Recently my wife pointed out a piece of furniture that she loved at Mark Cuban’s house that she saw in an interview. I asked her, who is Mark Cuban ? She said, oh he is an internet billionaire, you don’t know about him ? I did a little research and I found he is an impressive guy. Read a bit more about him and it seemed amazing how he had build Billion $ internet businesses without any professional computer training and how had learned himself to create a business and then huge wealth for himself.

Then I saw a book that he has written and is available only as an eBook ! This was the first time I had seen that ! I used to think publishers publish eBooks for books that are successful and there was a huge demand for them on the internet etc…

Every review of the book I came across said it is a must read ! So I bought the book on Amazon! I don’t own a kindle device, but Amazon has made it super simple for people to download and install apps / softwares across mobile apps and computers.

I commute to office in an Auto (It gives me 3 hours of reading / playing time on my phone everyday) and I started reading this book on phone. I just love the way kindle syncs up the current reading status across all the devices I can continue reading the book on my computer once I reach home and the kindle software just works !

The other amazing part about having a eBook is that I don’t have to find where the book is in my home, I have it always available to me on all my devices ! I have decided to buy only eBooks from now on ! And recently bought another eBook (although the physical book was cheaper than the eBook) !

I fell in love with skoda fabia the moment i test drove the fabia 1.6 it is simply amazing. It vrooms like a dream, and i love the way its suspenssion is tuned, glides over the potholes of bangalore …
But after reading all the horrible after sales service of skoda in India, i dont want to buy any skoda car in India. I wonder if the skoda service is the same across the world?

It is amazing how skoda is able to sell so many rapids despite of having a crappy service. Does it mean a lot of us dont care enough about the after sales service when we buy the cars? Or is it that people dont research enought / are not able to find information before buying.

Actually i did a simple google search and the bad service horror stories are right on top. Hmm… So i guess people dont care much about the after sales service and buy the car they like ! And i guess the ones who do, dont buy skoda

Bike cleaned, chain lubricated, bought a new front & tail light and reflective vest. Had enough nutribars, electrols, spare tubes, puncture kit… & enough in me to finish the ride.

Woke up @4, got ready and off to cubbon park, started a bit late with a fantastic rider Harish (met him on TFN), good steady ride once the highway started. First break and breakfast after 50 km. Targeted to reach the 104KM mark by 11 AM

BUT…

around 86 KM down (in close to 3.5 hours) – 2 spokes of the rear wheel broke. The wheal bent and jammed against the break in the middle of no where… No bike shops around, closest place to sit & eat was 3 KM behind.

So the ride was over for me, I walked 3 KM back to CCD at the nearest town Maddur. Informed the Ride Director and called Varun (a very close friend) to come and take me home…

Bad luck or bad bike ? Not too sure… The same thing happened to me on TFN and now I am planning to change all the spokes on my bike.

I wish I had bought a better bike! But when I bought the bike, I never knew I would be doing this distance and this pace

Tour of Nilgiris is a cycling tour organized by Ride a Cycle foundation in December every year. This yeas it was around 1000 KM tour spread across 8 days (7 riding + 1 rest) with 2 major climbs to Ooty (Day 3) and then to Sultan Bathery (Day 7).

I was super excited about TFN last year (2009) and was preparing well for it. I didn’t get an invite from the famous Jack Lee I got busy with work and couldn’t get on the saddle for a few months. I registered within the first 25 seconds the registration opened this year and I was in

I had around 4 – 5 months to prepare and I thought I would train as hard as I can, get in shape and do the tour as if I was doing Tour de France All I did was plan to train and couldn’t get to training… There were a lot of opportunities to train, a couple of really long rides, back to back Bangalore – Mysore (150 km mostly downhill) & Mysore – Bangalore (150 km, steady uphill I guess and strong head winds I have heard) but I couldn’t take the time out. So my first long ride this year was Day 1 of TFN.

I replaced my office chair with a gym ball a month before TFN (in order to strengthen my back) and it helped a lot! (Actually, I have switched to gym ball permanently now)

I bought a couple of riding jerseys & shorts, spare tubes, brake pads, puncture kits, sipper bottles, I had a cut on my rear tyre so I replaced both front and rear tyres, got the handle bar tape on my BTwin Sport 1 changed from white to black, bought enough electral and gluconD, bought a water proof video camera and changed my pedals to platform pedals for TFN.

Bike Clinic

TFN organizes a bike clinic (in association with BSA, BSA is one of the major sponsors of the Tour) where they service your bike and get it in shape for TFN. I wanted to get the handle bar tape changed, FD & RD adjusted and chain degreased and lubricated. They did a good job on the FD & RD adjustment, but I guess they used a bad lubricant (My chain was squeaking on Day 2) Also I thought, they would check the wheels for trueness, which they didn’t and I had to pay the price on Day 4! The tape came off on Day 4 too

Next year, no leaving the mechanic’s work on anyone else, I would do it myself…

After the chest congestion and the Diwali vacation… Getting back to training for TFN. I hope there are no more distractions this time. Need to build endurance fast, real fast !

There is anyways a bet between Gupta and Khurana about me getting on the saddle on the third day. I plan to ride all the days !

Will keep posting the updates.