Season and Ride Window

SEASON is the single most important consideration for your plan and optimal riding windows have zero care factor about your family and work commitments. Getting pummelled by season is something that you cannot truly appreciate until you’re suffering from it – I have included some pics and videos of my brother and I getting flogged by season to hammer this point home. This section isn’t about preaching restrictions – it’s about encouraging you to launch your own bike odyssey with a timings plan that works with season, and I have used a couple of random examples.

There are no hard and fast rules that apply to optimal riding windows worldwide – all regions have their own microclimates and idiosyncrasies. It gets tricky when it comes to linking the HIGH stuff. When it’s beautiful on the approaches you might freeze in the great ranges … when it’s magic for moto in the great ranges you might cook or get pummelled by monsoon on the approaches … or thousands of others also decide it’s a good idea to go high to escape the heat of the lowlands. When you cut things fine with the winter months you might encounter snow and ice. Ultimately determining optimal riding windows is about fine lines between too cold, too wet, too hot and too crowded.

Let’s consider South America. If you will ride near the poles, then consider those timings first. Southern Patagonia ride window is good mid-December to mid-February. Timings get particularly tricky when you’re considering a tropics zone (even subtropics) AND want to go HIGH. Let’s consider Peru, which is one of the twelve mega-diverse countries in the world due to its particularly complex geography. From the 32 existing climates in the world, Peru remarkably has 27. For our purpose we could simplify Peru down to three areas: coastal desert, Andes mountains (including Altiplano) and Amazon rainforest. I would suggest that things get too cold UP HIGH for a rider June to August and too wet December to March. The wet season can start November. The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu even closes February for safety reasons and trail preservation. I would recommend April May and September October as good riding windows for Peru. Do some research on the Bolivian Altiplano plus the Columbia and Ecuador wet seasons and you’ll now be able to work out a good timings option for overlanding South America via the Andes.    

The best riding windows I have personally encountered in the great ranges tend to start post peak summer and end before the remote high passes close out. Call it an Autumnish two-monthish window – you can’t control the weather on the day but this window is when I believe you’re most likely to find stellar days of clear skies and crisp air. For trans Central Asia I would set a milestone to enter Upper Himalaya northern India end of August (early September at the latest). Explore HP + Ladakh via the remote passes first (save the main passes for your exit as they will still get cleared by BRO once or twice before they let them close out) then the season works brilliantly to follow the great range southeast via Uttarakhand and into Nepal. You don’t want to be in Nepal’s wet season vicinity June to August but come October it’s the perfect time for riding anywhere in Nepal, including up to places like Lo Manthang in Upper Mustang. From November the deserts of Rajasthan come good. This is a good example of a timings plan working with the season and is also one reason I prefer to ride Europe to Asia rather than the other way round.

Ultimately you don’t want to get into the thick of your tour and learn that season is going to restrict your experience and enjoyment, especially if it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. I encourage you to launch your own bike odyssey with a timings plan that works with the season.