July 11th 2010: GMC Practice Ride: Destination: Savanadurga

Hi All,

Sorry for posting this ride report late ( I was sick ). Thanks to Tandem Trails ( Sunil )for organizing this event.

Link to the photos. http://picasaweb.google.co.in/harishaksbhat/SavandurgaGMCPracticeRide11thJuly2010

Ride Day: Sunday 11th July 2010 ,
Location : Savanadurga



After riding cycle to work every day, planned to go for a little fun ride on weekend. I missed Bettadasanpura ride organized by Mr.Prabhakar Rao (GGI) as I had to work on Saturday L, so planned to join GMC practice ride to Savandurga.

It was raining cats and dogs from morning 2.30 AM till 6.15 AM on Sunday. As usually couldn’t sleep day before because of the excitement within thinking about the ride, but still managed to get 2 hours of sleep and woke up at 3.15 AM. Got ready and looked outside the windows and was little sad to see raining… messaged Shilpa as we had decided earlier to leave at 4.10AM from Konankuntta cross to reach Bangalore University which was our starting point.

Immediately I got a reply saying it is raining and Shilpa’s dad wouldn’t let her ride in this rain as she had returned home yesterday completely drenched in rain. I had packed up some of the stuff that I required during the ride as to be altered a little because I hadn’t through it would rain. I took my cycling rain jacket which I had purchased yesterday from Wheel Sports (but I never through that I would use it the next morning) along.

It was 4.10 AM and I was about to leave my house towards Bangalore University thinking this time I will be riding alone and I got another SMS from Shilpa that the rain has reduced a little and she would join me near Konankuntta cross ( not sure how she managed to convince her dad?) . I replied to her saying I would wait for her and was at Konankuntta Cross by 4.15 AM. Waiting for few minutes I saw a dim light at a distance coming towards Kanakapura main road ( I knew it was her - She was full of energy). She told me that another cyclist (Guruprasad) would join us and he is from BTM layout. We called him and confirmed that we are going to meet at Banashankari Bus Stop, confirming that we paddled our way to Banashankari bus stop in rain.

From Banashankari we (Shilpa, Guru & me ) took outer ring road and reached Bangalore University entrance by 5.15AM where Mr. Venu and few other where waiting for us, I had called Venu earlier requesting him to wait for us at the entrance, near police check post. Together we went to Bangalore University Library and joined with other cyclists. Had a coffee, bun and gulkan which was an early morning refreshment. We introduced among our self and started the ride at 6.30AM (by then the rain had stopped) . Mr. Sunil paddled his way towards the entrance of the university as he was not getting the cell phone reception for communicating with guys who would try and reach the starting point.

We headed towards NICE road, crossing outer ring road with the guidance by Badri. Route which was shown by Badri was wonderful, filled with greenery and less traffic. ( Big Thanks to him and his support while riding). I met Shreyas who was ahead of us all the time with his Fuji road bike. He was too good to ride with and also got very good tips from him.

At 7.20AM we were at the Big Banyan tree, while we were waiting for other to join we ( around 5 guys- Badri, Jayanand, Ramakrishna, Shreyas, Vijeth & me) decided to eat a bit. We had Idly which was available without cockroach flavor. By the time we finished our idlys we saw rest of the group coming in. While, they stood for taking a break we paddled our way to our next point - Manchanabele Reservoir .

Riding towards Manchanabele Reservoir we came across ISRO Space Center at Byalalu which was attacked by two gun men in the month of March 2010. (The ISRO Centre at Byalalu, about 40 kms from Bangalore, contains 2 India's biggest antenna to the skies and houses the Indian Deep Space Network.) There was couple of downhill en route to Manchanabele Reservoir and when we reached the Reservoir it was a breathtaking scenery, took couple of snaps and went towards Manchanabele Village.

Shreyas & Vijeth both rode ahead and accidently took the road towards Mysore instead of taking left towards Savandurga. Vijeth quickly pulled back as one of us called him but was not able to get Shreyas. Shreyas later joined u. I came to know that , he went 7 KMS ahead and he asked someone for directions since he did not find any of us following him. By the time Shreyas joined us we had done couple of Killer climbs enroute to Savandurga and almost reached SH3 main road.

Took a right at SH3 and rode for couple of distance till we found the direction to Savandurga. About 7.5 kms from main road to Savandurga, road is not that good especially for road bikes.
Shreyas bike’s front wheel got punchiered first and it was quickly repaired but took time to put some air into the front tire which required a 100 PSI force (pretty tiresome workout). After couple of kms Badri’s fezzari road bike got punchiered and this time it was back wheel. Last few meters to Savandurga was made by pushing the cycles instead of paddling them to give company to Badri (Puncher Specialist) .

While Badri fixed his tube we drank couple of tender coconut and relaxed ourself. Ones he fixed his bike we started off again from Savandurga we met second group of our cyclists who were riding towards Savandurga. I came across one of my best moment in my life when Shilpa gave me the LIVESTRONG band (yellow color) which I was dreaming off to get one ( It was a real Shock for me) . With that joy I reached SH3 main road and my MTB bike’s rear tube got punchiered. I replaced the tube with the help of Rama, Vijeth & Jayanand. Badri and Shreyas soon joined us seeing us fixing the tube. They had tea while I was packing the tools which I had opened for fixing the puncher then we left.

While we were riding back again Shreyas, Vijeth, Jayanand and Ramakrishna took a road heading towards Mysore (continued riding onSH3) instead of taking a left towards Manchanabele village.
Badri called up Shreyas, this time he picked his phone and Badri asked him and other to ride back and take a right which they had missed. While Badri and me were riding towards Manchanabele Shreyas and others joined us and Shreyas took off from there ( Riding ahead). We slowly paddled our ways towards Big Banyan tree crossing the killer uphill near Manchanabele Reservoir. After the uphill we stopped for couple of minutes to take a break, had some dry fruits which I carried and some bananas from Rama and continued our journey towards Big Banyan tree.

Ones we reached Big Banyan tree we had mango with some spicy powder, lemon rice and wade along with it. ( I can never forget the juicy taste of those mangoes in my life, my mouth is watering even now as I am typing this) . We started the ride again we saw Mr. Shamsher and others following him. We rode towards Bangalore University and guess want Badri’s bike encountered another puncher and it was right next to the previous puncher on rear wheel. We spent couple of minutes fixing it and reached the outer ring road. Badri, Rama and me had a cold drink while we waited for Jayanand and Vijeth.

Rama and me took off towards Mysore road through Bangalore University see-offing Badri, Jayanand. Ones we reached the Rajarajeshwari nagar circle on Mysore road, we took right towards Rajarajeshwari nagar and went on to Uttarahalli Main road , took left towards Kanakapura main road with couple of uphill’s again. Rama took left towards Padmanabhanagar and I continued my journey towards Kanakapura main road and reached home at 4.30PM.

Later called up Venu and found that he went in Car till commando hospital from Bangalore university and rode to home for about 8 KMS from there. Shilpa joined her parents at Chandra Layout and came back to home around 5.30PM.

I took an hour rest and went to club to play badminton at 6.00PM and came back home at 9.30PM and slept like a log, exhausted ………..
Kudos to all of them who rode along and also to those who rode to Savanadurga!!!!!.I really would like to thank Sunil again for putting up the ride plan and following it up with great enthusiasm and the entire bunch I was riding with for support throughout.So congratulations to all of them made it or even attempted.So until next time..... ride strong.

Cheers,

Harisha K S (GGI-GoGreen Initiator)

http://www.gogreengocycling.org/

May 30th 2010 :long-ride: Destination: Nandi Hills

Hi all,

Ride Day:30th May 2010
Location : Nandi Hills

I would like to share my experience of riding to Nandi Hills which was done on 30th May 2010 , I have been wanting to post the ride report ever since I came back from the Nadhi Hills ride but was caught up with the regular work and also getting things arranged for my cousin’s marriage. I must say that when Yogesh (Bangalore Bikers Club Member) posted the Nandi ride on Google Group I was eager to join them but only concern was the time that ride would start. The ride was suppose to start from Cubbon Park at 6.30AM with some experienced riders and newbie’s .


Keeping the summer Sun in mind, me and munch of my cycling friends (Shilpa , Shashidhar, Krishna and Satish) decided to leave early on Sunday morning with a determination of reaching the Nandi Hills before Sun would take a toll on us.

Trip Details:
We had already made the plan that Shipa , Shashidhar and me would meet at Konanakunte cross (Kanakpura road) at 4.00AM and 2 others that is Krishna and Satish would join us at 5AM from Esteem Mall ( after Hebbal flyover) way to Nandi Hills and we were expecting to reach Nandi village at 7.30AM / 8.00AM keeping the pit stops for rest while our way to Nandi Hills.
Night before the long ride:
Packed all the required gears for the long ride and went to bed at 11.30 as usual, but I was able to sleep hardly for 2 hours because of the excitement running inside me thinking of the Nandi ride as I had heard by few experienced bikers that the Nadhi ride is one of the best and most challenging ride because of the 8 kilometers continues uphill.

Day of the ride:
Finally the alarm from my mobile phone went Off has it was set to ring at 3.30AM. Quickly I got myself from the bed and got myself ready and packed all the last minute stuffs like filling up the energy drink (mixture that prepared using Salt, Sugar ,Glucose and water ) into the water bottles that I required. Fixed the air pump to my bike and kept couple of bicycle tubes for replacing the puncher tube if there is any in between the journey.
Next moment I was on my bike, riding towards Shilpa house as she was little concerned of riding alone from our house to meeting point early in the morning. I meet her in the midway to her house and soon we both were riding towards our meeting point (Konanakunte cross) and saw Shashidhar was already waiting for Shilpa and me.

It was 4.10AM, wasting no time we were already riding towards next meeting point (Esteem Mall - after Hebbal flyover). The pre dawn ride was refreshing except for the sleeping dogs that wedid not want to wake up on the way. Soon reached the deserted Cubbon Park and we quickly made our way across to Hebbal flyover-esteem mall in about 1hr 15 mins. Krishna and Satish joined us, then we started off at a medium pace and reached the airport underpass - turn off to Nandi(State highway) at 7am. The ride till here was calm and without disruption. We took break to wolf down some yummy aloo-sandwich made by Shashi's wife and at this point out cyclocomps read 50kms in 3hrs at a pace of 16 kmph.We were also quietly celebrating the fact that none of the fast riders had over taken us yet....... we were actually looking out for other cyclists on the way but did not find anyone. But not for long,just after riding a few kilometers into the state highway, we had one of them passing us (Manu was his name and he was 53 years old). He gave me goose bumps as he being an elderly guy bypassed us.
After few distance I went ahead of my team at my own pace and saw Manu had stopped for taking few photo snaps of the Nandi hills covered with clouds which was a breath taking scene.

Finally at 7:10 am we had reached the turn to Nandi village and having to ride with a strong head wind that literally kept pushing the bike back, the last 2 kms to the nandi village turn was crazy andexhausting. But the exhausting really did not take its toll on me as I was riding with an experienced guy (Manu) talking about his experience of bi-cycling from last 40 years and I turned back to find that I was way ahead of my team, actually I had broken off and headed towards the base of Nandi hills, while the remaining 4 was coming at their own pace.

I quickly called Shashi over my cell phone to inform him that I would meet them on the Nandi top as I was few meters away from Nandi Base.

At 7.40AM reached Nandi base had energizer i.e. half bottle of water which was mixed with Sugar, Salt and Glucose made me re-freshing .

Headed towards the top of Nandi Hills and soon I found myself struggling my way across the hill curves all by myself as Manu had taken off ahead of me. All my way to the top I was thinking about the last 4kms which was told (Shilpa) to me that it is even tougher than the initial curvers. I reached half way 4kms to Nandi, stopped my bike and had again the reaming half liter of water and took off.
Slowly peddling my way to the top using 1st and 3rd gears from bike I saw the entrance to top of the Nandi hills which encouraged me to complete the remaining 2 kms.

Finally I was on the top of the Nandi hills and it really felt good, believe me…… all that pain I took to climb / ride the uphill was worthy.

I reached the top at 8.50AM . I saw Manu at the entrance wet and tried as well, we shook our hands to each other .He told me that this was really on hell of a ride and saying that we laughed and relaxed waiting for other team members to come. While I was waiting for other Manu started to ride back home as he had to reach his home early. Sea off’d him and started enjoying the scene around.

I meet munch of other professional riders on the top and it was good talking to them about the ride to the top. Few minutes later I saw my team mates coming to the top and went to them to congratulate on their completion of the task. First was me who took 50min, then followed by Krishna, Satish, Shashi and at last came Shipla who took almost 2 hours(10:30 am). We had couple of tinder coconut ,fried rice and curd rice to boost our energy to ride back home in the restaurant on the hill top. We took a big break > 2 hours and missed seeing all the folks that made it to the top in that time between 10:30 - 12:30
Way back from the restaurant I found Naveen my friend who also had come alone with a team from Marathalli was relaxing after a tough uphill ride of 2 hrs.At 12.30PM mid-day we left and Naveen also joined us in the ride back home. we started back down and took only 14min to cover 8kms and was a pleasant ride down. Made our way across the scenic but now hot state highway. So finally made it to the SH-NH7 junction by this time the heat was really on and energy sapping.ShiIpa had earlier decided that she would return by Volvo, and a brief tender coconut break, we headed off towards the airport exit ramp in burning heat and reached about 2:40pm.Shilpa, Shashi,Satish and Naveen took the Volvo to respective destination. Me and krishna decide to cycle back to our respective destination to kanakpura road(140 +kms) and Hebbal(100+) and reached my place at 5.10PM.I really would like to thank yogesh for putting up the ride plan and following it up with great enthusiasm and the entire bunch i was riding with for the jolly camaraderie and support throughout.Thinking of the ride, felt we gave away the early start we had and could have tried and make it back home before the heat turned up. But having said that, we would have been too exhausted to attempt it without a good break.So congratulations to all of them made it or even attempted.So until next time..... I have the memory of Inspirational Riding to Nandi Hills .

Thanks & Regards,

Harisha K S