Dahon Folding Bicycles

Dahon folding bicycles are now available in India. For details click on

http://dahon.in/dahon-dealers.html

http://www.dahon.com/

How beautifully it can be folded:

Return to Bangalore from Puttaparthi

Today I had tough time. Initially I thought of visiting some of the location by auto. But later thought of going on my bicycle. As I pedaled 100 mts I found some kind of wobbling and on inspection of both the tyres I found the rear tyre deflated. Time was around 11.45 a.m. & I had one hour and 45 mts left. as my bus was at 1.30 p.m. I took the help of an auto man who took me along with my bicycle to a bicycle tyre repairer. I got the tyre done and returned to my lodge and after finishing my lunch packed my bag and left for bus stand. I had no problem in putting my bicycle in Volvo bus luggage compartment as the driver-cum-conductor (his name was Kumar) arranged for it w/o any issue.


Bus reached Bangalore -Hebbal around 4.45 p.m. Instead of going to Kempe Gowda bus stand I got down at Hebbal and started cycling to Whitefield. Barely I would have cycled one km I started feeling jerkiness while pedaling. After a little while derailleur came out. It was not fixed properly by the tyre puncture repairing person at Puttaparthi in the morning. Whitefield was still around 25 kms away from Hebbal. I took my bicycle to road side and then on little grass area that was there beside the road. It was a safe place to rectify the problem. However, I struggled for fixing the derailleur properly. This is mainly because my derailleur does not have hanger (as it was a local multi gear derailleur system installed at Bheed in Maharashtra last year when my original derailleur was completely damaged) . After almost struggling for about 45 mts I fixed the derailleur properly and tested it. It was working fine. I then around 6 p.m. started pedaling and reached my Whitefield home safely at 7.10 p.m.


I was happy that at least while pedaling from Bangalore to Puttaparthi on 24.9.10 I had no problem at all. But finally what is satisfying is that I safely returned home after successfully pedaling 184 kms. The statistics on my bicycle computer reads as under:





Total distance covered: 184 kms (195 less 11)
Average speed: 25 kms
Max speed: 45.6 kms

Bangalore to Puttaparthi

I had reasonably good sleep yesterday. All the hotels/restaurants get closed at Puttaparthi at 9.30 p.m. After writing in my blog I went for food around 9.30 p.m. but could not get anything to eat. I ended up the day with some biscuits, badam and chocolates that I was carrying with me. Drank 1/2 ltr of water.


After having gone yesterday night w/o food I was hungry this morning and some heavy breakfast. The area in and around ashram is quite congested. Inside ashram also there are people everywhere. Huge hall in the ashram which can accommodate around 5000 people was 3/4th full. You can not carry mobile /camera / pen inside the hall and need to deposit at the security. There is strict frisking while you enter the hall.


I shall visit now few other locations in and around here and then have lunch around 12.30 p.m. as my bus for Bangalore leaves at 1.30 p.m. Of course bus stand is very close to where I am staying. The only hassle is I need to get my Cynthia down from 2nd floor. Yesterday, the lodge person by the name Anjaneya had helped in bringing up Cynthia and I had comfortable stay and sleep as I did not have to worry about her safety. Today also I shall use the services of Anjaneya to bring Cynthia down.

KSRTV Volvo bus leaving at 1.30 p.m. should reach Bangalore around 5 p.m. I shall see if I can get down at Hebbal instead of at Kempe Gowda bus stand. From Hebbal I plan to cycle back to my home in Whitefield.

Bangalore to Puttaparthi - 160 kms Cycling in a day

I left this morning at 5.00 from my home at Whitefield and after pedalling 160 kms reached safely Puttaparthi around 6.30 p.m. I had absolutely no problem with the bicycle and no mechanical issue cropped up. Riding from Whitefield up to Devanhalli was quite good and memorable as weather was very pleasant besides there are lots of trees on both sides of the road. I reached Devanhalli around 8.45 a..m and had my breakfast. I requested the hotel waiter to take a picture along with the owner of the hotel from my camera. But the camera button was not getting pressed. I did not want to waste time there and hence, continued my pedaling. I thought camera was not working. But the fact of the matter was that it was on video mode. On my way I changed it to still picture mode and continued my journey.


I reached Chikkaballapur around 11.30 a.m. Heat had just started catching up and pedaling after Chikkaballapur was very tiring. Moreover, although highway roads are excellent there are no big trees and riding on such road though smooth is not pleasurable. From my experience I can say that for cyclists, country side roads are best suited for ride where lots of trees are generally found on both sides of the road. Last 25 kms to Puttaparthi was highly demanding and extremely tiring. I was quite exhausted but kept on drinking maza, water intermitantly. In between ate biscuits and cadbury chocklates that I was carrying. Finally around 6.30 p.m. I reached Puttaparthi. I could have reached much earlier but I did take rest in between as advised my wife from whom I had taken Bicycle License and hence, I reached a bit late. But it was a good journey as I had prepared well for the journey for the last a month or two.

Main road in Puttaparthi is very congested with people everywhere. Almost every shop in Puttaparthi starts or ends with 'Sai'. Sai Medicals, Sai General Stores, Sai Ganesh Lodge, Hotel Sai darshan etc, etc. It is customary there to greet one another by saying 'Sai Ram'. More details I shall give in next posting.

Meanwhile, just for information of all that I have booked a ticket for myself in KSRTC Volvo bus leaving Puttaparthi tomorrow at 13.30 hrs. I hope, the conductor will allow me to take my Cynthia in luggage compartment. Hope, the postponement (I have been told by a person here in Puttaparthi as I could not read or hear Radio or TV clip today) of crucial judgement which has ramification across the country shall make my return journey to Bangalore safe and comfortable. I shall share more bout my journey may be tomorrow or once I am back in Bangalore.

I am giving below the route on which I pedaled from Bangalore to Puttaparthi in Andhra pradesh.

Bangaore to Puttaparthi

Find the best hikes in California and beyond

Finally I am a member of Decathlon

Yesterday I got membership of Decathlon, a well known one stop shopping mall for A to Z sports items.

Decathlon are the worlds largest Sports Retailer. It was founded in 1976, in France and they have stores across the world. They provide world class products both for enthusiastic beginners as well as passionate professionals at an affordable prices.

The membership of Decathlon is given to only to those representing shops /firms /Companies /housing societies and the admission form has to be authorised by the relevant body along with a copy of any VAT / service tax/ registration certificate of the said body.

My being as a consultant, my good Rotarian friend Shri.Ajay Bansal (His father owns a Printing firm) was kind enough to provide me all the support and assistance in getting membership registered in my name under their firm.

Membership of Decathlon enables one to buy a host of quality sports related products (www.decathlon.in) at reasonable price.

Thanks Ajay.

Bicycle license

One would wonder what is this bicycle license?

Well! It is nothing but an approval / license to be obtained by all complying cyclist husbands from their wives before they embark upon a long bicycle journey. This was echoed by my well wisher and good friend Mr.Pejathaya who had recommended to me that I should obtain bicycle license from my Yajamanthi.. i.e. my wife before I proceed on any long bicycle journey.

Last year when I had shared with my wife about my undertaking 1800 kms bicycle journey, she had stopped talking to me for about a week and dissuaded me in all possible ways so that I remove the thought of such long journey. It was only after she realised my determination and assurance that during my journey at any point in time, if I feel weakness in my body (as opposed to tiredness which one can overcome with rest) or develop a symptom of flue then I would suspend my journey forthwith and return home packing my bicycle in a bus or any vehicle that she gave her approval /license for my journey.

Getting Bicycle license is more difficult than obtaining LL (Learning License) or DL (Driving License) from RTO.

This morning when my wife was in good mood I shared with her about my plan to go to Puttaparthi on my bicycle. Her reaction this time was not that bad and I continued with my preparation throughout the day. I would consider that I have obtained Bicycle license for my journey.

So, next time, all complying cyclist husbands, if you are planning to go on long bicycle tour do not forget to obtain Bicycle License from your wives....

CHANGE OF BOTTOM BEARING

It is almost an year and half since I bought my Firefox Roadpro 0050 road bicycle. Since then I have pedalled more than 4000 kms and for the last couple of months its bottom bearing had shown signs of wear & tear. As bottom bearing for my bicycle was not available any where in Bangalore, I directly got in touch with H.O of Firefox Bikes Pvt Ltd., Noida and procured new bottom bearing which was couriered to me by the Company. I received the consignment just a week ago.

Today I got the bearing changed thru' my regular mechanic (Nadeem) and my bicycle has now become quite stable while pedalling. I have now planned to ride from Bangalore to Puttaparti covering a distance of around 155 kms in a single day, stay for the night at Puttaparti and return next day to Bangalore thru' Volvo bus. This trip is again part of my preparation for another long trip I have planned during later part of this year.

http://bicycletutor.com/

One of the best sites I have come across is http://bicycletutor.com/ for all bicycle repair/maintenance related issues.

http://bicycletutor.com/