Cycling to Work

There had always been this itch to get back to cycling and after coming to Bangalore that yearning just became stronger when I saw so many cyclists on the roads. I remember having a similar craving for a cycle in first year of college and after a few weeks it just fizzled out. So, before actually going ahead an buying a cycle, I decided to rent one out for a couple of weeks and yesterday was Day 1 of renting that cycle. This post is just to archive experiences for these two weeks, for I believe this fancy may die too and then later when I want to get back to saddle again, the post will be a reference point for pros and cons.

So this is the cycle I rented:

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”800”] Not the image of the actual cycle I rented, but this is model. Rockrider 340L.[/caption]

It is a mountain bike from Btwin and probably one of the starting bikes in MTB range from Btwin. There are 21 gears on this one(3 in front, 7 in the rear) making it a more interesting ride for me as all my life I have always used just single speed bicycles. (Oh and if you are wondering where did I rent the cycle from, follow this link).

Anyway, the pros and cons of cyling to work I felt so far:

Pros:

1) Takes more or less the same time from office to work, but more independence. No more relying on public transport

2)  Needless to say, 8 KMs one way is a good exercise. The first 8 KMs with all the fly-overs and under-bridges Outer Ring Road has, were quite exhausting (had to stop by to buy a bottle of water!) though, but then you start getting used to it.

That’s about all I could think for now. No point generating these advantages. Will add more if I feel so later.

Cons:

1) Can’t carry laptop to and fro to work. Which means no more work from home basically. Or I will have to leave cycle at work or home and use regular transport instead.

2) Will probably need to carry extra clothes to work as the bike ride gets a little sweaty. But if Bangalore weather continues being this cloudy always, it might not be a major problem.

hmm, again, no more major disadvantages.

All in all, deciding to cycle to work doesn’t bring very major changes (good or bad) to your status quo. I will try to go for some cycling trip around Bangalore and see how that goes. If this experiment is successful, I will rent a hybrid bike next to see what difference does it bring and if I should consider buying a hybrid bike instead. I am still not so adept at changing gears correctly, but I guess that will come automatically with time, so I am not worrying  much about that.

That’s about it I guess. Hopefully the next post will be a review of some cycling trail I end up going to.