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.
