Cochin Bikers' Club: Evening Fun Ride-Palarivattam-ICT Road- Palarivattam-25th March 2012

I don’t know about Hollywood, but there are exactly 2835 movies in Bollywood which has this ‘lost and found love’ as its core theme. You know, pichile janam ka prem, family reunions, Sita-Gita, Amar Akbar Anthony kind of stuff. But yesterday, on 25^th of March 2012, I felt as if I were living in one such movie where you actually meet a bunch of people and all of a sudden you get an instinctual feel that you are at home; you feel like you already knew them all for ages. 

Definitely a milestone for Cochin Bikers’ Club(CBC) and an inspiring feat for the onlookers, a group of 36 members blazed the highways of Cochin city as part of a get-together event: EVENING FUN RIDE conducted by the Cochin Bikers Club on the Sunday eve of 25^th March. This was not a race event. This was not in support of the prisoners of war in Guantanamo bay or to save the Siberian tiger. This was only a celebration of a passion shared by a minor yet exponentially growing herd of individuals from diverse walks of life and age. None of us orated about it. None of us had this graffiti on our clothes. But the message was loud and clear. We are the vanguards of a revolution; a revolution, which can make the world cleaner, greener and healthier. A revolution that has the potential to solve some of Cochin’s chronic problems (but we can’t do much about the mosquitoes, sorry). 

The Ride Plan:

Well, let the pics speak:

 The route:

View Evening Fun Ride- 25/03/2012 in a larger map

The D-Day:

I was too damn obsessed!. Do you remember how hard it was to sleep the night before your first class trip to Children’s Park when you were in KG? I strongly believe that when I finally fell asleep, I was sleeping on my back with hands spread outwards and upwards as if I am holding the handlebars and I think I was even pedaling!! …Did I go a bit too far this time? Alright, I was not obsessed but I certainly was excited. I could sleep only by 12:30am and I woke up by 4:30 and that too without an alarm. By the time I got fresh and ready, my mom made me a Bull’s Eye. I gobbled it up and packed my bag. My brother dropped me at the bus station by 6:45am. I reached Aluva by 7:15, changed to my shorts in a jiffy and started cleaning up my bike which I had left here at my workplace the previous day. I was expecting Surej here any moment but I had to clean up the drivetrain because it is a direct reflection of how sincere a biker you are. Now that’s one fair way to find out a good biker. It’s never the price of your ride or brand of your accessories; it’s the condition of your bike, the drivetrain in particular, that speaks of your quality.

Surej sets off on his rodeo..

Bike..the real utility king

As it was a Sunday, me and my colleague elaborated the ride plan. Though the event was scheduled at 4:00pm, we thought of riding to Erankulam in the morning, roam around the city, do some window shopping and hit a movie before it gets sunny outside.  Surej came around 7:45, waited for me to finish up and pump up the tires a bit and we set sail by 8:am. Traffic was scarce and the day was bright and dry but had not gotten warm yet. Our ride was very relaxed and we were in fact riding parallel, talking bikes, women, cars and about being very early. Very early, because I had this plan to get Ramzan, the pal at ‘The Bike Store’, Palarivattam, to check my rear cassette as I noticed a slight wobble in it. He said he’d be there at the store by 10:30am but our pace brought us there by 9:00. We decided to calm our rumbling stomachs with some Masala Dosas, our bike trip special from Hotel Brindhavan, Palarivattam.



Surej..tying the 'knot'

Hungry Anyone?

On entering the jam packed hotel, we also welcomed a lot of amused stares due to our biking attire and gears. While feasting on the Masala Dosa, Surej multitasked and booked the tickets for the 11:am show, ‘The King & the Commissioner’ at Cinemax, Oberon Mall.

Having breakfast + getting tickets for the show..Now that's what I call convergence!

We then ditched the idea of waiting at the bike store and went straight to the mall. We kept our bikes in the 2-wheeler parking lot and was not charged for the parking, which made us disproportionately proud.

'Out of sight..but never out of mind'..Its hard to find a good hideout for your precious ride. The 2-wheeler parking at Oberon Mall was good and free of charge too.

An hour of roaming around, rating beauties and some experiments with photography, we entered the Cinemax lobby. Here Surej got something, with which he believes he could blackmail me for a long long time. Poor boy!

‘The King & the Commissioner’ was a 3hr torture.  It is a movie about 2 severely frustrated teenagers suffering from verbal diarrhea. Due to the movie, Surej suffered splitting headache and I puked all I ate since morning.

We had plans to go to an authentic Chineese restaurant but dropped the idea for the fear of getting late for the ride. So we had our lunch comprising of Schezwan fried-rice and Dragon chicken. I know, the next thing that you would be demanding is a pic of the meal. Sorry, couldn’t get one. We were so hungry that we hardly had the patience for the snap.

It was around 3:30 as we left Oberon Mall and headed straight to the Bike Store, the starting point of our ride. As I was nearing the Palarivattam signal, I decided to cut the lane and move further to the right to turn right at the junction. The Maruti zen which was now to my right began closing in on me. I had no choice but to move more close towards the median. What I forgot was to keep my right pedal up. I kept on pedaling and hence I got too close to the crib at a point that when I down-pedaled the underside of the pedal brushed over the surface of the median and it sheared off a couple of grip-stubs on the pedal. So much for my silly move.

Spotted Raghu on his Merida Matts. On reaching the store, we got formally introduced and all. A very lucky man indeed, he bagged a trek 3700 and this Medira bike with all those accessories and stuffs just for 25,000 bucks. Do some expensive poojas, Raghu, hang a demon head in front of your bikes. Lest no envious eyes fall upon them, mine included.

Raghu, Rintu and Pradeep with Surej, talking bikes..what else?

Reghu's Merida Matts

Ramzan and his best friend, the wrench were working over Pradeep’s GT Aggressor. Those parcel company morons had literally crumbled his shifters while he was transporting the bike. I seriously doubt their expertise and trustworthiness of these movers and packers when it comes to bike transporting. For them, it may just be a cycle. THAT’S OUR BABY, GODDAMMIT!!!

Rintu came all the way from Thodupuzha for the ride. He had his Giant and Francis’s Bike carried in an Omini van. Francis, the youngest lad of our pack, probably 12yrs old is the winner of National Junior Mountain Biking Competition held at Jammu. He did it with is fixed gear Hero bike. Respect and applause, bro.

Big doc,  Alexander sir, a retired pediatrician was one of our venerable senior members. He had this charisma in his demeanor and his unique ‘Specialized road bike’ added more charm to it.

Now that's 'Specialized' baby

Enter Shuhaib, the owner of the bike store and a big biking enthusiast, very friendly and welcoming guy, knows exactly what he is playing at. He is one of the biggest patrons of the club and the backbone of the event altogether.

Every time I paid a visit to the bike store, I spotted a yellow GT aggressor, usually covered in mud from the recent off-road trip. Yesterday I was honored by the rider giving an appearance; Fahad, one of the very active members if I am right. I think he was so much into off-roading that I saw him riding through the heaps of mud over the paths along the ICT road that was yet to be tarred.

It was already 4pm and I just thought of getting out of the shop and I was flabbergasted (no, its not a coarse slang, it just means extremely surprised) to see a whole lot of bikes and bikers. Then I started loosing track and memory of either. Louis, Mathew, Prashant Pillai, Sreeganesh, Shaun, Abhinav, Umesh, Vinu, Justin, Jayarajan, Prashant, Mathew Joshua, Philip, ..I am really looking forward to get more acquainted with all of them. Every biker has at least one story to tell and I just love stories.

Then came Dr. Prashant from Kalady on his ‘Look’, the 7kg, carbon fiber ultraslim supermodel which can easily cost above a Tata Nano. All his attire, and gears and the bike together will give someone a feel that here is a poor chap who lost his way while ‘Tour de France’ing and ended up here.

Prashant with his cool 'LooK'

Charles and his Cannondale are both very professional. Always having this smile while chatting, we can actually read out the passion he is holding for bikes and biking.

Mr. Charles Cannondale

We were also joined by Ms. Dominique from France and Ms. Tripti (not sure of the name). They were our rare and precious lady co-travelers. Ladies, in my opinion makes gents more responsible, organized and enthusiastic. Sometimes it is a good thing and sometimes it is bad.

We waited for all the members to reach the starting point. The start off got a bit delayed due to some glitches I don’t know what exactly. Anyways, no frets as we were all busy lining up for media coverage and photo shoots. Prashant on Look and Charles on Cannondale could no longer hold their horses. They did a short ride around Palarivattam in the mean time.

At last, the much awaited moment arrives.  Shuhaib gives a brief talk on the route and guidelines and all, keeping it precise, direct and simple. We set off around 5:00pm

Shuhaib: "this is how we're gonna do it bikers"

CBC takes off!

Just as I crossed over to the main road, a guy in a scooter came nearby.HeI was very curious about the gloves that I was wearing. I felt a bit awkward. Of all those cool bikes and bikers and this marvellous event being held, all he could spot was my dirty and torn mitts? Ah!! Humans!

No time for talktime coz its bike-time

The only way is our way!

After about 15 mins of oglings, cheerings and amusements, we reached the Edapally bypass junction. The green signal on our lane was on. If I were an onlooker, it would certainly have been a real visual treat to watch 36 bikers crossing the road in high speed to evade the red.
Along the way I saw Prashant and Murugan at a fruit stall. I stopped by and had a piece from the watermelon they were having.  

Sleek carbon-fiber cut!

We had very experienced and expert bikers amongst us, both young and old. And one of the coolest things that I couldn’t help trivialising was they all were very accommodating and helpful. Very friendly and always ready to help you out. That’s another great thing, right, that those who know stuffs are happier to pass the knowledge than those who are learning from them. Divakar was experiencing some trouble with the breaks getting jammed or so, which was rectified in no time by subjecting the bike to a spontaneous ICU mass surgery.

Kris Sreekandath’s ride was ubercool. It was a BSA Utopia, a folder bike which is no longer in production. He came all the way from Calicut to join us. Kris, a very energetic senior member, is full of humor and liveliness.

Kris, on 'Utopia'

We took some short breaks for refreshments, chitchat and a couple of snaps. 

Pit stop pile up

Vinu & Justin..done some marvellous rides, the have.

KHS

How can a photographer turn a blind eye towards a beautiful sunset and/or couple

We gathered near the Bolgatty junction for some group photos and to enjoy the sunset view over the Vembanad Lake.

6:30pm. It was beginning to get dark. As some of our members had to part and some had to reach a farther destination, we decided to say the official ciao and continued the ride.

sab line pe khade ho jao!

Surej photography

Adios Amigos..CBC shining!!!

Surej’s Hercules Rodeo has this spring central suspension. This keeps on squeaking in a monotonic irritating shrill as he pedals. First we tried desperately to find a tune and rhythm in it but finally the nuisance overcame us. We are seriously planning to send BSA-Hercules Bike Company a hate-mail for making sub-par machines for the price of professional bikes.

I reached Aluva by around 8:30pm and decided to leave the bike at the workplace and catch a bus back home. As I reached home, my family gathered round me to get the travel log. As always I added a lot of salt and pepper to it and presented the story in such a manner that now they seriously believe that it is a big shame for BBC to miss out such a humongous event conducted here in India.

As I spread my bed to kiss this rainbow day goodnight, the following thoughts gushed into my mind:

36 might not appear to be a handsome number for a club event but this whole event was charted out and implemented in a very short span of time with no formal invites or branding or anything. It is the result of wholehearted commitment and friendliness of a group of very dedicated bike enthusiasts.

So, if you ask me, then yes, getting a response of 36 members, having a very memorable and fun filled comfy ride, meeting all the fellow riders, free refreshments and snacks (man, who sponsored those? Who ever you are, thanks a ton!!) and going to bed at the end of the day with an ear to ear grin of contentment and innocent bliss means the event was a bombastic hit and has made my life more colorful.

Goodnight Rainbow Day. Goodnight to my family which is now richer with 34 new members.

Cleaning and Lubing the Drivetrain

“Greatest is the samurai who lets his sword rust in its scabbard”. But, we can’t really equate this quote with cycling, can we?

Its was already over a month since I had started my commute. It didn’t take me long to come to terms with the reality that the maintenance clock ran a lot faster for those who used their bikes on a daily basis. I had planned a close encounter with my drivetrain two months from now but I was starting to hear all those metallic cries for unctuousness, already.

Rear cassette- before cleaning

Jockey wheels- note the dirt accumulation

The chain hardly has any lubrication left on them. The inner surface is shining due the the abrasions caused by friction

The front cogset. Can you see the damage caused due to chain derailings.

All dusty and dirty

Note the dirt buildup on the front hub

One month of heavy use and my chain, cogset, cassette and deraileures were covered in dust (not to mention the rest of my bike but that is out of topic, period). All that remained of any previous lubrication was this blackish brown powder that still hesitantly kept clinging on to the jockey wheels.  Creaky sounds while riding, more pressure on the pedals and increased resistance added up with a couple of faulty gear shifts made me prepone the first “Clean & Lube the Drivetrain” day to this day (night, in fact) of March the 13^th 2012.

I’ve been going through some tutorials on the internet plus some threads in BZ and cyclists.in which, of course, made the job quite easy as a game being played in cheat mode. Still, I scored a bunch of fails and fouls. I shall discuss them as I give you a walkthrough of this gala event.

It started off with some disappointments as I couldn’t procure all the desired stuffs for my mission. My hometown (like most of the ‘hometowns’ in India) is yet to fully acknowledge the bikers in all their entirety. Also, I did not want to shell out a lot of ‘kyaash’ as this was a learning drill. Now that was one of the first wrong decisions that I made w.r.t to this C&L day. So, two hours of sniffing around the markets and shops equipped me with the following:

Items that I used to clean & lube my drivetrain.

1.       ARB AP3 white grease (used for bearings)- 200gm pack- 45.00 Rs.

2.       WD-40: a solution to remove rust, grease and dirt, to prevent squeaks and protect metal- 63.8gm spray can- 95.00 Rs.

3.       Cloth gloves- 20.00 Rs.

Cloth gloves- they can come real handy

4.       Vim drop dishwash active gel with lemon- My citrus degreaser- stole from the kitchen.

My citrus degreaser- ;-)

5.       Screwdriver set

6.       An old hair-dyeing brush- couldn’t find a better option then.

7.       Old toothbrush-1 nos

8.       Cotton waste and rags- plenty

9.       Tray- to keep the soap water

10.   Old news papers- to keep the floor clean.

 I wanted to get that ‘White Lightening’ initially but as always couldn’t find it at any local stores. But I think this WD-40 works pretty much the same way. I should have been a bit more careful while choosing the grease. This ARB, I learned, is not the best for bike chains. Vim liquid as the citrus degreaser did a fine job. I took special care to not to let it into the hub. I also fancied of getting that 'parktool' chain cleaner. It looked like a laser gun used in Star Trek.

I gathered all the items required and stared meditatively at them for about 5 mins. No, not a spiritual exercise but I was genuinely confused where to start from. I just put the bike on the kickstand and started off. However, the idea of placing the bike upside down didn’t cross my mind.

Step 1: Making the chain visible- Yeah, it was all covered in grit and dirt and what not. I took an old piece of ‘Tantex Banyan’ and wiped off most of the dirt from the chain and cogs.

First round chain cleaning using cotton rag

Step 2: Screwing the drivetrain- This is a simple and easy technique that I saw in one of those YT videos. All you need is a screwdriver. Place it alongside the rotating surface (say the bearing ends of jockey wheels etc.) and just turn the pedals. You cal see those grit getting chiseled off the wheels, just like that. I liked this process so much that my screwdriver tip is half a millimeter shorter now.

Chiseling off the dirt using the screwdriver 

Step 3: Brush your teeth..and chains- I took a few drops from the vim liquid (the advertisement says 1 drop can clean up to 15,000 plates. They should try chains next time), diluted with tap water in a tray, dipped the toothbrush in it and scrubbed off the remaining dirt from the chains and stuffs. After brushing I wiped the parts with dry cotton and let it dry up.

Cleaning the drivetrain using the degreaser solution

Step 4: The WD-40 incident- Now, this is another fun part. All you have to do is to shake up the can a bit and swooooooshhhhh!. Spray it all along the cassettes and chain and you can see this fine black dirt particles dripping down. The drivetrain gets shinier and cleaner. It dries up quite fast and has got an oily feel to it. So I instantly rubbed it off from the rims to avoid future brake-fails. My brother gave a comment that this WD-40 will become thick and viscose, grease like on drying up. Nothing of that sort happened. By this the cleaning part came to an end and we took a break for dinner.

WD-40

Step 5: Grease balling- I used this old dyeing brush to apply the grease. This is definitely not the best way to apply the grease to the chain. Then I started wondering whether you actually require grease itself for lubrication. Using machine oil etc could also have done a better job I guess.

Applying the grease

Only while starting to grease the chain up that I noticed that as soon as the grease touched the chain, it was turning black. This was only because there were a lot of dirt still present in the chain and had not got washed off completely. I think if you need a 100 percent cleanup of the chain, you might very well have to remove it and clean it separately by dipping it in soap solution and all. I saw some threads showing this coke tin and chain technique. Anyways, I had not tool to remove the chain or no intention to do it in the first place. Hence, paying the price for it was inevitable. I couldn’t get my chain completely cleaned and this made the greasing part less perfect.

Result: Rather than a complete success, the mission was more or less a ‘hard-work gets paid-off’ scenario. I was able to get a load of dirt off the drivetrain. It runs more smoothly for the time being and the gear shifts seem to be ok too. But it also seems that I did over-grease the system as I found some grease particles spilled on the chain stay. Still, it was a great learning experience which has made me furthermore emotionally attached to my bike. Oh, come on guys, things like this do happen.