A fascinating gift...

I always wanted to have one of these bags with a tube jutting off it (Hydration bags). The first time I ever got to see (and sip from) one of these was during my paragliding courses. No sooner did Avi (my instructor) show his hydration pack did we jump like thirsty monsters and almost finished off the whole reserve :). It was a "camelback" hydra-pack I guess.

The concept is really cool. A simply backpack with a 1-2 liter plastic bag that holds the fluid (water/hydration supplements err.. err...) and a tube that comes off it with a rubber stopper like thing at the other end from which you suck the liquid. Its really a handsfree water bottle for that matter.

So ok it looks fascinating, how was it supposed to practically help me other than looking like a showoff item? This backpack can come handy in almost any situation you demand (so long as you don’t feel weird wearing and sucking water off the tube). Practically accepted of course in any adventure/outdoor activity you demand - trekking / bicycling / paragliding / snowboarding / jogging / motor-biking etc etc. I mean if you get too geeky you could sit with one in your office cubicle as you type away... but that’s the reason mentioned the previous list under 'Practically accepted" else you would end up in the wild with hoards of people sucking water in a ration queue or at the bus stop... aggh... my thoughts running wild.

I was meeting Sriram (my cousin) after a long long time. We chatted a lot and he gifted me this backpack and said "you can fill water in this...", I said "oh wow ... its a hydration bag...", he said "yes... here you go". Wow.. I was really happy and am, really, still admiring the bag. It’s a blue "High Sierra" 2 liter Hydration bag. Its amazing - its a very good-go for a small hike (single day) also has a provision to hold you helmet (cycling) and a hook to hang all sorts of things. Really really cool.

Just another reason to get my bums on the saddle again! :)

Are you crazy!!!

That's a reaction I got from my folks when I said I would be getting a bicycle. Yes I have been on an impulsive high with a few adventure activities off late. Things that used to seemed a far cry for me were not when I got the high pulse. It all started with my trekking endeavors and eventually what seemed jumping off cliffs for me became a reality with me hanging on a midair swing. What seemed like a crazy idea to me transcended to reality when I went on a numb ass circuit from Pune to Gokarna.

Isn't jumping off cliffs and walking off weak ledges enough? I did not know the answer for this, since when in that impulse I was willing to take on anything in that direction.

4 years back, when I joined in this organization I was one of those fun loving outgoing and an all TP guy. Adventure sure was something that stayed with me but never in an expressive manner. I mean I had been on long drives -Car drives- umpteen amount of times. I have been on numerous trips and outings. Never before had I done any sort of treks as in a real trek nor had I done anything that got me close to the levels of endurance I encountered the last few years.

4 years before, I always thought of the adventure "freaks" to be extremely channel/narrow minded and way too prosperous ($$$) to undertake such activities. I never understood nor could easily formulate what made these people do what they did. I mean I sure wanted to get a taste of all those things but simply could not. I was happy and content with what I was doing then.

VxTrek was something that looked different and exposed me to the concept of organized treks. I mean I had trekked before, but not really with the passion of trekking. Soon made a few good friends and we too started embarking on many treks. The passion took me on a high as I got comfortable and understood the few basics for a good trek. The basic do-s and dont-s, that I never thought of before. I did 'accomplish' many good treks and came to realize that its never about the destination, its the path that matters. Trekking not only gave me the high of adventure and endurance but also very much educated me on decision making. Trekking is not simply walk along a path and u are done (sure it is if you do it just for the heck of it). Long treks need planning like which path to take , how to manage food, what are the fallback plans? etc etc. Trekking also introduced me to cope up with individuals on a trek, and when given a chance take important decisions. I really loved (and still do)trekking and when was in the high of it, really most of these things were simply reflexive. The best gift of it all -loss of weight, stay fit, enjoy, smile on your face and feel free :D. (yeah I know this sounds like one of those 5th std/ composition 'trekking' ... )

Paragliding was another activity I started off with, but it really never went to far. I really enjoyed those 7 days at Japaloupe farms and taking off hills. Those few moments in flight were simply for myself and could scan the scene around to get a birds eye view and the wonderful topography the hills, plains, valleys had to offer (and not mention the man made structures - roads, dams, farms etc.). I always wished I had continued with paragliding, and still get goosebumps just thinking of the same. Paragliding was not different than trekking, that is here too I had a lot of decision making to learn. It was not just jump off the cliff and land, you need to understand the aerodynamics of the glider, the air flow-direction-strength, the topogrpahy of the terrain you are flying over etc etc. At the end of 7 days I was very comfortable with the glider and had a lot of fun at the same time! The best part of giving 7 days- I flew the glider solo all the time :)

Bike rides too had caught my fancy. I had been driving the car for a long time and never really understood at that time the need of riding a bike. Driving the car has its own charm, and I shall never ever take that away! I mean try driving the 4 wheels in a crowded street or rip down the open highway at break-a-neck speeds- its fun and has its own highs. But I still wanted to relive the passion of 'balanced riding' :-). So got the bike all done and embarked on one of my best bike rides till date. Again, its not just fun and games riding the bike. A lot of planning, and decisions need to be taken with this as well. Sure I have done just one of those long rides but would love to get on more soon.

So yes these were more or less the new activities I had gotten myself totally engrossed into in the last 4 years. It was not wonder my folks thought "wasn't jumping and running off cliffs enough?" when I asked for the bicycle.

Bicycling I know has its own charm, and highs. Something I wish I could take up soon before it gets too late. Being a forum member (more silent now-a-days) at bikeszone got to know and see many people transform from motorized to non-motorized or atleast keep and option of a non-motorised vehicle. Its just been so long now I have been dreaming, have started to loose interest...

Why all these thoughts now? Well... had to do some reality checks on myself. :-)

Adobing around

Did not post for a long time so thought of making one of those short little posts where some sort of info is shared. Well so I thought what were the things runing through my mind at present, well for one I do photoshop a lot and yes getting to know about bicycles and possibly one is in my near lists.

Well so sitting around the other day, I dug up one of the photos of a "Trek 3700" bike and one of my own pictures from a previous trek, and converged them -I really loved the result! So here goes to what I did.

The following illustration shows the steps for how I went about achieving to what I wanted to come up with.
Now I took this final result and inserted some text from one of my previous posts and a few more touch-ups here and there and wallah you have 2 pages of a magazine in front of you. (Think of the fold passing through the center of the image). Sure I named the magazine "Indian Cycling Mag" :-).

Bike Shopping - The process

(updates in this post - scroll down)

14th Jan 08 - Step into a dream
Its been months since I cherished this dream of me getting a bike and resetting my activity the old way. Unfortunately I could not. Now having read my blog article and also a lot of talk about things a couple of my friends sure got hooked onto the idea of getting a cycle.

Rahulya was the latest entrant and he needed my help/advise to get one for himself. Boy did it feel good advising him on the bike he would need and explaining some jargon. What Rahul said he wanted was a bike that both he and Samruddhi could use. So he needed a 'Y' frame or a frame with the lower top tube.

I got a call from Rahulya in the morning where he said he was looking at the Hero Thunder MTB and a Hero Octane26T. He loved the Octane for it was a full Suspension bike and moreover a Y frame. We decided that we would revisit the shop in the evening for I wanted to take a look at the bikes myself.

So in the evening Rahulya and me drove down PhadkeHoudh and visited this cycle Shop -Sardarji Cycles. The minute I stepped in the smell of rubber and fresh metal filled in from all angles. I was surrounded by cycles as I stepped into the shop. Immediately a salesman came upto us and started showing us around. The first cycle I saw was the infamous Hero Thunder MTB. This was one of the most talked about bikes on the bikeszone forums and also various blogs. It was all aluminum -silver. It was partly packed with cardboard wrapped around its frame.

Soon Rahulya showed me the Octane he was so interested in. My first impression of the Octane was - it was tall , wide and seemed to be heavy. When I took some closer inspection of the bike it turned out to be light but wobbly. I liked the looks but the rear suspension part did not appeal to me much. The disks of the disk-brakes were bent and looked to flimsy. But still it seemed to be a decent bike.

Then I walked around the shop and asked the salesman about the Hero DTB1/DTB2 Hercules Omega/Ryders etc. The shopkeeper went on to explain that the DTBs were on the heavier side and showed us an assembled DTB2, it looked OK but again the rear suspension made it look kinda gross. The Ryders(he just had one-ACT 101) seemed pretty small but was heavy and costed roughly 5.5K, the other Ryders like the AV 101 that I was interested in costs a whooping 15.5K and was not a quick moving item, so they did not stock the same- but could get it on ordering the same. He also said that the Omega was out of production and was no longer available as no one bought the same.

Soon he pointed us to some brand that exports bicycles abroad (I forgot the name), these bikes looked pretty similar to the DTB series. There were a couple more(hardtails) of these, but they were on the heavier side.

We again came back to the Octane and Thunder. Here the shopkeeper explained that the Thunder came in 2 variants geared for 7K and non-geared for 5K. It seems that all on the bike was aluminium, everything could be easily adjusted etc. The Octane too was all alloy except for the pedals and a couple of screws and costs 9.5K.

I was very impressed with the Thunder, also its head tube went low so I guess it could fit both sexes :-). Rahulya was still stuck to the Octane but later found the Thunder more appealing. So bid our farewells with the shopkeeper and returned to Rahulya's house.

Back home we researched on some sites for reviews of the Octane and Thunder. I also asked Rahulya to consider Firefox bikes in case he was willing to go close to the 10K mark.

Well so for now, it seems when I pay a visit to Firefox (hopefully this week sometime) would ask them about unisex and bikes in the range of near 10K. But whilst I was at that shop at Phadke Houdh - boy was I tempted to buy one of those Thunder's and ride off with a flash 32 on between my cheeks!

Update: (22nd Jan 08)- Check out these international bikes.
Eventually on friday (19th Jan) I payed a visit to the firefox showroom at NIBM road. That day I left early from office and the bike simply ventured its way to NIBM :-).

I did try to search this place earlier, but could not locate it then. Today I easily found it. It was not such big shop after all, pretty modest. But the bikes kept there were mindblowing. Again the sweet smell of rubber and metal filled my nostrils as I walked in to ask about a Mr. Raja/Alpesh (the owner of Firefox-Pune). Unfortunately neither were at the shop. So I enquired about the trek 3700 I had finalized on and they did not have that either. So I looked around at the extremely well build cycles that were displayed around the shop. The walls and floor were lined with international bikes.

The only treks he had were the 4500 and the 6000. Both were 20K + - a big nono for me. So I enquired about the Merida brand (I got to know from Mr. Ashwat (Atlas- Delhi) that Merida brads were available at the firefox showroom in Pune). Merida brands were readily available and I checked out one. The build was excellent the weight was very less and the cost was very high 25K+!!! It was a Merida Sub-40D I guess. It had front disks and back "V" brakes. They were excellent. The front suspension too seems cool. I sat on it, and bot did it feel like a proper fit. HE did say it was an 18" frame - now I have doubts, I am 6" and I always thought a 19.5" frame is what I need. Weird.. :P

Either ways I loved the bike and the feel of it! It was a wonder full experience. The attendant there did say that a new shipments of trek cycles would be coming in -in a few days. He took my no. so that they could call me once they received the shipment!

Content I rode back home. As I returned I realised in the fit of exitedness I forgot asking about the firefox bikes for Rahulya and also forgot getting a proper price list for the Trek bikes. In Pune it seems since you have to pay some 3% octroi the bikes here cost more than they do in Bangalore. I always thought these things were cheaper in Pune...

So back home I shared the moment with Nilesh, Rahulya and many of my friends.. some got exited others simply laughed hearing the costs. Too much though later I dunno if I can still buy the bike since I am not yet convinced my folks back home would take the decision in a positive way :-(. I am simply hoping for the best... :-)

Update: (31st Jan 08) - Its a thumbs down
I got call on 24th Jan from the firefox station saying that they had got their shipments of the Trek bikes. The 3700 (19.5 ") was there as well. Unfortunately I could not go then, due to work issues.

I got a message yesterday from Mr. Raja saying that the bike was in stock. Unfortunately it seems very unlikely now for me to purchase a bicycle :-(. My requirement does not seem to be going anywhere. So I had to apologize to Mr. Raja saying I could not consider a cycle now.

More so, as I thought, if I am not in the right mood- it definitely does not make sense in getting one. So I hope that things change soon and I can really get one.


For now its a thumbs down for me :-(. Very sad, but true.
So I defy my own law and follow the herd.

Update: (March 6th 2008) -Passing dreams
So as I followed the herd and was trying to get back to the shape of things, I happened to pass by a shop near my office (This was the 2nd official Firefox outlet in Pune). I had noticed this shop on a couple of occations, but never ventured inside. A couple of days back though could'nt withstand the itch as a black 3700 was being displayed outside the store, so I stepped in and enquired for the rates. 15K spelt too much for the bike as I knew it should cost roughly 13.5K. So stepped off dreamland back to boreland.

Update: (July 27th 2008) - A Ray of hope
Now at last my dream seems to be taking some shape, lots of discussions and thoughts later very soon I might finally be geting my self something moterless on two wheels ... Yuppiee!!!!


Update: (March 4th '09) - The hope seems to get brighter
Visited Surendar Cycles today and took a look at the newer Treks. A batch of three 3700's were being dispatched. The recent increase in steel prices and the very recent recession seem to have hoisted the price bar higher even for the entry levels. The shopowner and his son shared the prices with me and also shed some info about the models. Am I going to get it .... would I really take a plunge at this stage... :).. I dunno. The new trek colors do look meaty!!!!

Contemplate a Cycle...

So I thought- now that I have the bike(CBZ) done I would probably sell it off and get a Bullet. Maybe an Electra 5s or a Machismo. But soon I started liking my bike. It rode and rode tough. Well sure there are a few problems that keep arising now and then , but again I had left it neglected for so long , these things are bound to happen.

I always had this desire to get myself a bicycle, this being even before I sold my Atlas Rebel bicycle. Bought my red Rebel when I was in 6th I guess. Since then I changed almost every component of the bike on numerous occations, the bike went with me from every house I shifted and finally sold it off to a car mechanic (I really did not want to sell it ..). I did have a great time with my Red Cycle. It was a very sturdy (and heavy too) cycle and the handling was pretty smooth. Having ridden this to every corner of Pune I was very much tied to the idea of cycling around. Then again, since I was not using the cycle for long I was sorta molded into the idea of riding a motorized vehicle and not get back on non motorized stuff. Somehow I could never get this thought off the back of my head to get a cycle.

Its been over 5 years I sold my cycle. Everytime I ride down or happen to cross Phadke Haudh I get those goose bumps everytime I see those line of bicycle shops packed with all sorts of cycles. I always wanted to buy one.

Now the conditions of roads are bad, my general exercise routine is also bad. Being a s/w enginaeer, its sortof comes as a package of being a professional (or related ) in this line. I had had enough of this, I soon started researching the net for the latest in the scene of bicycles. I was stunned and taken aback by the wave of revolution that hit this medium. I read so many blogs and sites (many of Indian origin and some even from Pune).

Soon I came across these brands : Trek, Firefox, Merida, Gary Fisher, Giant,GT etc. Sure none of the out of touch myselves :) had ever heard of these names. Firefox was one of the brands that had set shop in India, they are seemingly a bicycle company from UK who get their parts manufactured from places in Asia before they get here to the bicycle stores. Trek is one of the leading brands in the bicycle market and supposedly even their basic bicycles (ATBs/MTBs) are tougher than their best Indian counterparts.

The problem : :) 2
1. Geting my folks back home to digest the fact -its not impractical to buy a bicycle and
2. The price of this brands.

I mean the least a Trek bike (the 3700) costs is ~13.5 INR, while the topmost Trek costs ~ 2.5Lacks!!!! It sure was hard to digest when I always was acquainted to the fact -cycles cant cost more than 5K. Firefox bikes had their range starting from ~4K -these were ungeared cycles. The top most Firefox costs ~22.5K!!!

The price part was pretty hard to digest , so I started looking for cycles from Indian counter parts. Soon I started to like 2 cycles from the Indian playground. Then Hercyles Omega and the Hero Thunder ATB. Both bike were for ~5K INR. But again looking at the treks and reading all sorts of reviews I was more inclined towards one of the treks. I really felt the trek 3700 was more than sufficient for my needs.

Friends did laugh at me when I told them about my new-born wish, but then one of my friend got his Hero Ranger cycle fixed and used it to go for his morning cricket practice! Aggghhhh... I wanted a bicycle soon.

Well I did speak to some enthusiast about whom I learnt online (http://www.bumsonthesaddle.com), and they were more than willing to help me decide on my cycle. Well so I have it finalized on the trek. Now the only issues that stop me from are
1. Geting my folks back home to digest the fact that its not impractical to buy a bicycle (I dunno will I ever be able to do this ) and
2. Servicing the parts of high price bike (I sure dont want a hammer being rammed on a 10K+ cycle at a lcoal shop:))- so I might even consider the Hercules Omega or the Hero Thunder). Well so a learning curve, maybe, would be necessitated for a do-it-yourself type of servicing.

Maybe I sound like one of those nagging kids - craving for a little toy. But hey I want it :D
Now only time would tell would I ever see a dawn of my bicycle!