Craze for cycling

After reading Lance Armstrong’s book “Its not about my bike” I developed a craze for long distance cycling. Though I never owned a cycle I started using the stationary cycle in the company’s gym and started
enjoying the results of my weight loss (straight 87kg’s to 75). From then on half an hour cycling with an average RPM of 113 became a normal routine. In the back of my mind I wanted to go for long distance cycling
But I had no idea of what was happening in the cycling arena in Bangalore. Once I saw a post by one of my friends that a club named “Cycling and more” is organizing a 150 km cycle ride in coorg. I was zapped!!!
Sweating out and burning calories in the western ghats, what more can you ask for. I was game for it. At the same time I had 3 issues.
1. Buy a bike, but I never had any idea on bikes.
2. I wanted to go for an economical one as I was not sure about how long this new passion is going to last.
3. Last but not the least, would I be able to ride 150 km’s? The last time I ever rode a cycle was a decade ago in class 10th.

I started goggling and I found that the best bike that would suit all my requirements was a Hero hawk which comes with 18 speeds. Then when I enquired about the availability in a shop near my place he showed me a bike named “FOMAS Road King” and I was impressed by the very first look (also with the limited knowledge I had). I brought it for 5100 INR.

Even Santosh joined me and he got a mountain bike with front shock absorbers.

The very next Friday as it was off (Thanks giving) I left to Nandi Hills at 4.30 in the morning. I had a bottle of gatoride, 2 apples and water as fuel. I took my first break near Elankha at 6.15 which was good 20 Kms from my place. By the time I reached airport it was 7.30 and my phase was dripping at a very fast rate and I was out of fuel. When i took the deviation to Nandi hills (20 more kms) there was a lady selling Idli's on the road. I was hungry, but i thought it would be hard to cycle once I eat, so planned to have on my way back. This was the biggest blunder that I did as i could not find food any where for the next 20 km's and I had to climb the terrain. My inexperiance created huge fuss as I was new to a bike with Gears and my legs were never used to this kind of a rhythm and more than anythin else i could hardle feel my bum after sitting in the seat for 5 hrs now. I had decided never to get down from the bike till I reach the summit, but I had to break the rule thrice as I could not take the terrain. I finally reached Nandi hills at 8.30 (4 hours).

The return journey till the foot hills was heaven. I had to take 5 breaks while coming back and I was dehydrating. I reached home at 1 in the noon.