Life during the lock-down is hard, It’s harder for the unfortunate who lost their jobs and is unable to work from home. I’m one of the lucky ones who’s able to work from home and continue on like nothing happen.
Still that doesn’t make it easy for me, the monotonous workflow is broken. What was desensitized is now apparent. I needed some sort of escape, and for me that was cycling. I’ve been known to pace around a lot and being unable to stay in one place. Cycling is that but with much more speed.
The seed
I started out on my dad’s old Lumala Sports bike which was original ridden by mum during her school days. Dad had re-painted it black and made it look very sleek. It’s my dad’s sole means of transportation around Battaramulla(City in Colombo) where I live.
It’s creeky and has only front-breaks and makes really unpleasant sounds when going up hills. it had no-frills and I loved it. Kevin and I frequent the water tank near the temple to feed bread to the tortoise and fish there. Also after workday stress I circle the familiar roads in Battaramulla by myself to end the day off,
Buying a new bike
Dad was not liking that his bike keeps disappearing. He demanded I get a new bike, and that’s what I did.
Yes! new bike, the last time I owned a bicycle was when during school days. It was one of the common cheap mountain bikes with fancy decals and shocks. This time I did some research and bought a Ribow Hardtail 26, overkill? Maybe not as I really do plan to use the heck out of it.
Also what contributed was seeing a blog by one of my former bosses at WSO2 write about her cycling stories in Sri Lanka, looks like a lot of fun!
Riding on the Street
It rides like a dream I end up cycling around Battaramulla but I needed to head out of the familiar paths to have an adventure.
It was apparent that I needed to get on the road, as I have slight fear of traffic and driving (I still don’t own a drivers licence). It was less scary than driving an automobile as I have confidence and know the limits of it’s maneuverability.
The first time was okay, I just went around Battaramulla and It was okay. It was all left turns and was non-eventful and invoked memories of me cycling in the road during school days going for tuition classes.
Yesterday Morning (13/06/2020 Saturday) I woke up with no plans and decided just to go on a proper cycling route. My waypoints on Google Maps were
- Start from Parliament Grounds Car Park..
- Go pass Beddagana Wetland Park.
- Go pass Spinner Cafe.
- Come back to the start.
I strapped my phone on the bike and fixed my flashy red tail light. I wasn’t feeling any anxiety. Just did it. Note: I don’t recommend this specific route as Google Maps In Sri Lanka doesn’t give cycling routes and this car route had some steep climbs.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed that round, going pass the temples at dawn and seeing the sunlight on the buildings high up while the roads were dim. I didn’t stop as most of the locations were closed and I didn’t bring my bike lock.
There is something so free of feeling the road through the handlebars and swiftly navigating through small roads. I intend to keep it up and go on more cycling stories and take more pictures while at it!
So do expect more cycling stories content on the site!