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 !

Seth Godin - Permission Marketing Guru, shared a video on his blog. This is an amazing example of how things become viral.

Here is what I see – observe [and the equivalent for a startup like LifeMojo]

When there is just 1 guy doing it – it’s weird. [When founders, close friends and family uses the product or service]
When the 2nd guy joins him - then they start to get attention. [When the early adopters join-in]
When the 3rd guy joins in - it becomes something worth trying out. [When the first few customers join-in because of the early adopters]
And then the crowd joins in - it becomes something socially acceptable and it becomes worth doing. [When people start appreciating the product or the service and start bringing in more customers – this is the time when you build reporting as part of your product or service to start counting customers and sales :)]

Something interesting about Tea, Coffee and the stimulant caffeine

Dry tea has more caffeine by weight than coffee; nevertheless, more dried coffee is used than dry tea in preparing the beverage, which mean that a cup of brewed tea contains significantly less caffeine than a cup of coffee of the same size.

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea

June 7th: I went on to climb Nandi Hills on my bike. I had read a lot about how great it is to ride uphill and then how divine it is when you go around 60 Km/hr downhill.

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