All righty then, when we first did this ride in April 2009, Christopher labeled it as epic, and today that label still seems appropriate. Six of us went on a six hour thirty minute ride / trudge covering 47 km (Palm Meadows gate to gate), which included three punctures, two broken chains, everyone was out of water, one rider ran into an auto outside Whitefield mall, and the most important fact was that I did not fall into a rice paddy this time proving that old dogs can learn new tricks. The intrepid six were myself, Arun, Siva, Alan, Vallari, and Niraj. And, lest I forget, we had originally planned to do this ride as Alex's last ride on July 12, but it was too wet that day. Since Alex is now back home in MSP, we can only say "this one was for you, dude".
It started out as a wonderful day for a ride, and we were all enjoying a glorious morning replete with a Kingfisher (the bird, not the beer), blooming lotus pads in a couple of ponds, when at ET (elapsed time into the ride) 1:19 our first disaster struck. Slogging through some thick forest trying to find a trail, Arun's chain broke. Luckily, I had a chain tool on my handy dandy, but never previously used, bike tool thingy, and even more luckily Siva had the knowledge to use the tool. So, after 20 minutes of repair and despair Arun was two links short of a full chain, and we trudged forward.
At about ET 2:44, Siva reported a puncture. Pretext: Siva announced early on he was riding without a spare tube, which just meant that the gods had him in their cross hairs awaiting the moment for a lesson in humility. While repairs were made, I attempted to scout the path because another issue with the ride was that 16 months had passed since we originally made the GPS recording, and we found that the trail disappeared in several places for various reasons. As I have noted many times, for all we think nothing changes in India, change happens constantly. Several new fields have appeared, and the trail has been plowed and planted. The sluice boxes in the sand pits are active, and none of the fun trails we rode a year ago exist today. Anyway back to Siva's puncture. Repaired with Alan's spare tube, Siva got 50 m before announcing another puncture; so back to the shade of the eucalyptus for another repair marathon - this time including some nifty, no glue required, patches Arun supplied. More on punctures later.
Then at ET 4:34 time took another bite out of Arun's chain in the middle of a rugged sand pit. Now handy with the repair tool, Siva had Arun up and running quickly, but Arun was now four links short of a full chain. I attempted to explain to Arun that it was not time for a new chain, but rather, a new bike. I think he is opting for a new chain.
This was a complex ride track. It crossed over itself several times, and I had broken the GPS track into two pieces just so I didn't get the group overly lost trying to follow the looping characteristics of the track. Even so, we had many false starts, only to turn around and find the proper trail. Another interesting attribute about this ride was that while we have encountered trail obliteration due to farming and such, we have not yet encountered trail atrophy. Several of the trails were over grown and unused, which made them hard to find and follow.
I have used the term "trudged" several times in this report, and that is with purpose. The original trail had been obliterated in several places due to farming activities, and to navigate these changes in attempt to preserve the crop, we trudged along the edge of the field. [Note: The soils are predominately sand / clay mix, and when recently tilled, you ride through about four inches of loose sand, which is a really hard slog; so, we trudged.] Also, the sand pits have changed, and in a few places, trudging seemed the appropriate (safe) thing to do. And, I almost forgot, in several places the forests were being harvested, and the debris of harvest required yet more trudging. However, even with all the false starts, the trudging, the on the road repairs, we did complete the ride pretty much as planned.
I have used the term "trudged" several times in this report, and that is with purpose. The original trail had been obliterated in several places due to farming activities, and to navigate these changes in attempt to preserve the crop, we trudged along the edge of the field. [Note: The soils are predominately sand / clay mix, and when recently tilled, you ride through about four inches of loose sand, which is a really hard slog; so, we trudged.] Also, the sand pits have changed, and in a few places, trudging seemed the appropriate (safe) thing to do. And, I almost forgot, in several places the forests were being harvested, and the debris of harvest required yet more trudging. However, even with all the false starts, the trudging, the on the road repairs, we did complete the ride pretty much as planned.
On the sights inventory, we passed two old wells - both dry, and the kingfisher, and the tree full of bats. It was a little hard to remember the particulars on epic journeys. Siva started the ride worried about weather, but by 9am old Sol beat down upon us, and the water drained quickly from our bags and bottles. Vallari was hoping to be home by 10am as she had luncheon guests arriving at noon, and she had a function happening in her home at 5pm; however, as the hours ticked away, and 10am came and went, and we were only half way through the ride, well, needless to say, Vallari had to draw on deep philosophical experiences to maintain presence of mind. Late in the ride, we cut a couple of loops out hoping to save time and get Vallari home to her responsibilities.
While Vallari was searching for the philosophical teaching for the events of the day we happened upon a couple of farm people who where spraying a crop, seemingly with a insecticide. Vallari commented that she did not need to know that the plentiful natural foods we enjoy here in India are laced with insecticides and other chemicals. Alan quickly posited "you do realize that a tomato is just a bunch of chemicals in a skin, don't you", and a friendly debate ensued with both agreeing to disagree on the topic.
On the happy side of the early part of the ride, Siva sniffed out a tea stall, but on the darker and later part of the ride, he was only in search of drinkable h2o. So, it's a mite hard to report on the visual sights when you are withering under the sun with punctures, shortened chains - well, you get the picture, eh? And speaking pictures, Siva was testing his new iPhone 4 full HD video support, and he posted this video of the ride. Thanks to Siva!
The ride came to an end as it started with all of us crossing the stone bridge carrying our bikes. At the end of the ride the Sunday wash group was on the bridge, which required us to carry our bikes while stepping over piles of laundry being beat on the two foot wide granite bridge. Traversing successfully, we headed down the familiar track to civilization. However, the last event was to come.
Halfway back to Palm Meadows from the stone bridge, Niraj rides up to me to ask if his tire was going flat, which it was. Using my tire pump, we pumped it up hoping he could get home before it was totally flat. While I was stowing the pump, Niraj took off in order to get home. I headed towards home as fast as my tired muscles would allow. Upon reaching the Whitefield Main Road, I turned left into the midday Sunday traffic for the last sprint home. As I was passing the Whitefield Mall I noticed Niraj up ahead, and thinking he needed more air, I stopped to assist.
It turned out that Niraj had clipped a auto rickshaw and scrapped off some paint, and he and the auto wallah were having a rather animated discussion regarding the missing paint. I walked up, asked Niraj the circumstances, concluded it to be just an accident - no fault of anyone according to Indian road rules, and I told Niraj that we should get on our bikes and leave. Well, the auto wallah thought different about that action, so I puffed up my chest, straightened my back, walked over to him and explained that the little bit of missing paint did not come anywhere near to the major scrapings and dents already present on the vehicle. Giving a pretty good glare, I turned, got on my bike and rode off. I suppose there is an auto wallah out there with my picture on his dash; oh, well.
The ride came to an end as it started with all of us crossing the stone bridge carrying our bikes. At the end of the ride the Sunday wash group was on the bridge, which required us to carry our bikes while stepping over piles of laundry being beat on the two foot wide granite bridge. Traversing successfully, we headed down the familiar track to civilization. However, the last event was to come.
Halfway back to Palm Meadows from the stone bridge, Niraj rides up to me to ask if his tire was going flat, which it was. Using my tire pump, we pumped it up hoping he could get home before it was totally flat. While I was stowing the pump, Niraj took off in order to get home. I headed towards home as fast as my tired muscles would allow. Upon reaching the Whitefield Main Road, I turned left into the midday Sunday traffic for the last sprint home. As I was passing the Whitefield Mall I noticed Niraj up ahead, and thinking he needed more air, I stopped to assist.
It turned out that Niraj had clipped a auto rickshaw and scrapped off some paint, and he and the auto wallah were having a rather animated discussion regarding the missing paint. I walked up, asked Niraj the circumstances, concluded it to be just an accident - no fault of anyone according to Indian road rules, and I told Niraj that we should get on our bikes and leave. Well, the auto wallah thought different about that action, so I puffed up my chest, straightened my back, walked over to him and explained that the little bit of missing paint did not come anywhere near to the major scrapings and dents already present on the vehicle. Giving a pretty good glare, I turned, got on my bike and rode off. I suppose there is an auto wallah out there with my picture on his dash; oh, well.
I caught up to the group in front of Arun's complex where the coconut vendor is. Vallari needed a coconut, and since my smallest money unit was a Rs. 100 note, we enjoyed two each - the vendor would not accept Rs. 100 for two coconuts. I guess she had some high ethics to live up to.
And with that, we disbursed to our respective homes and activities.
The trip GPS of the ride is at MapMyRide for those who want to get a sense of the ride..
And the epilog to the official report:
A bit of news from Alan - Alan is retiring in November and returning to the UK. 2010 will also be his 60th, and he his hoping for a geeser ride sometime in Oct. After hearing this, Alan and Arun exchanged ages, and as I am 58, it seemed to me that the geesers did the ride today having survived yet another epic journey into Bharat, and what started as Alex's last ride (in absentia), could possibly be labeled the geeser glide, but that would be a misnomer as today was not anything like a glide - it was a trudge.
Also, I need to amend the official record with the number of punctures. I woke up Monday morning to a very flat rear tire, which I repaired while servicing my chain to avoid future linkage losses. By afternoon, the tire was flat again, and repaired again. I also fixed a couple of punctures in my "spare" tubes. By evening, I was loosing air yet again; so, this morning I have patched the tube in the tire, and two others I thought I had patched on Monday. So, Siva, I would say that you were lucky Arun and Alan were along on Sunday, just as Arun is lucky you and Alan were along. At the moment, my puncture repair abilities are being challenged; perhaps, because I did not imbibe the tea!
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IMFL and Distillery Equipment Manufacturer in Bangalore
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the private and business projects accomplished by S Brewing Company. Impressive portfolio!
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