Wondering why Episode 3 took 45hrs to appear on our blog? Read on to know why!
The 5:45AM Saturday morning – pleasant weather, no traffic – seemed to promise a great ride chronicle!
The chroniclers rocked up at the Specialized Concept Store on time to kick-off the awesome ride.
Wait a minute! Someone just broke a spoke, even before the ride started. Doh! Luckily Suraj who was leading the ride decided to jump in to fix the broken spoke. After a 10 minute effort to get Lokesh back on the road we figured the wheel was no longer true and Lokesh had to DNF the ride.
Moral of this story: Do not un-cleat inwards into the wheel. You could end up damaging more that just a spoke.
Back to our ride.
We took-off and rode towards Old Madras Road (OMR), The first of many hick-up’s to come was a traffic jam at K. R. Puram flyover — a traffic jam at 06:30am!! Still can’t believe it. We continued onto Whitefield, until we hit the 1st pothole. The the second, the third pot… “Noooo! That’s a crater”. Like wise we endured many land mine explosions until we reached a left turn to Chikka Thirupathi.
Side-note: There were so many trucks with “AWAZ DEDO” symbols on them that at one point we were confused about the number of riders in our group. The next 18kms was a beauty — made from road bikers dreams!
Just a kilometre after reaching the destination we spotted 2 cyclist pushing their bikes towards Chikka Tirupathi. Guess what? One of them had a flat tire and he had no clue about how to fix it. Our hero’s, Suraj & Arjun, stopped by to help them. They were also generous enough to shared their list of ride essentials.
Kilometers 50-65 were a Paris Roubaix setting and our riders lived upto the true spirit of hammering it on those cobbles.
The final kilometres leading towards Old Airport Road was all about getting stuck in another traffic jam at the Marathahalli flyover. Took us over 15 mins to clear.
Recommendation: Donot ride on the Marathahalli stretch.
With that said, it was a great ride, but “Never, ever again are we riding this ride again”
Definitely a good chronicle of a not-do ride!
A funny moment about the Garmin Edge 510 on the ride
Tarun: “I want to buy the Edge 520, I don’t like the touch on the Edge 510”
Arjun: “Hey! What man, you don’t like touching eh?”
Well, we found it funny.
Missed the ride? Here’s the route – https://www.strava.com/clubs/8986/group_events/74071
Do keep a look out for our rides on Strava.
BOTS Strava Club – www.strava.com/clubs/bumsonthesaddle
Know the next route that you think we should Chronicle? Shout em out!!
Cheers!!
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT CYCLING
Having started cycling quite late in life, I love riding whatever I get my hands-on! I love the sense of accomplishment I get every time I ride my bike and the fact that I feel younger with more saddle time. I enjoy riding my road bike hard on gravel and am looking forward to someday riding The Paris-Roubaix challenge.
DISCIPLINE: Mountain Biking & Gravel Road
CURRENT BIKE(S): Specialized Allez Comp & Specialized Rockhopper Pro
DREAM BIKE: S-Works Stumpjumper FSR & CruX Expert X1
OTHER PASSIONS: Dogs, Cooking, Photography & Travel
