Cycling trivialities - Part IV: In the Ghats

There are some neat bike-cleaning videos out there on the internet and this particular one impressed me so much that I cleaned mine right after watching it! Just one important thing to keep in mind while washing a bike: do not jet-spray water directly onto the headset near the handlebar, the wheelhubs at the wheel-centres and the bottom bracket where the crank arm with the pedals is attached, to prevent any water from seeping in. Elrika had not watched this video, yet she intuitively bought a perfect set of brushes for the bike wash: a new toilet cleaning brush to reach the tough corners, clothes cleaning scrub for the tyres, a thin long bottle brush to reach the gaps between the spokes and the wheel, a toothbrush to clean the crank and gear-cassette, and a soft scrub to clean the frame. We also bought a bottle each of degreaser and lubricant fluid, all put together these cost upto 2000 bucks. Still, this investment was worth our bikes and the ride we were on from Hubli to Goa over the lovely Western Ghats. The evening before the trip to Castlerock from Kulgi we had cleaned the drivetrain systems of our bikes and the ride was smooth and silent.

The day had started with a sudden upslope that almost put us off our three-day cycling rhythm. But within the first 3 km, we had climbed 60 m which led us to a beautiful vista of the hills and valley that brought our enthusiasm back.

We caught our breath and the view for a while and continued the only-slightly-more-forgiving ascent for almost another dozen km. Between the 12^th and 15^th km, we dropped a 100 m and that must have been the fastest I’ve ever ridden my bike, 66.6 km per hour! Earlier on in our rides, whenever we reached a downhill we were glad but we soon figured it meant that uphills follow! As I zoomed on downhill, I side-glanced at a person lying on the side of the road with his head towards the road, but I carried on, given my momentum. Matty, however, had more empathy and paused to move the person over to the side of the road. I mentally posted a note to myself to be more kind in future to help out others, good one, Matty!

At Ganeshgudi, we passed by the beautiful Kali river where we decided to break for lunch. During lunch, we pondered if Matty should put his bike on to a car and take it ahead to Castlerock since the ride was getting a bit tiring with all the ups and downs and his ‘non-broken-in’ leather seat.  

 

We negotiated with a local who drove a Tata Indica car wondering if Matty’s supermodel Surly Ogre would fit in it. Dismantled, the large Surly frame and the wheels just fit in right enough and off Matty went! With more than a half of the ride for the day left, we continued for another 20 km and had a quick rest below a tree where a Great hornbill and a Giant squirrel were having a quick tête-à-tête with the massive Supa reservoir in the background. These are the moments that make the ride totally worth it. The Supa reservoir was sprawled across enough for us to wonder if we had already reached the sea even if the Goan sea was more than a hundred km away. 

Picture this with a foreground of a tree with a great hornbill and a giant squirrel helloing each other!

At Jagalabeta, the ride got even better; tall canopy on both sides alive with some bird activity and streams crisscrossing once in a while with little-to-no traffic. The only sad part was the number of dead snakes we saw on the road. Over a stretch of about 20 km we saw an almost equal number of dead ones. Elrika paused to move a live vine snake aside hoping it would not cross the road again. We felt that something needs to be done about this, perhaps at least a speed limit was due for that road.

We finally reached Castlerock at about 6 pm, after an elevation climb of over 1500 m and a ride of 70 odd km, and this camp too was wonderful

We had a quick shower, ordered our meals and off I went for my evening beer-forage for which I climbed another 100 m, passed through a dark tunnel without a good torch and bought beer from a home that kept alcohol unofficially since booze is not sold openly in Castlerock. Still, like other days, a lovely evening full of conversation followed which drifted on to a well-deserved deep slumber. Another wonderful day of our bike ride had passed.

Cycling trivialities – Part III: The climb begins!

There is a certain simplicity about cycling that I enjoy: a physical push applied to the pedals or a pull if one is wearing cleats causes the crank to move. Through the chain rings attached to the crank, this energy is transferred by a chain to the rear cassette and then on to the backwheel hub. This hub is attached to the wheel through ball bearings causing the wheel to move, leading to motion. There is also the issue of how much force one needs to apply to move ahead, of how more revolutions with less pressure can take you as ahead as more pressure with fewer revolutions: the gears on the cassette take on this job. Then, there is the reverse action; the simplicity of braking: the brake pads attached to the calipers on both sides of the wheels rub against the rim as you pull the brake lever, or the disc attached to the wheel rubs against rubber to slow down or stop the cycle. All so simple and so many tiny parts coming together smoothly like a Mozart’s symphony! All this was happening as I was riding my bike on the first long day of the ride from Tadas Cross to Kulgi Nature camp in Dandeli.

The roadside eatery that came highly recommended!

The morning had begun early; we were well-rested and ready for a big ride ahead. Since I had booked the Forest Department accommodation at Dandeli, we had to be prepared to ride about 90 km to reach the camp by the evening. 90 km is considered very doable by bikers, but here there was the small issue of the Western Ghats and how undulating the terrain can be! As we reached our first stop of the ride, 20 odd km away, for breakfast at Kalghatgi, we asked around a random person for directions to Kulgi. Patil loved to ask people for directions, and well it leads to better accuracy than Google maps at least! While he gave us directions he also nudged us to visit a roadside hotel for breakfast and praised the food enough for us to try it out. Turns out, it was his brother’s hotel and he was just building its reputation and business! Anyway we had a quick breakfast there to oblige him and moved on to another small hotel with tables and chairs for us to sit and chart out the plan ahead.

The 'unbroken' seat of the Surly!

The issue we had to discuss was this: from Kalghatgi to Kulgi there were two routes: one a scenic one that was 70 odd km but up-and-down and another 55 km on a relatively plain State highway. Matty who brought his supermodel Surly had an issue with its seat. The seat was a brand new leather one and had not ‘broken in’, read ‘ridden on enough to make it comfortable for long rides’. Here, they mention longer definitions of ‘breaking in’, but in general, leather saddles take hundreds of miles to soften up and confirm to your anatomy. We decided that the seat had not yet confirmed to Matty’s anatomy and its best if he takes the straight 55 km highwayish road and the rest of us will take the undulating route. 

The stream where we got pedicure & Patil a power nap

The initial part of the ride was a contrasting one: it was the national highway 52 with good forest on both sides. While we did enjoy it, the sound of a truck, a bus a taxi would bring us zooming back to the mundane sounds of a city. Till we reached the deviation to state highway 93, where things took a steep turn, literally, into even more beautiful forests with hardly any traffic. This was when the trip actually began; verdant forests, an occasional bird call, intermittent rural landscapes, tiny shacks to eat; one in a dozen km, streams criss-crossing once in a while and big trees waving with the wind with bigger shadows on the road, we were finally home! At the 70^th km, we decided to take a nap by a stream and took our bikes down and rested our feet in the water. A few, perhaps Barilius, fish came to nip on our feet and it calmed and relaxed us more. We were back on the road in less than 30 minutes because we had to get to the Kulgi Nature camp where Matty may have reached earlier than us. 

The trail Matty was on led to a pond!

About that: we reached Bhagavati where his route will overlap ours, so I gave him a call there just to check if Matty reached Kulgi, he was still here and had a bit of a mishap. Someone on the way suggested a shorter route and he had walked several km with his bike on a route that led him to a pond! He was completely exhausted when we met him, but at least we were glad to be reunited again and continued the last 20 km together.

These were the first of the ups-and-downs of the Western Ghats and we were famished by the time we reached the Nature Camp and we had covered over a 100 km in the day. Having lived in a range of Forest Department Guest houses as a wildlife biologist, I was expecting basically a camping tent to stay. But the Kulgi Nature camp was incredible; it was a permanently setup tent, almost like the ones they would call ‘glamping’ now, there was a clean bathroom, running water and electricity and beds with mattresses! 

 

First, we got our bike cleaning kits out and degreased, cleaned and lubricated our bike’s drive-train systems. Then we cleaned ourselves and clothes and then of course, it was time for a beer. The logistics here were a bit more complicated. It had already got dark, so setting out for another 20 km ride on the bike to Dandeli town was not practical, we paid the local staff to pay someone else to get it for us. It took way longer than the bike ride and by the time the beer was here, we gulped it down and had a sumptuous meal made by two Gujarati women who had settled in this part of Karnataka decades ago and had a language that was a mix of Kannada, Marathi and Gujarati; a creole in itself, since I usually tend to understand these separately and could not figure anything they were chatting about! 

After that we slept like we 'sold our horses'! Next day was a ride to Castlerock, a place I was very excited to go since I had only seen the station from the train on the Goa-Bangalore route close to Doodhsagar and the forests around, full-of-cane, are a treat for the eyes; also, something very curious about the name of the place too! It was going to be a ride of only 60 odd km but very undulating; the cleats on my shoe-soles are going to help me pull up the pedals on the upslopes!

Cycling trivialities - Part II: A ride in the plains

Cycling often brings back childhood memories; growing up three decades or so ago, I used to take money from parents and rent bicycles for 5 bucks an hour or even less and ride all day; fell so many times but the wheels kept spinning. Then one day my parents succumbed to my demand and bought me a Hero Ranger bike, life changed after that. I often went to school on it and even remember a day when a traffic cop deflated my tyre because I skipped a light! He had a wicked sense of humour too, he asked me to return the next day to get the air back! The next bike my folks bought for me was a BSA SLR, what a wonderful bike it was, it felt way more mature than the Hero Ranger. I once took apart everything from the bike except the brakes and it used to fly! In the year 2010, I bought the first bike with my own money on my 30^th birthday: a white Btwin Rockrider 5.2; it was love at first ride – the bike I was planning to ride to Goa. And I had forgotten to carry the meticulously-packed two 15 litre panniers outside my home in Bangalore while packing the rest of the stuff into Matty’s car!

Panniers that I forgot!

I realise now that I haven't introduced Matty earlier. I knew Matty from the time when I worked in Greenpeace, way back in 2002. In the last two decades, we’ve had some wonderful times trekking, travelling and conversing about almost everything under the sun. Since then, Matty has worked in quite a few fields and presently works at Decathlon. In his own words, he is an ‘occasional cyclist but a full time cycling evangelist!’, in mine, a perfect partner in ride. Leaving from the Coffee day in Davengere, Elrika and Matty could not help laughing at me every couple minutes and I was laughing myself too, although I ought to have been more shocked at my stupidity! But my mind was buzzing with solutions for this problem and so was Elrika’s. Quickly, Elrika and I made a basic list of things to buy from Hubli-Decathlon, things that will come in handy after this trip too and are also affordable. And this turned out to be the real list that one needs for a long ride: 4 ₹100 T-shirts, 4 inner wear, 2 cycling shorts, 2 sleeping shorts, 3 socks, 1 towel ('never leave home without a towel', a great man said once!), 1 big bag or two small pannier bags or one dry bag, battery bank (to charge the phone since the app Strava that records the trip drains the phone battery) & Balaclava (the single most useful thing when its cold, dusty, sunny or smoky on the way). 

Our own Mohammad, the long-distance cyclist!

We reached Hubli only by lunch time – the plan was to cycle from Hubli to the Tibetan colony at Mundgod the first day and stay there; a distance of about 50 km which would take us 3 hours at least. Going to the Tibetan colony would be like a prayer of sorts before the long ride, we thought. As we drove into the Decathlon store, we met our own Mohammad; the fourth member, Narendra Patil (who we affectionately call Patil) accompanying us for this ride. He has cycled over 3000 km in the last three years and has already cycled 500 km this year. The first time I met Patil was in the beautiful Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve almost two decades back when I volunteered with the Centre for Wildlife Studies for a week.

Mathew getting his super-model Surly ready!

Next, I met him next in 2014 in Bomdo, my PhD field site in Arunachal Pradesh and we had some spirited good times exchanging stories by the fireplace in my field station and doing field work for a couple of weeks. Keeping up with the tradition of meeting only during good times, this time I was meeting him ahead of a five-day cycling trip to Goa. He had brought his bike from Bagalkot to Hubli in a train which wasn’t a great experience since he had to wait for most of the journey along with the bike near the entrance so people could enter and exit. But anyway, he was here now and it was time to quickly assemble the bikes together, get them checked by the trusty Decathlon bike experts and buy the items listed earlier.

Panniers that I carried!

Elrika and I picked up all the stuff I needed in just about thirty minutes and one of the Decathlon folks mentioned to us that there were panniers of the old model they were trying to sell off at a big discount and for just 800 bucks I got my other pair of panniers, which Elrika can use for the next ride. They are just the perfect size to go to work in a city too. All the bikes checked, all the luggage packed, we thanked the Decathlon folks who helped us a lot and we took off into the bustling city of Hubli, trying to get out of it as soon as possible. The ride was on a road on rolling hills which was perfect to prep us up for the big hills coming up the next day. By the time we reached Tadas Cross though, it turned dark and Mundgod was still 26 km away. We took a quick decision to stay put and booked a room there to get a good meal and a rest and do the extra 26 km in the morning to reach Kulgi Nature camp, 90 odd km away, where I had make the booking for the first night. As we settled in, we realised how good the decision was. They allowed us to keep our bikes beside our beds, there was hot water for a bath and Patil and I made a quick trip to a bar 4 km away in the dark to get a can of beer each. We felt quite relaxed after the beer, we made a short trip to the neighbouring dhaba and had some nice rotis and curry and were off to bed early. The real trip is yet to begin!

A big thanks to Suraj and others at Decathlon- Hubli!

Cycling trivialities - Part I: Before the ride

Life moves slow as you cycle. You get to know every dent on the tarmac and the trail that you are on; every bit of ascent and descent, every stone and every small little pothole. You can also feel the muscles working in your body straining to put in the effort to move on ahead. But, more importantly you can feel life move in front of you ever so slowly and you get the time and the urge and the patience to look at everything. This is the part of cycling that I love; that things move slow and you get the opportunity to take it in all in and enjoy the fullness of the picture its all making. And as I write this, I listen to the beautiful song ‘cycling trivialities’ by José González, its almost got nothing to do with cycling but it lent itself nicely to the title of the post!

A few years ago, Elrika and I decided that we would cycle one day to Goa but couldn’t believe it ourselves. For its quite a long ride and we had done a maximum of 70 km per day during an occasional weekend. The thought was revisited when I purchased a bicycle rack and panniers for my trusty 9 year old rockrider bicycle. Back in 2010, spending twice the amount I earn in a month on a bike itself was a daring move! But I am so glad I did not settle for any less, the bike has since done about three thousand km and still rides well. Anyway, back to the thought of a Goa cycling trip. Given our fitness levels, and the fact that I once tried to cycle from Bangalore to the neighbouring city Mysore that was 140 km away and fell 20 km short, I doubted we will go. Couple of sureshot mistakes I made: I carried my 8 kg backpack which got my back sore and I left at 10 am, so the sun got the better of me! Yet, the trip to Goa just remained a pleasant imagination to indulge in for a long while.

Last month, my friend Mathew (Matty) messaged a bunch of us that he intends to cycle to Goa and one of us has to come along since otherwise his family would shelve the plan! I thought it over a few minutes, chatted with Elrika, and in just a few moments we were in! It was a 550 km ride that had to be planned meticulously. As the day approached, Matty suggested an even better idea that we drive up on the highway till the Decathlon store in Hubli and then bike it from there to Goa. Using google maps, I planned a route of about 300 km that passes over the Western Ghats through four wildlife sanctuaries and a swathe of reserve and unprotected forests in between. One good hack that Matty knew was that selecting walking directions to a place on google maps gives good bike route options, given that we wanted to avoid most highways which are not safe for bike riding. I also made calls to book places to stay for the four nights during the journey, we were all set.

I had to then plan the load I would carry for this journey. Since I had made the mistake of carrying an overload on my bike the last time, this time I planned everything well. My list included: Two 1.5 l bottles, 3 sets of clothes + socks, slippers, running shoes(wishful thinking that I would run in the evenings!), binoculars, bluetooth speaker and charger, towel, Ipad & keyboard (wishful thinking that I would work!), medical kit, bike repair and cleaning kit, 2 extra tubes, matchbox and lighter and a bedsheet. All this went on one handlebar bag, a small shoulder bag and two pannier bags of 15 litres each. All of it together weighed in at about 8 kg, quite a load! Still, I was happy with my packing.

On the day of the drive to Hubli and the ride on ahead, Matty arrived at about 5 am and we packed the frames of our three bicycles on the car rack meticulously and put all the tyres in the boot and backseat which took us thirty minutes and we took off for the five day journey planned ahead. Was a pleasant ride full of conversations and excitement about the bike ride coming up. By 12 we felt a bit sleepy and stopped over a Coffee Day for a coffee and quick lunch. There we met Mohammad who has been cycling tens of thousands of km around India in his Hercules cycle he nicely rigged up for long trips. Here he is telling us about his logistics and we were awed by his endurance, strength and perseverance. 

 

As I was chatting with Mohammad, I received a call from my mother. I figured she must be worried since we were driving and she was calling in to check on us. To my bewilderment, she told me that my well-packed pannier bags were left by the gate of our home. In all the packing of bicycles, I had forgotten to put the panniers in! In my mind, a levee broke and the ideas to fix this came gushing through. A mental list was being also made simultaeneously about which of the stuff was crucial; I was throwing away the ipad & keyboard, bluetooth speaker and some other items from the ‘required items’ list and thinking of alternatives that can be purchased in Decathlon, Hubli. In a couple minutes, we all started laughing at how stupid I was! More about the next five days of the trip and experiences coming up soon!