Episode 184: James Baile

Cycling Across the Himalaya in 1986

In 1986, James Baile left university, told his dad he was going to ride a bike across the Himalaya, and used his job as a bike messenger in London to save up for the trip. Six months later he flew to Delhi with his friend Richard and two of the earliest mountain bikes to ever to set off on this adventure.

James didn’t know it at the time, but he was about to become one of the first people to reach Kalapattar, at 5,545 metres, on a bike.

Two 20 Year Olds and a Paper Map

There was no internet, no GPS route for what James and Richard were about to do. They pieced together information from a map shop in London, a chance connection with adventurer Richard Crane, and whatever they could find once they landed in Nepal. James still has the original map from the trip, worn through and full of holes.

They started in the southeastern corner of Nepal, and within a day the plan they’d pictured fell apart. Mountain bikes were new enough that nobody, including James and Richard, really knew what they were for yet. Certainly not for the terrain they’d chosen.

“It basically dawned on us that what mountain biking was in the Himalayas was not cycling. It was actually carrying.”

For the first two weeks, that’s exactly what it was. Rucksacks on, bikes on their shoulders, crossing three high passes before the terrain eased enough to ride into Namche Bazaar.

Reaching Kalapattar

From Namche, James and Richard pushed on toward Everest, eventually reaching Kalapattar at 5,545 metres. James still isn’t sure of the exact history, but by his understanding, they were among the first people to have made that climb on a bike.

Along the way, the trip gave them something else entirely. In the tea houses and villages beyond Namche, James and Richard were oddities. What struck James the most was the people who took them in, fed them, and asked for barely anything in return.

“What they were sharing with us was all they had. It was just incredible.”

Going It Alone

The trip changed shape when Richard’s bike frame cracked after he was charged by a yak on a steep mountain path. They got it fixed in Kathmandu and rode together to Pokhara, but the frame wasn’t holding up. From there, Richard turned back toward Delhi, and James carried on alone into northern India.

“It was liberating on one side, but it was definitely a very alone feeling on the other.”

James pushed north through Uttar Pradesh and into Himachal Pradesh, aiming for Ladakh. He got as far as McLeodganj, home to the Dalai Lama, before winter closed the roads ahead of him. Ladakh remains unfinished business to this day.

The Kids at the Green Hotel

Of everything James shared, the days he spent in McLeodganj stand out. Staying at the same hotel as two cyclists he’d met earlier in the trip, he and a friend started giving the local kids rides on their bikes every evening at five o’clock. Five kids piled onto two bikes, no safety gear, just pure joy.

“It was just the most amazing experience, to feel their happiness and the joy of being on a bike.”

Listen to the full episode to hear James talk through the whole journey, from a stolen bike the night before he flew out, to a chance meeting with a fellow Soho Cycling Club member on a random hillside in Himachal Pradesh. You can also keep up with James’ future adventures via his instagram – @Jamesb.Adventures