Late at night a week ago, Feeling drowsy, I decided to treat myself to a used cycle for Diwali. There wasn’t any specific reason, I just always wanted a cycle from a long time plus I liked running and made the reasonable assumption I would like cycling. I initially made a list of some discounted items on Amazon like Noise Cancellation Headphones or an Air Fryer, but none of them felt right. I chose a “sparingly used” Firefox Rapide (for some reason all items on OLX are “sparing used”).

The next day I undertook the trek to the Gubbi Cross, Hennur, North Bangalore (where the cycle’s owner lived). Despite living here for 20 years, I have never heard of it. After taking the Metro to the Majestic Bus Terminal and the bruhaha of finding the correct bus amongst hundreds of buses in the bus terminal, I finally hopped onto the right BMTC bus. I got off at Gubbi Cross and walked to the nice apartment complex.The actual process of buying the cycle from the owner wasn’t a complex deal. Looking at the cycle, it looked pretty new to me, the brakes worked, the gears worked and so I took it off their hands for 19k. Sparingly used indeed.

At this point, it was like 5pm on a crisp winter day and I had to hurry back since 6pm is when it gets dark and evening are definitely not the time to be cycling on Bangalore roads. Also in my typical careless attitude, my phone was at 9% battery and I carried no cash in my wallet. And I had to cycle 30k (at least, according to google maps) to go back home navigating purely based on intuition. By the time I got home, it was 8pm, was definitely dark and I had cycled for 3+ hours. I’m also sure I got lost multiple times and cycled in circles for some time.

Cycling across the city I felt the distinctive different parts of the city. First there’s the dusty areas with construction everywhere kind of vibe. A lot of that. Then there’s the old parts of bangalore, some parts good, most parts that look straight out of a second-tier crowded Indian town. There’s the posh part of town with fancy shops, restaurants and houses. And finally the quiet residential neighborhoods with greenery. I’m just happy I didn’t go through the “IT” parts of town.

Cycling in the city on most large roads is plain infuriating. Buses that whiz past you extremely close. People who honk in bumper traffic. And the worst of all, people merging randomly into the left lane and stopping abruptly.

Still its not so bad. You get to see just how lively the city is on a sunday cycling across it. People buying flowers. Young people chilling around in CBD and Jayanagar. The “Oo anthiya mama” song loudly playing at Forum mall (that I could hear from like 500 metres away).

The good news is cycling 30k wasn’t so bad (I’m just a little tired and sore) and the cycle predictably held up well (just have to oil the chain). The actual cycling across the city was a fun unique experience and I think I will be cycling much more now (just not in the city).