Category: post

A century… finally!

1st Metric Century

Completed my 1st metric century today. Am damn happy to have finally gotten this behind me and amused by the manner in which it finally got done :)

Thing is I’d attempted this multiple times last October & November. Unfortunately, the October attempts were marred by the rotten, bent rear wheel and the November ones by sudden rains and (once) snowfall. The result is that I have a dozen rides between 80 & 95kms in those two months.

Well today’s ride was planned to be a 75km straight return to / from Windsor. Despite the strong head/cross wind on the way back, decided to take a detour towards Wandsworth to check out the bikes at the (bigger) Evans Cycles outlet there. As a result of that diversion it was already 83kms by the time I made it to Hyde Park and I wasn’t really feeling too tired. So, decided to take another small detour and do a lap of Regent’s Park and return via Camden Town. Just about made it across the century mark before making it home.

The best thing about the ride – the legs were feeling good even after I’d gotten home so with another small break added, I think I can make it past an imperial century as well. Of course, only if I can find a long enough route without too many hills and am lucky with the rain and wheel!

Shall feel good with this for now :)

Proud of my girlfriend…

… on her first proper ride of the year, she bravely rode up the climb from Battersea into Clapham, amongst other smaller climbs. (It’s another matter that she stopped for 10 minutes after the climb to catch her breath and drink about a gallon of water.)

On another note, badly missing my NexusOne. Got the replacement SIM and popped it into the old E71. It’s nowhere close … :'(

Moping … and pissed off

Lost my much loved phone today. My beloved Nexus One … gone :'(

Retraced the whole route. Checked at every shop I visited, every place I stopped the bike and every pocket of my shorts and bag. Nowhere.

Not even sure I want another phone now. I like android but this NexusOne was too close (and expensive) to contemplate buying another phone, even the Nexus S.

Shall get back to moping now.

Ciao. :/

A mature cycling culture

Been thinking of some ideas/features on cycling forums / websites that I think are lacking. At some time the thought turned to Cyclists.in and from there to how the cycling culture in India still isn’t mature.

See, in my book, for a place to have a thriving cycling culture it should have had vicious debates on forums and in comments on these topics:

1. Are helmets good or bad for cycling / cyclists?
2. Shimano vs Campagnolo vs SRAM components.
3. Lycra clad speedsters vs. Fixie sporting hipsters vs. Regular pannier & mudguard sporting urban cyclists.
4. Aluminium vs Steel vs Carbon vs Titanium frames.

Since I don’t see any of these debates in place on cyclists.in, I doubt that the cycling culture has matured yet. Wonder how long will the culture take to develop to that level, if ever.