Category: Cycling

Visit to Stadler

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After visiting Decathalon and a few local bike stores (only one had a good stock of new and used bikes, others mostly focused on maintenance and repairs), we had an amazing experience at @Zweirad_Stadler, Charlottenburg. #Berlin

  • stadler street view, charlottenburg
  • stadler outside view, charlottenburg

Stadler is a really big warehouse’ish store, just outside the S-Bahn ring; unlike Decathalon, it is a two-wheeler-only store for new bikes. It has a huge selection of different kinds of bicycles (city, trekking, mountain bikes, folding bikes) and related accessories.

What we liked the most is that they have an indoor bike test track, where you can really get a good feel of the bike and test its features.

indoor bike test track at stadler

Originally tweeted by Dipika (@dipikabh) on July 9, 2021.

Bike Ride to Bellandur Lake

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3rd July, 2010

Thank God for the wonderful weather today, we could step out for a late bike ride. There was no sun when we left at 8.30 am and were hoping it stays behind the clouds. It was actually a bit chilly.

What was also special about today was that we were biking together after nearly 4 months. So it was back to good old days, setting routes, cutting our way through residential colonies, and dodging the trucks and autorickshaws on the main roads.

Stream

We had decided to go to Bellandur lake and come back via Sarjapur Outer Ring road. So we cut across the Old Airport road, reached Wind Tunnel road and took the army defence area to reach the Bellandur lake. Once past the Wind Tunnel road, we were away from the city traffic. The entire stretch from Wind Tunnel road to the Bellandur lake is also a very good candidate for morning runs. We wish to come here some day for a long run.

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Citizen Initiative: Recycle a Cycle

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One of those initiatives which are really making a difference in the lives of people.

From an article on Bangalore Mirror:

After plastic, paper and clothes, it is the turn of the humble cycle to be recycled in a bid to empower poor and needy children.

Two Bangaloreans have been collecting unused and/or old cycles from across the city and repairing them before donating them to needy children.

The duo — Pradeep V V, a co-founder of Mapunity.in, and Mayank Rungta, a software professional with Juniper Network India Pvt Ltd, set up the Ride A Cycle Foundation after reading of a similar initiative elsewhere. Pradeep says, “Last year, I came across a story about a doctor couple in Mumbai who would go around the city collecting old cycles and repairing them before distributing them among the needy. Their project is called the Bicycle Project.

More info about Pradeep and Mayank’s initiative can be found at Cycle Recycle blog. In December, they provided the first set of recycled cycles to students of two NGOs.

Critical Mass: February 27, 2010

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Critical mass poster for February

(What is Critical Mass?)

Official Announcement for the February event on 27th.

It’s time again to celebrate the joy of cycling. This month we are taking some history lessons with cycling.

Let’s ride towards one of the less famous towers of Kempegowda in Gavipuram Guttahalli. The tower is on a small hillock overlooking the Kembambudhi lake. If on time, we can view a beautiful sunset and move on the the Gavi Gangadhareshwara Cave temple.

Both the tower and the temple were built by Kempe Gowda referred to as the founding father of Bangalore.

We will be ending the ride at the VV Puram – Food Street and indulge in some carb loading.

Really want to attend this. Have to get the final route map though, to make sure we don’t kill ourselves riding all over Bangalore in the middle of the afternoon. Google maps seems to suggest this car route. Distance from Cubbon park seems to be about 6-7 km.

Pedal2Mumbai – A 4-day, 1010 kms Cycle Ride in Support of Mumbai Car Free Day

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From this post on Bangalore Bikers Club:

The Bangalore Cycling Club (a cycle team run by Venkatesh of Wheelsports) will be pedaling to Mumbai from Bangalore starting tomorrow morning (Feb 16, 2010). They will be covering a distance of 1010 kms in 4 days as per the following itinerary:

  • Feb 16 – Bengaluru to Davanagere 265 km
  • Feb 17 – Davanagere to Belgaum 246 km
  • Feb 18 – Belgaum to Pune 336 km
  • Feb 19 – Pune to Mumbai 163 km
  • Feb 20 – Rest at Mumbai
  • Feb 21 – Participate in the Mumbai Cyclothon and the Mumbai Car Free Day

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V-Brake Madness (and Adjustment)

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V-brake

V-Brake or linear pull brake (Photo courtesy: wikipedia)

At first, some background about why V-brakes were the first thing I obsessed over in the first few weeks of owning a new bike.

When I got my bike about two weeks back from BOTS, I faced the first of the logistical hurdles of a newbie cyclist. BOTS is about 20 km from my home, which in Bangalore is quite a respectable distance, and this entire distance is through some of the busiest roads of Bangalore. For a newbie cyclist like me (well not exactly newbie, but that is a separate story), this distance or at least the route is intimidating. So the only way to get my cycle home was in my car, which turns out to be one of the smallest cars on the Indian roads – the Maruti Alto. A friend of mine, Balaji, had mentioned earlier to me that I would probably need to take out the front wheel to fit the bike inside my car, but soon I found out that I had to take out both.

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Bangalore Bikers Club Meetup at EGL

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After a discussion started by Sudhanshu, a couple of folks decided to meet at the Embassy Golf Links (EGL) business park cafeteria today.

Since we didn’t know each other personally, we spent the first few minutes hanging around the food counter (the designated meeting spot) staring at folks wondering if they are the one. I reached first, and then figured out another guy (Ashwatha) who was looking as unsure as I was. Turned out we both were from the same organization, which was both delightful and embarrassing as as we hadn’t seen each other in the office earlier even after working together for 3+ years. I could then spot the third guy – Sampath from a mile away as he was coming in the baggy biker shorts. We waited for a few minutes for Sudhanshu, and after he came in, we sat down with food and discussed, what else, biking?

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