Eleven years

I've done the comparison before!

 

But that was drastic- Almost a two decade jump... Including a whole decade (1999-2009) of little to no cycling (I didn't even own a bicycle those days!) This one is me as a 25 year old in 2009 (the year I bought a new cycle.) Vs me as a 36 year old! With the decade where cycling was fairly constant.

*BUMP*

Yes, I am still alive (obviously... I've been blogging on my other blog/s on and off) and I've not given up cycling. Although I don't cycle as much as I used to (Varied factors.) But 2019 was an especially bad year for me and my bike as I barely cycled while my poor bike gathered dust and the bike chain jammed up and well... Not much went my way and now that I look back, and had all classic symptoms of mild depression (I'm assuming mild, I didn't consult a therapist.)

But 2019 is behind us. And 2020- although the ultimate gas leak year for the entire world... Has been rather kind to me...Or I have been kind(er) to myself in 2020. One fine day just before the government declared lock-down, I fixed my Bergamont (By myself) and began riding in the mornings. Waking up early was the first step towards mental well being, I realised. And as a result, I was sleeping early, eating optimally. It was superb.

Then one fine day they asked us to stop going out completely but that lasted about three weeks and it was fine to cycle again (but this time with masks?) I've been slowly building up my stamina with cycling, squash and yoga and a lot of walking. It's been the highlight of this period for me. Yes, a shitshow is going to hit us soon enough... but I might as well be physically fit to be able to handle it as well as I can.

I've been cycling again for the past three months and I couldn't be happier! Sometimes alone and sometimes with friends who I bump into. Summer mornings are great. and with no sun Two days ago thanks to cyclone Nisarg, it has been raining but I still managed to cycle.

It's been awesome.

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

Long Sunday solo ride

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

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.

 

Ride to Omkareshwar from Meghana Kulkarni on Vimeo.

This is it! :D 

Not bad for a first try, eh? 

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.

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 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: 

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!

One year of funk

A year ago, I assembled and installed wheel lights on my bike wheel rims. The rig on my back wheel got stolen a few months ago, but miraculously the lights on the front wheel are still intact and working well :D

I love my bike

Today, I felt like a pilot fish

As I rode my bike around a turn on a junction with a massive slope and no traffic signal, I chose to do so riding alongside a car that was also taking the same turn.
I did that because no one stops for a bicycle on such a turn. A car is big and being by it's side has it's advantages. It makes way for small fry on the road like me..

I suddenly felt like a pilot fish that swims along with sharks.

Image from wikipedia 

It's only when someone else rode my bike...

... that I realised how amazing my wheel lights were!

Put some fun between your legs!

Tron bike video

Shot by @hephail :D

TRON-ESQUE

Many Many moons ago, I came across a bike wheel lighting system called monkeylectric and I thought to myself- I should get me one of those... 
but I couldn't afford it.

I had this toy which would throw light on a coloured strip of paper and would make colour rings when spun.

That inspired me to buy some LEDs and batteries and created a spoke light which looked really good on my old bike.
It wasn't a very a very practical design, so I gave up soon. 

Then after two long years, I came across another DIY lighting system. I liked it and headed off to my local electrical shop where I discovered this: A self adhesive strip of tiny LEDs which are cut according to requirement. 

  

Just a matter of soldering the contacts with that battery connector thingy.

The self adhesive LED strip should then be fitted on the inside surface of the wheel. Valve to valve.

        

The 9 v battery should be taped to the spokes such that the battery wire connector can be attached to it. 

The battery connector acts like a switch.

The LED strip cost me a hundred bucks a metre. I bought two 2 m long strips, two 9 v batteries, two battery contacts and some black electrical tape.
I spent Rs 480 for the whole contraption.

Switch on the lights and take the bike out for a spin in the dark!

LOOK MA NO HANDS!

*thud*... NOT!

Shoe shots

I love clicking pictures of my feet and shoes. But lately, shooting the same kind of photos became monotonous. So this morning when I was cycling to yoga, I decided to click photos of my shoes while riding! 

And a few of them came out well. I did have a couple of heart in mouth moments when I almost lost my balance while I was taking those pictures, but overall it was quite amusing :D

two glasses of wine

Two glasses of wine, a wonderful lunch, great company and a cup of coffee later, I enjoyed riding back home more than usual!

Fixing the valve

For the last two weeks, my bergamont was lying about in my stilt parking gathering dust because of the front tyre valve which refused to let any air being pumped in the tube. And because I had no time to get it fixed because I was just flittering back and forth from site to site and home. And college.

So day before yesterday when I was bored of work- just having watched a movie called 'Whip It!' (it's about roller derby) I felt like skating. So I went to the store room to search for my old skates.

I couldn't find them.

But then I happened to notice my bike lying around gathering more dust even as I walked towards it. Instinctively, I undid the front break, pulled the quick release wheel lever and took the front wheel up to my room. I washed it, fixed the presta valve pin which had to be straightened. I pumped air in wheel and took it down, fixed it back on the bike, washed the bike clean and was ready to go.

I will probably start servicing and fixing my bike myself from now on...

I was just going through this lovely blog I recently started following called girls and bicycles, and came across this post.