The Green Isle ride - Day O
After successfully completing the Jalori Pass mountain biking in the Himalayas this may, I looked upon to conquer the lower western ghats this weekend.
“The Green Isle”, as it was named, is a two day mounting biking trail organized by “CyclingAndMore”. Its a pretty well-known cycling ride among the bangalore cyclists, focusing on providing the thrill off riding in the moonsoons on the ups & downs of Coorg. Its organized twice a month during the monsoons…anyway…more details at www.cyclingandmore.com
The preparation:
Honestly, I didn’t prepare anything for this ride. After overcoming the steep slopes of Jalori, I now feel, I was being over confident and should have been a bit more responsible. we had a choice to take our own bikes or rent one from them for 1000 INR. I’ve an ACT 110, which i’ve been riding in and around bangalore and now thought it was time i put some real experience on it. But the ACT is more like a road bike than any hybrid. A MTB or a hybrid was suggested, but I was confident that my ACT was up to the challenge and so went on with it.
A safety helmet, sapre tubes/puncture kit, tool kit (allan key etc), extra brake pads were mentioned to be carried by those bringing their own bikes. I don’t wear a helmet, so i didn’t have one and didn’t have any intentions of wearing one during the ride too. But then, yes, i understand it is for safety and moreover wondered what if the organizers say the helmet is mandatory?!…so i borrowed one from my colleague for two days (although i ended up not using it since i was wearing my hat cause of the rains). I’ve been riding my bike since Jan and i’ve not had any punctures so far and my brakepads were pretty good too. Even during the jalori rides, we didn’t face any tyre punctures nor did any of the brakepads wear out. If it didn’t happen in those harsh terrains itself, then it pretty much wouldn’t happen here as well. After all, its going to be paved roads throughout…its just over precautionary, I thought to myself. But boy, was i wrong!! i’ll tell you what happened in a while.
I felt carrying extra brake pads still made sense since there would be lots of ups and downs and also wet conditions throughout cause of the monsoons. So on Friday evening, while cycling towards the bus pick up point, I bought two pairs of brake pads from decathlon, each for 110 INR. There were other brakepads that was priced from 220 to 700INR. I didn’t know brakepads were that costly and honestly felt was an overkill. But then, what do i know…i was being an optimistic amateur : )
And as to the clothing and baggage, I kept a pair of shorts + t-shirt and another pair of pant + full sleeve t-shirt in addition to what i was already wearing for the journey. A rain jacket since it would be raining (needless to say, it rains non-stop in the coorg region during the monsoons). I wore my new qechua hiking shoes, claimed to be water proof and soon to be put to test, so no other extra footwear. A towel, riding gloves, a torch, toiletry kit, my water resistant hat and my tool set (compact allankey + leatherman’s multipurpose tool). Fit it all in my 17 Ltr bag which also has a water sack (hydration unit as many call it).
The intention was to travel light so that it wouldn’t be heavy while cycling. This is what i had survived with for 5 days at jalori and so thought it should be sufficient for 2 days as well.
The travel:
CAM had organized the transport, for both us and our bikes as well. A luxury bus for us and a canter for the cycles. The schedule was to leave Bangalore on Friday night, reach Makkandur home stay (coorg) on Saturday morning. Cycle around for 2 days and return back to Bangalore on Sunday night.
Those getting their own bikes could drop it off at any of the three drop off points and would be picked up by the canter on friday or get it to the pickup point on firday night while leaving and load it onto the canter. My plan was to leave my bike at RR bike shop at madiwala on thursday, get it serviced and ready by friday and it could be picked up on friday by the canter and i could happily board the bus at jayanagar on friday night without having to cycle all the way till there from my home.
Mr.Murphy, it seemed like, wasn’t too happy about it. Due to the bangalore bundh on thursday, all the 3 bike dorp off points were closed. Neither could I get my bike serviced and ready for the ride nor could i leave it to be picked up by the canter. On Friday i had an important meeting at office that i couldn’t miss, so had to attend it. By the time i realized, it was already noon. I still had to attend to a family errand, get the breakpads and pack my bag. To make things worse, it rained heavily that evening and i got stranded in the middle of the way back home. So i reached home a bit late than planned, packed up quickly and left. I was supposed to reach the pickup point by 9pm. It all happened in a state of urgency!
Upon reaching the Jayanagar pickup point, I didn’t notice anyone there yet. Hoped i was in the right place. I was waiting with my humble ACT and slowly other folks arrived, with thier Treks and Scotts and Schwin and Rockriders. Many of them seemed like pros while there were a few first timers as well. Group discussion with new & unknown people aint my type of thing, so i kept my distance with a casual Hi & hello.
The evening rains had caused traffic jams across the city due to which the bus arrived 90mins late. After waiting for that long, we were given goodies (a water bottle + a reflector jacket), had a group photo session, loaded our bikes onto the canter and left without any further delay. Phalgun got in from the mysore road pick up point. He rented the bike, so didn’t have to carry anything. After that there weren’t any pit stops. Next stop was coorg. It had been a long tiring day and the next two days was guaranteed to be tiring, although with much cycling fun. After a casual round of our usual talk, we fell asleep swiftly.
By the way, I must tell you about the way our bikes were transported. I was initially speculative about using the canter for transporting them. I mean, any first timer would have the same feeling. I was worried about the components on the bike breaking into pieces as they fell on each other while in the vehicle. But the way they packed our bikes was comforting. They laid a big layer of foam/cusion in between each bike, to the pedals & the derailleur and placed each bike in the opposite direction of the one next to it so that the handles wouldn’t touch and come in the way and then were all tied and packed tightly. It was satisfying.