I felt free on the bike and like a jockey on a horse I sat light on what was a heavy machine . A better metaphor might have me as an aphid on the horse ’ s back , with serrated legs grasping its hair . It was dark and I was nearing the outskirts of the city when a fault with the satellite tracking system fused the charging circuit - which was connected to the bike ’ s alternator - and also disabled the radiator fan . This tracking device released a microwave emission for four seconds every hour to any passing satellite and would be monitored by my sponsors . It would also form part of the presentation to the Guinness Book of Records as evidence of the journey ’ s progress . Wires had short-circuited somewhere and the bike ’ s lights were dimming in the dense city traffic . I replaced two fuses and the charging circuit began to function , but only weakly . The radiator expansion tank started to boil over every 10 miles or so , forcing me to stop and find a hotel so I could solve the problem before resuming the ride across India the following morning .
I set off before dawn , before the hawkers had set up their tables , before the night air had melted into the morning heat and before the roads had become congested with a massive swell of people . Riding slowly through suburbs of concrete and ragged gardens , I followed the Ulhas River from Shahapur to Igatpuri , past beautiful lakes and crammed cesspools . By noon I had wound my way up through the forested slopes of the Ghats where the road was hot enough to bake bread and the pavements could have casseroled a stew . It was almost impossible to breathe in the intense heat .
Highway routes 3 and 6 from Bombay via Narik towards Dhule and Nagpur were too narrow for trucks to pass safely . Instead they chased each other at 100 metre intervals for as far as the eye could see . Forced to ride at their slow speed every hour all day , my bubble of riding space was shrouded in blue-black diesel fumes . Twice an hour water and steam spewed from the radiator expansion tank beneath my seat , forcing me to stop and wait for the bike to cool .
To make a delicately balanced situation worse , in the critical speed range between 32 and 37 miles per hour , the bike ’ s front wheel began to lurch and wobble from side to side . As a result I was continually riding on the edge of control . Three times I nearly crashed . From what I could see , a leaking fork seal wasn ’ t the cause of the problem - there was no oil or dirt running down the forks . Sitting quietly on my bike away from the crowds of Indians it was calming to look at the clouds : magnificent shapes of strange animals drifting across a blue sky harboured by unimaginable castles of extraordinary light and beauty .
At my father ’ s home , where I had lived since age 11 , the exterior walls were built of chipboard covered with a layer of concrete panels , pebble dashed from the top to the street . This exterior decoration , prevalent in the 1970 ’ s , would litter front gardens and the street outside with the small stones that fell off the walls . So keen was the council to re-house a mass of people from inner Manchester that we moved on to the estate before the building was actually completed . 50 millimetre tiles covered the roofs and the bare minimum for the sides . I know that because before they started humping I could hear toothless Sandra and her husband Ted through the wall . They ’ d both first take their false teeth out and put them in a glass of water ; you could clearly hear the plop and slurp as they submerged and then sank to the bottom .
Despite this and many other shortcomings it was a good place to live . In many parts of India and the third world whole communities of people live in cardboard boxes with a plastic covering , and when it rains the box disintegrates and father has to go and find another one . Having to listen to Sandra and Ted every night was no great hardship by comparison . So I would lie listening wearily to the sex lives of the neighbours with a juxtaposition of thoughts that separately made sense but together confused . Only by thinking through the noise with strong focused ideas could I blank out mucky Sandra making the bed squeak to within an inch of its life . Trying to concentrate