To the Airport

Hi everyone,
So, yesterday, I attempted my very first solo ride towards Bangalore International Airport. From my house it is around 35 km so I was attempting a round trip of 70 km.

The night before, I filled up some 1.5 liters of Gatorade and ensured that I had like 4 alarms to wake me up so I could leave on time.

In a city like Bangalore, if you were to plan on cycling a long distance on a route that includes main roads and national highways, unless you are out of the city by 7, you are doomed, even on a Sunday, there can be enough traffic to hold you up and severely ruin your travel time.

I hit the road at 6:20 am and the sun was just rising, I decided to use the downhill portions at my disposal to cut some time off the start of my trip. By the time my distance passed 3.5km I had spent 11 minutes on the road. This was not a good sign, as it is very little in so much time! Just as I realised this, I ran head on into an unfinished road.

Every Bangalorean knows about the pothole problems of the city, the same goes for the unfinished roads. Every time a road is re-laid with tar and everything, within 2 months, the road has massive potholes. Whether it is because of the traffic density or lack of adequate drainage, both very present in Bangalore or just some scam done by the developers to ensure that they can continuously get paid to do the same shabby job. Either way, the city has horrible roads and this can be a hazard to both people and cyclists.

So as soon as I hit this segment I try and move to the side, but, 7 am is nearing and so cars are already on the road. I start to slow down and hit a rock. The next part happened almost in slow motion. My bottle with a third of my water supply managed to fly up and out of my bottle holder and as I turned and stopped, it landed on the road. The next 30 seconds were spent praying that the oncoming cars would be ever-so-kind to avoid the bottle and I kid you not, a few cars moved to hit the bottle and pulled away at the last second. Thankfully, a gentleman who had been walking on the road due to the non-existent pavement saw a gap in the traffic, before I could even move to get the bottle he had deftly reached in through the traffic to snatch up my bottle. After saying thank you, I was off again.

The next segment contained a lot of downhill portions and so, I aimed to pick up as much speed as I could. As soon as I felt the road slope downwards, I punched my cycle from 4th gear to 5th and kept my speed at 30 kmph. The first flyover approached and I knew I needed all the speed I could get to reach the long downhill portion. I hit the uphill at 35 kmph and pushed myself till I reached the top of the flyover, ready for the downhill.

To be honest, this was the best part of the whole route. I peddled and peddled as I zoomed down the flyover, keeping my eye on my speedometer, I watched with shear jubilation as my speed rose from 35 to 40 to 49 and finally to 50 kmph. This was enough to push me over the next flyover and my renewed enthusiasm was enough to get keep a speed of 32 kmph, as compared to my usual 25 kmph average. I was still celebrating my achievement after one hour when I moved down from 7th gear to 6th and heard a crunch, followed by a brief moment of panic as I was unable to peddle, not wanting to get run over by a car or something, I immediately stopped and looked upon a very familiar sight.

On Wednesday, my cycle chain had slipped from the gears between the frame and the gears. After spending my morning seeing how to fix it, I did. This was followed by a visit to a cycle store to get my gears and brakes checked, the weasel there guaranteed me that everything was in order. For Bangalorean Cyclists, this shop was Firefox on St. Johns road.

Thankfully I knew how to fix the chain back on my bike, it's very simple actually, and there is a video walkthrough on wikihow. You loosen the knob that holds the wheel in place so that the frame moves away from the gears ever so slightly, just so that the chain is no longer stuck but simply between the gears and the frame. Once this happens, push the peddle forward so that the chain is slack, with your other hand, carefully move the chain back onto the gears and if you need to rotate the peddles so that it is moving smoothly. Tighten the knob and your set once again.

Heaving a sigh of relief that it wasn't anything more serious, I remounted my saddle and continued on my journey, again on a downhill which can give you some serious speed. I pushed myself down the hill and was faced with two routes; one was a flyover (Hebbal flyover) or the route below, which had no road, but rather a train crossing. Not wanting to lose my speed, I checked behind me for any large vehicles (cars, buses, lorries, etc) not seeing any, I zoomed up the flyover. I reached the top and was able to see a beautiful vista of Hebbal. Turning to the East, I saw the sun rise, in a magnificent red, it had managed to turn the morning sky pink and orange, for the first time that day, and I hit myself for not taking my camera.

At the start of the highway (NH 7) I, lost all my speed from a wretched bus which had stopped for no reason at a bus stop, people weren't getting into the bus but it still waited there. I moved over to the service lane as I'm still unable to make it up uphill stretches in one go. I check the time, and was thrilled to see that only 25 minutes had elapsed and I had covered almost 10 km. for those keeping score, that's 7km in 14 minutes, including the chain problem.

Pretty content with my speed and distance, I started walking my bike up the hill. I wasn't cycling up it because I couldn't and two, I needed to stretch my legs, my bike seat has gotten itself jammed so my leg doesn't get a full extension when I peddle. 3/4 up the hill, two bikers passed me looking like real pros with wrap around shades, packs on their backs and coolly peddling up the hill that I'd had so much problem over. Pissed and at the same time challenged by them, I got on my bike and started moving up the hill.

For all of you who have never met me, I am a bit of a talker, not necessarily to others, but to myself. And when I’m alone, it's even more (I could just think in my head but really when no one is around, why talk in your head?) So as I was covering the last 1/4 of the hill, my mind began to wander about the bikes gears and the relation between momentum and speed. When you increase your gear, you increase your speed, but you keep your momentum the same. Similarly, when your momentum begins to fall, you lower your gears to reduce your speed and increase your momentum so that it's constant.

I reached the top of the hill and zoomed off hitting 40 kmph.

The segment on the highway was filled with uphills and very few downhills. As I pushed myself through them I kept an eye out for those cyclists whom I was determined to catch up with. I passed Jakkur, and hit the halfway point for the airport with ease at 17km. by now; my knees were starting to bitch. I moved over again onto the service lane as an uphill approached.

The next break I took was near the turning for the Canadian International School. At this point I was convinced that I wouldn't be able to make it to the airport. I checked my distance and said to myself, okay, let me try to get to 20 km.

I moved on and begun to realise I was approaching the Yelahanka Airforce Base, after it, I knew that there was a long downhill followed by a climb back up another hill. I thought I should turn back, that I would never be able to do the next section. Suddenly, a small voice in the back of my head (really, everyone, I am not insane) said, you're not feeling tired yet, c'mon you can make it up this hill when you get there you decide if you want to turn back.

I followed its direction and managed to get to around 22 km, 3 km short of the entrance to the airport segment. I turned back as the sun was starting to get rather bright. And I knew I had to make it back as well!

I ended up stopping on the way back. Roping the return with the rest of the journey I did 37 km in 1 hour and 45 minutes. From there to my home 15 km, took me 1 hour, but with traffic and the sun in full force I don't think it was so bad.

That was my first long distance solo ride, I didn't get to my goal but I feel that it was quite an accomplishment for me. I covered 50 km and I showed myself that I could do the peddling if I put myself to it.