Nandi Hills Downhill Trail Ride, Nandi Hill, Bangalore, India

Nelly on his coconut Jump.

Date : Sunday, May 31, 2009

Preparation before the ride

Group : Modi, Nelly, Samim, Sree, Vivek, Pradeep, George, Joshine, few others and me.

Reached the top, about to ride down...

Starting : I started from my home at Koramangala at 0530 to the Jaksandara bus stand. The plan was to take the Airport Volvo bus till the Airport turn on NH-7. The plan worked. The driver and the conductor happily allowed me to carry my bike in the bus. I think there is no hard core rule for boarding volvo with your bike. Just start crying for this. If the bus is crowed then there is less chance. But on a Sunday early morning, the bus was having lots of free space.

George on the Rock

To the trail starting point : Got down at the Airport Junction at NH-7 and rode from there till Karahalli Cross (better known as Idly Point). On the ride, Samim overtook me on this Specialized Road Bike. I had Idly-Vada here and rode till the Mirza Circle on the Road to the Nandi top.

Vivek after the fall

On the Trail : It was a perfect and tough test for (a first timer like) me. I am not listing down any leanings or tips here because one has to keep in mind all the tips that are available on web and you-tube for mountain biking. I was slow because one minor mistake would have taken me to free fly and the directly to hell. The ride was great and I enjoyed it, without any fall. For second time, Nelly and others helped me to load my bike in the car to again go to up hill at the starting point of trail. We started again. Thigh muscles were keeping the body above the saddle and working as a suspension. Fingers were braking all the time. Brain was trying to concentrate on the trail. This is where I was not up to the mark. I was feeling hungry and my stomach my tickling me. This disturbed my concentration and I fell down. Thanks to my cheap knee pads because of which I just got a minor scratch in spite of falling on the rock.

To follow this trail, upload the GPX file located at
http://reach2paresh.googlepages.com/2009-05-31_10_32.gpx
to
http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input?form=google

This was the time I noticed the functioning of unconscious mind. I am always conscious to not to apply front brake in down-hill. But when I fell my fingers pressed the right brake levers on their own. Nelly explained this behaviour. I (and most of the people) are right handed. So the unconscious mind uses that hand/fingers under emergency. Thus my plan is to switch left level to front and right level to rear brakes.

At Idly Point after the first round of downhill

After coming down second time, I had tomato rice at the Idly junction and then rode back to my home. I was expecting rain but only got the motor bike smoke.

Me on the trail...

My rating : It is not-so-easy trail and if you are not confident enough then should not try it. There were many first timers also so doing it should not be that tough also. Keeping the low speed is ok and getting down the saddle at tough points is no shame.

Its not just about serious riders. Fathers with their kids can also have a lot of fun

The cop seems to be in thinking mode, no wonder, anyone would be

Stats:
Distance : 100 KM
Max : 53 KMPH
Avg : 20.9 KMPH

Note : All the photographs belong to Modi : http://www.flickr.com/photos/modi-kumar/sets/72157619105052774/