Mountain Biking - My first time experience

"There came a steep downhill.I saw Heiko in bike doing the tricks/stunts in the front and flying with it. Now comes the difficult part, the fear. I exactly remember, i was little afraid to ride in that steep downhill. One side of my mind signaled me that it is going to be tough but other said just go for it!

Listening to the other one, i went ahead and was riding fasssssssssttttttttttttttt!

And the exact next thing i remember was that i showing a big smile at my friend's face (Dr.Heiko Gerwens)."

Hello Friends.....

Welcome to my blog post titled "Mountain Biking - My first time experience".

I was eagerly looking for the day 4th of July.I didn't tell the reason right? I was going to ride with Dr.Heiko Gerwens in a Mountain Bike in a Mountain in Heidelberg, Germany. How cool is it!!!

My friend/colleague Dr.Heiko Gerwens came to India from Germany in 2011 as part of business trip and out of curiosity i organized  a bike trip for him to Nandi Hills. I must say, i enjoyed and learnt a lot out of the trip from him.

He was kind enough to invite me and organize a trip for me once he got to know about my trip to Germany. I would have been more than happy if i have accepted his proposal of trip over the weekend but i moved it to the week day evening because of other travel plans with friends. 

Finally the day i was eagerly waiting came. At around 5 PM, I boarded the train at Rot Malsch station and reached Heidelberg Rohrbach station. Heiko picked me up from there and it was hardly a distance of 1 KM to his home. After wearing biking gears, i was all set to experience the joy of mountain biking.

We went to his cycle garage(full of bikes everywhere) and he offered me the best Mountain Bike to me and took the second best.There we started!

Cycling is also a habit for Dr.Heiko along with Software Performance Tuning :)

Whether it is sunny, whether it is snowy, whether it rains, whether it is cold, he always commutes by bike to office!Wow!!!So, climbing the mountain was not a new thing to  him but it is a huge thing to me reason being i never did that. I always rode in the Indian roads never in the trails.

mountains.I was excited!

After a distance of oddly 5 KM in the roads, the real mountain biking experience started!

he taught me on the tricks of Gear usage and Saddle Position during UPHILL. With all my force i started pushing the pedals with the minimum gear in the front and i was pressing pressing pressing without showing the pain in the face :). I made a good start and was pressing hard and realized that it was not tough to climb the hill if we know the tricks of proper usage of gears, saddle/body position. Though i was not physically fit during that time due to no activities because of a injury in the right calf-bone, my mental fitness,the hopes, the positive attitude, the never give-up attitude within me made me to climb that UPHILL. I truly believe in that!

Then after some climbs in the road, there came the TRAIL. That was an another experience next to the UPHILL,like life teaching us many different experiences one after another. Trails are ok but how should i react after i see the trail path which is small enough only for one bike to ride, with one of its side covered with trees/bushes and on the other side being wide open. If you slide down there, you will directly reach the Base.It's a free ticket :)

Again i considered it has a learning/challenge. The difficulty i initially i faced here was that to ride with the suspensions. Riding with suspensions in trail(with ups and downs) needs learning for sure! Heiko after crossing major trails stopped and came back just to protect me from sliding down the hills during the ride.Thank you Heiko for taking care of me!

After some struggles with the suspensions and some more climbs, Heiko told that we have finally reached the peak of one of Hill! Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have climbed a mountain. What a feeling it was. The feel of achievement! I had some munches offered by Heiko and we took some snaps of the beautiful landscape of Heidelberg with River Neckar flowing all over!

Now, the tiredness started making me lazy. Another lesson here in life. When we achieve something great. We should not just stop there feeling proud of ourselves. We have to go further making lot of achievements! That being said, i started again and suddenly Heiko was vanished :) In the sense, it was a DOWNHILL.

I told to myself  'You have crossed UPHILL, gone through the TRAIL, DOWNHILL can be easily done. come on............). Until i started riding in the downhill, i promise i don't know what a bike ride would look like in a DOWNHILL TRAIL. The best/worst part of DOWNHILL is that, you don't have any control/minimum control unlike the UPHILL.

In life also, when we go through the struggles, we would feel like when this will get over and when we can have a good time. And sometimes, when so many good things happen in life from nowhere, it will be a surprise for us.

See, how cool cycling teaches us a lesson in life!!!!

Being said that, i started going through the downhill and to be frank initially i enjoyed flying with the bike without applying brakes as the downhill was not scary as both sides of it was covered.

Finally i heard from Heiko that we have crossed one hill. He asked me whether do i want to climb another one. We humans always wanted more right!!! So I am. I said, why not, i am ready for the second hill.

Before climbing the second one, we took some photographs and had a great view of Heidelberg from the top.Then we started the second.

It was the same experiences with the UpHills, Trails and bit of downhills here and there.

There came a steep downhill. I saw Heiko in bike doing the tricks/stunts in the front and flying with it. Now comes the difficult part, the fear. I exactly remember, i was little afraid to ride in that steep downhill. One side of my mind signalled me that it is going to be tough but other said just go for it!

Listening to the other one, i went ahead and was riding fasssssssssttttttttttttttt!

Vooooooooooooooo...............!Voooooooooooooooo..............!Voooooooooooooooo........!

And the next thing i remember what i did was that showing a big smile towards my friend Dr.Heiko Gerwens.

I smiled at him and i realized immediately that i fell down from the bike and was unconscious for some time.

I am experienced in this case, reason being, already i experienced this state during my school days while practicing a Human Pyramid Structure. Being the one to stand at the top, the bottom guys slipped off and i fell down and out of shock went to the unconscious state for the first time.

Then I asked Heiko, for how-long i was unconscious and he replied that for 5 to 6 minutes! I am sure he was worried and already tried calling a ambulance. Good that i came to the concious state!

I felt bad because of the reason that i made Dr.Heiko to worry for those 5 minutes and gave him a trouble. Sorry Heiko for that :)

Being a believer of Philosophy and Spirituality, i always believe whatever happens, happens for a reason!

I had a look at my body parts, nothing broken except with few bruises in right knee and elbow.My GoGreen jersey protected me.

And i was surprised to see a dent in my helmet in the right side. Immediately thanked God and Helmet for saving my head ! People teased me for taking my helmet from India to Germany.

Another lesson here: Never listen to small minds. Just focus on your goal and do whatever it requires to achieve and protect you.

Heiko wanted to make sure whether i was ok. So, he asked me few questions about the ride and places where we came through. I just smiled and answered all the questions :)

Then i remember we rode some 5 KM and reached home at around 10 PM and had a delicious(lecker in German) dinner along with Heiko and his family and i left the place keeping those fun and joy of the ride within me.

                              

One of the activities i was interested in,  eagerly waited for and passionate about that Germany trip was this Mountain Biking with Heiko. I will never forget this experience and it is a long way to go for me to become a mountain biker!

                                  As Forrest Gump said for 'running', i say here to all of you now.

                                      From that day on, wherever i go, i was cycling......

                                                                    Thank You

                                                                       Karthik