Mumbai-Pune Cross district cycling- The crazy dream!

The inception of a dream

I believe in the words " If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not really dreams!". All dreams begin as a flash of an idea. An idea that seems crazy but plausible. Then, the idea grows within us, as a part of us. We protect it within us. We nurture it. It makes us smile.Once rooted deeply within us, it transforms itself, into something more profound. It becomes an aspiration. Then a dream... 

Mumbai- Pune cross district cycling was first an idea. An idea that transpired as a result of my recent passion for cycling and cycle maintenance  This infant passion is a result of my yet another passion: reading life changing books. The book named "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" did the magic for me. Robert Pirsig's attempts at infusing the principles of Zen into the greasy,oily,sweaty,thoughtful yet totally rewarding art of maintaining one's motorcycle rang a bell in my heart. Being an engineer myself, I have always wanted to forge a 'hands on' bond with machines. Reading books like " Its not about bike" by Lance Amstrong, Pedantic urge to look past glamour and shine of Formula one racing into its engineering aspects etc had already conditioned my mind for a liking for this new found interest of  rendezvous with machines. 

As I shuffled impatiently through my life to see which machine is worthy of an 'affair' with me, I realized quickly that I am not an 'electronic gadget' freak. I can hardly use a transistor for creating a basic boolean operators. On the other hand nuts, bolts and gears inspires me a lot. With the new insight about my basic liking, I saw the answer right in front of my eyes: A second hand, Hero Hawk Nu age road bike that I owned for splendid reasons like buying groceries from market and reaching lab on time on monday mornings!

But the rusted bolt-nuts,out of shape wheels, weared out tyres, screeching brake bushes and many other tired and worn out parts requested to be simply let alone to face their anticipated death sooner or later. The bike seemed to promise no life ahead.  

Little did they know that their owner was a do or die guy who once convinced of his goals, will go the whole mile to get it done in his own style. I was deeply motivated by this opportunity to learn a new art: That of bike maintenance. I wanted to grease my hands, soak my fingers in machine oil, tune the gears for their performance,  change tyres-tubes, optimize brake assembly. I wanted to learn everything that is there to learn about this simple yet elegant machine called the bicycle. When this new obsession met the adventurer in me, an idea emerged: To do a cross district cycling of 320km from Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai on a well maintained bike whose maintenance I personally undertook. Too much to ask for? 

Today its more than an idea. Its a part of me. Its a dream. With a beautiful friend and comrade like Subodh ( who himself is a mechanical engineer with the rare combination of machine-advendure), things wouldn't look much brighter than this. The excitement and adrenalin of the goal has also effected a kind of mental and physical discipline in me. I have been starting my day early, exercising regularly, drinking lesser, working more efficiently and managing time more appropriately. After almost a gap of one long, lousy, tension filled, emotionally tiring year, I feel alive again. I feel positive and optimistic again. I guess, Lance was right about it when he said " It's not about the bike"... Its about what it does to you!

Stay tuned as I discuss our workout sessions, bike maintenance and riding practices...

Author's note: You have a some valuable points that I missed out? Go ahead and share below.
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