Those of us living along the periphery of the town are a blessed lot – a couple of kilometers from home brings us to a very pretty, quiet, unrushed and refreshing countryside.

Its all those things – pretty, quiet, unrushed and refreshing – at least in part, because of the lack of traffic around there, so let’s keep it like that. Instead, pick up a cycle and ride! We’re in a city with really pleasant mornings, global warming notwithstanding. Especially now, with the summer behind us, early mornings and gentle showers are a great way to start a weekend.

A quick ride takes you into backroads around Carmelaram, Huskur and Dommasandra. For longer rides the network of internal roads can take you all the way upto Bagalur or even Chikka Tirupati – and makes for a great workout. As you get hungry for more, routes like the ones from Berigai, the one between Jigani and Harohalli, or around the Bannerghata National Park offer a huge number of options and variety. As a bonus, the Idli-Vada-Coffee joints en route are great, as is the little hole-in-the-wall dosa place just before the Bagalur bus stand!

For shorter rides, just pick up anything and go! You’ll need a good bike for the longer rides – preferably with gears to help negotiate the rolling terrain (roads that seem relatively flat from inside a car suddenly throw up challenging gradients when its your own legs that provide the fuel to push you up them).

Not all of us own the higher end bikes. But there’s a bunch of places you can rent one from. Ravi Ranjan, a techie with a passion for cycling and spreading it to as many as he can, runs Velo In Village and has a nice collection of bikes for both short, long rentals. Then there’s the community rental pages managed by Bums on the Saddle.

This Saturday, get up early, grab that bike, and ride! Its a way better, healthier, more fun option than the usual trip to the mall or a restaurant. And with the rental options now available, definitely very VFM. ⊕