Royal Enfield
on rent in Udaipur.

The Classic 350 is the one most people picture. Unhurried, torquey, comfortable at sixty, and entirely at home on Rajasthan's long straight state highways. If you want the archetypal ride, take the Classic.

The Hunter 350 is lighter and quicker steering — the better bike if you're spending real time in the city as well as out of it, and the easier one if you haven't ridden something this heavy before.

The Himalayan is the tool for distance and rough surfaces. Longer travel suspension, a taller seat and luggage mounts. If you're heading for Kumbhalgarh's back roads, Mount Abu, or anywhere the tarmac gives up, this is the one to ask for.

Kumbhalgarh is about eighty-five kilometres north and the obvious full-day ride: a good road, a spectacular fort and the second-longest continuous wall in the world. Leave early, take the Ranakpur road, and make a day of both.

Sajjangarh — the Monsoon Palace — is a twenty-minute climb from the city, and the single best short ride here. The switchbacks up through the sanctuary are excellent, and the view over the lakes at sunset is the one you came for.

For a half day, the loop out past Badi Lake and back through the hills is quiet, green after the rains, and almost empty of traffic. For several days, Mount Abu is four hours south and worth every one of them.

Every Enfield goes out with chain tension, brakes, tyres, lights and fluids checked, and we do it in front of you rather than asking you to take our word for it.

You get the registration papers, valid insurance, and our number. If anything goes wrong on the road — a puncture outside Gogunda, a battery that won't turn over at Kumbhalgarh — call us. We would far rather sort it out than have you stranded.

Two helmets are included. We'll also tell you honestly if the bike you've picked is the wrong one for the ride you've described, which is a conversation worth having before you leave rather than a hundred kilometres later.