The important aspect while going to Leh-Ladakh road trip is the luggage. The questions which come up in mind are, what to carry?, how to carry? how much to carry?  Most of the answers could be found on internet on sites like http://devilonwheels.com which guide you through various aspects of the trip. Me and my friends have been planning Ladakh road trip in July this year and yes we did got most of answers on various websites except How to carry?

We decided to visit Nana Peth in Pune where most of automotive parts are available. After looking out here n there we found a Ladakh carrier which we have been reading about a lot on internet. To our surprise, it wasn’t for Bajaj Avenger, it was for Royal Enfield Bullets. Since we were left with no other option, we decided to buy that one and get it customized with the help of welder. We bought the Ladakh carrier at Rs 1200/-.

After talking to various welders in Pune, we found one who was ready to customize the Ladakh Carrier. It was 3 hours easy work for him. The idea was to remove the old clamps from the carrier, then fit those clamps onto Avenger nut-bolts. Now hold Ladakh Carrier with the help of 2 people to the Avenger, while the third one gives temporary welding. Once you confirm that carrier is good and placed in center with right balance, then the weld shots are to be made permanent. Each side has to have at least 3 points weld so that carrier carries good heavy weight.

Note, since welding was done by fitting carrier on Avenger, the battery wires were removed to avoid short circuits and we used Spirit level instrument to measure the balancing/leveling of the carrier. Those 3 hours of work in hot summer gave good results. Here are some photos which would give more idea on how work happened, where the new clamps were welded. (Click on images to make them larger)

LEFT Side 3 welds shown below:-

Right Side 3 welds shown below:-

If you could see, all of these has been done on old model of Bajaj Avenger i.e. Bajaj Avenger DTSi 220. My friend had new model of Bajaj Avenger i.e. Bajaj Avenger Cruise 220 on which back rest bolts are altogether different from what old model has. Welding guy had to re-think for new avenger model. But he was really good at it and he found the solution. It was simple, he took out those plastic material around the backrest pipes(avenger looks bad without it), so one can use the bolts inside it to attach carrier and rest was same as he did for the old avenger. Whenever my friend is not riding, he puts back the plastic but when he is riding & has carrier attached on his Bajaj Avenger Cruise he has to remove that plastic. Here is the photo for people who are wondering how it was done.