a Mini Metro I would say thanks. There are a few things that I would do with it that would make me some money

I rode around Kerala on a Bullet for two fabulous weeks with Blazing Trails tours. It cost about the same as renting a holiday villa in France for two weeks. The bikes are provided, with a riding mechanic and back-up van; they have all the local knowledge and we went to amazing places we'd never have found on our own, they speak Hindi and if there are any scrapes with the law they know how to get you out of the problem, you know there'll be a clean and comfortable hotel waiting at the end of a day's ride etc etc etc. I could have tried to arrange it all myself to save some money, but how many mistakes might I have made on the way?... And riding with a small group of like-minded people is much more fun. But good luck, I can't recommend Kerala highly enough, and Cochin's a great place to spend some time in.

Plus One for Blazing Trails. I've done the Goa based tour as well as the Kerala one. I'd love to go back and join one of the Himalaya tours.