MC's Cycling Diary

Date: 25 June 2017 Total distance: 178 Kilometers Start Time: 4:40 am Return Time:  4:45 pm With: Sushanth till Chikka Tirupathi, Madhusudhan till Hoskote, rest of the ride - alone Altitude Profile: Koramangala - Chikka Tirupathi - Hoskote - Devanahalli - Doddaballapur - Hesarghatta - Koramangala Got a call from Sushanth two weeks ago asking if I had any plans for the 24th - 25th June weekend. I had not made any plans and was not aware that it was a long weekend as well. Sushanth asked if we could ride to Chikka Tirupathi on 25th June. I agreed and told him that I would check on the group as well. As usual when there is time for the ride we get a lot of people who are interested, however when the day gets closer the number of riders begins to dwindle. Sushanth and 4 of his colleagues from office were confirmed and I had confirmed. As I had ridden to Chikka Tirupathi, it did not hold a lot of interest in terms of the route. I looked up the map and tried to s...

Date: 16 June 2017 Total distance: 614 Kilometers Start Time: 4:10 pm 16 June 2017 Return Time:  7:35 am 18 June 2017 With: Rajkumar Khot Altitude Profile: Lavelle Road – Channarayapatna - Shivamogga - Channarayapatna - Lavelle Road I registered for the 600KM Brevet. The route was Channarayppatna - Arsikere - Shivamogga and return on the same route. I have ridden on this route before except for the  50 kilometer stretch between Channarayapatna and Arsikere. I was undecided on the cycle and had more or less settled on the road bike, however, after last week's ride, even though I had struggled I wanted to attempt this on the MTB. As I had done two 600KM brevets on the road bike, I wanted to attempt this on the MTB and see if I can handle the distance. Further with the ride to North India in the pipeline this would serve as a good practice on the MTB. I was unable to sleep well the night before the ride. I was worried since it meant that it would effectiv...

Date: 11 June 2017 Total distance: 163 Kilometers Start Time: 5:30 am Return Time:  3:15 pm With: - Altitude Profile: Koramangala – Thippagondanahalli Reservoir - Magadi - Shiva Ganga - Koramangala Started planning for the weekend ride and started with distances exceeding 500 kilometers wherein I would have to ride over 2 days at least. Slowly the distance started to come down when it became clear that I would have to be at work on Monday. Further the dilemma over which cycle to ride has been worrying me ever since the maintenance costs have begun to bite. Further with the 600 km brevet coming up next weekend the cycle choice was boiling down to whether I would ride the brevet on the road bike or the MTB. Also, I had not finalised on the location and wanted to decide after waking up on Saturday. In all this confusion I was late to bed and as usual switched off the alarm and went back to sleep when the alarm rang. The only difference this time was that when I di...

Date: 3 June 2017 Total distance: 256 Kilometers Start Time: 5:00 am Return Time:  8:15 pm With: - Altitude Profile: Koramangala – Kolar Gold Fields - Kuppam - Krishnagiri - Koramangala I had to cancel the ride the previous week due to the rains in Bangalore. A week had passed by and I was itching to go for a ride. The plan started with going for a 2 day ride and as the week progressed due to the uncertainty on the work front I had to settle on a day ride. I had a few options on the location front. The only thing that I did not want to do was combine a ride and trek this weekend. That ruled out the locations on Tumkur Road and tilted the balance in favour of Kolar Gold Fields (KGF). The plan was to ride to KGF which is about 100 kilometers one way. I had a couple of return options, try the interior route through Malur or ride back on the Old Madras Road, ride to Mulabagal before getting back on the Old Madras Road or ride to Krishnagiri and return on Hosur ...