2012 Royal Enfield Tour of Rajasthan

Before we jump onto the saddle of the Royal Enfield Chrome 500, which was the steed assigned to yours truly for the Tour of Rajasthan – let us know more about the ride. The Royal Enfield Ride Calendar boasts of some of the most exciting and thrilling rides offered by any motorcycle manufacturer and the Tour of Rajasthan (TOR) is one such ride on the RE calendar that is surely not to be missed by any biker. Spread across a span of 10 days, the TOR covers about 2,000km traversing through some of the deepest and virgin locales in the Land of Kings – Rajasthan. Starting from Jaipur, the ride goes via smallest of the towns as well as the big cities in the state before ending again at Jaipur.

In its third edition, this year’s Tour of Rajasthan witnessed participation of about twenty Royal Enfield owners coming from various parts of the country like Delhi, Shimoga, Bangalore, Pune, and many more. While all of them started from Jaipuir, I on the other hand could only join the ride midway from Jodhpur, which meant missing most of the awesome dune-bashing and riding in sand. But then the next three days of the ride promised us a visit to the Bullet Baba temple, some more desert riding and crossing through the internal parts of Rajasthan, which meant not all was lost.

Jodhpur to Kumbalgarh (12^th February 2012, approx 300km):

After a six hour long flight got me to the Sun City of Jodhpur from Pune, I could almost sniff out the keys to my Royal Enfield Classic Chrome even from the vast spread of the Thar desert. But as my luck would have it, I landed on the rest day of the ride and was forced to be patient till the next morning when finally got back on the road towards our final destination for the day, Kumbalgarh – the birthplace of Maharana Pratap. Enroute, our first stop was at the revered Bullet Baba temple celebrating the iconic Royal Enfield motorcycle. With the thump of over twenty Bullets reverberating in the parking outside the temple, it was a fitting start to the lovely day of riding the Classic Chrome.

Post the prayers at the holy place for thumpers, we proceeded in the direction of Ranakpur crossing the lovely forest-covered mountain roads taking us through the border of Mewar and Marwar regions in Rajasthan. Reaching Ranakpur we had sumptuous food and then continued further to the final destination. We arrived at Kumbalgarh in good time before sunset and popped a quick trip to the majestic Kumbalgarh fort spanning across acres of land and presenting us a window into the life of the maharajas and the royalties of an era long-gone. Back at the camp, we were entertained with some local Rajasthani folk music and dance which was truly classic in every sense and also lightened the mood up amongst the tired bikers.

Kumbalgarh to Ajmer (14^th February 2012, approx 290km)

Riding through the back roads from Kumbalgarh, we encountered countless small villages with homes built out of mud and trademark Rajasthani mud walls surrounding them. Broken roads, dirt roads and many a times no roads too. Finding our way as told to us during the morning briefing sessions by RE officials, everyone safely got to the days final destination at Ajmer, the RTDC Khadim hotel. The bustling town of Ajmer was indeed pretty and offered an insight into the clutter of a small city filled with activity and buzz. The word that Pushkar was nearby spread like wildfire and soon more than half of the gang was back on the saddle and off to Puskar for the evening before calling it a day.

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Ajmer to Jaipur (15^th February 2012, approx 250km)

Instead of taking the highway from Ajmer to Jaipur, the route planned took us through some more internal roads in Rajasthan and offered a great variety of locales varying from large water bodies to dry river beds to large open landscapes. Our first and only regroup for the day was at Sambhar lake where we got to do some sand bashing before heading back to Jaipur. From the lake everyone took off finding their way to the highway and the freedom of traveling without a set route meant everyone got scattered for a bit before finding the group once again on the highway to Jaipur. Back in the Pink City, we all celebrated the great times with everyone sharing their pictures and videos over the past ten days of the ride before bidding adieu to new friends and unforgettable experiences.