Kanyakumari Expedition - The Planning Phase - Part 2

You might want to read about the Prologue and Planning Phase 1 if you havent already.

So with the route, stay and travel logistics sorted, we now had to concentrate on the bikes and packing.

At this point, in our team, I was the one with the maximum biking distance on my legs, and also the maximum in a day (the failed 300km brevet gave me 274). It was a good feeling, and I took on the responsibility of the bikes prep.

BOTS – The ultimate place for total support

Visit them here.

I had gone to BOTS for getting my bike serviced and also to get Shasti his new bike. My chain needed replacement and I had worn out the cassette too. But the 8 speed Shimano was not in stock, and I had to wait. However, Shasti found his new love, and paid an advance for it too then and there.

I was already working with BOTS for bike workshops at my workplace. Ajith Jagadish was working on some ideas for me and we were already hitting it off a little. So when I casually mentioned the Kanyakumari trip, he was super helpful in getting us some facetime with Naveen (a reputed pro), and a session on long distance riding and bike maintenance. Again, I could only marvel at the fact that when one wants something really badly, the universe conspires to help achieve it. All the right people were rallying around us and I was feeling quite positive.

There was the regular bootcamp at BOTS on 03-Aug held by Prem, and we stole some time after that for the session with Naveen. Everyone thought this was an ambitious attempt – I was only getting more psyched about it. Ram, Sunil, myself, Thenappan, VK, Shasti, Sanath made it to this session.

Naveen’s tips around on-the-ride body maintenance, was critical for our success. Everyone followed this religiously: small things like stopping every hour, filling ourselves up with 500ml water atleast, replenishing atleast 200 Calories, Salts through Gatorade and Electral etc. The result was a dream ride.

After the session, we got our Lubes, spare tubes, puncture kits etc. We had already got our Seatpost Racks, bungee cords, rainproof backpacks (15 litre), eyewear, floorpump, dryfits etc from Decathlon the previous week.

A big thanks goes to Shyamala, possibly the only woman mech in Bangalore - for going out of the way to get my bike ready in time. And doing such a wonderful job at it. Enough said when I point out that my bike was the only one among this group worked on by Shyamala, and was the only one without a single hitch (not even a rattle or a noise) in the entire ride, including the ride back home from the bus stop on return!

As BOTS were out of stock on tyre liners, we got Zefal ones from RR Cycles Marathalli. All except Ram. His busy schedule meant he couldn’t make it for getting tyre liners installed for which he paid dearly on the ride.

So anyway, we got our Gyaan session on body and bike maintenance on long rides, we got all the accessories sorted out, the bikes serviced and prepped. And we were pretty much itching to go.

Unlocking Smiles

This is one thing we are damn proud of.

As you might have read in the previous posts, we associated ourselves with a cause, supporting the organization Dream A Dream.

We got smiley stickers printed, 45 a sheet. The first attempt was a 10 minute slot in the weekly leadership team meeting. We managed to rake in INR 22k in 5 minutes!!! That sort of the set the ball moving and the expectations really high.

Smileys - pay, peel and stick

We put up stalls near our cafeteria, taking turns to man them, explain to the gatherers about the entire initiative, and convince them to part with their money for a good cause. It was all really an experience to cherish.

What I did realize in abundance is that it is damn hard to make people part with Rs 200 for a charity cause – and yet you will watch them go over to the cafeteria and spend on overpriced burgers, fries and carbonated drinks, throwing away at least Rs 150 on one lunch. So one readily pays to abuse his/her (myself included) body with junk, but to pay to remove abuse from someone else's life, it becomes quite difficult. It was a pretty demoralizing sight, but with Kannan around, there was no time to be demoralized :) We kept at it, I got rid of all the uneasiness in approaching people for money – at the end of the day, we were going to help small kids live a better life and have a better future.

There were some pleasant surprises in store too. We had Ashish Jha (who was also the photographer at the start point on Day 1 – he woke up at 4:00 AM to just send us off), who sold a full sheet of 45 stickers in a matter of a couple of hours. And then some more. He is not in the right job – he would make the perfect salesman.

Many others helped us in their own way in gathering funds and in three days, we had over a lakh rupees. The clincher being when our CEO met us casually, wished us well and when he asked us “How can I help you?”, Ram was quick to sell a full sheet to him! Rs 9000 in less than a minute J

So, we did pretty well in collecting funds. And naturally this ride became the marquee fund raising event of the year so far! My only complaint was that the link that was supposed to be open to outsiders as well (as in employees in other countries, other friends etc), never worked. I am sure we lost the opportunity to gather at least another two hundred thousand rupees. Such a shame!

Nevertheless, the response we saw was quite heartwarming, and provided us the much needed raise to the level of our accountability – we just had to complete the ride as promised. A lot was at stake, primarily our reputation and credibility because we collected funds before the ride!

Around August 8th, everything came to a halt, that few hours before we take the ride by the handlebar! I switched my office phone off. Ashish Jha was covering for me in my absence and I will not forget what he told me that evening "switch off your phone and forget everything. I will take care". I was leaving him in the middle of a storm at office he knew nothing about, and it takes some balls to say that and not hold a grudge on me.

Everything was set, the bags and the floorpump were already in Sunil's Scorpio, the bike was prepped, the mind was psyched up, blessings were taken from parents and inlaws, the alarms were set. And then I found out that I missed one thing - I wanted a lengthy piece of cotton cloth which I wanted to use as head and neck cover. In those moments of panic, my wife made the single most important contribution to my wardrobe - she gave me an old cotton dupatta which my dad helped cut and stitch into two pieces. For something seemingly so ordinary, my emphasis on its importance might sound bizarre - those pieces of cloth never left me the entire trip. Anyway, that sorted out the last open item.

I was now just a few hours of troubled sleep away from the biggest event of my cyclist life yet.

-- Coming next - Day 1 will be lived again right here :)