Thursday, July 24, 2014

Fixing a tyre puncture

Ever since I started cycling again in 2009, I never had a tyre puncture... till a few weeks back. So after two weeks of ignoring it, I finally decided to fix the puncture myself. At least attempt to. 
And what an attempt it was! I took my own sweet time, but it's all well! :D




Monday, April 21, 2014

Long Sunday solo ride



25 kms + long break +23 kms. 
Awesome fun!

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

GoPro on the helmet

The other day, Nandu uncle lent me his gopro hero 3+ silver edition camera. The first thing I tried to do was to fix the tiny camera on my light bike helmet and realised that the helmet mount wouldn't fit on the contours of my helmet... So I had to tie it up to the helmet with a ribbon. I found a sufficiently nondescript ribbon which wasn't that prominently seen.
This is how the contraption looked like
 
I had to go meet Shruti and Pooja to attend a Bharatanatyam dance performance at Omkareshwar temple yesterday, and I decided to shoot a video of that short ride.
 
This is it! :D 
Not bad for a first try, eh? 

Thursday, April 10, 2014

My bergamont is 3 years old!!! :D

A lot of things have changed since I bought the Bergamont. I'm three years older, slightly more confident about my work and myself. My priorities have shifted slightly, and I do admit I am slightly more responsible. I am more confident about biking on climbs now, and my endurance has increased as has my patience, tolerance and acceptance levels and I'm single (yet again). 
What has not changed is how much I love the bike.

This is what I looked like the day I bought my Bergamont:


  
I still look cute.

Friday, March 14, 2014

two posts in one

26th January 2014 

Republic day in all education institutes in the country are celebrated with patriotic speeches and songs on the PA system and flag hoisting. It's time for patriotism and bravado. 
This year I decided to attend this celebration because the students organised an alternate transportation day which meant we could either cycle/skate to college or take the college bus. 
We were to start at 7.30 AM from the college hostel which is a little beyond the chandni chowk toll naka. But I started from home at that time since I didn't expect anything to start on time, and also because I was hoping to not embarrass myself by cycling slowly in front of all my students as I had just recently recovered from an illness which kept me out of action for nearly all of 2013. Nothing like that happened. I met a student who was struggling with his bike before chandni chown. He stopped for a water break, but asked me to continue as he said he might take a lot of time. I saw a few more of his classmates cycling towards us, so I thought it'll be fine and carried on to CC. Surprisingly, I did that climb much better than I used to and as I reached the top, I saw a few teachers waiting there for the bus. After a quick chat, I continued on the undulating route to the college at Pirangut. I met a few more students on the way who needed slight encouragement or their chain fixed which wasn't a major problem. Along the way, there were a few students clicking photos of all of us cyclists 'Tour de France style' and everyone who cycled was received at the college parking lot with extreme enthusiasm. In all, there were 80 cyclists and 4 skaters. The rest of the gang took the bus! And considering the fact that there are only about 300 people in the college, this event was a roaring success! 
Later, I cycled back home as well :D



13th March 2014

There's a short patch of road running parallel to Karve Road which I take to ride to my yoga class. It's a nicely undulating and winding road which goes along a piece of Kirloskar property and between a few housing societies. It's not too crowded most of the times. So as I was riding back home after yoga, I decided to do a little experiment. I tried riding the whole stretch of the road without holding the handlebar to see if I could manage the slopes and the curves in the road by simply tilting my body a bit to shift the center of gravity. It worked for about half a kilometre till I encountered one of the many ridiculously built speed breakers sprinkled all over town which is on a turn. 
But the experiment was a success. i could maintain my path along the edge of the winding road quite well.  




Monday, February 17, 2014

Monday Morning Ego Boost

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a Portuguese language Brazilian bicycling blog which featured a few of my comics. 
I was happy and blogged about it on my drawing blog :D
I happened to read that blog post of mine today and got another small dose of Ego Boost... And I was happy again :D 
Here are those comics: 











Friday, February 14, 2014

Am I really setting the right example?

a couple of weeks ago, I was cycling out to meet a few friends and was stopped by a few school kids from nearby. They didn't know my name, so they screamed out 'tai' a few time till i heard them through my earphones blaring out music I like. I turned around and rode towards them and they asked me if they could ride my bike. And they offered me their fancy new bikes to test ride. 



Imagine... a twenty nine year old girl connecting with eleven year old kids over bicycles! 

They were continuously talking about their bikes and somewhere over the course of the conversation, I went from being 'Tai' to being 'Kaku'...
And then, the one kid who talked the least said to me: "I see you riding around here without holding the handlebar and fiddling with your phone."

Yes, I was shocked... I didn't know I was setting examples.
THE WRONG KINDS!