Fun Sustainable Transport
Biker of the week - Dheeraj Reddy
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Dheeraj Reddy
About me:
My name is Dheeraj Reddy, 21 years old. I’m mostly harmless except on days ending with ‘y’. I’m a Banglorean, at least for 15.231897 years now. Work at ThoughtWorks’s new division Studios .
I’ve always loved bikes, right from 1991 when I learnt to cycle, till date. I used to cycle to school from my 6th grade (1996) onwards till my 11th. This is when the hormones kicked in and I traded my bi-cycle for an annoying Kinetic Honda!!!! Soon, I had to get a real bike, and after days of arguing with dad, got myself a Royal Enfield Thunderbird, and I still love the bike. But then came along Bangalore traffic! Can’t get anywhere without road rage, jams, annoying idiots on the road, and some very merry taxi drivers mixed with namma bengalooru auto drivers. It was so bad I might as well have used a bi-cycle to commute; it’d probably take lesser time!!!! flash, wait, that is exactly what I should be doing.
I stay in Taverekere (near Dairy Circle), and my work is at Diamond District (Airport Road), a distance of 17kms round-trip. Could I do it? Well I had to try it, so I contacted the cycle man in the office Rohan Kini, and asked if he had a bike I could borrow. Turns out he had a spare bike, a Hero Thunder (note the irony….no!.... I have an Enfield Thunderbird!!), so I took it, to try biking to office. It wasn’t half as hard as I thought it would be, the brakes can be an issue sometimes, but I’d cycled long enough to know that all brakes are like that and I’m better off using my feet to stop the bike. Now I’m pumped up, I know I can do this, and I need to get my own bike to do this….. Kini suggests BumsOnTheSaddle! So I do look at the TREKs, their cost, have a good laugh and say no way. But a quick ride on a TREK changed everything. Just like a Royal Enfield, this bike is obviously better than all other bikes I’d been on and so I had to buy it :) !!
Since then biking to work has never been more fun, so much so that, I start my Enfield once a week just to make sure it doesn’t give up on me and I use my TREK for everything else, including Sunday English breakfast @ Pecos (off Brigade road). Just some statistics for your reference- Home to Work, 8.5kms
- By Car : 45min to 1hr
- By Motorbike: 30min – 45min
- By Bi-cycle: freaking 25min!!!
- It’s faster (statistics don’t lie)
- It’s healthier!! Burn all that beer
- Go green
- Reduce congestion on the roads
- No need to ever bribe the traffic cops again!!
One question a lot of people have asked me is about safety of both me and the cycle. This is what I did, got a helmet, some for the night time riding, and a really strong lock and chain. Cycling in the traffic isn’t as bad as people imagine, you need a little road sense and that will keep you out of harm, moreover, I know people who got hit by a vehicle when they were walking next a road, didn’t stop anyone from walking did it. Just watch what’s happening around, don’t use ipods, radios and other music emitting devices in your ears and of course…. A little common sense, and you can reduce your risk by 95%. And the brakes on a TREK are really good, so now risk is down to 98%. Another question I get is about getting all sweaty by the time I reach office. I actually carry a change of clothes, and once I get to office, take a shower and change. Make life easy, just means I have to get to work 15min earlier than before, but this isn’t a problem, because you’re making up that time by using the cycle anyway!!
So, do yourself, Bangalore and the rest of the world a favor and get a Bi-cycle, and bike around everyday.