Cycling Around: Off Sarjapur Road, Bangalore

Date : Saturday, 04 April, 2009

Me on my Trek 6000 during sunrise. Image by Anand

Group : Anand, Ravi and me.

Ravi near the old Banyan tree with thousands of huge bats

Starting : We started from Sarjapur Junctions at Outer Ring Road at 0600. Few others were also supposed to join but after waiting for sometime, we decided to move on.

This is not a trail

The Ride: Ravi was having experience to lead us and he did the job very well. We took a left from the main road and after a short stretch of streets, dirt trail was under the bike. We crossed the Railway track and beyond that I have no idea where were we. Most of the times, I was just following Ravi because this was my first off road ride. But this does not mean that Ravi was knowing the way. :) Many times there were narrow trails which are used by village people.

Short break under the tree

There was no rule or map which was guiding us. We met few dead ends but then coming back was not at all a pain. Once, we reached at a place where we were covered by jungle on the three sides. Ravi suggested to cross it and we followed him. This was a good one.

Having idly as breakfast

Few pics from a place to have some good actions:

The Fall: I was following Ravi. There was sharp left turn required to escape a ninety degree fall. I did the the very common mistake. I was looking at the point where I was not supposed to go. The same old human mind played its role and I landed up side down with my bike on me. Got a small scratch on left knee and then a lot of flies on it. These flies got disappointed when I applied antiseptic spray on the scar.

The flat tire: Anand got a flat tire again. This happened with him two of the last three rides. Not sure what is happening with his bike. We thought that pumping some air into the tire will help us for few miles. But he again did a very common mistake. He did not support the valve while pumping the air. Result? The tube got a cut near the valve. I was having a spare tube which is used. I hope, he does not forget it and returns a new tube to me. :)

The Culprit

How happy he is after fixing the tire

Finally, after covering all the unknown trails, we were on sarjapur road. While returning, we stopped at the new Decathalon Store. Sharath escorted us in the store and I am really happy to see such a place in India where such a good variety of sports and trekking gears is available at a reasonable price. We also got a test ride of Rockrider 6.