It took a 2-km ride for Kartik to tell me to get the Himalayan back to the stock setup. After all, this Rally kit wasn’t the best for touring. But I wasn’t planning on taking it for a long ride, anyway… or so I thought. A chain of unplanned events later, I found myself leaving for Goa on our Rally-kit-equipped Himalayan. A 500-odd km ride shouldn’t be an issue. But before my derrière could complain about the narrow endurostyle seat, I had a bigger issue at hand — a loose steering stem nut. At 4:30 am, I wasn’t going to get a mechanic nor did I have the right tools to take the handlebar off and fi x the nut. The solution? A generous amount of duct tape.
I strategically placed the tape below and above the nut, then tightened it with my hand and then used some more tape. I had been in a similar situation years ago, so I knew this could work if I kept changing the tapes as needed. Surprisingly, I didn’t need to change the tape, and only had to occasionally secure it a few times before I reached Goa.
The limited time and busy schedule left me with no choice but to ride back relying on the tape, and guess what? It stayed on. Through the ride, I had been on smooth highways, bad roads, and no roads even… but the tape soldiered on. That said, I would never advise anyone to do this. I certainly don’t see myself doing it ever again.
As for the Rally kit, as much as I enjoyed it on the bad stretches, since the seat allowed me to grip the bike better and the taller saddle height gave more control, it provided absolutely no comfort. In fact, I found myself moving my butt in every possible direction to give it some relief, but it wasn’t effective. So, the Himalayan will now go back to its stock form and get a new cone set.
