When the Desert Welcomes a Super Meteor

Royal Enfield invited us to join them on a 10-day ride across Rajasthan to experience some of the best roads in the country on a Super Meteor 650. So excited were we that we began packing our bags even before going through the email in its entirety

- Devashish Puranik

THE ROYAL ENFIELD Desert Diary Rajasthan Tour came with a lot of promise: smooth tarmac, gorgeous surroundings, and a laid-back motorcycle with a lot of power and torque to experience it on in the form of the Super Meteor 650. Did the actual ride live up to the expectations the itinerary had given rise to in our minds?

Yes, it did.

I arrived at the Hyatt Gurgaon, from where the ride would get under way, knowing what the plan for the next 10 days was but no clue as to what to expect. That evening I met my riding companions and our organisers from Royal Enfield and it became clear that it was going to be an experience full of fun and frolic. The introductory session made it clear that we were a disparate group belonging to different age-groups but with one common trait: the desire to head out on motorcycles and explore.

I was then assigned a gorgeous Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650 and that too in my personal favourite Interstellar Green spec. In that one parking lot we had everything from bone-stock solid colour bikes to an Indian Roadmaster-inspired Super Meteor with plenty of custom bodywork and interesting add-ons. The owner, Sushant Thakur, had rather appropriately named his motorcycle “Gabbar”.

Day one was “transport day”, which meant, we were told, we would be riding into Rajasthan, the actual starting point of the ride.

Alsisar Mahal was the first place we rode to and where we stayed. To say that our line-up of hotels during this ride started off on a high note would be an understatement. This heritage hotel with its old world charm, magnificent architecture, and an array of cultural experiences on offer made us feel like royalty.