The route / stay team also got into action as we needed to book guest houses in some places on priority.
ADVICE: Do not book your hotels in advance. We recommend you reach the destination, search for stay and bargain hard! This will also give you flexibility in changing the route anytime you want and also helps in case you are unable to reach destination due to any reason.
Initially we had planned to start biking from Delhi itself but later decided to transport our bikes till Jammu and start from there. June would be very hot in Delhi and we did not want to bike in the heat and strain ourselves in the beginning itself. So we booked train tickets from Delhi to Jammu and arranged for our bikes (rental and own) to be sent to Jammu via truck.
The final route we decided upon was as follows:
Day 1: Reach Delhi and night train to Jammu
Day 2: Jammu to Srinagar (all routes on bikes only from now)
Day 3: Srinagar local (Gulmarg)
Day 4: Srinagar to Drass
Day 5: Drass to Lamayuru
Day 6: Lamayuru to Leh
Day 7: Leh local sightseeing
Day 8: Leh to Nubra/Diskit
Day 8: Leh to Nubra/Diskit
Day 9: Diskit to Pangong Lake (Merak)
Day 10: Merak to Hemis
Day 11: Hemis to Keylong
Day 12: Keylong to Manali
Day 14: Manali to Chandigarh / Ambala
Day 15: Chandigarh / Ambala to Delhi
Day 15: Delhi to Pune by flight
Advice: There is another route to Leh from Delhi and thats via Delhi - Manali - Leh. Pretty much reverse of what we did. The disadvantage with Manali route is that it becomes steep pretty quickly and chances of getting AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) is very high. That route is not recommended by most bikers unless you are fit enough and also want to risk it.