Helmet Stories Instagram Contest

After many moons went through our kit closet to make some semblance of it. Way in the back we found a carton of stuff that we had forgotten about. Out of they carton appeared two new still packed in their plastic Royal Enfield Safari Touring Jackets (XL). 

So we figured as it’s the season for motorcycle festivals in the country, it would be cool to host a Time To Ride Instagram Contest and give out the jacket as prizes. 

So here goes people the contest is open from today till 30th November 2017

To Enter The Contest

1. Follow the accounts of @helmetstories @harshmanrai and @virnakai

2. Upload a picture from a ride you have done in November onto your own Instagram account. (It can be a weekend ride, a ride to Rider Mania/India Bike Week, it can be a ride to the market to buy fish we don’t care. All it has to be is an awesome picture.) 

3. Hashtag the picture #HelmetStories #HSGiveaway

4. Sit back and wait for the first week of December. 

Rules.

1. Each person can post maximum of 4 pictures. We don’t want to flood the internet now. 

2. Harsh Man Rai will choose the winners and he is the last word. 

3. Buying us many rounds of beers will not sway the verdict but you never know until you try.

4. You gotta live in India to participate only because its a pain to ship the jackets out of the country.

Per Instagram rules, we must mention this is in no way sponsored, administered, or associated with Instagram, Inc. By entering, entrants confirm they are 13+ years of age, release Instagram of responsibility, and agree to Instagram’s term of use.

Ted Simons will ride with Helmet Stories to India Bike Week from Mumbai to Goa!

“It was going to be the journey of a lifetime, a journey that millions
dream of and never make, and I wanted to do justice to all those dreams.”
Ted Simon

Ted Simon is a virtual god to generations of bikers and dreamers. Ted is a special honoree at India Bike Week 2014 in Goa. At the age of 81, he will be riding down from Mumbai, along the fabulous Konkan coastline all the way to Goa under the aegis of Helmet Stories to attend the second edition of India Bike Week. 

Back in the early Seventies he was a disillusioned former newspaper executive living in a village near Montpellier in France, and wondering where the rest of his life might lead. The idea for Jupiter’s Travels (the mythological moniker was bestowed upon him in India during the trip) came to him more or less fully formed: ride a motorbike around the world and write a book.

The fact that he couldn’t actually ride a bike was not an obstacle. He learnt, failing his test the first time, secured a sponsorship deal from the Sunday Times newspaper, and on October 6 1973, at the age of 42, wobbled south atop a heavily laden 500cc Triumph Tiger on a 103,000-km journey through 50-odd countries that took him four years.

In a colourfully swirling narrative he recreated this journey in all its life-changing richness – the breakdowns, loneliness, solace and love, the setbacks, epiphanies and terror. Jupiter’s Travels, which had me dreaming of escape and reinvention back in the Eighties, is one of the most inspiring travel books of the 20th century. Read by millions worldwide since it was first published in 1979, it is still selling steadily.

On January 27, 2001, Ted, aged 69, embarked upon another journey, roughly revisiting the same route he did almost three decades earlier. This time, his ride of choice was a BMW R80 GS, which took him through 47 countries, clocking about 95,000 km. Stories from this second ride found their way into his third book, Dreaming of Jupiter. Ted's books about his journeys, Jupiter's Travels, Riding High and Dreaming of Jupiter, continue to serve as an inspiration to other travellers who seek to know the world, and their place in it, through personal adventure.

Winter is coming

Encountered a few splatters of rain before Tandi but all the mountain tops seem to have a fresh layer of snow.

Gear Review: ViaTerra Fly Camera Tank Bag

Putting the ViaTerra Camera Tank Bag through its paces

I am a motorcyclist and a photographer. My best pictures from my two-wheeled adventures have come out of DSLRs and other cameras that are larger and heftier than my iPhone. Usually, I carry a Canon 7D, a Tokina 11-16mm and a Canon 24-105 mm lens as well as my trusty Lumix LX-5. Into the arsenal have been added a couple of GoPro action cameras. Through the years I have struggled to find a good way of carrying my equipment on the motorcycle.  I have used the backpack style Lowepro Slingshot 102 AW Sling Bag but that has been uncomfortable to carry over a long days ride, especially in Ladakh where you have to rise and sit with the ebb and flow of the roads. I have tried stuffing the Lowepro into a drybag and lashing it to the pillion seat but that means unhooking a zillion bungee cords and unclipping the roll-top dry bag to get access to my photo gear. Repeat in reverse to repack and relash while Vir Nakai, my usual partner in moto adventures and Helmet Stories mutters darkly into his beard. My latest and rather inelegant solution has been to pack my photo gear into protective cases and holsters and stuff it into a magnetic tank bag.

A couple of months when the guys at ViaTerra offered to send their latest product, the ViaTerra Fly Camera Tank Bag, for a Helmet Stories trial by fire we jumped at the chance as there were two almost back-to-back Ladakh rides that we could test the bag on. The Fly is a compact 16-litre capacity bag that looks rugged and well finished. Encased by a 1680x1680 tough Denier syntheic fabric, it has three YKK-zippered external pockets: a slit pocket on the upper flap and  two tapered pockets on the sides. The tapered pockets apparently give you some extra space on handlebar lock turns. The bag comes with a rain cover stashed into an exterior pouch. On the bottom, two soft and padded ribs protect your tank from scratches. It also has straps that convert it into a backpack.

Unzipping the main compartment reveals a well-padded interior. There are two elastic hoops to batten down a DSLR fitted with a lens, which is a neat idea. A zippered unpadded nylon pouch on the side can hold a long zoom lens quite comfortably and I chose to stash a lens there inside a lens padding cannibalized from another camera bag. You will have to devise your own solution by adding padded dividers in the remaining space to isolate your other equipment like I did. On the inside of the top flap there is a slim rectangular pocket to hold memory cards, cords, batteries etc.

Mounting the Fly on to the tank is a simple process. A zippered compartment under the bag hides the mounting straps: one zipper to open and another to close and I used this compartment to add additional foam padding. A single strap upfront is looped around the frame down tube and tightened via time-tested double-D fasteners. At the back, two straps on either side can be attached to any convenient chassis points and tightened with a similar fastening solution. This holds the bag quite firmly in position with minimum forward, backward or sideways movement. The D-Rings makes it easy to loosen the forward strap to allow access to the tank cap at fuel stops. The Fly can also be mounted as a tail bag quite easily.

The protection, exterior and interior, is excellent even though ViaTerra does not provide adjustable padded dividers inside like conventional camera bags. I wish that interior pocket was much larger with specialized compartments for memory cards, batteries et al, so that all your stuff would not get jumbled up and would be easier to access. The rain cover is flimsy and I doubt it would provide much protection in a heavy downpour. The zippers on the outside are exposed and perhaps a storm flap or an overhanging lip would make this bag a little more weather and dust proof. The mounting arrangement is excellent but I couldn’t help wondering if a two-piece bag would make life easier: a base that straps on to the tank, and the actual bag Velcroed and then strapped on to the base. This would be nice on longer rides: at the end of the day you could just unstrap the camerabag and pull it off the Velcro base instead of removing the whole rig, cleaning the dirty straps before stowing them away and repeating the exercise the next day.

On the two rides to Ladakh that I carried the Fly tank bag, I was able to stop and shoot much more than usual and in a much more convenient manner as my gear was now so easier to get to. On the whole, the ViaTerra FlyCamera Tank Bag performed very well on the ride even though I had to MacGyver the interiors for my needs. This bag finally offers motorcyclists in India a good solution to carry photographic gear in a safe and yet easy to access manner. And at a price of Rs 2,200, what you would pay for a standard local tank bag, it is definitely a sterling buy for motorcyclists who like to shoot.

Reasons to Ride Pangi Valley...

"We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment at no matter what." - GEORGE SANTAYANA in The Philosophy of Travel

The HelmetStories Pangi Valley Ride was perhaps what Mr Santayana had in mind... starts 29 September, 2013
www.facebook.com/events/541482592572079

PHOTOGRAPHS BY HARSH MAN RAI

RIDING ON THE ROOF OF LADAKH: A Helmet Stories short film

My son, Surya, has been messing around with my computers and as a surprise for me, he cobbled together a small clip of the vids we shot on GoPros on our July 2013 trip to Ladakh. I think we may have just unearthed Helmet Stories new film editor!
On the other hand, this vid sort of touches on the reasons why we love riding in Ladakh so much and why it touches us in that special way no matter how many times we ride there. We are still figuring out how to shoot on our clutch of GoPro cams and hopefully we'll figure out how to bring out some quality films soon. Meantime, keep watching this space... Cogito, Ergo Zoom!

Rocking down the highway

The Helmet Stories powered Chai and Pakora Run for India Bike Week gets on the road

Motley Crew

Super ride back from breakfast on One Enfield, two Harley's, one ktm and an RD 350. Now it's time to get stuck in traffic.

My saviour

My saviour for the day. The mechanic who finally fixed the bike and got me to breakfast.

Bikes and breakfast

Atime to ride, a time to eat! 42 bikes already in, more on the way...

Chai at Khopoli

Darayash on his HD is in a hurry or mighty hungry for breakfast!

The Countdown Begins

Eight days to go for Bumblebee and Bono to ride up to Ladakh for yet another awesome adventure.

Sunday Ride, Goa

Jamshed at Sunset Point in Mollem, Goa

Ladakh 2012

At the GATI office, Mumbai

So, the Helmet Stories crew is riding to Ladakh in June to recce some new and interesting routes around Leh. Bumblebee (right) and Buttercup are the mounts of choice and have been spruced up for the ride. Watch this space for updates...

MKM ride, Day 5: Rajputana Custom

A trip to jaipur would not be complete without a quick trip to our good friend Rajputana Custom Motorcycles workshop. We can't tell you about all the killer stuff we saw because you got to wait till the bikes are fully done. Rajputana we will be back..
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

MKM, Day 1: Chandigarh

My name is Dawson... Leon Dawson

Helmet Stories' Leon Dawson facing the press at the Taj Hotel, Chandigarh. It's a treat to hear him speak Hindi!

Helmet Stories ride for Kotak 25 Years Celebration

Today, two Helmet Stories stalwarts, Vir Nakai and Leon Dawson, are heading out on the  road  astride Royal Enfield Classic 500s as part of Kotak's 25th Anniversary celebrations. Their ride will take them to Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Goa and finally end in Bangalore almost 3000 km later.

You can follow their progress on Money Ka Matlab and on this blog as they post video diaries and updates as they ride to various cities and ask the quintessential question "Money ka Matlab?" -- "What does money mean to you?"
The ride will be launched from the Taj Hotel in Chandigarh at 2pm today.  Local support has already started streaming in with immaculate old school Lambrettas, Vespas, Jawas, Yezdis and of course, Royal Enfields landing up at the venue. Stay tuned!

Favourite Parking Spots