“On TFN, I would ride 1,000+ Km in 8 days It is not a flat route, it has 2 killer climbs Ooty and Sultan Bathery”

Why am I doing it ?

I guess for the same reason every endurance athlete does what he does – To explore my boundaries… To challenge myself for something out of my league and then, do it.
I want to finish an Ironman one day. I guess after TFN I would be ready at least for the 180 KM cycling bit

How am I planning to prepare?

In short:

1. Quit smoking – done (It has been around a month since I last smoked. I would write another blog about it in sometime…)
2. Get the weight down to around 80Kg
3. Ride as much as I can !

(Still need to figure out If I am missing something. Maybe I will ask someone who has done TFN’09 and update here)

7th May 2009

I had a tough time selecting the right bike for me! When I come to think of it, it actually took me much longer to pick a bike than it took me to buy a car!

Why do I need a bike?

1. Weight wise, I am a bit (hmm… actually a lot) on the heavier side, so I wanted myself to engage in a physical activity, which gives me a good workout (Running is great! But running alone becomes a pain sometimes…)

2. I am becoming a bit cautious of how we (humans) are screwing up this world for the generations to come. Be it Global Warming, Pollution, Energy Crisis, Obesity!

3. Most of my weekends (actually it’s just the Sunday that we take off) include catching-up with my sleep, watching a movie, occasionally reading something etc…. all the boring stuff that I am sure you guys do as well. I wanted to get out and explore places around Bangalore (and what better way to do it than on a bike)

(enough now! I am sure you have similar reasons)

How much was my budget?

So the first thing I got asked when I went to bicycle shop in Jayanagar was “How much is your budget?” Well, I hadn’t thought of a figure yet, I wanted to get an idea of how much do bikes cost these days! I said “close to 3000, and I want a bike with gears” (because as far I can remember when I left cycling around 12 years ago, bikes used to cost around 1000 for a decent bike and I thought the rates would have tripled at max). The shopkeeper smiled, and said “sir itne mein to kuch nahi milega”. I was surprised. Was it just Bangalore or do bikes now cost much more than that? I came back and googled for the brands that I could recall. It was Hero and BSA. Spend a whole day researching on net and found out that there is a new Indian brand that has come up called Firefox. So I almost finalized on a couple of bikes and they were all between 6,000 and 8,000. I though that’s ok, I can manage to spend that much on a bike. It would get me in shape and I would have fun over the weekends – all this while saving the world! I was about to go to a shop the next Sunday, and I googled for reviews of a Firefox bike. It somehow took me to bums on the saddle website, and I thought let me check them out. The bikes on their websites were expensive, starting from around 17,000. I thought let me checkout what’s so special about these bikes anyways…

I called up Rohan and he said I could come on a Saturday morning. I was traveling to Delhi for work, so I visited BOTS 2 Saturday after that. The first question that I got asked was “What do you need the bike for?” (Ah! Finally, a question that I had the answer for!). Rohan explained the differences between different TREK models that they had, why were they costlier than Heros and BSAs of this world. Guys at BOTS were kind enough to let me test ride a few models of TREK and I could understand what he was saying and how could that be potentially correct, but I had to ride the hero and firefox bikes that I had kinda short listed to really feel the difference.

I went back to the same shop in Jayanagar and he somehow agreed to let me ride the bikes in 50 meters circles within his shop. I could feel a world of a difference between any of the 6-8K even 12K firefox bike and the TREK 3700 (the entry level bike ~ 17,000).

So I was in a fix again! I wasn’t sure if I would ride that much to justify the 17K that I put into a TREK bike. So I gave myself a week to let it settle down in my mind and if the fire to ride a bike was still so strong I would go and buy a TREK.

During that week, someone mentioned that there is a big store called Decathlon that we should go and checkout and see if LifeMojo should become a reseller for them. I had a look at their website and wow, they had bicycles starting from 25K. I googled decathlon bikes and figured out that these guys are a good brand in Europe. I spoke to them over phone and they said they are coming out with a big store near Surjapur and their entry level bike starts around 11K. I thought it might be worthwhile to wait for them to setup the store and checkout their bikes as well. I checked with Rohan and he said they might have good bikes in India too.

Then I got super busy with LifeMojo and couldn’t get time to check out any of the bikes for a couple of weeks.

The fire was still on! I came back from a trip to Delhi and Hyderabad and the first thing that I wanted to do was to get a bike and start riding. I had decided on TREK 3700 and the only brand left to checkout was Decathlon. I went to the store and rode almost all the models that they had.

Decathlon is a bit slow in updating their website with the latest that they have. So I couldn’t check the specs of the bike before making the decision. I relied on Rohan’s feedback, tried their 5.1 and 5.2 models. I had kind of made my mind about the 5.1 because of how much it costs, but when I tried 5.2, I fell in love with it. It is a super neat bike!

Finally took the plunge, bought the 5.2 and am super happy with it now.

27th September 2009

The cost justification

Justifying the cost of buying an expensive bike is the major cause that I have heard for people to go with sub quality bikes… So here is what I have been doing with the new bike:

1. Sundays: I ride every weekend either on Nandi Hills, or in the BBCh events.

2. Weekdays: I ride 4 out of rest 6 days around 25 Km each day. (A bonus that I hadn’t thought of)

3. I have lost 6 Kg since I bought the bike.

4. I am already thinking about upgrading to a Road Bike ( which would cost even more ? )

How good is the Bike? Here is a review that I wrote after a month of riding and I still feel the same way about the bike.

I hope this helps you make a good decision on buying a good bike…

15th and 16th August was a long weekend for Team LifeMojo after a long time. Varun Khurana and I love training (running for varun and cycling for me) on mountains. We enjoyed the Nandi climb a few weeks back and wanted to train on a different mountain this time ( this way we all have an outing as well ). Varun Gupta was nice enough to become our support (with the vehicle) for this training session

We somehow managed to fit in my bike in my Santro (Nangia Airlines) and pushed off. There was no space for the guy sitting in the back seat to keep his legs down, so it became a sleeper birth ( the only Business Class Seat in Nangia Airlines )

On the way to Yercaud, we stopped at Salem for lunch and then decided to train (run / ride) on the uphill the next day morning. On the way up we noticed a lot of monkeys near the base, but there were few of them near the top. After a fun filled evening on 15th (guess what we did) we woke up a bit late than we decided (thanks to me ). We got ready and reached the hairpin bend no 5 at around 8AM and got the bike together.

The Training

It is a nice 8Km climb (with 2% – 12% gradient) to the top (from hairpin bend no. 5 to 20).  After 500 meters or so, I realized I am not able to shift properly, the screw that maintains tension in the gears had been replaced a few days back and I knew that was to be fixed. We had to wait for 10 minutes till I got that back into shape and we started again. Varun Khurana ran almost at the same pace as I rode my bike (which means he is a nice runner). Varun Gupta was with us the whole time, helping us with Gatorade, Water and moral support.

The Finish

When we started, Varun was ahead, halfway up the climb (after I took a leak), I was ahead and then Varun climbed on hairpin bend 18 or 19, skipping 100 meters and took a lead of about 50 meters. As soon as he saw the destination, he started pacing up. Seeing him do that I shouted lets race and moved my gears to 2 – 6 (the same gear ratio that I usually use on flat roads). I gave it all I had and I think I reached 15 seconds before him.

Overall It was great fun !

I am not your usually Adventure Junkie who would just pull up his socks and hop on the saddle when he reads that. In fact my first reaction was “Nandi Hills, yeh I have been there once or twice. I don’t remember it to be that steep a climb. Why do people love it so much?”. The reason was, I had been to Nandi Hills before but at 3 AM on usually Saturday nights after enjoying “somras” with a couple of close friends. So I was reconstructing the feeling of being at Nandi Hills with the glimpses of what I remember

This Sunday, I decided to give it a shot. It was a group riding session that a few people from the BBC (Bangalore Biking Club) were organizing. I couldn’t locate the way to Hebbal Flyover and at some place, I guess at Makeri Circle, I took a left and went 30 Kms towards Tumkur. Anyways cutting the long story short… I reached the assembly point 1.5 hrs late. There was no point turning back now so I thought I would climb the Nandi alone and If I meet someone on the way it would be great.

I reached the Idli Point and then got together with 3 more bikers to ride nandi. I parked my car there and we starting riding up hill. It was kinda boring flat road till the Bull Statue around 4 Km from the Idli Point, but it got way more interesting after that.

From the Statue to the top is a 8 Km uphill climb. I usually ride 22Kms daily in around 1.5 hours in the city, so I thought 8 K uphill should not be that tough. But I found myself breathless at the 4 Km mark and I knew it would only go steeper.

I saw a few riders coming downhill at what I guess was above 60 Km/hr. The smile on their face made me do the full 8 Km climb. One of them even stopped and asked me if everything was ok and if I needed any help. That was amazing, a complete stranger, stopping and asking if I needed any help! – I haven’t seen people doing that too often. I guess like Runners, Riders are a close community as well.

From the 4 Km mark, I would have stopped at every Km mark and stretched my legs, had water, enjoyed the view and then thought “This is nice! I can do this!” I finally reached the top and we posed for a few photographs and then started downhill.

The ride downhill is indeed really awesome – I can’t describe it in words, you have to do it to feel it.

http://www.lifemojo.com/people/namit/post/1986036

The Lot: Before buying this bike I had considered Trek 3700 and 4300, Marida Sub V10 and V20, Cannondale F9 (All around INR 17 – 23 K) and finally settled on RockRider 5.2 because of the following reasons.

What’s good?

1. Suspension – it is better than most of the bikes I tried out.
2. Cost – it costs least amongst the lot I was considering.
3. Brakes – better than the rest.
4. Frame – I have absolutely no idea how people judge the quality of the frame. I guess you have to take manufacturer’s word for it. Decathlon claims to have same quality of frame as others.
5. Gear Shifters – I have seen trigger shifters, wrist shifters and thumb (push) shifters on a MTB till now. Of these 3 I personally prefer the thumb shifters because the fingers are busy braking, wrist is busy supporting me and thumbs are free, so it is great that 5.2 has thumb shifters.
6. Looks – If this is something that matters to you, 5.2 comes in a rocking grey and black and looks slick!
7. Chain Stay cover – 5.2 is the only bike of the lot to have a rubber + form covers over the chain stay to prevent scratches on the frame. To me this shows they have cared enough to bundle this essential but most often overlooked accessory along with the bike.

What’s not so great?

1. Gears – I tried playing with them and I think I screwed them a bit, but overall, I think the entire gear assembly could have been a bit better. It is a bit noisy.
2. Weight – it weighs around 13.5Kg and is a bit heavier than some in the lot but when I look at how much I weigh, I can’t complain

Everything else I guess is similar to the other bikes in the same range.

Overall: Great value for money (In Bangalore, India it costs INR 15.5K if you are a reseller)

Relief: I went for targeted weight training for these two areas (although there wasn’t much that I could find for the knee) which made bit of a difference.

I think the major relief came from 2 things.

For the Hamstrings: adjusting the saddle (seat) height for my height.

For the right knee: It was interesting that I had pain only in the right knee and not the left ! I figured, the right knee is at maximum stress when I start riding from a stationary position. So guess what was causing the pain? It was the laziness of shifting gears !

I changed these to things for today’s ride! and guess what, not only did the pain go away, I had enough left in me to complete 1 mile running while at lalbagh !

It is Decathlon Rockrider 5.2 ( Size: L – 19″ Frame Size ). It costed me INR 15,499 for the bike and some 1,000 change for the accessories – lock + basic toolkit + saddle cover.

I bought it last Monday (4th May, evening) and it was fun taking it from the decathlon store to home. You guys can imagine 3 guys and a bike in one Maruti Alto We stopped at the food court at Total Mall on the way back to celebrate my new bike, Sandwiches there were great!

I took it for a ride the very next morning I rode 22.58 Km in 2 hours leisurely riding across the city. More than exploring new routes, it was more of getting comfortable with the bike. The bike is awesome!

I plan to compete in the Bangalore Duathlon (June 14), which is 20 Km Ride + 10 Km Running. I am not sure what is a decent time for it, but I would be happy to finish it in 3 Hrs (1.5 hrs each). And I would love to join the BBC (Bangalore Biking Club) on Sundays!

Burn fat not fuel – Byke along to a healthier life and a cleaner world! – (from the signature of One of the EMails on BBC)