CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
254 km from Shimla to Shimla, about 4 h 13 of riding. On the way it passes Kalka Shimla Railway, Complexe du Capitole and back through Kalka Shimla Railway. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Shimla is where the British came to escape the heat of the plains, and it still has the look of a Surrey town that took a wrong turn into the Himalaya. Built along a ridge at roughly twenty-two hundred metres, with pine and cedar trees and rows of red-roofed houses, it served as the summer capital of British India, and decisions affecting hundreds of millions of people were made here between May and October. The Ridge, an open promenade in the centre, is lined with Christ Church, a pale yellow neo-Gothic building of the 1850s, and the Mall, a long shopping street, runs alongside. Vehicles are restricted on the Mall and the Ridge, so you will park below and walk up.
Read the complete Shimla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shimla is where the day begins. Next is Kalka Shimla Railway.
The Kalka–Shimla Railway is a two-foot-six-inch narrow gauge line that climbs about ninety-six kilometres from the plains at Kalka to Shimla, the old summer capital of British India. It opened in 1903, was built to carry officials and their luggage up to the hills away from the heat, and it does the job by means of an extraordinary number of tunnels, around a hundred, plus hundreds of bridges and arched viaducts. The longest tunnel, at Barog, is more than a kilometre long, and the story of the engineer who miscalculated the alignment and was fined a rupee is a local legend. UNESCO added the line to the World Heritage List in 2008.
Read the complete Kalka Shimla Railway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalka Shimla Railway comes up about 90 km into the recorded legs. Next is Complexe du Capitole.
about 125 km into the recorded legs you reach Complexe du Capitole. Next is back through Kalka Shimla Railway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kalka Shimla Railway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kalka Shimla Railway, late in the day. Next is Shimla.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shimla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Shimla. That is the ride.
Shimla → Kalka Shimla Railway is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kalka Shimla Railway → Complexe du Capitole is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Complexe du Capitole → back through Kalka Shimla Railway is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kalka Shimla Railway → Shimla is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.