Hey guys, my name is Pawan and I got into cycling with a simple gift to myself in November 2016 – a bicycle!
I learned how to ride the bike with the help of a few friends and started with just riding in and around the locality – short distances, typically to the shopping complex or to my dance classes.
By January 2017, a few months later, I had started commuting to work on my bike and eventually starting riding my bike everywhere I went! It was addictive.
Over the years I’ve slowly increased my mileage with daily distances varying from 50km to 100km even. These rides are the best way to enjoy scenic routes & destinations around Bangalore and with the benefits of cycling as an exercise.
Connecting with BUMSONTHESADDLE helped me on multiple fronts – I connected with the local cycling community on the regular rides they conduct, worked on my cycling and bike-maintenance skills at their monthly basic bicycle maintenance workshops and managed to become completely self-sufficient on long rides. With this sense of confidence, I started the year 2020 with my first BRM – a 200 km ride from Bangalore, where we cycled up to the Nandi-hills! This was a fantastic personal achievement for me.
All this inspired me to be a part of their Ride Leadership Program which powers a lot of these riding activities as it allowed me to give back to the local riding scene.
Being a Ride Lead during rides – a leisure ride or a brevet – is a fantastic way to share what you have or know. Somethings that I really enjoy
- Taking riders on amazing routes far from the city’s chaos
- Sharing bike-handling skills and maintenance do’s/don’ts
- Helping riders ride longer and ride faster
- Teaching newbies how to be a lot more comfortable on the saddle
- Taking great pictures of riders on beautiful routes to remind them of something great that they had accomplished!
Being a part of the Ride Lead team is a great pleasure as I think it’s a superb platform to explore and learn something new every-day and contribute to the cycling community.
Local riding opportunities are the best way to create a culture and lifestyle of cycling in our cities. We’ve experimented with this for over a decade and have put together a simple Ride Leadership program to help grow cycling in Bangalore.
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT CYCLING
I’m an avid mountain biker and I like riding fast and flowy singletrack. As I keep riding, I continuously work on honing my riding skills. I like to ride whenever possible, especially with friends. I also like to influence folk into getting to ride more often.
Working on bicycles has also been a keen interest of mine for quite some time.
DISCIPLINE: Mountain biking and Road biking
CURRENT BIKE: Merida One Twenty 9.600 & Specialized Allez Elite DSW
DREAM BIKE: Santa Cruz 5010
