Wow! That Felt Good!

I just got into the office from my first bike ride in over a week. It felt amazing to get back out on a bike and riding here in Hyderabad was totally fun. The traffic is no trouble at all. A person riding a fast bicycle aggressively is such a rare sight that everyone gives me a wide berth. I'd argue that I'm probably more at risk riding up Santa Monica Blvd or Sunset than Rd. 12 out here in the suburbs of Hyderabad. I'm told traffic in town is horrifically congested, but congestion is pretty easy to deal with by bicycle. The fumes, on the other hand, may get to be a bit much when densities increase. There are a ton of 2-stroke "autocabs" on every street. Autocabs are 3-wheeled scooter-derived conveyances that can hold as many as 6 passengers (at least, that was the most people I saw crammed into one on my ride this morning.). Between those and the huge hordes of 2-stroke scooters, there's a lot of nasty stuff in the air. A couple thousand ill-maintained 2-strokes struggling up hills under load smells nothing like an Aprilia racing 250 is it screams past me on the inside of turn 2 at Laguna Seca, that's or sure.

The terrain here is very rolling. I don't think I rolled on truly level ground for more than about 100 feet on my 10 mile ride this morning. Rd. 12 seems to follow along the outskirts of a park (still no map, so I didn't turn), and there were quite a few nice vistas of green hills. But I couldn't stop to shoot a picture. I was enjoying the speed too much and there are no sidewalks on which to get out of the way in most places. The Dahon folding bike I'm riding is absolutely brilliant when going up hills. Those little wheels spin up so easily and keep so much more inertia than big 700c wheels that are barely rotating when climbing slowly uphill. And the handling caused by the short wheelbase is absolutely ideal for the swervy nature of traffic here.

I got a ton of amused stares from people I passed on the road, especially guys on their scooters. Lots of folks leaning out of buses to wave and smile, too. People definitely seemed to enjoy seeing the crazy westerner ripping through traffic on a bike. I wasn't at much of a speed disadvantage except when climbing, and I managed to snag a few grabs on the back of passing scooters to get me up the hills, too. Lots of fun. The road surface is arguably better than in LA. The edge of the road is less well defined, as there is a soft shoulder with irregular edge as opposed to a curb, but once you are more than a foot in from the edge, the surface is light years smoother than any street in LA. Of course, many side streets aren't paved at all, but I don't need to ride on those, mostly.

I've got to get to work, but I could probably rant about how much fun I had for quite a while. I'll have to temper things a bit, since most of the few readers out there could probably care less.

And I swear, I really will take some pictures this weekend!