Exploring the wild side of Maharashtra on Royal Enfield Himalayan

What is Unroad Maharashtra?

This is all about trying to not ride on the road. No seriously! Idea is to explore some parts of this beautiful state and this is mostly possible when you go off the road. The RE team makes you ride through some trails – easy, difficult and also through some nasty ones. This ride is open to all Royal Enfield motorcycles but it’s just easier and less heartbreaking (due to damage from falls) for Himalayan owners. 

The Experience

The ride started with basic off-road training with Nilesh, head coach of BigRock Motopark. Most of the riders were new to the world of off-roading, so some basic drills were planned so that they could at least survive three days of Unroad Maharashtra. While most of them got a fair idea of how to handle bikes in off-road conditions, there were a few who had done it before and were extremely comfortable handling the bike.  

The second half of Day 1 was when we went out for the first trail and to be honest, no one expected it to be so thrilling on the first day itself. I was honestly expecting the lead riders to go a bit easy on us, but they didn’t and I was truly glad. While the initial few kilometres of the trail looked easy, the other parts were dusty, difficult and a bit dangerous. The route had a mix of slow and high speed patches, with a cliff on one side and mountain on the other. We also spent more than two hours at a downhill section. This part was incredibly difficult to get through, but with the right strategy and vision most of us got through without damaging the bike.  

Day 2 was a bit easier than Day 1 as it involved considerable amount of riding on the road. But once we got off the road, things started to become a bit tricky but it was something that was doable. This is the day when we saw a lot of wild side of Maharashtra. The sceneries started getting breathtaking. 

The trail started getting dustier and because we were approaching peak summer, the temperature rise was making us sip lots of water and there was no sign of our bladder demanding us to stop. It was that hot. But more importantly, all the riders that day got extremely comfortable with riding off-road as their confidence level got much higher.  

I was looking forward to Day 3 the most as I was told that it will be the toughest day of all. Plus, I was curious how the Himalayan will perform on such a day. So, on this day too, we had lots of riding to do on the road and also on some gravel road. A regroup point was decided and that’s where I figured out why it was supposed to be a day to remember. The plan was to cut through a mountain from Panshet side and come out through the Lavasa side. And the only way to cut through this hill was to ride through some of the narrowest trails I have ever seen in my life. 

There was one patch that had to be made easy by the RE team because it looked quite risky. Nevertheless, it was a great decision by the team to alter a bit. However, no modification could have been done on the next trail as it was logistically impossible. This one was a steep drop, and we had to ride over some stones but as we crossed this patch, we had to deal with a left-hander steep downhill off-road patch. Almost everyone got help to overcome this task and to be honest, it was next to impossible to do it all alone. Only the team effort made this an injury free day. 

The End

Unroad Maharashtra taught me one thing – I don’t need to plan a long distance multi-day ride to get a bit adventurous. This can be experienced without riding much. With a little bit of planning, and maybe with professional help, I can get some serious and thrilling off-roading experience. And after spending three days at Unroad Maharashtra, it is clear that the Himalayan Odyssey isn’t the only favourite group ride experience.