Riding a new wave

wheels of change

In 1923, six young Parsis from Bombay Weightlifting Club set out to tour the world on bicycles and three of them succeeded in riding through four continents, covering 44,000 miles in a little over three years. When Adi Hakim and the two others wrote a memoir of the journey, With Cyclists Around the World, the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote in the foreword: “I envy the young men who have made this book...I hope others will read this brave record and it will fire their imagination and make them do great things.”

Fast forward to present, bicycles in India are the exclusive vehicles of the poor or a few enthusiasts. Data for the year 2016 shows Bengaluru burdened with over 61 lakh motor vehicles. So, it would not be wrong if one felt like writing an obituary for the bicycle. However, the humble two-wheeler is gaining ground, literally. Recent trends in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Shivamogga, Mangaluru, Hubballi and other cities show that more men, and women, are climbing onto the saddle. Some of them have been breaking grounds, firing others’ imagination.

Thanks to social media, local enthusiasts are coming together to form cycle clubs and many of these mushrooming groups are now turning into registered organisations, some even successful business ventures.

Manjesh Chandrashekaran was just another cycling enthusiast back in 2010. “A few of us friends came together to go on weekend rides. But it was too irregular and I felt there was a need to build a community. Facebook helped in bringing together like-minded people,” he said. The same year, he participated in Greater Malnad Challenge, a brevet (long-distance ride). Tandem Trail, the group of professional cyclists who started the event, soon handed it over to Manjesh. As managing an event involved financial and organisational work, he formed “icycle”, a trust. Over the next two years, the event included on-the-road training from professionals and prizes for winners: “We have received huge response for this. It is one of the best cycle trails in Karnataka starting from Madikeri to Jog Falls. The 250-km ride offers participants to traverse through the best places in the Western Ghats.”

As the trust transformed into icycle.in, a web-based company, the trails increased. In traffic-choked Bengaluru, the crossroads to green spaces, including Hesaraghatta, Dodda Alada Mara and Nandi hills, formed trails that soon tapped into the weekend life of the city’s IT community. Now Manjesh is working on mapping trails across the length and breadth of Karnataka.

“It is good time for cycle clubs. Over the last five years, the enthusiasm has exploded rapidly. Today, there are corporate companies requesting us to organise more weekend trips. The number of events in a month has increased to 20. Our larger goal, however, is to promote urban cycling. We have plans to expand icycle to offer feeder or sharing service within Bengaluru,” Manjesh said.

Charms of the road
Gurudeep Ramakrishna, who runs ‘Unventured’, another web-based company promoting cycling, was a marketing manager in an IT firm until he rode a bicycle from Leh to Ladakh back in 2013. “I later went on bicycle trips with friends to places within Karnataka and realised the huge difference between touring places on a cycle and motor transport. We usually throw ourselves into a car or bus and let the vehicle drag us to the destination. On a bicycle, the journey and the destination are both unique experiences, and often the charms of the road override the importance of the latter,” Gurudeep explained.

With the motto of “changing the way people think of commuting and touring”, Unventured organises trips where participants get a chance for a bit of cultural study. “On our Hampi-Badami trail, we take riders, including foreigners, to Lingayat Khanavalis (local food joints). Many sit with locals and learn the way of life in remote villages. They get enthusiastic about the making of jowar rotis. The Ilkal Sari weavers’ colony near Badami becomes an informal classroom,” he added.

Some enthusiasts who start with such trails have ridden their cycles to fame. The Hubballi Bicycle Club is getting noticed for its members’ feats. While Adarsh Kumar set a Limca record by riding from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in 19 days, Surekha Prabhu has been honoured for finishing a 200-km ride. Shrikant Deshpande, who went on to finish the gritty Ironman triathlon in Malaysia, said cycling has helped him overcome many physical and emotional challenges.

Anand Baid of the Club, however, seemed keen on the philosophical aspects he saw in cycling. “Cycling brings you down to earth and lets you be in harmony with your surroundings. Because you are making little noise, you get to listen to nature,” he said.

Two other members of the club are going a step further. Basanagauda Shivalli and Sandeep Harapanahalli, who work as guest lecturers at the BVB Engineering College, are going to ride 15,000 km to raise Rs 15 lakh for three orphan boys in Hubballi. “My wife, Vijetha, suggested that we should utilise cycling for a social cause. We all know that there are a lot of needy people in society. I decided to do something for them,” Sandeep said.

Hope in Mysuru
Mysuru is just weeks away from ‘Trin Trin’, a public bicycle sharing service. Funded by World Bank, the project offers bicycles for rent at 52 hubs connecting all corners of the city, besides tourist spots. “Trin Trin will take off by January end. Tourism and transport are viable sectors and the connection between them is inevitable. We want this to become a model for other cities,” said Mysuru City Corporation Commissioner C Jagadeesh.

Lokesh Narasimhachar, a professional cyclist and an Ekalavya awardee who runs Mysore District Cycling Association, was proud of the city’s step but stressed the need for infrastructure. “Our roads are increasingly becoming unfriendly to cyclists. Since building infrastructure like bicycle lanes takes time, an effort should be made to create awareness on cycling. This may at least make motorists respect the riders who become vulnerable if traffic remains unchecked,” he reasoned.

Four global cities – London, Mexico City, Madrid and Athens – have declared a ban on diesel vehicles from 2025. Considering the emission during production of lithium batteries and lack of a system to recycle or dispose them, electric cars are far from becoming a sustainable mode of transport. Only bicycles promise to take us in tandem with nature.

The growing passion for cycling and the positive response to bicycle clubs are reassuring. While offering a fresh approach to tourism, cycles also promise a sustainable mode of transport. Mysuru will soon sound the first bell of change, ‘Trin Trin’. Hop on!