5 reasons why you should have come India BIke Week 2014

1. Ted Simon
The man needs no introduction. Ted Simon was there and we were lucky to have him ride with us for 3 days and regale us with his Ted-isms.

2. Jay Kannaiyan 
The Indian who quit his job,sold his house, packed up his stuff and spent 3 years riding down from Chicago to New Delhi via Latin America, Europe and Africa. Jay rode with us down the coastal route and put that Harley Davidson Super Low through its paces.

3. Scott Redding
Yea the youngest rider to win a Moto GP was there thanks to the guys at Castrol Power 1 (yea the same guys who sent us to Uttrakhand and later took us to Sepang for the Moto Gp)

4. 1912 Indian V Twin
This bike looked liked it had rolled out of the factory that day and started up in one kick and ran better than some of the new V Twins at IBW.

Photo Credit : Parrys (from www.team-bhp.com )

5. This dude
This very opinionated, licence less, drunk, ladies scooter riding, Swiss carpenter who offered to build me a house after 9 years was the life of the party at the Howling Dog Bar.

Photo Credit : Aabhimanyu Mulchandani

A breather

The road out from Tarkali is brilliant nice new tarmac snaking its way out to the new Sindhudurg airport. The bikes were an absolute joy to ride down this stretch.

Says Ted Simon

It was great trip down the coast to India Bike Week and riding along with Jay Kannaiyan and Ted Simon was the icing on the cake. And I quote Ted Simon "The ride down the coast was brilliant, I had a great time and India is the only place you can go off roading on asphalt."

Ted Simon recounting his last trip to India

Chatting on the side of the road with Ted Simon on his last trip through India what a perfect setting.

We got the racer where is the cafe?

Cafe racers on a run down Helmet Stories secret beach.

The Ferry to Jaigarh

The whole crew of 18 bikes and 4 back up vehicles on the ferry to Jaigarh. Thanks to Rommel from Bike India for the picture.

All Gear All The Time

Yesterday in the morning I(vir) came around a corner and slipped and fell on a corner. Got up wheeled the bike off the road fixed the broken clutch leaver and carried on but only because I was fully geared up. Not a scratch only a bruised ego and butt where I hit the ground.
Now you non motorcyclists know why we wear so much gear every time we ride.

Gul Panag flags off the Helmet Stories ride to India Bike Week

We caught up with Gul at the flag off and tried to convince her in riding down to India Bike Week instead we ended up planning to ride to Pangi.
Our convoy of 20 bikes has left mumbai and have just got off the Highway. The fun starts now.

Tough Gear

The good people at Wrangler India hooked the Helmet Stories crew up with a new set of Abrasion Resistant Denims specially for Motorcyclists. We shall start testing them out on our ride that starts tomorrow to India Bike Week in Goa.

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.