Your attire in a rock band?

If you were part of a rock band, what would you dress up as?

I think I'll wear a Dhoti and Kurta.

The Century Ride!

I had been wanting to do this for a while now. After last week's hiccup, we (Varma and I) were better prepared - we had a pump! I started off at around 6 AM and after a reasonably comfortable ride lasting a little less than an hour, reached Mekhri Circle. Varma was already waiting there and we immediately started off. This was his second time on this road. He had done Nandi Hills on his Hero Octane (which I think is quite an achievement). Today though, he had his new Schwinn Sporterra.
We were comfortably riding away at an average speed of over 20 kmph in spite of the road being full of ups and downs. In about an hour and half, we reached the airport. The left turn to Nandi is about 3-4 km further and I started struggling a bit here. Mostly because my bum started hurting real bad. After about 20-25 minutes after the airport, we were finally there.

There's a small breakfast place there and we had a 2 Idlis and a Thatte Idli each. I had a coconut and we started back. On the way back, we found a weird fruit being sold on the road. We decided to give it a try. I can't remember the name of it right now but it looked like a very big Mausambi.

We started off again and rode on continuously until I ran out of water. We stopped at a Shell Petrol bunk and bought water and a Getorade.

We rode non stop again until the Hebbal flyover where we split - I took the Outer Ring Road and Varma went home via Mekhri Circle. I had about 20 odd kms to home and these were the slowest. The sun was out. My bum was hurting. Intermittent headwinds. I finally reached home at 12. A total of about 6 hours and 110 kms. A feeling of relief more than anything. A new experience for me. Will hopefully have more of these soon.

Bidadi trip gone bad

Friday, the 14th of Jan. Varma and I decided to go on a 100 Km trip (would have been my first. He did a Nandi before). The plan was to start early, at about 6 AM, reach Bidadi, a small town on the way from Bengaluru to Mysore, have Thatte Idli and be back by about lunch time. The first one hour of the trip was very nice.

The road to Bidadi is mostly downslope. As a result, we were doing very nice speeds with very little effort. The road, unfortunately, wasnt very nice. Pssssssssss.

Damn. I had a puncture kit and a spare tube. But guess what? I didn't have a pump. haha. I was hoping that 1) since my tyre was relatively new, it would be reasonably resistant to punctures

2) even if there was a puncture, I could just change the tube and fill air somehow (which turned out to be impossible without specialized equipment. For the technically inclined, my tyre has a Presta valve for which you need special pumps. Or at least a Schrader to Presta converter. Needless to say, I didnt have either.)

We then walked back up to K.R.Market, a distance of about 12 Km before we could find someone with a pump that could (barely) be used with a Presta valve. We then started riding again. Very carefully now. I still felt like the tyre was ready to burst anytime. Stopped for breakfast at India Coffee House, Churchstreet. Then had a few Momos at a Tibetan place on Brigade road. We had eaten too much. The ride home, as a result, was very uncomfortable.

Overall, a good experience. A few lessons learnt. Some confidence gained. Too bad we couldn't have Thatte Idli.