A cycle story: Upgrades, revamps, strip down, health and wealth from the eyes of a kanjoos
It's a mix of psychological and cyclogical issues. Before I buy anything, I try to do cost-benefit analysis in my way. And now I think I know what MBA stands for - Marwari based accounting :P (and yeah, it gets crazier by lines :P)
Buying cycle was on mind for so very long time but I was never able to justify buying it. Let me explain why. Public transport in Bombay rocks. Getting a season ticket for train between Andheri and Bandra was below 100 rupees for a really long time. Even a decent gearless cycle would cost between 3K to 7K subject to what you are looking for. Do the math and you would realize that purchasing cycle would return its value in 30 months minimum by that standard. Why should I equate that with public transport expenditure? My reasoning was simple. If I walk each day from home to Bandra station and office to Andheri Station, that would equate to 1 hr of commute time in each direction involving 15 minutes of train ride and 45 minutes of total walking time. Am not talking theory here. This is precisely what I had done for almost 2/3 months on regular basis. Did I lose weight? Shed some fat? Yeah, I very much did. It may sound weirder but you don't have to spend money to stay healthy. Rather it's very cost effective if you are not doing it for looks of it (for example, Arnold type biceps chahiye thingy).
Talking about other modes of public transport. While bus ride would come to same duration (20 minutes walking between Home and Bandra station and 35 minutes of bus ride from Bandra to Office), it would cost 30 bucks (now 36) each day.
Why am I talking so much about money thingy? Whether you believe it or not but MBA essentially teaches you that everything is always about money. You introduce/improve process for saving money. You want customers because they give you money. You address whims of shareholders because they give you money. The net result of each thing you do is to save/earn money. So I am not ashamed any more about talking/equating things in money mode. But yeah, bit ashamed of mixing the dream hobby with money thing though :P
But it's helping. The choice to ride each day is motivated to earn the money spent by saving each day. It's not about kilometers ride or the speed of ride. I am not competing with anyone on any of those parameters. Look at strava and you start realizing that there's always someone who's way way above your benchmark. There are people who have ridden at max speed of 109 KMPH (I might faint out of excitement if I touch that speed), there are people who have gone around the globe on cycle (forget 1000 KM rides). Besides, competition makes you unreasonable as you start struggling with moving targets (literally "moving" targets in this case :P). That's another reason I avoid it. So my target is simple. To earn back 7K worth of rides using this cycle. Why 7K? Let me list out all the expenditures done on bikey so far
1) 200 bucks worth of Mudguard
2) 100 bucks worth of puncture kit
3) Tyre replacement in 150 bucks
4) Gloves and Helmet together in 600 bucks
5) 800 bucks for the changed handle gripper
6) 125 bucks for mini foot pump
7) 1700 bucks to doc for wrist checkup (net result - zero as Dr Sudheer Warrier could not figure out what's troubling my hand :P)
8) Approx 100 bucks spent on puncture repair, handle adjustments, air fillings etc
9) 200 bucks for new saddle
Now coming to the wrist pain stuff. I developed this in last 6 months. Still not able to figure out what's wrong. Changed the gripper but that isn't helping much. Have adjusted seat heights couple of times but that doesn't seem to be helping in posture or ergonomic stuff. The roads keep getting worse day by day. I still can't get my head around why everyone is so keen on "road repairs" in Mumbai 24X7 and yet no road gets better. As if potholes were insufficient, they have mushroomed speed breakers all around. They spend 3 times on each speed breaker. Overnight someone comes and builds an oval speedbreaker that looks like an egg in standing shape. Then someone complains. People come and start putting charcoal around the speed breaker to make it look like lying egg shaped speed breaker. The worse happens when you start getting pothole within speed breaker. Is that even possible? Hell, yeah! Remember that lying egg shaped speed breaker? Courtesy all the artwork in charcoal, you now have a wide speed breaker which can easily fit in one or two potholes inside it. So yeah, there are potholes in speed breakers. That's not all. Some have it just before them or just after them. So you can form a sine wave when you ride through them. That's another reason why I never go for mountain trail. I have aplenty of them between Andheri and Bandra roads. Having said that I would like to see the top speed of that 109 KMPH guy on 9 KM stretch between Bandra and Andheri :P
Has cycling helped me? Well, apart from fulfilling one childhood dream hobby, it surely brings out child in me (as rightly mentioned in one of the articles shared by Ranjan). That's the biggest gain off everything. Health wise, it's good. The tummy is still there, weight still lurks around 80 KGs and I have bichromatic colored arms now (with all vitamin D accumulated in forearms). Believe me, it's good. Because now you will start stepping away from mirrors and weighing machines thereby effectively reducing your procrastination :P
Am I trying to discourage you from buying cycle? To be honest, I did try to discourage few people but the cycling crowd just keeps increasing. Hemant bought Rockrider 500 earlier this month. Shweta Tyagi has bought Avon Rowdy this week and Sushant Pani will be buying Firefox Maximus 29er soon. Moral of the story? Discouraging doesn't work when it comes to buying cycle. The child inside you overtakes all emotions, all logical/rational decisions and you will buy one even if I tell you that buying cycle in summer/rains is not a good idea. After all I bought mine on July 7th last year (cusp of summer and monsoon) :P
Am planning to get rid of stand from my cycle. I have already removed mudguards from the cycle. Riding it bare and am liking it. Lets see what other things I plan and do on bikey :)
Buying cycle was on mind for so very long time but I was never able to justify buying it. Let me explain why. Public transport in Bombay rocks. Getting a season ticket for train between Andheri and Bandra was below 100 rupees for a really long time. Even a decent gearless cycle would cost between 3K to 7K subject to what you are looking for. Do the math and you would realize that purchasing cycle would return its value in 30 months minimum by that standard. Why should I equate that with public transport expenditure? My reasoning was simple. If I walk each day from home to Bandra station and office to Andheri Station, that would equate to 1 hr of commute time in each direction involving 15 minutes of train ride and 45 minutes of total walking time. Am not talking theory here. This is precisely what I had done for almost 2/3 months on regular basis. Did I lose weight? Shed some fat? Yeah, I very much did. It may sound weirder but you don't have to spend money to stay healthy. Rather it's very cost effective if you are not doing it for looks of it (for example, Arnold type biceps chahiye thingy).
Talking about other modes of public transport. While bus ride would come to same duration (20 minutes walking between Home and Bandra station and 35 minutes of bus ride from Bandra to Office), it would cost 30 bucks (now 36) each day.
Why am I talking so much about money thingy? Whether you believe it or not but MBA essentially teaches you that everything is always about money. You introduce/improve process for saving money. You want customers because they give you money. You address whims of shareholders because they give you money. The net result of each thing you do is to save/earn money. So I am not ashamed any more about talking/equating things in money mode. But yeah, bit ashamed of mixing the dream hobby with money thing though :P
But it's helping. The choice to ride each day is motivated to earn the money spent by saving each day. It's not about kilometers ride or the speed of ride. I am not competing with anyone on any of those parameters. Look at strava and you start realizing that there's always someone who's way way above your benchmark. There are people who have ridden at max speed of 109 KMPH (I might faint out of excitement if I touch that speed), there are people who have gone around the globe on cycle (forget 1000 KM rides). Besides, competition makes you unreasonable as you start struggling with moving targets (literally "moving" targets in this case :P). That's another reason I avoid it. So my target is simple. To earn back 7K worth of rides using this cycle. Why 7K? Let me list out all the expenditures done on bikey so far
1) 200 bucks worth of Mudguard
2) 100 bucks worth of puncture kit
3) Tyre replacement in 150 bucks
4) Gloves and Helmet together in 600 bucks
5) 800 bucks for the changed handle gripper
6) 125 bucks for mini foot pump
7) 1700 bucks to doc for wrist checkup (net result - zero as Dr Sudheer Warrier could not figure out what's troubling my hand :P)
8) Approx 100 bucks spent on puncture repair, handle adjustments, air fillings etc
9) 200 bucks for new saddle
Now coming to the wrist pain stuff. I developed this in last 6 months. Still not able to figure out what's wrong. Changed the gripper but that isn't helping much. Have adjusted seat heights couple of times but that doesn't seem to be helping in posture or ergonomic stuff. The roads keep getting worse day by day. I still can't get my head around why everyone is so keen on "road repairs" in Mumbai 24X7 and yet no road gets better. As if potholes were insufficient, they have mushroomed speed breakers all around. They spend 3 times on each speed breaker. Overnight someone comes and builds an oval speedbreaker that looks like an egg in standing shape. Then someone complains. People come and start putting charcoal around the speed breaker to make it look like lying egg shaped speed breaker. The worse happens when you start getting pothole within speed breaker. Is that even possible? Hell, yeah! Remember that lying egg shaped speed breaker? Courtesy all the artwork in charcoal, you now have a wide speed breaker which can easily fit in one or two potholes inside it. So yeah, there are potholes in speed breakers. That's not all. Some have it just before them or just after them. So you can form a sine wave when you ride through them. That's another reason why I never go for mountain trail. I have aplenty of them between Andheri and Bandra roads. Having said that I would like to see the top speed of that 109 KMPH guy on 9 KM stretch between Bandra and Andheri :P
Has cycling helped me? Well, apart from fulfilling one childhood dream hobby, it surely brings out child in me (as rightly mentioned in one of the articles shared by Ranjan). That's the biggest gain off everything. Health wise, it's good. The tummy is still there, weight still lurks around 80 KGs and I have bichromatic colored arms now (with all vitamin D accumulated in forearms). Believe me, it's good. Because now you will start stepping away from mirrors and weighing machines thereby effectively reducing your procrastination :P
Am I trying to discourage you from buying cycle? To be honest, I did try to discourage few people but the cycling crowd just keeps increasing. Hemant bought Rockrider 500 earlier this month. Shweta Tyagi has bought Avon Rowdy this week and Sushant Pani will be buying Firefox Maximus 29er soon. Moral of the story? Discouraging doesn't work when it comes to buying cycle. The child inside you overtakes all emotions, all logical/rational decisions and you will buy one even if I tell you that buying cycle in summer/rains is not a good idea. After all I bought mine on July 7th last year (cusp of summer and monsoon) :P
Am planning to get rid of stand from my cycle. I have already removed mudguards from the cycle. Riding it bare and am liking it. Lets see what other things I plan and do on bikey :)