It has been quite a while since the blog saw some keystrokes. The mania starts 24hrs before the ride date (Oct 27th) and comes as a surprise from Opendro. He has been the best buddy to ride with, ever since I rode with him my very first endurance 600 Brevet back in 2011 April and this was too tempting an offer to resist. Had to cancel my badminton plans for 27th and started prepping the bike for this run. To my mind it was just like a Brevet 300. I wanted to take the outer ring road while Opendro suggested a route via Kathirguppe. Kathriguppe won the bid and the rendezvous point was cool joint in Jayanagar. Why does the excitement kick in early. I can hardly get any sleep the night before and this was no different. Hit the bed by 12.30 and woke up by 4. Your mind at this point probably screaming from a well, heck.. that my daily routine.
Downgraded from an X6 to an M2 from micromax. But love its simplicity. Incoming, outgoing calls and SMS's. That's just about defines a phones purpose. The human mind works in crazy ways and wants a whole lot from something then you might want to check out this site and you sure will go nuts. I sure am going to miss the 5MP camera on the X6. The speaker on the M2 is real loud. Loud enough to wake up even my neighbors next door :-). After the irritating sound of the alarm, I get ready in no time and reached Cool joint signal where Opendro felt the rear tyre needed some more air. So we pumped it up a little and set on our journey to Mysore at 5.40AM. We took the JC road, KR market flyover and continued on the mysore highway. The road was in tatters and we managed it slow till we reached a little before NICE road junction. As dawn broke we were invited by lush greenery and cool breeze. We set a blistering pace as it was predominantly downhill. This reminded me of my trip last year on Hero Hawk where I rode with a friend till the palace and returned by Bus. And I thought nothing could beat the excitement the way it had happened. The cycling bug bite effect is still profound and I'm happy to have met most of my targets set this year. The prime target being a Super Randonneur. As I eagerly await my set of 4 medals and 1 Super Randonneur medal, there's quite a lot more that can be done in less time and the tightly packed weekends are a pure example.
Flashback - April 2011 and earlier..... :: Almost every other weekend trying hard to lay my hands on a Royal Enfield 350cc or looking for a replacement for my car. Somehow make a trip once a month to some place mostly by car. The diesel-head factor was slowly weaning away while the cold air from outside rejuvenated my senses. Change is inevitable and the flash of genius that decided the turning point was when I read my friend's father-in-law do a Bangalore-Kanyakumari and Bangalore-Mumbai on his road-bike. The Hero Hawk served me well for a year as I ended up riding at-least 15 kms every alternate day. Looking at my passion towards cycling, I soon became the proud owner of 'the Rubie' and the very first year clocked 4000kms.
Fast Forward present Day.....
Here I am, already through a set of tyres, a nearly worn out chain and a loose cassette and raring to go full throttle. Opendro and I meet at the rendezvous point and we navigate our way via JC road and then on the mysore road going over KR market. The stretch from the end of the KR market flyover till about NICE road junction is in tatters and if your bones are brittle or you teeth aren't white then you might want to consider riding rather slowly on this stretch. :-P. A suggestion is you may avoid this horrid stretch by taking the outer ring road (nayandahalli/deve gowda petrol bunk) which cuts the misery by half. The better alternative would probably be the Uttarahalli route that joins mysore road very close to the NICE road junction. Once we crossed NICE road the bikes rattles disappeared and the body soon settled down to a smooth rhythm. We picked up pace gently and were able to maintain a higher average due to the cool breeze (caused by speed) and a mild tailwinds. To add to the glory, Bangalore is at a higher altitude than Mysore. Hence the overall profile is a downhill. The first break was for bananas and I managed to eat 2 and stored the one for en-route nourishment. Opendro seemed quite pleased by this decision as he is more aware of my plans.. actually there are none. Ride hard, bonk, curse yourself for not deciding on supplements. But this time I was determined to eat at regular intervals. So the second break just before Mandya I ended up having a Nutribar and after about 10-15kms we stopped for tender coconut. We set a blistering pace and I suspect an average of nothing less than 35kph. We started at 5.40 from Jayanagar and reached mysore by 10.30am. One gets to experience the feeling of the crowd by just looking at their reactions. Some thumbs up... some go Ay!!! ..and others sneer, (in kannada) Cycligey helmetaaa? (a motorbiker riding without a helmet and he was amused looking at cyclists wearing one). A few riders on Royal Enfield's were all thumbs up on seeing us and that put a widened the smug grin on our faces. At one point as we stopped for bananas. Opendro halfway into eating, looked in disbelief. You might be wondering why? The banana didn't get peeled in the normal manner and there was an uneven cut on one side which opendro thought he might have consumed more calories than intended :-). Soon we hit the overhead canal that marks the entry into Mysore but we took the left (ring road) that bypasses Mysore town. 8 kms of headwinds and just a couple of sips left in the bottles. We had to reach the main road soon if we were to recharge our batteries. Soon we spotted a bakery to feast on dil-pasand and mango juice. After about half hour we were ready to take on the chamundi climb. This can be called a prelude to Nandi the gradient is gradual and there isn't any steep section. For a newbie it might be a tough one but for a rider who's climbed nandi, Chamundi climb would be relenting.
Downgraded from an X6 to an M2 from micromax. But love its simplicity. Incoming, outgoing calls and SMS's. That's just about defines a phones purpose. The human mind works in crazy ways and wants a whole lot from something then you might want to check out this site and you sure will go nuts. I sure am going to miss the 5MP camera on the X6. The speaker on the M2 is real loud. Loud enough to wake up even my neighbors next door :-). After the irritating sound of the alarm, I get ready in no time and reached Cool joint signal where Opendro felt the rear tyre needed some more air. So we pumped it up a little and set on our journey to Mysore at 5.40AM. We took the JC road, KR market flyover and continued on the mysore highway. The road was in tatters and we managed it slow till we reached a little before NICE road junction. As dawn broke we were invited by lush greenery and cool breeze. We set a blistering pace as it was predominantly downhill. This reminded me of my trip last year on Hero Hawk where I rode with a friend till the palace and returned by Bus. And I thought nothing could beat the excitement the way it had happened. The cycling bug bite effect is still profound and I'm happy to have met most of my targets set this year. The prime target being a Super Randonneur. As I eagerly await my set of 4 medals and 1 Super Randonneur medal, there's quite a lot more that can be done in less time and the tightly packed weekends are a pure example.
Flashback - April 2011 and earlier..... :: Almost every other weekend trying hard to lay my hands on a Royal Enfield 350cc or looking for a replacement for my car. Somehow make a trip once a month to some place mostly by car. The diesel-head factor was slowly weaning away while the cold air from outside rejuvenated my senses. Change is inevitable and the flash of genius that decided the turning point was when I read my friend's father-in-law do a Bangalore-Kanyakumari and Bangalore-Mumbai on his road-bike. The Hero Hawk served me well for a year as I ended up riding at-least 15 kms every alternate day. Looking at my passion towards cycling, I soon became the proud owner of 'the Rubie' and the very first year clocked 4000kms.
Fast Forward present Day.....
Here I am, already through a set of tyres, a nearly worn out chain and a loose cassette and raring to go full throttle. Opendro and I meet at the rendezvous point and we navigate our way via JC road and then on the mysore road going over KR market. The stretch from the end of the KR market flyover till about NICE road junction is in tatters and if your bones are brittle or you teeth aren't white then you might want to consider riding rather slowly on this stretch. :-P. A suggestion is you may avoid this horrid stretch by taking the outer ring road (nayandahalli/deve gowda petrol bunk) which cuts the misery by half. The better alternative would probably be the Uttarahalli route that joins mysore road very close to the NICE road junction. Once we crossed NICE road the bikes rattles disappeared and the body soon settled down to a smooth rhythm. We picked up pace gently and were able to maintain a higher average due to the cool breeze (caused by speed) and a mild tailwinds. To add to the glory, Bangalore is at a higher altitude than Mysore. Hence the overall profile is a downhill. The first break was for bananas and I managed to eat 2 and stored the one for en-route nourishment. Opendro seemed quite pleased by this decision as he is more aware of my plans.. actually there are none. Ride hard, bonk, curse yourself for not deciding on supplements. But this time I was determined to eat at regular intervals. So the second break just before Mandya I ended up having a Nutribar and after about 10-15kms we stopped for tender coconut. We set a blistering pace and I suspect an average of nothing less than 35kph. We started at 5.40 from Jayanagar and reached mysore by 10.30am. One gets to experience the feeling of the crowd by just looking at their reactions. Some thumbs up... some go Ay!!! ..and others sneer, (in kannada) Cycligey helmetaaa? (a motorbiker riding without a helmet and he was amused looking at cyclists wearing one). A few riders on Royal Enfield's were all thumbs up on seeing us and that put a widened the smug grin on our faces. At one point as we stopped for bananas. Opendro halfway into eating, looked in disbelief. You might be wondering why? The banana didn't get peeled in the normal manner and there was an uneven cut on one side which opendro thought he might have consumed more calories than intended :-). Soon we hit the overhead canal that marks the entry into Mysore but we took the left (ring road) that bypasses Mysore town. 8 kms of headwinds and just a couple of sips left in the bottles. We had to reach the main road soon if we were to recharge our batteries. Soon we spotted a bakery to feast on dil-pasand and mango juice. After about half hour we were ready to take on the chamundi climb. This can be called a prelude to Nandi the gradient is gradual and there isn't any steep section. For a newbie it might be a tough one but for a rider who's climbed nandi, Chamundi climb would be relenting.
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