August 15th Cycling in Bangalore

What is it ?

            This is all about Cycling.

Where is it ?

           In Bangalore.

Route ?
          Started at  Munnekollala, Maratahalli => Domlur => Koramangala => Madivala => Silkboard              =>  Hsr => Bellandur => Maratahalli.

Time ?
        Started at  6 Am and took 2 hours to reach Martahalli.

Distance ?  
        Around 30 km.

How was it ? 
        It was awesome ride in the morning.

Would you like to go next time ?
        Ofcourse, I would love to do it.

Any Concerns ?
        Around Marathalli, the roads were not at all good. Hope it is know to every one.

Any suggestions ? 
       If some one is starting from Maratahalli and want to go for around 30 kms. This would be a right choice. I prefer to start by 5.30 Am, soon the traffic gets heavy you will cross the Domlur. After that I havn't seen any problem.

Please explain in detail about the trip. 
     We(Myself and My best half) started at Munnekolla, Maratahlli at 6.00 AM in the morning. We reached Maratahalli bridge in 5 mins. By that time there was no traffic and cyclists were crossing us and headed towards HAL. We had plan to make round. The plan was Marathalli to Domlur bridge, via Koramangala to Madivala (silk board) from there to Maratahlli.
                      The distance will come around 30 km. One more thing was HAL road will be busy after 7 or 7.30 so I thought we need to cross Domlur bridge before 6.30, but it took us 35 mins to reach Domlur bridge and we took left and headed towards Koramangala. There were few people jogging and few cycling. We stopped at one place to have some water and started again and reached Madivala police station. It took us another 40 mins to reach there. From there we took the four way from Silkboard and started towards Maratahalli. All the way, we came on service road. It took us to reach Maratahalli 40 mins. I believe any bus or bike also will take close to 20 to 35 mins to reach by that time. Here is the google map pic that we traveled.

I would like to share one thing here.
I have noticed that except Marathalli surrounding roads the remaining  road was very nice and convenient to group or couples cycling.
Koramangala road was very pleasant and we were so happy to ride the cycle early in the morning in such a place. The same from Silkboard to Maratahalli. All the way came by Service road, we never experienced any inconvenience till Eco space. After that that Again comes Maratahlli. I am not sure we no one is taking care of these roads around Maratahalli. Hopping that roads will get better soon.

We are not experts and not daily cyclists, but was easy to ride 30 km in 2 hours. 

What is your next plan. 
          Not decided yet. But wanted to visit Cubbon park area.

Can some one join with you ?
          That would be nice. Cycling as group, will have lot of fun.

I don't have Cycle, will you be able to arrange?
         Sure, Let me know a day before or mail me  anil.konepalli@gmail.com.

Thanks... for the information. 
          You are welcome.

Cycling in Hyderabad

                                   

        Today, I was sleepy.... I(My other half and Myself) did not really want to go..

        I have enjoyed the beauty of Necklace Road in the evening times. Thought to enjoy the nature of the Hyderabad around the Hussain Sagar in the Morning. I had to take all my strength to get out of the bed. We took a bike to reach Necklace Road and reached there by 6.15 AM. I have seen crowd at one place. I just stopped my bike and parked at some place and reached to the crowd. I wondered to see close to 100 people all around the place.. and minimum of 30 people are in queue...I have seen group of friends, I have seen family (Father, Mother and 5 years child). and families(2 to 3 families and children). 

     Ohhh !!! are you also wondering, why are those people are there, as I did ? 

     Yeah ! you are right. Title gives you the idea, what I am talking about right ?

     Yes, they came for cycling... It was exactly opposite to Sanjeevaiah park. There was a bicycle club called Hyderabad Bicycle Club in short HBC. They are the group of people, who organize the cycling events and they give cycles on rent as well on hourly basis. Everyone there, was looking for cycles on rent. I joined the queue to get two cycles. It was probably a bit too much of queue was there..  I  would be a 40th member in the queue. After waiting 30 mins, I was about the 5th member in the queue, then I could here some voice(may be organizer) saying there are no cycles for now. He took the names and said there are 5 members waiting for the cycles before you and also he said that your waiting list number is 6. He has shown us the place where we could sit, so that once he get the cycles he could call us. I looked my surroundings like a detector to  see what else is happening around the place. I have seen so many(may be 20 to 30) cycles are kept at corner. Looking at those cycles I got to know that they are not in working status. All the cycles are with no gears and are pretty old. May be they are not that old, that looks like. Since they are been used by random people with no care, due to which looked so old to me. I realized, few people returning the cycles. I went to ask him, if my waiting list is confirmed with my PNR number 6. He said, "I need to still wait for some more time". Some one is returning the cycles. I waited there, If I could get a chance. He called some other name and asked them to wait for couple of cycles more, since they are 4 members. I asked them that, If I could take those 2 cycles. They agreed. Hmm... at last my waiting list is got confirmed. We got a chance to ride. We took the cycles. The below is the pic that we have taken.

       We started cycling. We started cycling. We took U turn and started cycling towards Jala Vihar. We reached little further on Necklace road. There is very nice place in between two roads. That is actually 4 way road. Between the roads there is nice place for 500 mtrs where we can park one bus horizontally. In that place there few people learning car driving. There are few people cycling and trying different stunts on cycles. We went ahead little further and again saw the crowd... I thought it would be some gaming place but it is actually not. It is dogs area.. I did not see much of it, But I could imagine looking at that place and the dogs and dog's owners. They were training their dogs and getting them ready for some competition may be. 

     There was a bike making a lot sound behind us, we could see, one driving the bike on back wheel and one stopped the bike on front wheel and he took exactly half U turn. It's just like the hero did in one film to shoot a pic of criminal.. 

    The beauty of the Hyderabad is that it has Hussain Sagar Lake in heart of  the city. Around the Lake, we have so many parks and places to hangout a day (yeah.. you can spend all the day and you may not be able to see all the places around that lake.). I really liked the place.. we went ahead and have seen people taking photo shoot. We went on cycling. People doing some exercise, cleaning the Roads. Few couples looking towards the lake and exploring their love early in the morning.. And few teenage boys are got together and were discussing on how to spend their valuable holiday time(Sunday). One kid was asking his mother to join to play with him and his sister along with his father, but she was busy in reading the news paper.. By this time we might have crossed couple of kms. then we reached Secretariat(Sachivalayam). I did not notice that though I have went through that place few times. This time it looked sooo interesting to look at.  

   We went on from that place and stopped for a while to see the early morning beauty of Hussain Sagar, we took few pics to keep the wonderful feelings moments for ever. 

        There were few photographers taking pics of the nature. Few taking the pics of their friends. I wish, I should have a DSLR too.. so that the pics would have given more value to the trip.. We did round the Hussain sagar in 40 mins. I was very happy to have such pleasant Sunday morning. We have returned the cycles to them and paid the fee.. and returned to home.

        

        Thanks for the reading.. I will keep posting more interesting stories further... please do follow or like us on bycycle.in

First day on bicycle

Hi,

I am Anil.. we have gone for a ride on bicycle and this is my personal experience on bicycle first time in Bangalore. We conduct weekend cycling, join us. Like us on Facebook.
   We(friends) took 7 cycles for rent. It was wonderful experience working with the Manju at Sprotsxs. to get the cycles from Whitefield store to Maratahalli store. He had verified all the cycle that we were about to take are perfect in terms of breaks and condition of the cycles. Everything he had done, what ever he could do from his side, except one. We still had a problem. We thought we can get the cycles delivered to us in the morning around 5.30 AM, so that we can start our ride in the morning 6.00 AM on Sunday 06/21/2015. He disagreed and he said, "I have to take all cycles in the evening Saturday because the Shopping mall will not allow any one after or before the mall timings. We(Anil&Avinash) were thinking about where to keep those cycles all the night at safe place. We had no clue, what to do and where to keep. We(Myself and Avinash) came out of the store to think of some possibilities and looked for few places and asked few securities to keep 7 cycles just for 8 hours. I think that "We can make the Rules and break the Rules". But those security guys were so good at their rules and they could not break the rules. We said thanks and started looking for few other options.
    After spending some time around the store, we met a person called "..." at one restaurant(Bageecha) and asked him for small favor. He agreed with out second question. He shown us a place to keep the cycles and he guaranteed that I will take care of it. (In fact there was lot place, which is secure and has compound wall around the place, in which we can keep max 15 to 20 buses. We did not want all of that to keep our 7 cycles). We paid very little amount, he was absolutely happy with that).
   Then other challenge was that we had to get all the cycles to that place, where they had to stay all the night. We started thinking to get one by one from the store. I was asking Avinash to take 2 cycles one time so that we could finish it off in couple of trips. We locked all the cycles. we had three locks and joined 3 cycles together and locked with one, we took other 2 cycles and locked with another lock and included the cycle that was locked earlier so that (we thought) if some one wanted to theft they would need to take all the cycles. Though, it is secure but I was thinking about how to believe unknown person and place. We looked around the place and we thought that that would be a safest place that we could find. Then we left from that place. Before leaving I said to security that "please take care of our asset".  He said, "Everything will be alright".
   The Nextday morning, we woke up in the morning around 5.15 and made a call to all my friends to make sure they would come on time so that the will not be disturbed. All did come by on time. We reached the restaurant and looked at the cycles. They were in same position that we kept yesterday. Unlocked all the cycles. Every one was choosing their cycle to ride for next half day. We took the cycles on our hand. One of my friend realized that the cycle he had got was having some problem. We kept the cycle aside and took the other one. Yes, we did not have any buffer cycles but unluckily or luckily  one our expected friend did not come, so we have got chance to replace the cycle.
   We have taken few pics and selfies with many different styles that we could. Started experimenting on the gear cycles, which we(may not be we, may be I) had a dream of getting one at my childhood. It was first experience on gears cycle. I changed the gears to different numbers and tried to see how it works and every one did the same that I did. We had a experienced cyclist(Avinash) to whom we have posted many doubts and questions. Avinash also had given us some suggestion/ precautions to change the gears and how to ride when there is upwards slope and downwards slope. Good to have an experienced person as organizer in our group.
  So on so forth, we did cross so many difficulties. By the time we started, we were happy and forgot every thing.
  As soon as we started from Bageecha, we had very big flyover at Maratahlli (bridge we say)towards Mejestic. Though we had taken guidelines,  we have faced bit struggle to reach on to the flyover. One was still understanding the gear system, which works better for him. For me it looked like learning swimming in middle of the ocean. He got down from the cycle and reached pushing the cycle on foot. I felt that I am fit and can easily reach on to the Bridge, had to struggle and even I am also one of them who is also trying to understand the gear system which makes me easier to reach. Once we reached the flyover, we all stopped for a while to check with everyone how was the first experience.. few said that we could imagine the childhood that we struggled to face the wind that forced us to back and forced our pedal to go ahead. Yes, I do remember the  same with the cycles that do not have any extra features like the one that we have/had right now with all of us. Others said, we are experiencing the cycling after 13 to 15 years and I looked at them into their eyes, while they were saying, I realized that they are all so excited to see further day of cycling. I am glad that I had them in this event.
  We took a right turn(Not wrong turn :) ) from Marathalli bridge to towards Hebbala. I have seen so many bikers and cars passing next to us (very close) and that was too bad, they did not care. Near to Kalamandir, we were joining the main road. There was a transport auto coming by the 50's speed and not even worried to blow a horn to indicate. Soon he reached us and blowing horn like hell. It was not a bike to pick the speed immediately to give a way to him(Auto). He was struggling to give a way. I was looking at the situation from far behind. It all happened in fraction of seconds. I was shocked with the behavior of auto guy(but we see this every day). We have crossed almost the EMC2(square) signal and after that there was a flyover. We decided not to take the flyover and choose the narrow way that was in between two flyovers, by the same time there was a Volvo bus coming behind us. It reached us so soon. All of them are behind me, a little bit. I reached a place where the bus can go but my friends still need to come little far to give a way to the bus. I was really wondering and watching them what happens next.. I was soooo impressed on the bus driver, he did not even blow the horn, did not even rush them. He was just behind them. I was thinking and still thinking that such a nice drivers are there in BMTC(I saw many drivers do worst driving also). Looking at my friends struggling to give a way to the bus, was made me to lough..
 After all this, we reached tin-factory. Stopped for some time and had coconut water. By the time we reach there, we were hungry too. We could not control any more.. So decided to go to the hotel The Laksmi Sagar (One of my friend suggested). We had our favorite Idly with SAMBAR and took few water bottles and started from there towards DRDO. It was very nice road that I have experienced so far. It would be very nice place to raid a cycle or to have evening walk with your loved one(Try once). It also gave me a bad experience. I will tell you soon,.., We went ahead all the way and took U turn to return home. (We thought of going by HAL road, since One of my friend suggested that it would be very BAD for cycling, because of the narrow road and so much traffic). While coming back, we had found a nice place to take few pics. We took almost 10 pics and we were too busy looking at the pics on the mobile, if those are good or bad. We were deeply involved in looking at the pics that we have taken. We did notice some voice saying in local language, to vacate the place. We looked back and saw a person with 5 feet and and funny face with big mustache, behind him there was a junior security(May be his assistant) came and carried a big stick. I was thinking myself, do we look like goons to them? are we not looking like professionals at least human beings ? He was rude and asked us to leave immediately from that place. I was wondering, what made him to say such a way. I went on thinking about what would go wrong. Immediately, one of my friend started arguing with the security then it had become worst and the security was saying "do you know, who am I ?" ( of course no, we do not know who he is... may he is the direct relative of CM or PM or He is the ISP or Not sure what he mean to say)... he was taking his phone(Nokia 1600) out of his pockets and saying one phone call is enough... I am not sure what he mean by enough... may be he was thinking that he can screw rest of our lives in Jail ?). We have decided not to argue any more with him. We step back and took our cycles and started cycling from there. I hope this is what called "Stana balam" in telugu. He ruined our day for some time.. It did not take much time to come out of the situation... there were two people(Dad and son) cycling on the opposite way.. We could here the voice of child asking his Dad to join with us for some time. His dada agreed and then they were behind us. The kid was giving  competition to one of my friend called Nitin. Nithin stepped back to let him(the Kid) go The Kid was asking Nithin to race with him.. Nitin was surprised with his comment and tried to reach him.. but he could not go since we were not in a mood to race.. some how the kid made us to smile for a moment and we were no more thinking about the argue that we had. All the way we came back to tin-factory. 3 of us were stopped at the bridge and we did not stop any where till the EMC2(square). we looked back and we could not see them. We decided to stop there and wait for them.. We took water and talked about so many things.. like some time about the phones, some time about the weather that supported us(yeah !!! the sky was completely covered with the clouds and we could not find hot. After some time they reached us. All relaxed for some more time and took few pics.. then we started towards Maratahalli. Reached the destination.. We have given all the cycles back to them.. and dispersed on bikes to our homes.

It was wonderful experience.

There are few things to take care when you go for cycling.
1) Check the breaks
2) Check the seat
3) Have a seat cover
4) Understand the gears
5) Do not go on a traffic(terrific) road.
6) Take always left.
7) Be careful while crossing the road.

see you all in next day of my cycling