My question to you is simple: can you beat my 50000 km cycling?
I am sure that most of you are going to yell an emphatic NO. And on the face of it, sounds very correct. Even some of the accomplished cyclists will have to think about it for a while.
I am overweight and arrogant. Not exactly the fittest guy you expect to see on the bike. Most of you reading this might be weighing under 80 kgs. Which means u have about a 23 kg weight advantage over me. Some of you are even 10 yrs younger to me. I am 34. Even with all that advantage in your favour, can you beat my fifty thousand kilometers?
The logic is simple folks. The real question is how much time will it take to do 50k. As a lifetime goal its very reachable, no doubt. But do you want to spend a lifetime to do something I did in 10.5 years? This 10.5 yrs is including a total of 16 months of onsite travel.
To do 50000 km in a car in a year is a pain, forget cycling. If you do 25000km in a car a year, you are considered driving too much! :) A jumbo jet flying at 900 km per hour will take 55 hours of flying to reach 50k mark.
50K is not easy - anyway you look at it. Remember this, if you are one of those stud cyclists pedalling Bangalore-Mysore and back every week, you will be doing approx 300km in a weekend. If you do that week on week for 52 weeks, you will hit only 15600km per year. That means you will take 3 years and 3 months almost to hit 50K.
I have shared in my previous blog the tip: daily cycling. The best way is cycle to work! This works especially well if you stay far away from office. Any big goal has to be broken down into something manageable. And we have to work on it relentlessly, day on day, month on month. But dont begin with something like 20km per day. If you are new to cycling, start cycling 2 km per day for a week. Then graduate to 4 per day for a week. And so on, based on your comfort. Over a period of 2 months, I believe that 40 km per day is easily achievable if you stay 20 km away from work.
Make cycling a habit - if you want to go to the nearby grocery shop or post office or whatever, just take the bike. Slowly this will become a habit and you will start cycling everywhere! And without even thinking consciously about it. And thats how the magic begins to happen. Slowly but surely. And the effects start compounding.
I highly recommend everyone to read the book "The COMPOUND Effect" by Darren Hardy. This man very clearly talks about what it takes to do what seems "impossible". The secret is daily routine, and doing it in manageable chunks. This is not a health book, but a book for organising yourself, in the category of "self-help". Dont snigger, one can never be too good to read this book. I found it out myself!
For example, he talks about how a 2 hr workout 5 days a week is not sustainable in the long run, at least for 99.9% of us. Because it is fundamentally a very tough thing - the momentum and enthusiasm slowly wanes away. 5 day work out slowly will turn into 3 and 2 day work outs and will eventually stop.
And then we tend to drop it completely. The best would be a 1 hour work out 3-4 times a week, max.
Please follow a similar approach when u start cycling. When we begin doing something, we tend to be over-enthusiastic and do it overly. When u begin something, keep a lifetime goal of continuing it - thats the sure shot way of success. Very very few of us can sustain a lifetime practice of 2 hour workout a day, 5 days a week. Cycling is far more simpler than that.
The key is consistence. It is far more effective to do something at a lesser rate (20 km per day), but maintaining it 365 days a year, rather than do superhuman stunts (like 250 km per day) once or twice or thrice a month.
20km per day is not big deal guys - you will do it in one hour. Will it happen automatically? No. Lets say u stay just 5km from office and u ride up and down to work. Thats 10 km. Once your are back home in the evening, if you are willing to switch off the idiot box and do some pedalling, you will enjoy it all the more! 10 km ride takes 30 mins. This is very very moderate rate, almost without any exertion at all.
I highly recommend you guys to read this book - this will help you not only beating my 50K, but in your life too. I have not read such a good book in a very long time. PERIOD. And I read a lot of books, mind you.
You can download a pdf of this book for just 12 USD. Check the net.
And after that, the tough part - put the stuff into practice and beat me to 1 lakh km!!
Hey, believe it or not, if I have inspired at least one person to really DO this, and beat me with any target (distance or time), I consider the purpose of this blog done.
Good luck to all cyclists.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Cycling: early memories
I used to be a child who was really afraid, especially of falling. And in as much as a cycle attracted me, the fear of falling prevented me from getting on the bike, inspite of having helpful uncles and cousins who would urge me on. Finally in 1984 summer, I gathered enough mettle with my maternal uncle (mom’s elder brother) to try a small cycle with two wheels. Not the kids variety, a proper cycle, mind you.
Day after day, my uncle tried in vain to get me going on the cycle. I would cry, shout, get scared the moment he indicated he would “leave” me. He got tired of running behind me, pushing and holding the bike. After the entire summer of 1984, sometime in May, I remember my uncle telling my mom that her son will never learn cycling. And my mom, sweetheart that she is, listened with almost tears in her eyes, to the possibility that her first son would never cycle. It used to be more of her dream and anyone else’s to see me on the bike. I felt bad that I disappointed her so much.
When I got back to 5th std, one of my classmates, a pretty girl by name Rani Peter used to come to school in a cycle. My god – in those days, it was a revelation. She was having army background and had come from delhi in 3rd standard. Now this dame cycling got me seriously jealous. Seriously. Those were the macho days – if a girl could do it, the guy has to, no questions about it.
After we moved to our new home in 1985, we had one of our neighbours who said he will give it a shot - to try and teach me pedaling. My mom explained to him how her brother had tried his best to get me going and how hopeless it was. This gentleman, by name Sunil did not budge. We rented a bike and went off to a nearby ground. In 30 minutes, I was cycling away as if I have been doing nothing else in my life but cycling!! With a joy that knew no limit, I cycled and came in front of my house and showed off to my mom. My friend Sunil thought that he had some “magic touch” that I learned it so fast. Afterwards, I saw him running behind a lot of kids on their bicycles – “teaching” them! ☺
Obviously all those hours with my uncle had gotten me to the very edge – just a little more push and I would have started cycling!! Morale: don’t give up. When the night is the darkest, the morning is near.
Recently, I told my uncle that I have more miles on my cycle than what his entire family had in their lifetimes. He was mighty proud! For a boy who was predicted to never learn cycling, this was indeed big. Very big. No wonder I relate big time to the movie Forrest Gump. For those of you who have not yet seen this classic, it is the story of a child by name Forrest, with weak legs, who goes on to become a high profile long distance runner, running coast to coast in the United States – for the sheer joy of it!
From 9th std onwards (circa 1989), I got permission to go to school on cycle. It was liberation! I can still close my eyes and picture those “first” days when I used to get out of that small road into bigger avenues. Before that it used to be trial runs on my dad’s bike, back and forth a 300m stretch of road in front of my house.
School days turned into those heady college days... and I score well enough in kerala state engineering entrance exam to gain a computer science seat in REC Rourkela, one of the hallowed places for engineering in this country. The college had a very huge campus - 640 acres - second only to IIT Kharagpur in area. I continued with pedaling while I was there. The huge campus kind of mandated it. The hostel itself was about a km away from the main buildings! It is a pity these days to see colleges in 20 acres - what a shame.
I used to participate in what was called "cross country" cycling while I was in REC. The most challenging part of the race was it started at 4:30 AM in the morning. I enjoyed every bit of it, though I never came in the first three. Almost 6 years of pedalling there - I have no clue how much distance would have been done, since I did not have a meter...
After those days came the days in Bangalore about which I have elaborated in the previous two posts.
Day after day, my uncle tried in vain to get me going on the cycle. I would cry, shout, get scared the moment he indicated he would “leave” me. He got tired of running behind me, pushing and holding the bike. After the entire summer of 1984, sometime in May, I remember my uncle telling my mom that her son will never learn cycling. And my mom, sweetheart that she is, listened with almost tears in her eyes, to the possibility that her first son would never cycle. It used to be more of her dream and anyone else’s to see me on the bike. I felt bad that I disappointed her so much.
When I got back to 5th std, one of my classmates, a pretty girl by name Rani Peter used to come to school in a cycle. My god – in those days, it was a revelation. She was having army background and had come from delhi in 3rd standard. Now this dame cycling got me seriously jealous. Seriously. Those were the macho days – if a girl could do it, the guy has to, no questions about it.
After we moved to our new home in 1985, we had one of our neighbours who said he will give it a shot - to try and teach me pedaling. My mom explained to him how her brother had tried his best to get me going and how hopeless it was. This gentleman, by name Sunil did not budge. We rented a bike and went off to a nearby ground. In 30 minutes, I was cycling away as if I have been doing nothing else in my life but cycling!! With a joy that knew no limit, I cycled and came in front of my house and showed off to my mom. My friend Sunil thought that he had some “magic touch” that I learned it so fast. Afterwards, I saw him running behind a lot of kids on their bicycles – “teaching” them! ☺
Obviously all those hours with my uncle had gotten me to the very edge – just a little more push and I would have started cycling!! Morale: don’t give up. When the night is the darkest, the morning is near.
Recently, I told my uncle that I have more miles on my cycle than what his entire family had in their lifetimes. He was mighty proud! For a boy who was predicted to never learn cycling, this was indeed big. Very big. No wonder I relate big time to the movie Forrest Gump. For those of you who have not yet seen this classic, it is the story of a child by name Forrest, with weak legs, who goes on to become a high profile long distance runner, running coast to coast in the United States – for the sheer joy of it!
From 9th std onwards (circa 1989), I got permission to go to school on cycle. It was liberation! I can still close my eyes and picture those “first” days when I used to get out of that small road into bigger avenues. Before that it used to be trial runs on my dad’s bike, back and forth a 300m stretch of road in front of my house.
School days turned into those heady college days... and I score well enough in kerala state engineering entrance exam to gain a computer science seat in REC Rourkela, one of the hallowed places for engineering in this country. The college had a very huge campus - 640 acres - second only to IIT Kharagpur in area. I continued with pedaling while I was there. The huge campus kind of mandated it. The hostel itself was about a km away from the main buildings! It is a pity these days to see colleges in 20 acres - what a shame.
I used to participate in what was called "cross country" cycling while I was in REC. The most challenging part of the race was it started at 4:30 AM in the morning. I enjoyed every bit of it, though I never came in the first three. Almost 6 years of pedalling there - I have no clue how much distance would have been done, since I did not have a meter...
After those days came the days in Bangalore about which I have elaborated in the previous two posts.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Cycling in Bangalore: Your answers questioned!
Here is some of the most common things I hear about cycling.
Have you noticed, the ones who never cycled are the ones with strongest opinions on the dangers of cycling!!
• Its not safe!!
This is definitely my favourite “excuse”. It is the excuse most polite folks give you. They don’t want to piss you off by saying it is déclassé or cheap or too much effort. Safety is the buzzword. These are the same folks who will buy a car without ABS or airbag, but safety is somehow big on their list. Who are they deluding, except themselves? I have only one thing to tell them – GROW UP.
Let me put it like this. I have had only two accidents in 50000 km and not one of them spilled a drop of blood. 10.5 years and not a single accident!! How many motor cyclists can claim the same? One accident was when a SUV hit me from behind at 5kmph. Very slow impact, just touched my bike. Enough to spoil the rim, but I did not even fall down or anything. Second was when a scooter crossed right in front of me the wrong way and I hit it slightly. This time my right hand hurt a little, a light sprain.
Yes, when you look “down” from a bus, the cyclist looks so vulnerable. But I feel that in this city a cyclist is very safe. The people of Banglaore are real gentlemen. I feel that most people respect a cyclist. These days it is definitely there, as people are more "health-wise". When I started off in 2000, I used to be treated like a stray dog. Your existence on the road did not matter. And traffic never causes any problems – as long as you don’t cause any problems to traffic.
• Pollution
I love this one too. And to some extent it is valid. Believe it or not, whether you are biking or in a car or in a bus pollution affects you. And pollution does not prevent most people from doing anything they have to – like going to work and back. Then how come it only prevents cycling? To me it looks like many folks are hiding behind the veil of pollution! If it is such a concern, there are very good quality masks available www.respro.com that can completely seal off the nostrils/ mouth from dust/ smoke. I have used them too and found them very effective.
The funniest part is some of my friends who smoke upto 10 cigarettes per day, are concerned about pollution if they cycle. My god. I love cattle and street dogs more – at least they don’t talk such rubbish.
• Cheap activity?
Oh!! where were you born? In the windsor castle? If not, dont act like you did! :)
This more of an attitude issue. These days it is not a problem, since there are plenty of youngsters on bike, with helmets and flash lights and everything. It almost looks like a mini circus!
Cycling is slowly evolving to be a fashion statement! In this city alone you can buy bikes worth one lakh and more.
• Sounds good, but can I do it?
Absolutely! I am the proof. If I can cycle with 105 kgs weight, 36km (18x2) in a day to office and back, what is preventing you. Remember, the lighter you are, the easier it is! ☺
And especially if you have a bike like this:
• I don’t have your stamina.
This is again hiding behind biology and physiology. How do you know you don’t have stamina? You develop stamina for a specific activity when you do it again and again.
Your body is more wonderful than you think. It adapts to all kinds of effort. Believe me, in two weeks of daily consistent effort, you will be cycling around in gay abandon.
• Cycling to work would take a lot of time, right?
Yes, indeed. But traveling by bus or car also takes time. Almost the same or even more. So the question is not about cycling, but how far you stay from work! Most of the time I am at par with buses or even better than them during peak hours.
So if you dont intend to commute, better dont buy a bike! If you bought a treadmill, like most people do, when the first nasha is over, you can at least use it as a cloth stand. With a cycle, even that is not convenient. Stay away!
• Should I do it?
Depends entirely on you. Boss, this is India - You have the right to be as unhealthy as you choose to be.
• I like it, but don’t want to commute to work.
Sorry to say, but if that is indeed the case, the probability of you continuing cycling above 3 months is very very less. In other words, the cycle that you bought will be a useless thing in 3 months! Not a great idea, I would say. The best way is to include it as a commute to work, so that you don’t have to set aside “time for cycling” from your busy schedule or the precious weekends.
• Gears make it easy. Whats the challenge?
And the above statement can be only made by a guy who has never cycled.
Gears make it fun, not easy!
Get on a geared bike, try a good incline. Now try it without a geared bike. You will know the difference. Gear only changes the rate at which work is done. The total work done still remains the same. Elementary, dr. Watson! Gears will definitely help you ride up the inclines which would otherwise make you get down and push the bike up.
• I have been thinking about it
Dude, don’t think. Just do! You don’t think about cycling, you do it. Or you don’t. Don’t let words like “thinking” make you think that you are accomplishing something. You cannot learn swimming by “thinking” about it. Don’t hide behind words. Come forward, be a man! Have you heard this – male by birth, man by choice?
How long are you thinking about it? Some of my folks have been thinking for 11 years! And still no signs of action. Don’t get into this “analysis paralysis” mode. The more you analyse, the more paralysed you get. What we need is action, not just thoughts and theories.
If a thought does not lead you into action, identify it to be a “pseudo-feeling”. A real feeling always induces action.
• What is the cost of cycling?
This is actually a misplaced question. The real question is what is the cost of not cycling? Examples are not very inspiring - Heart problems, high BP, diabetes maybe.
Of course, you can start pedaling with a basic light weight bike like the Hero Hawk or BSA Mac series, both of which are still in production. Get one with 5 or 8 or 16 gears. Not less than 5 gears please. For about 7K rupees, you are pretty much ready with a basic bike, helmet, lights and all.
• These trucks! Do they let you cycle?
Sorry to break any civilized illusions, but I face more stupid behavior from bikes and cars than from trucks. Truckers are gentle folks, they are pros. They know how to behave on the roads. Many times these heavy trucks have come behind me on narrow roads, and applied brakes just so that they don’t have to honk and scare me off. I am yet to see that kind of civilized behavior from cars and two wheelers! Sorry.
• What happens if the tyre punctures?
Oh, come on! Stop kidding. What happens if your motorbike or car tyre punctures? You howl, shout and abandon the vehicle completely and go by bus? No. You just fix it and get on with life. Ditto with cycling too. Fix the puncture, get on with cycling!!
• Too many flyover and bridges
That’s why you need gears. Gears definitely make it a little better for you. When you are in a vehicle and you reach a flyover, do you get off and pray that somehow with god’s blessings the vehicle goes over? You just press the pedal a little more. Same thing here – pedal harder! ☺
• What if it rains?
If you start off cycling, the question is not if it rains, but when? Sooner or later you have to face rains. Buy a raincoat! Simple. Don’t do stunts like cycling with umbrella in one hand and all that. In my childhood I used to see folks in kerala doing it. Those are meant only for the mallus – rest of you, wear a raincoat.
• How do you know you did 50K km?
How do you know your car is due for service? Either the service center calls you, or you figure out from the odometer. I have a cycle computer or cyclometer on my bike and I keep a daily log of the distance done. I write it down in my dairy, on a *daily* basis. I have been doing that since june 2000. I have not missed a single km that I pedaled here in this city.
My hero hawk has two meters - one analog and one digital!
• Don’t you sweat?
That’s how humans are made – if we work out, we sweat. What is the big deal? If you are commuting, do so in a jeans and t-shirt and change at office. Simple!
If the only sweating you do is when you watch horror movies on TV, or you sit for your appraisals at work, my heart goes out to you.
• What will others think?
Wow. Now we are getting closer to the real deal! Frankly, does it matter to you what others think? Or you just think that it matters? Your friends and relatives have problem because you found a simple solution to health problems? Or simply because you found something you like to do without polluting the planet? If so, those folks cannot be called your friends!
All these initial inhibitions will melt away when you get those glances and words of appreciation from complete strangers and friends.
What will others think if you get hospitalized with heart disease or diabetes or other maladies, 20 yrs from now. Let me give you an indication – they may say you were just busy making money, without bothering about health! Dude, others will say many things, we don’t have control over it. You have control only over what you do and what you think – that’s the fact and lets face it.
All said and done, I have just one question - are you ready to get your ass on the saddle? If so, welcome to the world of cycling. If not, forget that you ever read this article. Have fun.
Have you noticed, the ones who never cycled are the ones with strongest opinions on the dangers of cycling!!
• Its not safe!!
This is definitely my favourite “excuse”. It is the excuse most polite folks give you. They don’t want to piss you off by saying it is déclassé or cheap or too much effort. Safety is the buzzword. These are the same folks who will buy a car without ABS or airbag, but safety is somehow big on their list. Who are they deluding, except themselves? I have only one thing to tell them – GROW UP.
Let me put it like this. I have had only two accidents in 50000 km and not one of them spilled a drop of blood. 10.5 years and not a single accident!! How many motor cyclists can claim the same? One accident was when a SUV hit me from behind at 5kmph. Very slow impact, just touched my bike. Enough to spoil the rim, but I did not even fall down or anything. Second was when a scooter crossed right in front of me the wrong way and I hit it slightly. This time my right hand hurt a little, a light sprain.
Yes, when you look “down” from a bus, the cyclist looks so vulnerable. But I feel that in this city a cyclist is very safe. The people of Banglaore are real gentlemen. I feel that most people respect a cyclist. These days it is definitely there, as people are more "health-wise". When I started off in 2000, I used to be treated like a stray dog. Your existence on the road did not matter. And traffic never causes any problems – as long as you don’t cause any problems to traffic.
• Pollution
I love this one too. And to some extent it is valid. Believe it or not, whether you are biking or in a car or in a bus pollution affects you. And pollution does not prevent most people from doing anything they have to – like going to work and back. Then how come it only prevents cycling? To me it looks like many folks are hiding behind the veil of pollution! If it is such a concern, there are very good quality masks available www.respro.com that can completely seal off the nostrils/ mouth from dust/ smoke. I have used them too and found them very effective.
The funniest part is some of my friends who smoke upto 10 cigarettes per day, are concerned about pollution if they cycle. My god. I love cattle and street dogs more – at least they don’t talk such rubbish.
• Cheap activity?
Oh!! where were you born? In the windsor castle? If not, dont act like you did! :)
This more of an attitude issue. These days it is not a problem, since there are plenty of youngsters on bike, with helmets and flash lights and everything. It almost looks like a mini circus!
Cycling is slowly evolving to be a fashion statement! In this city alone you can buy bikes worth one lakh and more.
• Sounds good, but can I do it?
Absolutely! I am the proof. If I can cycle with 105 kgs weight, 36km (18x2) in a day to office and back, what is preventing you. Remember, the lighter you are, the easier it is! ☺
And especially if you have a bike like this:
• I don’t have your stamina.
This is again hiding behind biology and physiology. How do you know you don’t have stamina? You develop stamina for a specific activity when you do it again and again.
Your body is more wonderful than you think. It adapts to all kinds of effort. Believe me, in two weeks of daily consistent effort, you will be cycling around in gay abandon.
• Cycling to work would take a lot of time, right?
Yes, indeed. But traveling by bus or car also takes time. Almost the same or even more. So the question is not about cycling, but how far you stay from work! Most of the time I am at par with buses or even better than them during peak hours.
So if you dont intend to commute, better dont buy a bike! If you bought a treadmill, like most people do, when the first nasha is over, you can at least use it as a cloth stand. With a cycle, even that is not convenient. Stay away!
• Should I do it?
Depends entirely on you. Boss, this is India - You have the right to be as unhealthy as you choose to be.
• I like it, but don’t want to commute to work.
Sorry to say, but if that is indeed the case, the probability of you continuing cycling above 3 months is very very less. In other words, the cycle that you bought will be a useless thing in 3 months! Not a great idea, I would say. The best way is to include it as a commute to work, so that you don’t have to set aside “time for cycling” from your busy schedule or the precious weekends.
• Gears make it easy. Whats the challenge?
And the above statement can be only made by a guy who has never cycled.
Gears make it fun, not easy!
Get on a geared bike, try a good incline. Now try it without a geared bike. You will know the difference. Gear only changes the rate at which work is done. The total work done still remains the same. Elementary, dr. Watson! Gears will definitely help you ride up the inclines which would otherwise make you get down and push the bike up.
• I have been thinking about it
Dude, don’t think. Just do! You don’t think about cycling, you do it. Or you don’t. Don’t let words like “thinking” make you think that you are accomplishing something. You cannot learn swimming by “thinking” about it. Don’t hide behind words. Come forward, be a man! Have you heard this – male by birth, man by choice?
How long are you thinking about it? Some of my folks have been thinking for 11 years! And still no signs of action. Don’t get into this “analysis paralysis” mode. The more you analyse, the more paralysed you get. What we need is action, not just thoughts and theories.
If a thought does not lead you into action, identify it to be a “pseudo-feeling”. A real feeling always induces action.
• What is the cost of cycling?
This is actually a misplaced question. The real question is what is the cost of not cycling? Examples are not very inspiring - Heart problems, high BP, diabetes maybe.
Of course, you can start pedaling with a basic light weight bike like the Hero Hawk or BSA Mac series, both of which are still in production. Get one with 5 or 8 or 16 gears. Not less than 5 gears please. For about 7K rupees, you are pretty much ready with a basic bike, helmet, lights and all.
• These trucks! Do they let you cycle?
Sorry to break any civilized illusions, but I face more stupid behavior from bikes and cars than from trucks. Truckers are gentle folks, they are pros. They know how to behave on the roads. Many times these heavy trucks have come behind me on narrow roads, and applied brakes just so that they don’t have to honk and scare me off. I am yet to see that kind of civilized behavior from cars and two wheelers! Sorry.
• What happens if the tyre punctures?
Oh, come on! Stop kidding. What happens if your motorbike or car tyre punctures? You howl, shout and abandon the vehicle completely and go by bus? No. You just fix it and get on with life. Ditto with cycling too. Fix the puncture, get on with cycling!!
• Too many flyover and bridges
That’s why you need gears. Gears definitely make it a little better for you. When you are in a vehicle and you reach a flyover, do you get off and pray that somehow with god’s blessings the vehicle goes over? You just press the pedal a little more. Same thing here – pedal harder! ☺
• What if it rains?
If you start off cycling, the question is not if it rains, but when? Sooner or later you have to face rains. Buy a raincoat! Simple. Don’t do stunts like cycling with umbrella in one hand and all that. In my childhood I used to see folks in kerala doing it. Those are meant only for the mallus – rest of you, wear a raincoat.
• How do you know you did 50K km?
How do you know your car is due for service? Either the service center calls you, or you figure out from the odometer. I have a cycle computer or cyclometer on my bike and I keep a daily log of the distance done. I write it down in my dairy, on a *daily* basis. I have been doing that since june 2000. I have not missed a single km that I pedaled here in this city.
My hero hawk has two meters - one analog and one digital!
• Don’t you sweat?
That’s how humans are made – if we work out, we sweat. What is the big deal? If you are commuting, do so in a jeans and t-shirt and change at office. Simple!
If the only sweating you do is when you watch horror movies on TV, or you sit for your appraisals at work, my heart goes out to you.
• What will others think?
Wow. Now we are getting closer to the real deal! Frankly, does it matter to you what others think? Or you just think that it matters? Your friends and relatives have problem because you found a simple solution to health problems? Or simply because you found something you like to do without polluting the planet? If so, those folks cannot be called your friends!
All these initial inhibitions will melt away when you get those glances and words of appreciation from complete strangers and friends.
What will others think if you get hospitalized with heart disease or diabetes or other maladies, 20 yrs from now. Let me give you an indication – they may say you were just busy making money, without bothering about health! Dude, others will say many things, we don’t have control over it. You have control only over what you do and what you think – that’s the fact and lets face it.
All said and done, I have just one question - are you ready to get your ass on the saddle? If so, welcome to the world of cycling. If not, forget that you ever read this article. Have fun.
50K in Bangalore!
28th Jan 2011 is a very proud day for me! It is my answer to skeptics around me who discouraged me from starting on this activity almost 11 yrs ago.
If some of you thought it is running 50km in a day, I am very sorry. Here I am referring to a very very different 50k. This is my 50000 km of cycling in bangalore! Basically commuting to work on cycle in Bangalore.
My cycling in Bangalore started after my first job in 1999. I found going by bus (no Volvos in that era, even decent pushpak buses (cream and brown stripes) were considered luxury!) very suffocating. Buses were not clean, and very crowded. It was not an inspiring thought to get into the bus in the morning -- it was indeed a bus travelers night mare. (Please note that this is the pre-volvo era). Add to that the occasional arrogant conductor who found well dressed IT guys from outside Karnataka very upsetting. Its no wonder Rajnikant left BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corp) conductor job and went on to be an actor!
An year of bus travel convinced me that this is indeed not the way to go forward. I thought of buying a cycle or a bike. Finally the cost savings decided it in favour of the cycle. And I am thankful to this day that I took that decision! Though it was very simple and clear to me that cycling was fun, most of my friends and well wishers were shocked. Very shocked. They said pollution and traffic will take a toll – and it did! Not on me, but on those very folks who made those sincere but misguided statements.
Paying a one time cost of 3500 Rs to get a brand new 5 gear Hero Hawk in 2000 sounded like a real bargain. Just 3500 Rs to get rid of the bus ride and get to work taking in the (then) fresh Bangalore morning air! Wow. It was too irresistible an idea. However, not everyone thought the same way. In fact some of my relatives clearly did not like the idea of my going to their home on a cycle. It was so déclassé, according to them. Of course, they did not tell it directly, but their actions spoke louder than words.
But once I was on the bike, the world did not matter. It is one activity that I enjoyed to the max, absolutely no questions about it. If you do not enjoy the process, there is no way 50k is possible commuting through the city. Rain or shine, my bike was out. Day after day, month after month, me and my bike was out and running. Kilometers accumulated…
On weekends I used to do 100+ km per day. It was godforsakenly tiring, but heck! It was fun. Real fun. A lone man fighting against himself. The time when Hyderabad NH was two lane and no new airport, not even the talk of it, in devanahalli.
In 2004, I met a fellow cyclist and my cycling life would never remain the same. His name is Shreekumar, and he is an engineer with HP. Brilliant chap. He guided me on long distance cycling and in apr 2005 we cycled to Salem from Bangalore, a distance of 195km in a day! Had it not been for Shree, I would never have attempted a feat like that on my own. Shree had all the credentials – he had cycled Chennai Calcutta at that time, and practically all of south India upto kanyakumari. Shree also told me about electronic cyclometers which give you speed, average, distance, odometer and a variety of other functional in one small unit. He is also the one who introduced me to the global positioning systems (gps).
Lesson: best to learn from someone who has done it already and is willing to teach you how to!
If some of you thought it is running 50km in a day, I am very sorry. Here I am referring to a very very different 50k. This is my 50000 km of cycling in bangalore! Basically commuting to work on cycle in Bangalore.
My cycling in Bangalore started after my first job in 1999. I found going by bus (no Volvos in that era, even decent pushpak buses (cream and brown stripes) were considered luxury!) very suffocating. Buses were not clean, and very crowded. It was not an inspiring thought to get into the bus in the morning -- it was indeed a bus travelers night mare. (Please note that this is the pre-volvo era). Add to that the occasional arrogant conductor who found well dressed IT guys from outside Karnataka very upsetting. Its no wonder Rajnikant left BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corp) conductor job and went on to be an actor!
An year of bus travel convinced me that this is indeed not the way to go forward. I thought of buying a cycle or a bike. Finally the cost savings decided it in favour of the cycle. And I am thankful to this day that I took that decision! Though it was very simple and clear to me that cycling was fun, most of my friends and well wishers were shocked. Very shocked. They said pollution and traffic will take a toll – and it did! Not on me, but on those very folks who made those sincere but misguided statements.
Paying a one time cost of 3500 Rs to get a brand new 5 gear Hero Hawk in 2000 sounded like a real bargain. Just 3500 Rs to get rid of the bus ride and get to work taking in the (then) fresh Bangalore morning air! Wow. It was too irresistible an idea. However, not everyone thought the same way. In fact some of my relatives clearly did not like the idea of my going to their home on a cycle. It was so déclassé, according to them. Of course, they did not tell it directly, but their actions spoke louder than words.
But once I was on the bike, the world did not matter. It is one activity that I enjoyed to the max, absolutely no questions about it. If you do not enjoy the process, there is no way 50k is possible commuting through the city. Rain or shine, my bike was out. Day after day, month after month, me and my bike was out and running. Kilometers accumulated…
On weekends I used to do 100+ km per day. It was godforsakenly tiring, but heck! It was fun. Real fun. A lone man fighting against himself. The time when Hyderabad NH was two lane and no new airport, not even the talk of it, in devanahalli.
In 2004, I met a fellow cyclist and my cycling life would never remain the same. His name is Shreekumar, and he is an engineer with HP. Brilliant chap. He guided me on long distance cycling and in apr 2005 we cycled to Salem from Bangalore, a distance of 195km in a day! Had it not been for Shree, I would never have attempted a feat like that on my own. Shree had all the credentials – he had cycled Chennai Calcutta at that time, and practically all of south India upto kanyakumari. Shree also told me about electronic cyclometers which give you speed, average, distance, odometer and a variety of other functional in one small unit. He is also the one who introduced me to the global positioning systems (gps).
Lesson: best to learn from someone who has done it already and is willing to teach you how to!
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