Phew!! RAC-F is a year old and another 15 days more for the flag off of this years BSA- Tour of Nilgiris.
Wanna support TFN and cycling in general?
We have a BSA-TFN poster so that you can put it up. Please fill out this form so that we can courier across the poster to you
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dERxV1ZoXzdFSV9fVzBvUWw1UERCVkE6MA
Better late than never!!
Its class room time again - the next in the BOTS University Series, a workshop for the Biker not the bike. However good a bicycle might be, the biker is what completes the awesome machine.
With the biking community (i.e. The Bangalore Bikers Club) growing at such an awesome rate, we thought it was essential to get someone knowledgeable to talk to us about common biker related problem, stretching etc. Important stuff that will prevent injuries and keep us pedaling.
When: 24th Oct 2009
What time: 7pm sharp (for an hour or so)
Where: BumsOnTheSaddle ( map and some directions )
Registration
more details on the BOTS store blog - http://blog.bumsonthesaddle.com/2009/10/20/biker-workshop-24-oct-2009
Get your friends. Spread the word. Meet the community.
~ The BumsOnTheSaddle team
ps: to get updates on such events and to keep abreast of the cycling scene in India - http://blog.bumsonthesaddle.com
pps: we also tweet actively if thats your preferred mode of communication - http://twitter.com/bumsonthesaddle
What if we go on a weeklong trip into the wild? This plan of ours had been in pipeline for over 3 months or should I say 3 years! The last time we (Cakewalk boys) went on a weeklong trip was in 2006, when we were out on the beaches of Goa, binging and gorging every possible thing available to mankind. That was just after Dilip and I met the veteran cakewalk boys. The old cakewalk pals had gone their own separate ways, with only 3 old men (Gullu, Joshi and Pai) left to sing songs to each other. We joined in to add chorus and slowly the group grew to be a 10-member gang. This was a long time back reminiscing our past trips all of us were gearing up to the next big one, not knowing what was coming.
All of us believed savouring Wine, Food and Song (shit how did food come in-between) were the common things amongst us, but sooner we found out that there was another thing that was common amongst us ‘Photography and wildlife’. Across the table usually the question would be ‘What if we go to Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Kerala or back to Goa again?’ With many budding photographers onboard with the recent addition of Narayan Canon Pai with his 450D, it was unanimously decided to subdue our binging behaviour, act and think as normal individuals and travel the length and breadth of Maharashtra in a week, phew!! Thank god that trip never happened (or else we would have returned with a sore ass), just as we were chalking out plans and the itinerary there was a swine flu outbreak, with pune being the worst affected city in the country, with the outbreak just setting in and many people warning us not to take chances all we could do is see our plans turn plain fart!
So What if we missed Maharashtra we had many other places to visit. We were back at our adda deciding on the next possible place to spend a week and with a couple (grossly understated) rounds of talk across the table things started to materialize with many skeptics like me deciding to be on the trip just in the nick of time. And just a week before we hit the road we were desperately searching the net, flipping pages of outlook traveller, scouting the maps of Kerala, dialling every possible number in Kerala to find accommodation and freeze on a route.
After some frantic searching and hard work during office hours from Mr. Dilip, Pai, Kadri and others we had a route and all places of stay booked. Hurray!! We were going to Kerala for a week and with 2 people (Gullu and Joshi) who knew driving reasonably well and 5 experts specializing in night driving. We were set to hit the road at 11am on Saturday 26th Oct 2009.
Since it was festive season Gullu had to stay back at his office a little longer to perform aayudha pooja. Then we postponed our start time to 8pm. It was also a blessing in disguise for me, as I had to edit Tour of Nilgiris (TFN) videos, which needed half a day more than I expected. Kadri didn't want to come empty handed and managed to arrange a camera for himself. Every one of us had planned to take an afternoon nap since it was a long journey ahead of us to reach Thekkady, our first place of visit in Kerala. Like most of the time nothing works as planned, none of us slept in the afternoon.
Finally at 8.30pm we started our week long trip with Gullu and Joshi driving their respective santro’s. Kadri, Pai and Myself comfortably got into joshi’s car where as Anil and Dilip had to squeeze into Gullu’s car :). We drove through Hosur, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and Salem with Pai and me talking bakwas about FM Radio, rolling terrain and reasons why FM waves don’t reach the bottom most point in a rolling terrain. Much of this journey passed between Me and Pai taking a nap for a few minutes and waking up to continue our bakwas and Kadri smoking away another cigarette. Just after nammakkal check post Joshi wanted some peace of mind, stopped the car dropped his seat back and within 5mins was snoring which sounded like a car’s jammed horns. In the other car Gullu, Dilip and Anil took turns to rest, while Pai and myself roamed the fields following some ghosts, which turned out to be our own shadows.
Image Courtesy : Narayan Pai (Albert)
After about an hour and half again started towards Thekkady and immediately I was in my dreams, woke up briefly to see the 2 cars parked at a petrol bunk with Gullu doing the same thing that Joshi had done a couple of hours ago.
Reached Theni, had a sumptuous buffet breakfast and finally reached Thekkady, checked in into the Periyar view homestay and immediately the shutterbugs were out and my camcorder was rolling capturing the wilderness outside the lodge.
Image Courtesy : Anil Rao (Lion King)
Ordered a dozen bottles of fresh naturally cold beer that were emptied in no time and by around 3pm had lunch. After a while most of us had a sound sleep with a few unfortunate ones only measuring the decibel levels around without the sleep.
Later that evening Dilip and Pai went around town enquired about the boat ride at Periyar Lake and the safari. The lights were off pretty early, with each of us dreaming about catching a glimpse of black strips and spots the next morning. The next day everyone woke up by around 4.45am and we were in the jeep to Periyar Tiger Reserve.
Image Courtesy : Anil Rao
The entire safari through the reserve was on road, which was a letdown; as we expected it to be on fire roads after paying 1500/- bucks each. What we saw? A honeycomb, a rock disguised as an elephant that was brown, some acrobatic driving by the jeep driver.
Image Courtesy : Pramod Kumar (Modi / Pummy / Hugh)
It must have been around 9o’clock, our tummies were growling, reached Gavi dam and had a well-prepared buffet breakfast. Boating at the lake was free and we took a bamboo raft, which we had to row towards a waterfall on the other side of the lake. Clicked a lot of pics and Kadri had his first bath in 2 days.
Image Courtesy : Pramod Kumar
On our way back from the falls I stood up to take pics, slipped, my ankle got caught between 2 bamboo logs…and tumbled over. Thank god nothing happened to the camera! Got up and sat down quietly looking at my swollen ankle. Once back onshore Anil, Dilip, Gullu and Pai then started a 3-hour marathon effort to capture small Sunbirds, Malabar Whistling thrush, yellow billed babbler and other wingless birds’. By around 5pm we were back at base camp, had a crappy dinner and we decided to wake up early the next morning and take the boat ride in Periyar Lake.
Most of us woke up by around 6am, little late for the first boat ride, by the time we reached the counters the slots for the first boat ride was booked. Then bought tickets for the second slot that was scheduled for 9.30am. Being a holiday season there were loads of tourists and we had rushed to the front to get seats in the front row on the upper deck. It was quite a sight to see 3 boats adjacent to each other and skill of those drivers to park their boats.
Image Courtesy : Pramod Kumar
What was a little uncomfortable was that the tourists from the last boat had to pass through the other 2 boats to come out. 10 mins into the boat ride it started pouring and all we could do was helplessly wait for the rains to recede. Half way through the ride the rains stopped and the light was just enough to bring back our smiles. Any direction we turned we saw only cormorants and clicked loads of this bird perched on submerged trees in the lake. Towards the end Anil was so frustrated seeing only cormorants that he packed his camera and sat down mumbling ‘he’d had enough of cormorants’.
Image Courtesy : Dilip Gopalkrishna (Lombardo)
Back at base camp packed our backpacks and left for Munnar. The drive to munnar was amazing with huge valleys and the scenery was just breathtaking. In our initial itinerary we had planned to visit Eravikulam but with 2 places to visit in 4 days and around 900km to cover we decided to skip Eravikulam the next day. That night was quite eventful with Joshi being christened “The Tasmanian Devil” due to his 2 60’s down antics.
Image Courtesy : Dilip Gopalkrishna
Next day morning we started our journey towards Parambikulam passing through Top Slip (Anaimalai range), probably one of the most beautiful reserves in the country with zero enthusiastic morons. The next 2 days was like heaven. Won’t talk much about it, as it’s an experience one has to go through. We went on a safari to Kannimara. The 6km drive through the thick forest was slow with bustling bird life. Got to see lots of exotic bird species (check them out here,here & here), few of them multiple times through the safari and visited the Parambikulam canal and the dam. Early afternoon at Parambikulam ate one of the tastiest and biggest paper roast dosa’s I’ve ever eaten along with 3 varieties of chutney.
Image Courtesy : Clock wise from top Dilip Gopalkrishna, Anil Rao, Dilip Gopalkrishna, Anil Rao
The safari was the best we’ve ever experienced and would recommend this place if interested folks plan to visit Kerala. It was also the first time on the tour we got to cook….maggi noodles. As backup we had bought some noodles from a town enroute to Parambikulam. It was a saviour in the evenings, on both the days at Parambikulam after coming back from a day long safari one gang used to transfer their photos onto the laptops while the other gang cooked maggi noodles.
What the fuck! We were there a day before and knew nothing about it until we went to the eco care centre to enquire about stay for the next day. When we set out on our trip, our accommodation at Parambikulam was confirmed for only a day. So On day 2 at Parambikulam we went to eco care centre to request for an extension and later went to a café near the eco care centre. A localite told us that at Periyar lake a boat had capsized and around 40 people drowned. It’s very unfortunate; it was a time when every one of us felt sorry for the families of those who lost their lives. A few of us hadn’t called in 2 days, tension was mounting back home and none of our mobiles were reachable. Immediately grabbed our guide’s (Veerankutty) mobile and dialled our respective homes. Phew!! was a big relief.
Early next day morning woke up and went to the Eco Care centre to pay the charges for our stay, what we heard was a pleasant surprise! Since we approached and booked through Dilip’s uncle who is a CF at Kannur Range, our charges were waived to a great extent and all that we paid was 600Rs for 2 days for all the seven of us that meant we saved 500/- each, which we spent buying some tees and caps. A last look at Parambikulam and a goodbye to our wonderful guide we drove towards Kotagiri.
While descending the ghats the rain gods invited with a thick blanket of rain, stopped at Pollachi for breakfast, don’t have to talk about those lovely dosa’s and chutneys that we got in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Being a avid biker and a member of Bangalore Bikers Club & RAC-F, have a natural instinct to always scout for a trail and the weather was just perfect for a bike ride; wish had a bike to ride. Myself, Kadri and Joshi were driving in joshi’s car where as Gullu, Anil, Pai and Dilip were in the other car. It was generally the case all along the tour, Gullu used to drive ahead of us wait somewhere in-between and start over after we caught up with him but this time around it was our turn to wait, not due to some super fast driving but as a result of the other car taking the wrong route. After having breakfast we set out not knowing that both our cars were travelling on different roads. While Joshi, Kadri and myself enquired about the road to Mettupalyam to reach Kotagiri, Gullu and others enquired about Annur and they were directed to a wrong road. After having realized that they were on the wrong route we constantly kept in touch, which was a little too uncomfortable for kadri. At one point when Dilip was talking to me over phone he mentioned about being surrounded by windmills and at that very moment we say windmills at a distance and thought we were also on the same road heading towards those windmills but apparently which we found out later, they were on a parallel road to ours and had to travel around 30 – 40kms extra to catch up with us. Frustrated by taking a wrong route Gullu had his peddles down. Anil, Pai and Dilip realizing the value of a life insurance held onto themselves maintaining silence when Gullu put his car in full throttle to catch up with us. Into the ghats we realized the car was low on fuel and luckily cleared the ghats and at Kotagiri town’s entrance filled the tank. Stayed at Kotagiri for the night and for the second time on the tour got to see the Tasmanian devil later that night.
Finally after 6 days of sheer bliss we started our journey back to Bangalore passing via Gudalur, Bandipur, and Mysore.
The title is credited to Mr Kadri, on the road we were listening to Best of Creed and Metallica's Cunning Stunts. When we stopped for a chai at Munnar, teasingly we asked kadri how were the songs as he's known not to be a big fan of Metal, his reaction 'all that I heard was What if....so what...what the fuck' combining 'What if' from Creed and 'So Fucking what' from Metallica.
It’s been a month since my bike’s hubs were damaged and was not ridable since then. 2 weeks back Naveen and Nelly helped fix the bike, and we decided to hit the trails at our favourite destination Nandi Hills. Nelly was on his foes, which he got it from his friend on his recent trip to Mumbai and I was on my old trusted friend, my Trek 3700.
After years of riding and battering, my trek has taken as much as it could. And after a couple of downhill rides I could feel my back wheel wobble and decided to call it quits where as Nelly continued with his practice runs, in preparations for his race in a couple of months. Packed our bikes and headed back to town. A thorough analysis of my bike revealed that my axle was bent, had a damaged, shark toothed sprockets, elongated chain, and ofcourse a damaged crank…and because of all these even my rim was bent.
Naveen and Nelly applied a quick fix and my bike was back to riding condition again. We decided to ride the BBCh – 4 trails near Turahali. The plan was to ride the hiking section that was used during the race. Me, Nelly, Dilip and Naveen started from merida junction and reached the bottom of the hill, hiked up and did one round of the entire BBCh - 4 course. After that we hiked again with our bikes and rode all the way down. It was a bit scary…after this me and Dilip stopped as my bike’s back wheel started to wobble again and Dilip was not comfortable riding downhill’s on his bike (Merida Sub – 40).
On our way back from Nandi hills Nelly and me were discussing on which trails to practice and a couple of trails came to our mind. Incidentally he had been training at Turahali, but wasn’t timing himself so decided to time his downhill runs. After some brainstorming on the terrain, distance and technicality he took the challenge to nail the trail under a minute in the coming months.
It was fun to ride the BBCh - 4 downhill. We’ve been riding Nandi for quite sometime now and am used to the terrain there, but this trail was altogether a different ball game. The rains had washed off all the top soil; all that was left were small pebbles and stones and was bit off camber in most of the places.
The basics, while hiking up a downhill trail always concentrate looking for the line you will be taking while you are coming down, most of the times since we are starting off we might not be able to follow that line, but as a practice it’s a good thing to do, because as you gradually improve your riding skills and get used to the trail, the lines you take will eventually make you faster. There was this one turn towards the end of the trail, where I had made a mental note to take a right, as it was not clearly visible while riding down. Nelly started off followed by Naveen, me, Dilip in one-minute intervals. At the turn I lost concentration, Nelly was shouting to take a right, which I took but grabbed both the brakes to slow down and my bike pivoted on the front wheel and I came to slow stop, now in the direction facing upwards. Naveen also missed this section and went straight-ahead over the rocks luckily didn’t crash. It was damn funny. After the stop had a look at Nelly and Naveen and both were laughing their hearts out.
I decided to hire a bike from a friend for the long ramzan weekend, since my bike was almost in a junk state. Yeah the bike was a specialized XC. Destination Nandi hills, this time around we had Srikanth for company, packed our bikes went to Brahmins café coffee bar had some lovely idlis and kara bath. Drove to Nandi and started rolling over the trails. Riding a full suspension when compared to a hard tail phew!! Huge difference. Did a lot of riding this time. One particular section I kept taking the wrong line and every single time had to jump over the ruts to avoid the fall. Tried this section over and over again till I took the right line. It was an exhilarating experience riding a full suspension bike; finally I’ve decided to buy one pretty soon. Time to start saving money.
Sunday being the BBCh – 5 didn’t do any rides, but the next day we again went back to our new backyard Turahali. This time learnt tons of new stuff; Nelly showed us how to negotiate a turn without braking by just using our body to balance. Me, Sree and Naveen practiced this for over an hour and did the downhill runs 3 times and Nelly had his personal best time of 1.08min. Decided to head back as the clouds were closing in. I was completely famished and pedaled slowly towards town, 5 mins after we left Turahhali it started pouring and reached wheelsports completely drenched…a perfect end to a week of cycling.
This time around all we did was ride, ride and ride, we didn’t have any camera…except a few pics taken on mobile and one video of nelly riding the trails.
My colleague and myself had planned for a early morning ride. With Bangalore Bicycle championships round the corner, and being a MTB race I was gearing up to hit the trails near Sarjapur and didn't want to miss the ride but due to the bad weather and coming home late in the night, that ride never happened. Slept an extra 2 hours just to kill time. Got up by 8 and again slept for another 2 hours and finally woke up by 10am.
A peek outside the window, a thought raced across 'how about a ride?', then dismissed the idea thinking that the weather was very deceptive. The sun might be out while riding and if I attempt a ride then I would be drained within 2 hours.
knowing that I had missed the ride, frustration was beginning to build. Had my breakfast. I had downloaded the videos on my handy cam onto my comp and thought it would be a good idea to edit those. During this time, a thought was running through my mind saying 'you can later come back from a ride and do the editing stuff', sat down turned on my comp and....the power went off!!
Immediately got into my riding gear, poured water into the hydration pack, pulled out some chocolates from the refrigerator, stretched a bit, and in about 20mins was on the saddle. Checked the time it was 12.45.....
Headed towards my favourite destination bannerghatta, near JP nagar thought it would be nice to ride towards electronic city and check the status of Flat which I had purchased from Concorde housing group around 1.5yrs back in electronic city, and due to recession and other problems the project was being delayed.
Rode till country club, took a left turn to Electronic city. The ride was pretty fast and the clouds were closing in. Thought it would rain, but thankfully that never happened. The initial plan was to go to electronic city, have a look at my flat and head back home. Reached the construction site, checked the status and headed back via Hosur road. Instead of taking a left at electronic city, took a right. It was as though my bike resisted going back home.
It was a fast ride averaging about 25km/hr. Stopped at a chai shop to hydrate myself. When I was having badam milk, was surrounded by locals, who were asking question like 'Does the cycle have a motor?','Do you need to pedal?'....cleared all their doubts and was back again on the saddle. Took a right and headed towards Chandapura.
From Chandapura onwards the head winds gave a visit and never left until I reached JP Nagar. It was real pain, my average dropped significantly by the time I ended my ride.
Reached bannerghatta national park, took a right to Bangalore. Reached home by around 5.20pm.
Total Distance : 81km
Ride Time : 4hr 10mins
Avg Speed : 19.44km/hr
After reaching home, realised that I didn't do a off road ride :). But was satisfied that I could at least ride.
Flickr Photos : http://www.flickr.com/photos/modi-kumar/sets/72157622001140512/
All the rodies were itching to test their trail riding skills and the plan was set to ride Nandi trails on MTB's with big knobby tires.
As always we (Myself, Nelly, Pradeep and Srikanth) were late to reach the idly point because Srikanth was late in reaching lalbagh, where we had to wait for over 5mins :). Samim had plans of riding the trails 5 times and to warm himself rode till idly point from hebbal on his road bike. Vivek, George and Joshine came in Vivek's car till nandi base and unloaded their bikes and rode till the Coconut Jump point. While the rest of us drove till there.
Unloaded our bikes, and without wasting any time all of us set out. From the jump point there are 2 trails, one goes up which is about a kilometre and the other goes down to the idly point. We decided to ride up and reach the top and role down till the idly point. By the time we reached the top, few guys had problems of their own, most of us were exhausted riding up once, Samim had plans of riding it 5 times and unfortunately his back breaks stopped functioning....and there was another 4.8kms of downhill left!! ohh boy!
Took a few snaps and started riding down, half way through the trail we had our second victim, Pradeep tumbled over his bike and as a result his back wheel, you know, got bent. loosened the brakes and was on his bike again. Samim, George and Vivek were on clipless and Nelly pointed out to me saying Vivek was struggling and the next moment we had our Third Victim (Vivek)....it was not due to the clipless pedals rather it was because he was chased by dogs, cats and cows that came in between :)
Reached idly point, had breakfast. Samim, Vivek, George, Ananth and Joshine set off, while Myself, Nelly, Pradeep, Srikanth and Paresh decided to cool ourselves for some more time. We were joined by Ravi, who was supposed to participate in the Sunfeast 10k marathon, but unfortunately his son turned his bib into a kite / boat and he had sit out. Pradeep and Paresh decided to drive up in Samim's jeep, while the rest rode till the jump point. While we were at the potty point (hehehe!! Samim knows it) Me and Nelly decided to ride the entire stretch without changing gears.....phew! I was drained out by the time I reached the jump point.
Nelly, Pradep, Srikanth and others prepared the ramp, while I took rest and after about 15mins we were off doing our usually coconut jumps :). we were joined by two guys who were riding from bangalore all the way and both of them tried their bit....and after a couple of jumps we had our fourth victim, he jumped over and lost his balance and footing and thud!! tasted mud, his left arm was bruised and was in shock and pain, plastered his wounds and he decided to call it quits and drove along with vivek and George to Bangalore.
Samim also decided not to ride anymore and decided to head back. The rest of us decided to ride the trails again and reach idly point. One thing was evident if you get the basics right you are faster on the trails, after the previous Nandi trail ride Nelly and others had posted about MTB skills, read all of them and was preparing myself to follow those tips. One thing that I did was concentrate on looking ahead on the trails and trusting your ambient vision to take control of you and your bike. It definitely helped me and it was fun riding down the trails fast.
In the end it was a very satisfying day but not tiring, guess if you keep practicing you get better at it.
Flickr Photos : http://www.flickr.com/photos/modi-kumar/sets/72157619105052774/
These pics where clicked by Pradeep BV, Myself, Nelly and Srikanth.
Get ready start training, burn that rubber and you just might be the first Bangalore Bicycle champion.
After the Time Trials held last month that was organized by the members of BBC, all the bikers are on a high and after discussion about the same the outcome was the Bangalore Bicycle championships.
The only categories for this event are the Men and Women. There are no separate categories for MTB, Road bikes etc. Its up to the riders to choose the appropriate equipment for the event. And the points scoring systems is that followed by F1(10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1).
Moving forward the plan is to have this event on a monthly basis, so that the bikers can test their riding abilities, compare and train harder for each event through out the year.
For more info : Please visit Bangalore Biker Club or click here
It was a long weekend and didn't want to miss a chance to ride my bike. Called up Sree late in night to find out if he was free on Saturday. And luckily he had an off. Tattekere was the first long ride I had done about 2yrs back when I had purchased my Trek 3700 from BOTS. And it was a long overdue, and wanted to ride again.
Left my house at 6.30am and was joined by Sree near JP Nagar, headed towards Harohalli had breakfast at Adigas on kanakpura road, and without a stop reached Harohalli. Harohalli is a small town about 15kms before Kanakpura. Had a small pit stop, loaded ourselves with some refreshments and Turned left towards Jigani, from the turning near Harohalli, Jigani was about 22kms.
The road through out the route was awesome, hardly any pot holes. But after the turning near Harohalli for about a kilometre or two, the road is pathetic but after that its a pleasure and its completely rolling. At one point we on our MTB's touched 57.8Km/hr (Imagine on a road bike, I bet they can easily touch 80 or may be even 90km/hr) . Reached Tattekere the odo read 45Kms.
The previous day when I was talking to Sree, I was telling him about taking this route i.e. starting from Kanakpura side and ending the ride on bannerghatta road as the route would descend down making the ride easier and then later on ride through bannerghatta road which is almost flat.
After we reached Tattekere did I realise that the actual climbs were just after Tattekere. The lake was completely filled, it was an simply superb sat down for about half an hour and started our journey back. From kanakpura side, we descended to about 690m and then we had our mammoth climbs a head of us. It was torturous, with very little water and one orange with us all we wanted was to find a place where we could get some water.
During the journey to Tattekere I had my helmet on, and by the time we reached Tattekere my forehead was throbbing and had mild headache. And during the climbs removed my helmet and just wore a cap and the pain subdued. I think it must have been the helmet that caused headache.
Reached the junction where Bannerghatta road meets Koppa road. Took a left turn towards bannerghatta. The Temperature was unbearable, I think the time must have been 12.30. There were a couple of things I was worried about as we reached bannerghatta, I thought I would bonk (but till now i've never experienced it) and secondly was a bit worried about my leg. But luckily nothing happened, Sree broke off near Arekere and I head back home, the last 5kms literally crawled back.
Flickr Photos : http://www.flickr.com/photos/modi-kumar/sets/72157617500441065/
Route Details : http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/india/bangalore/584124128007052831
We (Me and Nelly) were just waiting to get back at Nandi and start all over again. A week seemed like a month. This week the crowd was bigger we had Vasu and Sreenandan along with us.
Had the first flat of the day, before I could start riding. Changed the tube quickly and rode to Nupur's house, where we loaded our bikes onto the bike rack on her Car. Drove all the way to the jump point. Sree came in his car and picked up Vasu near the airport. Apparently Vasu hadn't slept the previous night and watched 3 movies back to back and started at 4am from his house towards Nandi. Had idly's at Nandi base. Nupur had planned to start her journey back from this point, but we convinced her to start from the place where we had built the jumps. Drove up and waited for the other car, while Nupur tested out a few trails.
When we reached the top, the ramp we had prepared last week was completely cleared off. so built a bigger and better one. It was at least 2.5 times the older one. After about an hour later by 10am started our speed jumps. The ramp was perfect and the feel was awesome, the distance we jumped was almost double and we also jumped higher. Nelly was our guru, watched him take the first jump, then I jumped, followed by Sree and then Vasu. After the first set of jumps Vasu quit as he developed back ache. Initially we were jumping one at a time, then started jumping in tandem......ooh god. On the first tandem jump, Sree jumped over, lost his footing and some how managed to control his bike to a great extent until he crashed at a very low speed. I was right behind him, had to brake hard and just avoided crashing into him.
Met Anand Mulky, Arjun, Shasank, jagannath and others. Anand was on his road bike climbing Nandi for the first time. He managed to climb till the Jump point and watched us jump a few times and after that headed back while we continued with our jumps.
Despite his injuries to the shin Sree continued jumping and after about 2/3 tandem jumps, it was my turn to crash.......Earlier, we used to carry the speed off the jump, pedal a little harder enter the trail below negotiating 2 curves and slow down some 500mtrs after the ramp. All the three (Nelly, Sree and Me) started off from the starting point pedaled hard, carried over the ramp and after landing I pedaled hard got into the first turn and just after the first turn realized that these 2 had slowed down, and I instinctively braked. My front wheel got stuck into one of the ruts and was thrown off the bike, landing head first into the mud. The helmet took all the impact and things went flying......First thing that raced through my mind was to figure out if I was blacking out.......got up, guys came running towards me, was on all 4 and realized I could not breathe.....took about 2mins to get back my normal breathing. Had a cut on my forehead and nose and as Vasu said.....I was a leaking boat :). Both my knees, left arm, hip, right shoulder, nose are bruised and forehead has a cut. Hope it heals fast.
Sree helped me out plaster the wounds....took rest for about a 45mins and decided not to jump any more for the day. while we were resting, saw Samim climbing Nandi for the second time in the day.
Then we decided to ride up the trails, which is about 1.5kms from the jump point and ride the downhill trails till the idly point. Started off, reached the top of the trail, and started rolling down, Vasu stopped midway due to back pain and he took rest near the car as we continued down. Reached the bottom in about 45mins, had lunch and started riding back to the top. This was the first time I was climbing Nandi hills and must say I totally enjoyed it. At the idly point the sign read 12kms Nandi. Then in about 10/15mins it read 7kms...from there on it was a killer, didn't have water to drink or the energy to pedal but somehow managed, after talking to myself not to quit.......
The downhill trail from the top till the idly point is about 5kms, this trail is seriously a hard one and it has all in one package. Be there next time around.....its fun!!
On our way down we saw Samim, coming back to Climb Nandi for the 3rd time in the day. Took a U-Turn, and followed Samim all the way to the top . By this time he had already completed 250Km for the day and had 50Km more to go. Shot a few videos and clicked a few pics.
In the end it was a very fulfilling day for all the riders. My injuries don't seem as bad as they looked yesterday. But hurt a little.
Today morning Nelly sent me a link, answering a few questions about the mind set riders should have while riding their MTB's : http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/fitness/article/technique-step-it-up--21014
Trail Ride : http://www.flickr.com/photos/modi-kumar/sets/72157616698855532/
Samim's Ride: http://www.flickr.com/photos/modi-kumar/sets/72157616701746280/
After one and half months of zero biking action, finally it was time to fly....Coincidence, it was the same with Nelly as well.
We decided on Saturday to go towards Nandi Hills, as Nelly was desperate for some downhill action.The next day we dumped our bikes in my Omni started by 8am and reached Nandi Hills by around 9.30am. Unloaded our bikes and immediately started trail rides.One and a half months of no biking sucked the air out my lungs by the time we reach the top of the trail. I totally underestimated the trails and the gradients were too much for me to handle at certain sections. But it was fun.
If going up the hill seems tough, coming down is even tougher and it scares the shit out....All your body parts shake like hell and your arms and thighs take a beating. And if you are tired, damn you are destined to fall....Good nothing like that happened with us. Downhill riding is awesome, and at places I was breathless, the excitement was too much for me.
Nelly had both his tires punctured, pinch flats and we tried fixing it for about 2 hrs finally gave up and fixed the puncture below at a puncture repair shop. Came back to the top and since Nelly had a set of tires not suitable for trail riding, we decided to build speed ramps. Prepared the ramp in about an hours time and started the jumps. Dirt Jumping that we guys had done was chicken s***.........this was even better. The first jump I did was all together a different experience. Its like the same experience I had sitting in an air plane for the first time and when the plane takes off, you feel that weightlessness for a sec, it was somehow the same feeling and this happened only for the first Jump...... Don't know if everyone fells the same or its only me, it a momentary high that you get, the feeling is just out of this world.....
Did a few jumps and as it was getting dark, packed our bikes into the van and headed back. The ramp is at a turning that marks Nandi top 4kms, if anyone is interested in doing these, can easily locate these, all you have to do is locate these 2 coconut vendors and the ramp is on the opposite side of the road.....
We named this jump as Coconut jump, as its prepared out the coconuts shells and also to those 2 funny coconut vendors at Nandi, who just wont stop arguing against each other. Guys Nandi is the place to do hardcore technical trail / down hill ride....practice a few times, get used to trail riding and then its time for a FS downhill bike!
A few Pics on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/modi-kumar/sets/72157616322524339/
TFN has bought a whole lot of changes, but one noticeable change is the camaraderie among all the bikers. Everyone is in constant touch with each other planning something or the other. If one set of bikers are testing their endurance levels going on long rides, others are testing their new found abilities to do crazy stuff. And I must say after what we did on the 1st of Feb, I belong to the latter one.
Friday, Nelly buzzes me calling out for a trail ride towards NICE corridor, and I agree to it with a small sigh. I personally don't like this road because of the headwinds and the crosswinds. It sucks the air out of you. I still wonder how the riders on TFN rode constantly for 7 days on such roads phew!
We met at the Critical Mass event on Saturday and fix on a plan to go towards the place where the Effective group riding workshop was held. It was Nelly's favourite place as he had recognized a few places to practice wall riding. Late in the night I call up Srikanth and Neelesh, and they agree to join us 7am sharp. The time shifts to 7.30am and finally we fix 7.30am as the start time.
The next day I woke up at 7 am and gave Nelly a wake up call. Fifteen minutes later Neelesh calls up to say that he would be 20mins late. Finally Neelesh and Srikanth come over to my house, by around 8am and we ride towards Family Mart junction. By 8.30am Nelly joined us and we start our ride towards NICE. Nothing exciting to talk about our journey towards NICE.
After about 50mins of riding, we reach the spot. Nelly surveys the place and he starts of with his wall riding immediately.
Looking at how Nelly does stuff, you feel its easy..until you try doing it. I had my own apprehensions and didn't do it then. After doing the wall ride, Nelly gave some gyan about how this can be done. The first thing, he pointed out, was to learn how to bunny hop. Gave us a few pointers about how to bunny hop and within an hour, we were bunny hopping......wow!
I seriously admire the way Nelly does these, and above all, the way he explains it. He takes you through the process step by step, explaining in detail the things that you have to do and things you have to keep in mind. It was really amazing. If not for the way he explained it, we would have probably taken a day or two to learn instead of an hour.
We then graduated to the next level and practiced Bunny hopping over a obstacle 1foot apart. Man!, we were in the air, flying.....:)
It takes some serious hard work and nothing comes easy, everyone had their share of cuts and bruises.
After a while, Nelly talked us through side hops, lifting our rear wheels without braking. It was fun and we thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it.
After watching Nelly do the wall ride, I couldn't resist myself from trying it out. Myself and Neelesh, we did the wall ride a couple of times and had a terrible fall once(unfortunately camera wasn't rolling, damn :().....its a little scary after you've had a fall. Neelesh hadn't eaten anything in the morning and wasn't hydrated well enough. You know the outcome, he cramped in his thighs...and we decided to call it quits!
Dilip had an event at his office, and had informed us that he would join us late in the afternoon. But his event got cancelled and joined us by around 11am.
After about an hour of chit chatting, we decided to explore some trails. We set off and had to prematurely end, as it was getting hot and we didn't have enough water. And I had the second fall of the day, I was standing on the peddle, on one leg towards the left side of the bike, when I hit a stone and toppled over my bike. Srikanth had a nice view of me falling from behind :). The terrain was a bit thorny, Nelly had 2 punctures and I had 3....phew! Fixed those and we turned back towards the city. Half way through Neelesh was slowing down mainly because of exhaustion. He took the ride back home slow and easy.
Gullu joined was near Konankunte, bought us some water. Had a nice lunch at a nearby hotel and headed back home.
Now after 2 days, my forearms, shoulders, biceps, triceps, neck....bloody every single muscle is aching.....I guess have to do this more often.
For the complete set of pictures click here and video playlist click here
{UPDATE}: After this was posted, the community took notice and reacted in a very strong way...
TFN has a mention in Outlook Traveller Feb 2009 edition. Get out and grab a copy of it ASAP. The article about TFN is written by rider on TFN. The best part is many of us didn't know that he was a reporter from Outlook until the article came out. Thanks to Hari Menon.
A lot of guys on TFN are thrilled by that fact that the photos they clicked have been printed in the magazine. The photos were clicked by Aravind Teki, Prashanth Kota, Deepak Majipatil, Nelly and myself.
© Tour of Nilgiris.
© Tour of Nilgiris.
© Tour of Nilgiris.
All these pictures are published under the creative commons license
These photos were taken on day 3 and 4 of the tour. Day 4(Sultanbathery to Ooty) I guess was one of the most picturesque routes on the tour.
Now get a copy for yourself and enjoy reading!
