When you’re planning a massive road trip to Leh-Ladakh, your luggage strategy is everything. The big questions that constantly pop up in your head are: What should I carry? How much should I bring? And how exactly am I going to carry it all?

You can find answers to most of these questions all over the internet on fantastic guide sites like Devil on Wheels. My friends and I have been busy planning our own Ladakh road trip for July this year, and while those websites helped us figure out our packing lists, we hit a total roadblock when it came to the actual mechanics of how to mount it all on our bikes.

We decided to head down to Nana Peth in Pune—the ultimate go-to spot for auto parts—to see what we could find. After hunting around different shops, we finally spotted the famous “Ladakh Carrier” we’d read so much about online. The catch? To our absolute disappointment, they didn’t make them for the Bajaj Avenger. They were built exclusively for Royal Enfield Bullets.

Left with no other option, we decided to take a gamble. We bought the Bullet carrier for Rs. 1,200, figuring we could just customize it ourselves with the help of a local welder.

After tracking down and talking to a few different welders around Pune, we finally found someone willing to take on the challenge. In the end, it took about three hours of straightforward, hands-on work.

The strategy was simple:

1. First, grind off and completely remove the old, Bullet-specific clamps from the carrier.
2. Next, fabricate new clamps designed to align perfectly with the existing nut-and-bolt mounting points on the Avenger’s chassis.
3. Then, two of us held the carrier firmly against the Avenger while the welder applied temporary spot welds.
4. Once we stepped back and verified that the carrier was completely centered, leveled, and perfectly balanced, the welder went ahead and made the weld joints permanent.

We made sure each side had at least three solid welding points so the frame could easily support heavy touring luggage without bending.

Tips: Because we were welding the frame directly while it was mounted to the Avenger, we disconnected the bike’s battery wires beforehand to prevent any unexpected short circuits. We also used a spirit level instrument throughout the process to guarantee the carrier sat perfectly straight and balanced.

Those three hours of standing around in the blazing summer heat paid off beautifully. The final result looks incredibly sturdy and ready for the mountains.

Check out the photos below to see exactly how the fabrication happened and where the new support clamps were welded onto the frame!

LEFT Side 3 welds shown below:-

Right Side 3 welds shown below:-

As you can see from the photos, all of this customization work was done on an older model of the bike, the Bajaj Avenger DTSi 220. However, my friend had the newer model—the Bajaj Avenger Cruise 220—which uses a completely different set of bolts for the backrest. The welder had to scratch his head a bit and rethink the design for the newer model, but he was incredibly sharp and found a neat workaround.

The fix was actually pretty straightforward: he removed the plastic trim pieces that sit around the backrest pipes so we could access the structural bolts hidden underneath to mount the carrier. The rest of the welding steps were exactly the same as what we did for the older model. The only minor catch is that whenever my friend isn’t touring, he puts the plastic covers back on to keep the bike looking stock. But when it’s time to ride and the carrier goes on, those plastic pieces have to come off.

Take a look at the photo below for anyone wondering exactly how he managed to pull it off!