My Riding Adventures and Distance Goals

As you might have seen my blog's 'About Me' post, I've had many adventures while riding. I like adventures and long distances. Some are big distances, some are small. So, today, I will share with you my distance records, some being solo and some being with my friends or a group of riders.

My first big bike (26 inch wheel).

My first ever 'long' ride was to a big garden about 4 kms away in 2016. That distance looked large to me (at that point of time), But now that distance is just a spec of dust for me. For that ride, I woke up early, and went with my uncle. When we set off, I thought it would take a few hours, but it took about half an hour. At that time, I had owned a very cheap single speed bike, with a steel frame, old and rusty chain, and silly looking bar ends (see left). This meant it was inefficient, but who cared at that time? I was not even a newbie cyclist at that time. I just rode as a kid for fun. When I reached the garden, I felt the feeling of reaching somewhere on your own leg power. Then we headed back, which took another half an hour. I had covered that distance in a relatively less time.

My first geared bike. A Kross Globate 1.0

A year later, I was gifted an MTB on my birthday. The bike shown on the right is that MTB (I have totally modified it now, but it looked like this when I got it). I felt that I could go anywhere, as I had gears now. At that time, for me, gears were everything I wanted on a bicycle (and now I'm totally opposed to that).  With my uncle, I wanted to go further, as now I had greater confidence. Then on my demand, my uncle took me about 6 kms away on a ride to a park, in the neighboring city. After crossing my city, I felt what it's like to cross the city border. The year was 2017. I hadn't progressed that much in riding, but after another year, everything changed.

A year later, in 2018, my uncle once asked me if I could ride to a temple with him, situated metres away from the first foothill of the Himalayas, about 25 kms away (50 kms round trip). He thought I would answer "How do you think I could ride that much?". But he was wrong. I said that it would be great! He asked my parents to allow me to got there. They allowed me. So, on 17th November 2018, I set my personal record of completing a half-century in  one ride. Also, I had crossed the state border on that ride. After that, I was too much proud of myself. So much, that I told my uncle that I wanted to ride to a garden 30 kms away, on a hill in the Himalayas. He told me that we couldn't go, as he had climbed a hill in past, but couldn't ride that gradient. Seeing an adult not able to ride that gradient, I too got a bit discouraged and did not ever do that ride. But I am planning on doing a solo ride on a single speed to a famous hotel, up in the Himalayas. I will talk about this plan later in this article.

A picture taken from my
phone mounted on my
 bike's handlebar during
the time trial.

Next was my century record. It was an endurance time trial, which started and finished at a bike shop. It was a loop through some hills, an interstate highway and city roads. I was very excited for this ride. It took place in the hot and humid days of August. It started at 5:00 a.m. In the excitement of this event, I couldn't even sleep at night. Eventually, the night passed and I woke up at 4:30 a.m. My mother drove me to the bike shop, after mounting my bike on our car. I reached the start with a couple of minutes left to start. To be honest, I was in the lead for the first 30 kms. But then, I lost my lead and after about 70 kms, I was almost in last position. After about 90 kms, I was sure I was last, and with all that fatigue, and body aches, I completed my time trial in just 10 minutes before the final finishing time. However, I was the youngest participant there, all others were above 18. Now I am not a racer. I just want to be a recreational cyclist who goes to places and has fun.

Now for my future riding plans. I have my goal of this year to climb the Himalayan mountains and reach a famous hotel situated there. I'm doing it on a single speed(I bought a new single speed last year). I want to see if I can do it or not without walking up the hills. The distance is 44 kms from my home. The average gradient is about 2.3% and the gradient after covering all the flat parts is 5.8%. The climb's going to be tough. Let's see what happens.

But first of all, I need practice. And that comes from riding outdoors in the real world, which is not possible these days in the coronavirus pandemic. I do ride on a standstill bike, which is just a hack I've made to ride indoors. But all I want right now is real riding. Let's hope for the best.

If you too have any cycling adventures you want to share, feel free to share them in the comments section.

So, those are my adventures and long distance rides I've done till now, and my future plans. Thank you for reading, and stay tuned!