By Jake Siegel
Amidst the chaos of Hyderabad’s crowded streets, covert signs are popping up around town and pointing the way out. To escape the city, you just have to know how to read them and own a bike.
Those trail signs are the work of Shay Mandel, a Program Manager with the Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC) and current leader of the Hyderabad Cycling Club. On Microsoft’s campus in India, Mandel is leading an effort to get people out of their cars and on the path to tranquil scenery and good health. This merry band of 50-plus bikers operates under a simple philosophy summed up by their motto: Just ride. “We don’t have very ambitious goals for the club or anything,” Mandel said. “We just want people to come ride and enjoy the country.”
The club spins both on and off the 54-acre Microsoft Hyderabad campus, which houses three businesses, more than 1,500 employees, and a multipurpose sports field that sets the scene for some fiercely fought soccer and cricket clashes. As Mandel discovered, there is also an appetite for other activities. “I am amazed at the openness of people at MSIDC who want to jump on this opportunity to go green and start cycling to work. I believe this not common in corporate India,” he said.
Not long ago, the cycling club suffered from a lack of interest. Before Mandel arrived in Hyderabad three months ago, he checked out the club’s Web site from his native Israel and found about 20 riders who didn’t get out that often. When he landed in India, he contacted the club’s organizer, who handed the reins—or handlebars—over to him, and he began inviting people out to ride.
One of the early enthusiasts was Ed Martinez, a Program Manager with Dynamic CRM also at MSIDC and a recent transplant from Redmond. Even though Mandel and Martinez were both shocked at the traffic when they arrived in India—“You don’t understand how it works and why there aren’t constant accidents,” Mandel said—the two braved the chaos and started pedaling to work. Because the streets leading to the Microsoft campus were so congested, they were a bit surprised when security told them they were the only two people who commuted by bike. They began promoting the idea of cycling to campus, and employees responded to the point where security set aside parking areas for bikes. “For us, it’s just a tremendous amount of fun,” Martinez said of cycle commuting. “It’s not a sacrifice at all. It doesn’t have to be.”
The club also began organizing frequent rides into the countryside. Before his bike arrived from Israel, Mandel would jog around town and identify potential cycling trails. Once the bike came, he began to explore—“Shay gets this high pitch in his voice, and you know he’s lost” is how Martinez describes this exploring—and he blazed more and more of the longer trails now at the heart of the club’s activities. It’s getting away from the crowded streets and into the rolling hills and a more peaceful India that makes cycling there so wonderful, according to Martinez. “The minute you leave the city, the people are so incredibly friendly,” he said. “There hasn’t been a single time that school kids don’t run along and say ‘Hi!’ or motorcyclists don’t pull alongside and practice English with us.” He adds they’ve never taken a ride without stopping for some local fare and delicious chai tea served in “those little plastic cups like you get at the dentist’s office.”
Mandel keeps marking more trails—with unobtrusive dashes of paint, of course—and hopes to see more and more people on the club’s rides inside and outside Hyderabad. The club caters to all skill levels, with easy spins around town for beginners and multi-milers for the advanced. The club also offers classes on buying bikes as well as basic maintenance “so people don’t have excuses and come out,” Mandel said.
Ultimately the club and its trips are about getting out of the city and having a little adventure. Think about the definition of being lost, Mandel suggested. “If you want to get somewhere and you don’t make it, then you’re lost. But if you never have any intention of arriving somewhere, you can never be lost.”
In other words, just ride.
Thanks for posting this informative write-up. The email given in the link does not work–I got a bounced message.
is the condition of the roads in the countryside good enough for road bikes? is there an adequate shoulder?
Hi Jeremy,
From your question it is clear that you have never cycled in India. In the city most streets are asphalt with only potholes, speedbumps, washed-away gravel filling of recent digs and
occasional BIG stones marking BIG holes to worry about. Besides the traffic itself, of course.
Lane-markings (if present) are just a decoration, nobody cares where a lane starts or ends, pedestrians, dogs, parked cars, stopped riksja’s and two-wheelers share the curb lane. Occasionally an overtaking car will honk its way around a slow bus or truck in the fast lane, but more often it will cross the double line and require the opposite side traffic to move over.
Anyway – outside the city there still are paved streets – all Natoinal Highways and all other major routes are always paved. Also all areas with are “plotted” (divided for sale in plots) typically have nice paved roads and overhead power lines in an otherwise deserted area, often years before the first building will be allowed to start.
In those areas and other places where there is no other traffic, you ride wherever you like on the road, usually there is debris or pavement condition that requires you to move about on the road. Everyone expects that – every car, bike, auto and even bus will try to avoid potholes.
You simply take the space that you need and the rest flows around you. This is where India is different than the USA: There you have a designated place: bike lane or shoulder and you don’t dare to leave it or you must have a good reason. Here it is more who was first in that spot owns it and everyone coming later will deal with that by steering around it…
To go back to the countryside: most is dirt.
So the shoulder then is simply that part of the dirt road where you still can ride. Most cycles here are mountain bikes or hybrids with rather knobby tires.
Since ruts and large holes are common on dirt roads, it is again a game of who makes the first move, who is on the nice track and who has to wait or go through the puddle.
Hope this helps,
Cor.
Hey,
Nice to see this article out on the web.
Margaret – not sure what email you are looking for, but I saw you are already part of the group so you can mail me.
About riding in the country side – dirt roads are usually better than paved roads and more safe, as Cor van de Water said. But you can get quite far on dirt roads, and those are in pretty good condition, except for monsoon season. There are also quite good roads in the country, and they are not very congested like in the city.
I would not use my road bike here, just to make sure I can jump off the road when a truck is bypassing another vehicle when I ride towards them. But you can go a good distance on mountain bikes as well, slick tires are preferred.
bottom line – it is not so bad to ride here, and you get to see the beautiful country, which in some cases in as beautiful as Italy.
So don’t hesitate, Just Ride!
Hey nice post buddy!!
Somebody once said, ‘Life is a book and those who don’t travel read only one page’. When I first read this quote, I didn’t feel the depth of it since I was not a traveler then. But now, traveling has become an addiction. I have been a fitness freak for quite some time now. Combining the two passions of my life – fitness and traveling – what clicks is adventure-sports.
I have been passionate about wildlife ,trekking ,paragliding,climbing and other outdoors.
I have always liked getting in touch with people who share common interests.I have recently started my blog on adventure sports in india.You can put your views there and also share your experiences and new places with me.
http://adventure-sports-india.blogspot.com/