B'lore-Mysore-B'lore- Definitely not my day

Guys,

Had planned to do Bang- Mysore - Bang today (13 Jan 13), but all went wrong. Looks like everything was against me.

Actual plan was to leave my home at 4 AM and come back by 6 - 7 PM  127 KM + 127 KM on SH 17.

Instead of 4, I left at 5:30AM, 15 kms later realized that i had forgotten to take the spare tube. @ 19 kms felt that the rear wheel is little shaky but I  was doing good speed. At exactly 23 KMS Phuttttt - my rear wheel was flat in seconds, As I had already got some experience of fixing flats during my Nandi ride, did the same again, but took 40 min again. I hopped on to the bike and started pedaling, Just few km from Janapada Loka some one was signalling me to stop and as I neared, it was my long time friend kishore who had seen me and stopped his car. After the wave off, I pedaled  until 63 Kms ( Around 8:50 AM) just 7 km away from Maddur,There again I had a flat in the rear wheel,  Fortunately just few meters away on the other side of the road there was this puncture shop for vehicles. He fixed the puncture in 15 min. I was ready to go, I was planning to be in Maddur by 9:30  and Mysore by 12:30. Just crossed the road tagging my bike along and lo right in front of the shop,  1 more flat ( 3rd one). All the flats along the rim of the wheel, thought that the rim might be plucking the tire and that's why the flats. Asked him for a old tube, he cut it to the required size and i had a customized tire liner and again he fixed the 3rd flat. Barely gone for some 300 mtrs,,,,phuttt......4th flat. This was too much for me. i Called up my mechanic and explained the situation, he said this might be due to a weak tube.I decided to quit and head back home. The tube was purchased in April 2011 and was used for the rear wheel in Oct 2012. It was 11 30 with all this drama. Then i thought let me visit the nearby Vardaraja swamy temple which my mom had suggested. As i had come this far and going back empty handed did not seem to be a good idea.

 I locked my bike at the puncture shop, took a shared auto to Maddur, visited the temple and while roaming around saw a LBS and asked him if he had tubes for MTB tires, he had a local one and I purchased 1 for - 130 Rs and then I had some curd rice.It was 12:30. I took a shared auto again back to the location where I had secured my bike, and went to another LBS few 100 meters away, but he was hesitant to touch has he said he does not know to change tubes for a geared bike and could affect the derailuer. He recommended couple of shops on the inner roads, but both the shops were closed. I again went up to him and asked him to give it a try. He did replace the tube without removing the wheel, he removed the nut and wedged the tube by making a gap between the nut and the axle. Now my bike was fine except for the fact it was wobbling a little bit. He tried to adjust the rear brakes and loosened it a little. I was in a dilemma whether to continue to Mysore and complete it and then board a bus from there or just pedal back home. I decided to do the latter. But hardly 100 meters away. The rim brushed very badly against the brake pads and it was really frustrating. I thought I will wind up for the day. Signaled for a private bus, my bike was put on the top and it was almost 2:30, I reached Kengeri bus stop around 3:30. Got off and removed the rear brakes completely and pedaled very slowly for another 6 - 7 kms and reached home by 4 PM  :( 

I felt I had practiced quite good and really wanted to do this ride, but fate had other plans for me. If at least the bike had been fixed properly, I wanted to do one way to Mysore and then hop on to the bus for the return journey. Even that was not made feasible : (

This was definitely not my day. 

I think it is " Ride Another Day"  

Hope Karthick and other members might have completed their ride successfully :) 

Ride to Nandi Hills

After participating in the 300 KM brevet had not been on the saddle. So decided to do a Nandi ride with my friend Guru on 29 Dec, Woke up at 5 AM and left home at 6:00 AM, was to catch up with Guru at 6:30

The morning sky at 6:00 Am - en route to Guru's residence

Reached his place around 6:40 and we were ready to hop on the saddle, both of us were on our RR 5.1

Guru - starting off from Vijayanagar

We took the interior roads parallel to chord road, Dhobi Ghat, Palace road, Hebbal flyover. We had breakfast at the Swastik Gardenia on Bellary Road. The weather was fine, sparse traffic, nice roads.  We pedaled leisurely. We passed Devanahalli and around 52 KM just before the turn off to Nandi hills, I tried to take the service lane from the main road and suddenly felt I am putting more effort to pedal, checked the rear wheel and saw a thorn piercing causing it to go flat. I thought this is the end of the ride for me as I have never been able to fix a puncture successfully ( Last time I had tried to fix a flat at home and was not successful and had to go to the LBS). I had a spare tube, but that was ideally meant for my front wheel just in case. Encouraged by my friend, I did what i had tried back home. I identified the puncture spot, took out my puncture kit and patched it up, it did not stick successfully and then again tried for the 2nd time, felt quiet satisfied at the job done.

Hands on work shop - fixing a flat

Fixing the flat nearly took us 45 min. It was almost 10 : 45 we had another 23 Kms to cover. Funny thing is, there was a puncture shop just 300 - 400 meters ahead of us. ( This would have saved us time, but the experience I got is invaluable).

Guru leading & Nandi Hills in vicinity 

We reached the base of Nandi and there was  8 KM climb left for us to do. We took a 15 min break and decided to do the climb non stop without break and within an hour. Saw a runner and then a cyclist returning back from the top.

The Nandi Climb 

The climb was quite tough at the bends but otherwise ok. I felt I should take a little break in between, but reaching to the top non stop was a feeling that thrilled me up and really made it. If there were more climbs, maybe I would have given up. I think we made it to the top within 1 hour and were quiet elated at the achievement :)

At the Top

We spent an hour on the top and started down again. The ride down hill was exciting, I attained a top speed of 53 Kms ( my 2nd highest)  and cyclocomp showed an  average of 44 kms throughout the down hill. My thumb was on the bell at the corners to alert any oncoming traffic. I was cruising through and suddenly a group of monkeys came in my path, I had to screech halt and my rear wheel skid and left a feet long mark on the road ( Looks like I made my mark).  We had a lunch at base of Nandi. The curd and Jeera rice + Buttermilk was refreshing. It was almost 3 when we left from there, we had little pain in the thighs but apart from that everything was ok, checked my rear wheel again and the pressure was fine, was happy with the fixing I had done. The rest of the ride was uneventful except for breaks in between. We reached Mekhri Circle around 5:45 PM and I decided to split from here and went to my home via Yeshwantput, Gurgunte palya, Nagarbhavi Ring road. My friend reached around 6:00 and there was huge traffic from Gurgunte palya to Rajkumar Samadhi, I waded through the traffic using the footpath. :) . I reached home around 6:45 PM. Tired but happy

I have few queries, need some clarifications

1) I saw one mark on the road on the last kilometer climb to Nandi - HTUF! - What does this mean.? - This is after - Off the saddle marking

2) I am getting pain/ muscle tightening at the front part of the thigh  ( May be quadreps if I am not wrong) after 60 - 80 Kms, Why is that and how to avoid that. I did not experience this sort of pain / discomfort when I did the 200 KM in 2011( Blr- Sira_Blr and Huliurdurga) . Also  I felt the same way in the recent 300 KM brevet. I have altered my saddle assuming this was the cause, but if I lower the height I get knee pain and if I heighten the  saddle, I feel the pain near the thighs. Guys,,,help me..?


And Statistics

Start time: 6:00 AM
End time: 6:45 PM
Total Distance  - 150 Kms
Total time on the saddle - 9 :15 Hrs Approx
Total time taken : 13:00 Hrs Approx

For more photos, click the link below


https://plus.google.com/photos/114060384230700403729/albums/5828549980983483409



My Garmin Data - 1 Way

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/255314505