Bangalore Pedals

Ride date: 19.09.2007

It was 5:45 p.m. on a windy evening. The cool weather sent out an invitation for biking and I accepted it. It was my usual biking route (Koramangala - Sarjapura) and I hit the road with the rain clouds hanging dangerously behind me. They were ready to bust anytime. When I was fiddling with my ipod to play myself some nice song, I found a stop-timer in it, pleased with this option, I put it to use for this ride. After a few turns of the pedal in the Jamgalore traffic, I was heading towards Sarjapura. Rain caught me after I crossed spring fields and that sent the few motorbikes off the road offering the full road to me. It has been long since a natural shower. I paid the price for not having a proper mud guard on my bike. So my t-shirt collected all the mud of the 20 km stretch. When I returned home, I was amused by the amount of mud I had collected and it was a picture worth framing. After a foto-shoot off went my shirt into the tub for a soak and while washing my clothes I was ruing my decision to bike on a rainy day.

Ride date: 07.09.2007

After checking out the route tips from fellow riders in www.bikeszone.com, I set-off on my Hero Octane DTB at 5:25 a.m. This time it was a solo ride. I set-off to the tunes of “Beautiful dawn” from James Blunt singing into my ears. I had downloaded the satellite image of the Nandi hills from bikeszone and the challenge was inviting.

The ride on the NH7 was smooth and I had a complete lane for myself. I was surprised to see that Bangalore had extended this far till Devanahalli. It took me 2 hours to reach the board which read “Bangalore International Airport Limited” – Take Left 5 kms. Wondering whether it made sense to construct an Airport this far without a rail link or high speed special road, I kept pedaling my way ahead on NH7. Just before the Saibaba temple in Devanahalli, I decided to take a pit stop for refueling myself. The hotel man was puzzled to see me there and later was glad to accept me as his first customer for the day. “Oota sikatha”, I kept it short and sweet in Kannada. “Rice bath eethey”, he said smiling. Anything would do for me, hot rice bath turned out to be a blessing along with some “muruku”. I got the route to Nandi clarified with the Hotel man and kicked off again.

I took the left diversion from NH7 and my eyes were wide open and I was looking around for the mountains. I could see none, so I just stopped and enquired and the crowd screamed in unison, “Straightaa hogi”. After few kms, suddenly from nowhere I saw a huge monolith squatting at the far end of the road with clouds strewn allover it. Boy! It was a scene worth framing and so did I.

[Clouds strewn over Nandi Hills]

It was time for a second pit stop. It was a scary thought to me that I was going to scale this monster without food and water. I better get ready for the challenge. I bought 5 bananas and a 2 ltr bottle of water. The villagers welcomed me with a smile and some smiles meant, Boy you are going to get screwed. I was all alone to take this monster on. This time it was Bryan Adams singing into my ears “Its heaven” and I saw a companion ahead of me… my shadow. The scene was frozen for posterity.

The ascent started and I recalled Shree telling me that the last 8 kms is a descent outright climb. After recently doing a Talacauvery climb in Coorg with a team of spirited bikers, I felt I could climb this monster without stopping. For a change the milestones invited me with altitude info and they were spaced intelligently and they served as motivating factors. I was given thums-up by joggers coming downhill. Soon was I greeted by a military truck with jawans and in unison they cried “All the best” and waved hands at me. After reciprocating the encouragement, I kept pedaling.

The gradient was getting steeper and it was telling on my pace. I had to do a bit of talking and singing to keep me motivated to scale the heights. I took the curve 31 and the going got tougher, I was n’t still the tough one who can keep going. I shifted to grannie, but grannie could help me. The Curve 32 had the better of me and it was an inevitable pit stop at Curve 32. I could here abhi mocking at me (this is what I have been exactly saying in the forum…)

[Curve 32, I will back to take you on next time]

After this there were 10 & odd curves and I made to the summit easily, only to be stopped by gate keeper who denied me an entry into Nandi hills with my bicycle. I recalled Avinash telling this disgusting experience at the gate where they permit cars into Nandi hill but not the bicycles. Unfortunately, we are categorized as 2 – wheelers without any credits for running on a naturally aspirated zero emission human-powered engine (phew).

[Plan of places to see in Nandi Hills]

I felt immensely happy after reaching the summit and happy to know the fact that I was at 1492 m above sea level. It was time for some serious photography. After having mini meals for Lunch, I had a stroll in the park in solitude. Robert Frost’s words were fitting to this juncture, “Miles to go before, I sleep”, so I made my mind to reach home before dusk. What goes up, should come down and it did pretty fast. I was zipping past all the cars which were finding it hard to negotiate the hairpin bends. In just 20 mins, I was back at the foothills and took the road which connects to NH7. The way back home was easy except for the headwind and the merciless sun who kept doing what he does best, tan me from top to bottom.

After a couple of pit stops, my lungs started choking and that meant I was entering Bangalore City. After heeding to the greetings of the innumerable traffic signals, I reached home at 5:05 p.m. Having conquered myself, I switched on the TV only to see the men in blue reeling at 123/6 at the Lords. My legs were screaming, while my heart was singing n the brain was doing some number crunching after the trip… Here are numbers for the data hungry bikers n wannabes

Trip Stats:

Starting time: 5:25 a.m. , Finish time: 10:45 a.m.
First pit stop: 7:45 a.m. for 15 mins @ Hotel “unnamed” near Devanahalli – Saibaba temple Second pit stop: time unknown, foothills of Nandi. (10 mins)
Third pit stop: Curve 32, boy! It was too steep for me. (10 mins)
Bangalore Altitude: 960 m Nandi Altitude: 1492 m
Starting time: 1:00 p.m. , Finish time: 5:05 p.m @ Koramangala I Block
First pit stop: 10 kms before Yelahanka on NH7. (10 mins)
Second pit stop: Yelahanka (10 mins) (for 5 bananas great energy boosters )
Third pit stop: Kodigehalli (10 mins) (for 2 Maaza drink)
Total trip time: 11h 40m (cycling, photography, sightseeing all inclusive)

Total dist: 140 kms