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Onkar Singh Secretary General CFI Secretary General Asian Cycling Confederation

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Onkar Singh: When Vision meets Mission Bike Share: The Changing Urban Commute Tech Talk: Setting The Bar Lipika Biswas: The Tao Of Cycling

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Cycling Federation of India

InThisIssue CFINews Onkar Singh: When Vision meets Mission

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ProCycling Mission SR at Cadence90 Lipika Biswas: The Tao Of Cycling

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CityTalk Jammu Cyclists A Saga of Success Bike Share: The Changing Urban Commute

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TechTalk Setting the bar right

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Editor’sNote

The CRANK with ProCycle Team Dear Readers Managing Editor and Publisher Vikram K Limsay Invitee editor Onkar Singh, Secretary General CFI and ACC Edit Desk Dr. Meera Velankar Pedal Pal Creative and Design N. Chandru Contact editdeskcrank@procycle.in subscribecrank@procycle.in advertisecrank@procycle.in All Rights Reserved By ProCycle and Sports India Pvt. Ltd. Corporate Office and Showroom 1st Main Road, 20, 3rd B Cross Rd, Domlur II, nd

I wish you a Very Happy Dasara and wish you the best for the season till Diwali and after.

I must begin by expressing how specially happy I am to have Mr. Onkar Singh on our cover. Mr.Singh is the spine of cycling as a sport in this country and its changing fortunes. He has been been silently guiding its progress with his amazing wisdom and positive energy.

Indian cyclists have given stellar results already and the sport is well on its way to its deserved glory.

Like always we take you different corners of the country from Jammu to Kolkata and to Bangalore where individuals and clubs are encouraging the riding habit as a sport or for leisure and commute.

Speaking of commute, you will have seen bike share take off in a big way in major cities. While its early days to predict their success it sure will give visibility to the habit of city commute. Read about it from the promotors of YuLu. And there is more.

As always read on and keep riding. And say Safe.

Ciao Vikram K Limsay Managing Editor and Publisher

Stage, Indiranagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560071 India’s only lifestyle bicycle magazine

Tel: 080 41161902, +91 95380 66695 Website

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Onkar Singh When Vision Meets Mission

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ecently a cricket-crazy nation saw newspaper headlines that read “India creates history by winning the first ever cycling world championship medal”. While it was a proud moment for the larger sporting community to see a much awaited parallel sporting champion on the rise, reaching this epitome of success in cycling was not an overnight feat in a country that equated sports to only cricket.

The man behind this herculean task has been fighting a silent war to promote sports in general in India. An ex-national champion gymnast, a sports administrator for 40 years, joint secretary Indian Olympics Association, Sec Gen Cycling federation of India and recently appointed as IOA nominee to the board of Khelo India as the representative of sports federation- Mr Onkar Singh needs no introduction in the sporting fraternity.

A brilliant team worker, administrator par excellence and a man with one and only one mission- to put Indian cycling on the Olympic map. It is this vision, mission, focus, dedication and determination that has helped make history in Indian cycling. Mr. Onkar Singh is the first and only Indian to be elected at Asian Cycling Confederation and become Sec Gen ACC. Not only India, he is now the big boss of cycling all over Asia.

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His hard work has reaped unparalleled results for Indian cycling.

Under his guidance Indian cyclists are now medal winners at World Championships where they have beaten cycling giants like France, Great Britain, USA, Malaysia, Japan etc. In fact, the last UCI world championships held at Agle, Switzerland (headquarter of International cycling Union) witnessed an over-excited commentator talking about India’s silver medal despite the gold going to Czech Republic. He, like the rest of the world, was welcoming India on the world cycling map with pomp, show and applause.

How did one man on a mission change the face of Indian cycling and lift it from the bottom rankers (among 193 nations) and put it on the top of the charts? Mr. Onkar Singh took over the reigns of a struggling Cycling Federation of India in 2013. He had envisioned that nothing could be done for cycling without proper training of the current and future cyclists. A world class indoor cycling Velodrome had been constructed during the CWG in 2010. However, it had been lying shut since then. After running from pillar to post, Mr. Onkar Singh finally managed to get it operational.

The next piece in the puzzle was to get proper funding. While the training expense of world champions like Lance Armstrong ran in millions of dollars, the money available to run the sport of cycling

was negligible. To bridge the gap, Mr.Onkar Singh decided to start India’s first professional cycling races. Getting the attention of corporates and enthusiasm of the spectator in a country that watched only cricket seemed next to impossible. However, he faced the challenge in the face by threading out each problem in a systematic manner with foresight. The term “CYCLOTHON” was coined by him in presence of his team and sponsors which gave birth to the first of many cyclothons the country was to witness in the coming future. The sponsorship which CFI got from these cyclothons channelised funds which could be used for the training of cyclists.

The next roadblock in his map towards the Olympic dream was the lack of training. Cycling training had jumped leaps and bounds in the last decade and there was no one in India who was up to date with the latest scientific training techniques. With his keen foresight, Mr Onkar Singh zeroed on Mr RK Sharma as the future cycling coach and sent him for UCI CLASS 1 diploma which was the highest training programme available to UCI World Cycling Centre in Switzerland.

As anticipated, Mr.Sharma topped the programme and came back with

invaluable knowledge which proved to be the key in transforming the performance of Indian cyclists.

With a velodrome, funding and world-class coach in place all the country needed now was talented young cyclists with a passion to play for their country. With the government of india onboard, Mr Onkar Singh started the National Cycling Academy in Delhi. This marked a milestone in Indian sports history as no other federation had come to the stage of running a Government funded sports academy dedicated to identifying talent in the bud and training them with the Olympic medal in mind.

Cyclists as young as 14 years of age were chosen for the academy after hosting trials across the length and I wish to place on record my appreciation for breadth of the country where all were Mr. Onkar Singh, a visionary who has always invited to come and show their mettle.

The first batch of the Academy had encouraged CRANK from the early days. We are about 40 inmates hailing from all always ever so grateful for his advise and simply states, economic class and the good energy that surrounds him. In a country education al backgrounds. These where cycling is often ignored to bring out a were definitely one of its kind of media and that too successfully month on month impartial and transparent selections, for over half a decade cannot be achieved without the country had ever witnessed in the good wishes and friendship of a visionary any sport. like Mr Singh - Vikram Limsay Managing Editor & Publisher When the blueprint is so solid, the building that is built can be nothing

A note from Managing Editor:

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short of perfection. It is no surprise, that the foundation stones that had been so systematically placed started reaping results in no time. From a time when the aim of Indian riders was to simply try and complete a race at international circuits, they were now fighting for a spot at the podium. Medals started pouring in at various international championships like Asia Track Cup, Asian Championship and other Continental Championship.

Due to the sudden and obvious improvement in Indian cycling, the world took notice. Mr. Pad Mcquid, the then UCI President, visited India and proposed setting up the World Cycling Centre in India.

This unprecedented and unbelievable victory was solely because of Mr. Onkar Singh’s determination, consistent pursuance and his faith in his team. This led to the inauguration of a satellite world cycling center which was only the third of its kind in the world and the first any developing nation had ever witnessed. Mr. Singh’s dedication towards the sport and his brilliant peoples’ skill kept him in the eye of the next UCI president Mr. Brian Cookson. Mr.Cookson continued to be the patron for promoting Indian cycling and invested heavily in the World Cycling Centre in India.

In a stark contrast to his public image of a world renowned sports administrator with the Midas touch, he in person works only with one image in his mind- that of his kids training in his academy and indian camps. Due to his single point agenda of helping the kids achieve their dreams, the National Academy is now sprouting with international level talent with names like Deboarah,

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Esow, Danamma, Mayur, Manorma being splashed in the leading newspapers on a regular basis.

Mr. Singh has transformed the cycling federation which was once a blacklisted federation, to the top performing sports federation in the country. The Government of India has once declared Cycling Federation of India as one of the top performing federations in the country. Not only at the national level, Mr. Singh is celebrated even at the International level. This was evident when recently Mr. David Lapartient, current President of UCI, shot out a letter to all the cycling federations across the world commending Mr.Singh for his vision and efforts as the Sec gen of Asian Cycling Confederation. it is his vision which we now see Indian cyclists topping the UCI world rankings and many an Esows and Deborahs will rule the world cycling scenes hereafter.

Mr. Singh’s story and journey validates the fact that if one’s mission and intention is in the right place, then no battle is too tough to be fought and victory is inevitable. Despite achieving such great heights in the sports fraternity, Mr. Singh is known for his humbleness and modesty amongst his team and family members. He has never been eager to take credit at an individual level and has always pointed the transformation behind Indian cyclists towards his team, coaches and athletes. Though unsung, he is undoubtedly the hero behind modern Indian cycling and the hope for all the little Indian kids currently riding their tricycles and dreaming of an Olympic cycling medal.

ProCycling

Mission SR at Cadence90 By: Phaneesh Nagaraj and Chethan Ram

Riders: Pancham Bharadwaj, Phaneesh Nagaraj, Madhu Iyengar, Jaisimha Haldodderi, Aditya NC and Chethan Ram.

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y first brevet was in 2012, after attempting 200 km and 300 km, I somehow couldn’t convince myself to continue riding brevets as I was never comfortable riding solo. I always prefer a company of at least one rider — be it a brevet or just a normal ride. After six years, a thought of riding a BRM came to my mind and this time I got the support of five others who agreed to join me in brevets.

As amateur cyclists with just 200 km being the maximum for most of us, attempting super randonneur (SR) title — completing 200 km, 300 km, 400 km and 600 km in a BRM calendar year (November to October) — can give shivers to anyone. It requires planning in advance, consistent long training hours, early to bed and early

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to rise, a discipline to achieve the goal, gradually increasing your threshold and belief which will take you to the finish line.

Who are we?

We are Team Cadence90. We are together because all of us have one common interest — cycling. We have been riding together for more than five years now and we understand each other very well. Besides, we all know strength and weakness of each one of us, and that’s the key to our achievement together — super randonneur.

How did it all start?

Simple. In a casual message in our Cadence90 group, I announced

that I am attempting 400 km BRM which passes through my hometown. Anyone interested? And six from the group plunged into it after a brief confidence boosting conversation with them and thus began our quest for our first joint randonneuring experience. None of us did a 300 km and yet we jumped into 400!

Hassan 400 km, July 21, 2018 We were finding it hard to sleep the previous night, with the excitement and anxiety creeping in. Family, friends and familiar faces sent us off at the starting point and the journey began. We were just focused on finishing one control point (CP) at a time and by the time we reached the last CP at 1 am with just 90 km to go, we were famished. Thoughts of giving up started but a nap of one or two hours helped us recover the lost spirit and we were at it again, giving our last best shot. We took turns to pull ourselves and we finished with an hour to spare. We were badly wounded soldiers towards the end with everyone agreeing that this would be our last randonneuring journey. But like they say from a little spark may burst a flame, one of the riders rekindled it for us again and we were back to business. Let’s conquer 300 now!!

Melukote 300 km, August 18, 2018 Melukote 300 km was an iconic route which also involved riding on Hassan highway. This ride was hugely challenging due to insane headwinds and crosswinds. Reaching Melukote was because all six of us worked as a team and took turns to pull the train ahead. But the segment after Yediyur to Melukote had drained every ounce of energy as we had battling 30 kmph crosswinds. Fortunately, event organisers had arranged mouthwatering puliyogre which provided the much-needed energy and regain enough strength to complete the ride with more than two hours to spare. We enjoyed this ride — in fact people on the road loved the way we rode together. Also, a

Every story has a beginning, and mine was not an exception either. While working with an IT major, I put on lots of weight and started cycling as commuting and fitness activity to shed the flab. From the initial 10 km to 100 km seemed a huge plunge, but I did it one day! In the process, I picked up a group, which started growing and we began organising small supported rides over the weekend. The idea of starting a bike store was also born. Apart from cycling, photography is also my passion, which offered me in 2012 to be an official photographer for the Tour of Nilgiris (TfN) where I met lots of ace cyclists. In fact, TfN was my first cycling event as photographer as I’m more conversant with music concert photography — which I still pursue whenever I get time.

The store, Cadence90, started and rides were in full flow during weekends with a few supported rides during monsoon around the western ghats. But we always wanted to reach newer heights — and thus born Tour of Karnataka. The first TOK 2015 — four-day ride to different parts of the state — witnessed 19 riders, which had increased to 45 in November this year in its fourth edition. couple of riders joined our group and thanked us profusely in the end for pulling them to the finish line. We felt like pros and I believe this was the cusp of our quest for SR. Everyone felt we could do it now!

Twin Hills 600 km, September 1, 2018 Considered to be one of the toughest brevets with Yercaud and Yelagiri climbs but we all felt we were up for it! What started as a great ride with all of us hitting high speeds and in great form and also descending Yercaud much in advance of the cut off but destiny

had other plans. Suddenly, some of us started breaking down. If one can’t do it, none will do, that was our motto and we aborted the ride. The 600 km was totally different beast. But the spark was still on after a momentary disappointment.

Coimbatore 200 km, September 9, 2018 We had already registered for 600 in Coimbatore and we looked at 200 in Coimbatore to only get acquainted with the heat. The heat didn’t disappoint us — it was blazing hot! We finished the ride with more than three hours to spare.

Coimbatore 600 km, September 29, 2018 We were mentally set to conquer this ride at any cost. And none of the factors, including destiny, did not make it easy for us. The route took us from Coimbatore to Trichy and back to Coimbatore and to Bhavani and back to Coimbatore again. We first had to brave the

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heat for which we were prepared, then there were rains, we even slept in petrol bunks only to be woken up by a roaring engine sound of a truck next to us and then finally barrage of rain flies on the road not making it easy to ride in the night. If this was not enough with just two hours to cover 40-plus km, we had a bike breakdown.

But our willpower was stronger than any of these factors and we snatched victory from the jaws of another DNF and made it to the finish line with less than 30 minutes to spare. It was sweet, as Mission SR accomplished. All six of us did it together!

During the course of the BRM journeys, we have developed special bond and have created memories which lasts a lifetime.

Our families have developed relationships that go beyond just friendship. Mission SR has infused a huge sense of accomplishment and deep relationship which we will cherish for the rest of our life.

ProCycling

Lipika Biswas: The Tao Of Cycling

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ge is virtually not on her side, neither solid finances — but all that she had is will power. She buried the idea of a pan-India cycling tour as she would have to leave her job but managing leave of two months was easy, especially when it involves solo cycling in six European countries — Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.

Kolkata-based Lipika Biswas did just what came to her mind.

An avid mountaineer who took up long-distance cycling in 2003, planned this solo trip for months. In 2011, she dusted two major routes on bicycle — Kolkata to Kanyakumari and Kullu to Khardung La. The 2012 ride from Guwahati to Tawang boosted her confidence so as the 2015 tour from Kolkata to Bangladesh’s Teknaf.

“Along with a doctor friend, Arup Dhali, I used to plan the Europe trip after office for hours. Google Map was our route guide, like any other cycling tourist,” says Lipika, the only woman superrandonneur from Kolkata. “But once on road, one cannot just depend on Google or any such maps. I had very limited biking route

by Google found in Iceland. And, when I landed there, it was just awestruck moment for me.”

But Lipika says it’s not Iceland but Norway that she liked the

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most while cycling. “All new places, yet so breathtaking views, in Norway mesmerised me forever. Touring on just two wheels with 30 kg luggage to carry has itself been a challenge for me. Even in unknown places, I was not afraid of anything. At a railway station in Voss, Norway, I thought to spend the night at its waiting hall like a few previous occasions on the tour. But just after midnight, I was politely told to vacate the place as it was getting closed. Even in that chilly night, I found shelter in an adjacent cycle parking lot.

Without thinking twice, I spent the night there, awake though,” Lipika recalls.

“Never ever on this solo tour had I encountered any safety issue, rather people everywhere supported me,” she adds while encouraging women to hit the streets on cycles. “If I can do it, I believe anyone can. Even in this 21st century, there are lots of shackles around women, especially in developing countries like India. Each stroke of the pedal boosted my confidence, and shrugged off negativity, if there’s at all, in me. Soon after landing in Frankfurt, I was in a soup as I could not find any store where I can assemble the bike. Failing to find one, I started assembling my cycle, Marin Anselmo D S1, all by myself. In a city where hardly any one speaks English, this was my first hurdle that I overcame. The freedom that I enjoyed on the tour is inexplicable in words,” says a beaming Lipika.

Like other cycle tourists, Lipika would carry a tent, as accommodation is costly in several cities. “Pitching a tent is not permissible everywhere. One night, I reached Mainz in Germany where Airbnb cancelled my booking at the last moment. Authorities in Mainz also don’t allow you to pitch tent. While I was feeling helpless, a German couple opened their doors to me. I was spellbound,” Lipika reminisces. Cycling touring is all about meeting strangers and turning them into friends. “In Germany’s Lubeck, I was having lunch outside a restaurant with my cyclist-host, Baldran.

Suddenly, a girl came and asked me whether I can converse in Bengali. I was so elated to talk to the student from Bangladesh in my mother tongue that I’ll never forget Noor.”

Apart from carrying dry fruits, chocolate and Maggi, Lipika had different types of breads during her 56-day trip. “In Denmark, I tried their famous rye bread or rugbrod bread. It’s very nutritious and heavy. Bakeries had lots to offer on road. In Norway’s Bergen, I bumped into a street food market where varieties of crabs, prawns and sea fish were spread out. I had very tasty Salmon there. In Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, I had lots of fruits — from apples to blackberries, pears and plums and what not! In Reykjavik, Iceland, I tried lamb stew and bread — a known cuisine but served differently that tourists cannot finish it off!”

Other than cycle touring, there’s hardly any other way to see the world in such microscopic way. One can meet people, have local

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food from roadside eateries, smell nature at its core, and moreover be fit and self-dependent. “To me, independence is the key to happiness. I knew I was all alone in this adventure but this thought never pulled me back but took me to a different level where I could ride to my destiny,” Lipika signs off.

Self-mechanic For any solo ride, be it BRMs or touring, one has to know the basics of bicycle repairing, like fixing flats, aligning wheels, tightening or loosening brakes so on and so forth. I learnt all these from Someswar Rao, the best bike mech in Kolkata, before I left for the over 2,500-km tour.

Office cool Since I work with the Indian Railways, getting leaves is always very difficult. Yet, my colleagues supported me with encouraging words as well as promise of pooling in resources to complete my tasks during my two-month absence from work.

Money matters I had to shell out about Rs 4.5 lakh for the whole trip, and without any sponsor. Only few of my family members helped me on their own.

Paper puzzle Paper work, especially getting visa, takes a lot of time but I could manage it on time, fortunately. I’ve heard there have been cyclists whose trip had to be cancelled because of pending visa etc but I hardly faced this. Also, Indian embassies in the countries I cycled through helped me a lot with continuous inspiration.

Strength factor Physical fitness is important but even if you are 100% fit, you need that mental strength to overcome everything that can throw at you as challenges. My Himalayan mountaineering expeditions over decades made me feel I can do anything I want to.

Ride on My only tip for solo cyclists is to ride on.

Cycling helps us in multiple ways — from building in fitness to killing depression. And, the best part of self-supported ride is you are the only person responsible for everything — being the decision-maker as well as troublemaker!

Just hit the road...

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CityTalk

Jammu Cyclists A Saga of Success

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ehind every successful cycling club, there are a handful of people, and Jammu Cyclists has only one — Balvinder Singh (Goldie). Balvinder, fondly known as Goldie Bhai among fellow cyclists, set up this club in 2012. At present, Jammu Cyclists has at least 100 members across the state who have been participating in all regional state government events apart from the daily cycling rides — and all these because of Goldie Bhai.

Under his mentoring, Jammu Cyclists could inspire riders from all walks of life — government officials, businessmen and students — in an age group from nine to 80 years old. Women riders in the group encourage other women to join the rides. Goldie Bhai not only motivates riders but inspires them to actively participate in social causes with responsibility.

Goldie Bhai organised Gran Fondo — in Italian, it means big ride — in May 2016 in which more than 60 cyclists from all age groups participated. He is making efforts to organise the same this year to indulge people of Jammu in active cycling while offering them an exposure of competitive cycling. Being a founder-member of Jammu Cyclists, Goldie Bhai motivates and supports youngsters to participate in national and district-level championships. Incidentally, in the recently concluded State Cycling Championship, winners in

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almost all categories belonged to Jammu Cyclists.

Some of the rides organised under Goldie Bhai’s leadership to raise social awareness: • Beti Bachao-Beti Padao Abhiyaan Ride, Jammu to Udhampur, February 2016 • Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan Ride, Jammu To Pathankot, November 2016 • Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and Beti Bachao-Beti Padao Abhiyaan Ride, Jammu to Golden Temple, February 26, 2017 • Promoting Digidhan and Cashless Ride, Jammu to Patni Top, April 14, 2017 • Earth Day Ride, Jammu-Samba-Jammu, April 22, 2017 • Road safety week rides at Jammu and Udhampur organised by respective RTOs • Special Flag Rides on Republic Day and Independence Day

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Corporate Office 226, 1st Main Road, Service Road, Domlur 2nd Stage, Indira Nagar, Bangalore – 560071 Tel: +91 80 4116 1902 +91 95380 66695. Website: www.procycle.in Follow us on Facebook: @CrankwithProCycle https://www.facebook.com/CrankwithProCycle/

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Merida Crossway Urban 20

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Cycling Federation of India

CityTalk

Bike Share

The changing face of urban commute

W

hat started more than 50 years ago in Amsterdam, arguably the bicycle capital in the world, has taken rest of the world by storm — bike sharing.

Incidentally, from the relatively smaller cities of continental Europe — Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Paris et al — the bike sharing scheme was taken up by China for its densely populated cities where commuting turned out to be nightmare in the 1990s. With the new millennium and advent in technology, China took up bike sharing as the next best way to decongest city roads. As of May 2011, the Wuhan and Hangzhou Public Bicycle

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bike-share systems in China were the largest in the world, with around 90,000 and 60,000 bicycles, respectively. By 2013, China had a combined fleet of 650,000 public bikes. As of June 2014, public bike share systems were available in 50 countries on five continents, including 712 cities, operating approximately 806,200 bicycles at 37,500 stations.

The idea for Yulu came to Amit Gupta when he was stuck in a traffic jam in Indira Nagar, Bengaluru, on way to an important meeting.

Gupta, co-founder of InMobi, got delayed for this appointment

and began to think about how traffic on Indian roads, especially in metro cities, was responsible for real and huge losses in productivity, everyday. This is when he hit upon the idea to start Yulu, a new way to combat urban traffic problems by providing a scalable, affordable, efficient and clear solution for first and last mile connectivity.

Indians waste hours stuck in traffic snarls and studies show that exposure to toxic fumes and the frustration of spending precious time on clogged roads negatively impacts the physical health and emotional well-being of urban commuters in significant ways.

The situation in cities in India is nightmarish because the rate of infrastructure development has not been able to keep pace with the rapidity of urbanisation. The problem is compounded because people are unwilling to use public transport because of maintenance or poor accessibility issues, preferring to rely on

CRANK with ProCycle NOVEMBER 15TH, 2018

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on-demand private cab services. Private vehicles carrying just one individual, and thousands of cabs have placed a strain on the transportation system, led to rising air pollution and given rise to a whole host of infrastructural problems.

Today, what our country needs is a clean-energy led and scalable form of commute which is sustainable in the long run and this is exactly what Yulu is aiming to provide. We need to replace big personal vehicles with smaller and efficient clean energy vehicles.

At the same time, these vehicles need to scalable and shareable so that the overall cost of ownership is low and the utilisation is very high. Yulu uses IoT (internet of things) technology to create a vast network of shared dockless bicycles that can be rented easily by a user-friendly app in pay per use business model.

The dockless bicycles are also known as the fourth generation model in the bike sharing model. The first generation was the white cycles on offer in Amsterdam while the second and third generations comprised coin deposit stations and automated docking stations. However, this fourth generation bike sharing works on scanning QR code to unlock the bikes and user fees getting deducted from app wallet. These days, besides Yulu, other companies like Pedl and Mobike are also using such fourth generation bikes. Incidentally, Mobike is the world’s largest operator in bike sharing at present.

Yulu is working with the government to introduce dedicated bicycle lanes which will make bicycle sharing seamless for Indian roads. At present, Yulu is present in major parts of Bangalore and Pune, and they have recently started services in IIT Bombay. Yulu is a missiondriven company based out of India with a solid founding team and

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big ambitions. Everyone in the organisation is passionate about making a huge social impact. Of course, it faces a lot of challenges, the most important one being theft and vandalism of cycles. Even though these bikes have tracking mechanism, some people break the locks and throw it away which makes it tough for Yulu to track the bikes. Sometimes, these culprits are small kids and it becomes even more difficult to handle/reprimand them. Another challenge that Yulu faces is people misusing the bikes, stealing small parts and not parking them as per the policy. However, Yulu feels with constant innovation there will be ways to tackle such problems.

Yulu’s vision is to promote the concept of bicycling in major cities in India and to bring in more clean and eco-friendly forms of commute like e-bikes and e-cycles.

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12, Service Road, Jakkasandra Extension, 1st Block Near HSR 5th Sector Bangalore - 560034 Tel: +91 80 2550 1967 Mob: +91 9880216064

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#226, 1st Main Road, Service Road, Domlur 2nd Stage Bangalore 560 071 Tel: +91 80 2520 2004

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MADE FOR CITIES

The first Brompton was designed and built in London 40 years ago, and it is still the city that inspires us most. Every Bike is still hand brazed and assembled at our factory in the capital.

Made for speed Making your journeys across town quicker

Made for trains Made for commuters and metros all over the world

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TechTalk

Setting the bar right

H

andle bar is one of the most neglected yet important components of any bike. It is one of the three contact points that a rider has along with pedals and seat.

Handle bar plays an important role in correct body positioning when doing bike fit that in turn results in correct and maximum power transmission and speed.

Handle bar looks: Cool, colorful and clean handle bar adds to the beauty of your bike. Many colors and textures are available for handle bar tapes. Your bike can look most feminine with pestles or extreme masculine with what you wrap your handle bar with.

Riding comfort: For riding comfort, correct angle between handle bar and stem is required. Also, length of handle bar is critical. Many wrong adjustments result in hand numbness or shoulder pain and

neck pain. General convention is to measure shoulder to shoulder length of rider and accordingly choose lengths of 38 cm to even 42 or 44 cm.

Size and weight: Sizes as mentioned above can be as narrow as 40, 42 to 44 cm. Weight of the handle bar depends on of it is carbon or aluminum. Traditional handle bars will put you in more aerodynamic position. Nowadays, with compact and relaxed geometry, more round handle bars are available for endurance riding and also better hand positions for recreational riders.

Hygiene and cleaning: Regular cleaning with mild soap and warm water, drying it, keeping your handle bar tape dust and grease free is absolute essential for good riding experience. Otherwise, you will carry dust from stored bike and handle bike onto your gloves and into your nose. Many a time, riders tend to keep the bike inverted on hoods for wheel change or brake alignment it is essential to use sanitizers or clean that area after it is done.

Mounts and modifications: Triathlon bikes demand hydration system plus aero bars are mounted on to handle bar that also comes as separate cockpit in some cases. New range of fancy mirrors, lights at bar-ends are plenty in the market.

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GET OUT & RIDE!

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