Sane Bike Loony Rider - Ep1
I like to ride. I've always enjoyed cycling, and its healthy exercise too, so double win. For my regular readers, you'll know I have now shifted to Bengaluru for work and stuff. For the rest, I moved from Delhi to Bengaluru a lil over 2 months ago, yes. So, I no longer have my car to drive around to take my mind off troubles and no car to drive here. But I have been able to pick up an old favorite of mine.
Now, I've been using my uncle's cycle to ride a bit for a few weeks now but it was starting to get boring to ride the route by myself and I didn't know how best to plan routes around the city. So, I asked my aunt and she told me about this group which goes cycling every weekend. I got in touch with them last Friday, through Facebook. The group is called Pedal in Tandem, and they're a nice bunch of people. Cycling enthusiasts, some fitness trainers and one a professional artist too. I haven't really gotten around to remembering all the names and knowing their professions, but in time I will.
Anyway, I got in touch and told them I was interested, and it turns out they were going for a 20km ride the next morning. Now, I'd not done more than 14km till then and I told them, but they said it was a good ride for beginners so I signed up. They put me on their Whatsapp group for updates, and that's fair enough. And there I was, next morning, up at 4:30 in the morning, and out the door by 5:15 to reach the rendezvous point. The ride was supposed to start by 6 but of course like any group activity it didnt. But everyone turned up nearly on time and we had a bit of a warm up before we set out. Now, I don't really know which roads we took, but I'll share the best I can.
We started off on the inside roads of Indiranagar, which was a peaceful exposure to certain parts of Bengaluru I'd probably not come across other wise. The pace was a lot slower than mine(which is how you can cover long distances), and there were often stops if the rear of the pack fell too far behind. I talked a lot more than I expected I would, gathering info about the people and the group. After Indiranagar, we were into the army area roads parallel to HAL road, which was nice but slow. We took a group selfie and I joined in, before we set off to leave that area onto HAL for a nice downhill sprint till the next crossing. We turned right towards Yemlur and onto the road right behind the old airport.
We were some way through but stopped for tea. I didn't risk it in case it started up my body's morning routine, and we were back on our way soon. Down that road, bumping along on the rough bits before getting on the Wind Tunnel road. From there through EGL, towards Kormanagala till the first point of U-turn and back towards Indiranagar. We stopped before the flyover for breakfast, at a place called Madurai Idli Shop where I enjoyed a dosa with these interesting people. Now, they were all going to ride back to the start point, but since I lived right nearby I thought it better to part ways then only.
It was a very good experience and I plan to join every weekend, and soon enough be able to join them for the long rides like more than 50km, all the way up to 100km and more. But for now, I'll get frequent and better with my shorter rides.
I plan to turn this into a series of posts on the blog, with one every weekend for every ride with the group. You can look them up on FB with the link below:
https://www.facebook.com/pedalintandem/?fref=ts
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and share.
Now, I've been using my uncle's cycle to ride a bit for a few weeks now but it was starting to get boring to ride the route by myself and I didn't know how best to plan routes around the city. So, I asked my aunt and she told me about this group which goes cycling every weekend. I got in touch with them last Friday, through Facebook. The group is called Pedal in Tandem, and they're a nice bunch of people. Cycling enthusiasts, some fitness trainers and one a professional artist too. I haven't really gotten around to remembering all the names and knowing their professions, but in time I will.
Anyway, I got in touch and told them I was interested, and it turns out they were going for a 20km ride the next morning. Now, I'd not done more than 14km till then and I told them, but they said it was a good ride for beginners so I signed up. They put me on their Whatsapp group for updates, and that's fair enough. And there I was, next morning, up at 4:30 in the morning, and out the door by 5:15 to reach the rendezvous point. The ride was supposed to start by 6 but of course like any group activity it didnt. But everyone turned up nearly on time and we had a bit of a warm up before we set out. Now, I don't really know which roads we took, but I'll share the best I can.
We started off on the inside roads of Indiranagar, which was a peaceful exposure to certain parts of Bengaluru I'd probably not come across other wise. The pace was a lot slower than mine(which is how you can cover long distances), and there were often stops if the rear of the pack fell too far behind. I talked a lot more than I expected I would, gathering info about the people and the group. After Indiranagar, we were into the army area roads parallel to HAL road, which was nice but slow. We took a group selfie and I joined in, before we set off to leave that area onto HAL for a nice downhill sprint till the next crossing. We turned right towards Yemlur and onto the road right behind the old airport.
We were some way through but stopped for tea. I didn't risk it in case it started up my body's morning routine, and we were back on our way soon. Down that road, bumping along on the rough bits before getting on the Wind Tunnel road. From there through EGL, towards Kormanagala till the first point of U-turn and back towards Indiranagar. We stopped before the flyover for breakfast, at a place called Madurai Idli Shop where I enjoyed a dosa with these interesting people. Now, they were all going to ride back to the start point, but since I lived right nearby I thought it better to part ways then only.
It was a very good experience and I plan to join every weekend, and soon enough be able to join them for the long rides like more than 50km, all the way up to 100km and more. But for now, I'll get frequent and better with my shorter rides.
I plan to turn this into a series of posts on the blog, with one every weekend for every ride with the group. You can look them up on FB with the link below:
https://www.facebook.com/pedalintandem/?fref=ts
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and share.
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