e-triking across INDIA

Photo features in two Regional papers

2011-05-24T14:37:00.009+05:30

My trike and myself was featured in two regional languages, Kannada and Malayalam daily newspapers past two weeks and common factor was both reporters were inconsiderate.

Few days back Anilkumar sent message from Puttur that my photo along with trike was in Suddibidugade, local tabloid. I was surprised as I had not met their reporter and there was nothing special. Later things fell into line and here is the report.

I had gone to Puttur two days earlier as I often do. A fellow in mobike riding parallel to me asked my name and whereabouts. Normally I don’t reply to people while riding in middle of city. My thinking is only traffic policeman on duty has right to communicate to a driver or rider moving vehicle. Anyway I gave him cryptic reply about my name and nearby location. I live in a remote village and many people may not be aware of that name. He zoomed past and took a photo from roadside. So single sentence report filed from these information contains only three mistakes - my name mispronounced, my village wrongly stated and that I am new to that town.

Last month I had gone to Kasargod, 54 km away to attend a meeting on endosulphon. Dr Shreepathy introduced me to a reporter - Mr Vinod of Mathrubhumi – leading Malayalam daily. I shared the facts and asked him to give me a hint if that is published.

On 17^th May, exactly a month after that visit to Kasargod, I started receiving Emails from Kerala that - they have seen me in their paper and need more facts. After receiving many similar cryptic mails, I started looking around for reason. I asked with Mr Shree Padre, endosulphon activist and journalist - if he has any clues. He gave me probable hints and sent them Emails. So five days after publication, Rajesh of Mathrubhumi was kind enough to forward a small clip.

The clip is too small that you cannot read the printed matter. It is okay for me as I cannot read Malayalam language. The newspapers becomes trash by evening and same attitude is shown by the reporters towards subjects after the interview. I am not very keen to meet reporters as almost news reports so far ignored the crucial fact – this is unique vehicle in the world that makes use of human energy and electric power supplementing one with other.

It is unfortunate that most of our journalists do not exhibit professional conduct. Makes me remember a fake funeral video shot in New York two years back. One local TV channel over there without realizing it was a april fool prank picked up the video from youtube and claimed ownership.

http://improveverywhere.com/2009/04/14/cw-11-files-copyright-claim/

Rode 54 km to hear Vandana Shiva in Kasargod

2011-04-21T15:43:00.002+05:30

Saturday afternoon I got hint from consumer activist friend Sundar Rao that a meeting organized in kasargod next day on Endosulphon and noted activist Vandana Shiva is coming. She is real inspiring personality who has contributed a lot for sustainable society. It got me excited as there is little chance of seeing her speaking otherwise and I decided to go. Normally I don’t attend these meetings as hearing impairment means I understand little about the proceedings.

I left home just around daybreak time @ 6 AM. Had first glimpse of rising Suryadeva while riding in a place called padubagilu – meaning western gate in kannada. Previous day itself I had called Narayana Murthy enquiring about the state of roads across the border from his place, in Kerala state. It was in poor condition when I was in that area earlier and in such conditions efficient pedaling is simply impossible. Tires gripping the road and my legs holding pedals – both should be very firm. Otherwise lot of energy is lost and takes fun out of cycling.

Had delicious breakfast plus some charge for my batteries at Murthy’s place while passing by. Murthy had reported the roads are tolerably good and have been recently repaired. Still I was uncertain till I reached there. Luckily the roads was in good condition and after pedaling 54 kms I reached Kasargod in 2.5 hours riding time. There was numerous hills to climb but my eZee assist considerably flattened all those hills. Hills were expected as I was travelling from North to South and the rivers flowing from East to West.

Dr Vandana Shiva spoke well in simple English. Line by line it was translated to Malayalam and that created some problem for me. My grasping procedure is bit complicated – it hears, then process it and only then it understands. During this delay, hearing Malayalam words confuses the whole process. Anyway I was happy hearing this great lady speaks. Rest of morning it was brave words spoken by politicians in Malayalam which I could not understand much.

Afternoon session started with slide presentation by Dr Ravindranath Shanubhogue. He lucidly explained the havoc created and probable paths in front of us. One point he said put me in shock. The yearly production now is 14000 tons but there is a accumulated stock of 75000 tons in India. What we are going to do with that ? We cannot simply wish it away. Chilling visuals the compares with effect of nuclear radiation spill comes to my mind.

There is a narrow bridge in Panemangalore pictured above and was built in 1914 which was used till recent past. Two heavy vehicles cannot cross each other on the bridge and one that have not crossed the midpoint had to go back. Looking at the big vehicles that have already entered the bridge, what most heavy vehicle drivers coming from other end used to do was accelerate so that they can reach midpoint early. So there will be roadblock for about half an hour and the culprit was never apologetic. Like these wayward drivers, our companies are stockpiling endosulphon being certain that government will come to their rescue.

While riding to kasargod, these similarities came to my mind. We do not need pesticides for organic farming nor petrol for our daily personal transportation. Both happens because of mental blocks or intellectual slavery that we are suffering now. I wanted to visit this meeting and decided to pedal. I feel this is more positive approach than buying petrol or gas and driving all the way.

I wanted to hear three people scheduled to speak that afternoon – one journalist and two doctors who played pivotal role in bringing this tragedy caused by Endosulphon to light. Mr Shree Padre, Dr Mohankumar and Dr Shreepathy was expected to speak later but it was getting late for me to leave as I wanted to reach home by nightfall. Raining later in evening is not unusual and so I left at 3.30 PM. Had a leisurely 2.5 hours ride back to home.

Riding Trike 230 km in 11 hour 15 min

2011-04-18T14:24:00.010+05:30

Having considerable love towards cycling as Sustainable mobility , I wanted to test my pedaling potential. Having cycled 200 km plus per day many times in normal upright cycle long back, I was confident of crossing 200 km per day in my trike with eZee pedal assist but wanted to prove it. Upper limit of cycling speed of 20 to 22 kmph and limited daylight hours are big hurdles for setting higher goals.

Shankaranna and Mohan who joined me as support crew in earlier attempt were enthusiastic this time too. Boys having summer holidays also joined us. We decided on one of route shortlisted earlier, climbing charmadi ghat road. Instead of coming back on the same road, we planned to come back Via Shiradi provided there was enough daylight remaining. Limiting factor was the fact that they are 40 km apart.

Previous noon I rang up Ravi D Souza who was my classmate and close friend during college days. Information passed on by Ravi was disappointing. One was it is raining here now & may rain tomorrow noon too. Another was road from there to Bangalore Mangalore highway is in poor condition. Things like impending rain do not dissuade me from reaching the goal and I decided that remedy for rain is raincoat and not canceling the trip. I did not want to postpone as there are more chances of rain on days ahead and my team members need to be available.

As planned earlier, I left home at sharp 5 AM. The dogs who usually chase me in my village roads had not woken up yet and I had silent & pleasant ride in comfortable weather. The night busses coming from Bangalore were zooming with bright lights and I was bit dazzled sometimes. Since I was very much familiar with that road, it did not trouble me much. At 6 AM, I was in Uppinangadi bridge and checked the progress of my support team over mobile phone.

We had two options there. One was usual Guruvayanakere road that was still under repair and other was Belalu road involved steep climbs. We had decided to take the Belalu road after asking around. Many people advised this road are one who use petrol vehicles and do not understand the hardship of pedaling steep climbs that puts considerable pressure on our muscles. Shankar supported this road and I was ready for both options.

To increase the mileage per battery, I had reduced the peak assistance from 22 Amps to 18 Amps on the previous day. The climbs right from rivers were real steep and put considerable strain on my knees. I had reached midway of this road when the team members reached me and promptly we put more depleted battery for charging in Nano car. Starting from home with 20 Ah, I had consumed about 18 Ah battery power when reached Ujre. Alternate route might have stretched the batteries little more.

Anticipating the requirement of charging in Ujre I had arranged for access for a plug at Dinakar’s relatives. Shankar was against visiting any houses feeling that answering all their questions will delay our departure. My knees badly needed some rest and I convinced him that it is better to have some charging from the plug. So we spent one hour and fifteen minutes for breakfast and charging.

We left Ujre at 9.45 AM. Kottigehara was 3000 feet higher and 38 km ahead of us. I hoped to cover this distance in two and half hours and managed to do exactly that. We replaced the battery with fully charged one at the foot of ghat [mountain] road at charmadi and younger son Sunil was assigned the task of replacing depleted battery with charged one whenever needed.

The road surface and inclination was good. The eZee pedal assist unit gave me solid support and complemented my efforts. Satisfactory speed while gaining height vastly boosted my spirits and it was very enjoyable ride. The other road users were supportive exhibiting thumbs up sign every now and then. A accident in Japan had claimed tip of my right thumb and so I could only smile back.

Somewhere along the mountain road, I happened to catch signal in my mobile at 11.00 and sent message to my friend Ravi that Kottigehara is 18 km ahead and will reach there by 12.15. There was still lot of climbing but I was able to reach there at the promised time.

The first questions to Ravi was about road ahead and food. Ravi said you have to pass by Mudigere and you get much better vegetarian food there. So we went towards Mudigere and at the junction where our road takes a turn, we parked the trike in a garage and I hopped into his car. Ravi told me yesterday it had rained around this time and it may rain today too. Luckily rain did not trouble us until much later. I was back in trike and started pedaling in about an hour.

Time was 2 PM and road was expected to be bad. I wanted to start descending the mountain road by 4 PM so that we can reach bottom before it is very dark. The road was very bad for about 25 km and non existing in some parts. It slowed me considerably. At Hanbal, I told my team members that all joints in trike as well as in my body have been well tested. About 12 km after Hanbal was tolerably good. Finally I was able to hit Bangalore Mangalore National highway by 4.15 PM.

Coming down the mountain road was really thrilling but I had to take sufficient care. I had brakes only on both front wheels and none in the back. I had to apply both brakes simultaneously and carefully as there was lot of chances of losing control on slippery road surface. I have to admit hub brakes installed in trike nicely took that torture. Most of turns had new surface that looked smooth with pebbles fixed while pouring. Anyway I had safe passage downhill.

I reached Shiradi at the bottom of mountain road in fading daylight. My legs had little to do for many kms in chilly weather and had become numb. After a few km of vigorous pedaling it got better. Cycle analyst computer also malfunctioned there because of chilly weather and I disconnected it for some distance. So I do not have total energy used up data. I could have noted time accurately but somewhere along the way the refill had fallen out of my pen and only shell remained. Sometimes I fail to note down the data because of my clumsy and tiring movements and here was another excuse.

It was getting dark nearing Nelyadi and rain which appeared imminent for a while started to drizzle. Anil advised me to leave the trike overnight somewhere with known people but I was not ready for abandoning the trip midway. Shankar also started feeling concerned as I was almost invisible both due to darkness and rain. The drivers have never seen something like this contraption cannot properly visualize the trike dimensions. Getting mesmerized, they may come and hit me was his concern. If under influence of alcohol mean they not even realize that they have hit me. We came across a muddy layer on the road that happened because of rain moved the soil heaped on roadside. Two vehicles had collided just before we reached there and then Shankar became more tense. Operating a Maruti authorized service centre, he gets news of accidents too often and naturally becomes tense before all of us. Not being exposed to so many accidents, I was more cool.

Beyond Golithottu, I put in all efforts pedaling furiously. I had earlier traveled in that road more than ten times and must have created new record on this day. Mohan driving Nano tried to illuminate my path to maximum extent.

Reaching Uppinanagdy Shankar told me that he can talk to hotelier and we can leave trike here. I convinced him that just 15 km more for your workshop and Puttur road in front of us is less crowded. I had told Shankar during planning stage itself that he has to watch over me. Having sensory and perception problems, I don’t always realize being close to collapsing point due to fatigue. Actually I meant more about heat factor during daytime as sensing ability of my body is poor and urinary inconsistency may push me towards dehydration. Maybe it also made him more jumpy.

The road towards Puttur was more undulating with plenty of turns. So I had to depend on my feeble LED trike light for some distance. When we reached Bolwar circle, Mahalingeshwara was on his yearly rounds. Luckily only front end of procession had reached there and we were not delayed. Finally at 8.30, I got out of the trike and stretched my limbs.

Total distance on trike was 230.3 km and I had been riding for 11 hours and 15 minutes. So moving average was 20.4 kmph. Energy used was about 65 Ah plus maybe another 5 Ah when I had disconnected the meter. Power usage was much more than my estimation because of bad design of locally procured rear tire and bad road near Mudigere.

Next day I had to take Sunil to his school for readmission and so took Omni. When I went near the trike, I was shocked to find deflated rear tire. It is not very easy to attend to rear tire as chain, gear system plus my bag limit our access. So carried the trike home in Omni. I dismantled the tire at home, only to find very small pin hole puncture. I could have pumped air and bought it riding if necessary.

I had noticed more power usage since sometime but never thought increased drag was due to the tire. Now have replaced the local Ralson tire with original Schwalbe and performance improvement is noticeable. I am sure this tire would have saved minimum 10 Ah power during this trip and naturally moved faster too.

Having support crew and vehicle with charging facility saved me about five hours charging time along the way. Maximum time spent in riding was around seven hours earlier and it was four more hours this time. That means with battery exchange facilities available or with more batteries very long trips can easily made with pedal assist bikes or trikes. Darkness, Rain and Crowded Highway together make deadly combination and will be avoided in future.

The pathetic situation of Indian Science -Soleckshaw episode

2011-03-30T14:58:00.012+05:30

The pedicab - cycle rickshaw photo above is taken in Austin, USA. We can easily visualize such scenario with better tricycles in India especially tolerably flat tourism centers like Mysore. Tricycles can have pedal assist to make the job of the pilot far more easier. The hurdles today to make it happen are people who matters in our society - potbellied politicians whose astrologers dismiss global warming, bureaucrats who likes to maintain status quo and scientist who scream eureka reinventing wheel.

A solar electric rickshaw launched with great fanfare by India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) two years ago is yet to find any takers. While this is causing concern, a Pune engineer has claimed the CSIR copied his design. says the story in economic times which points to sorry state of scientific affairs in India.

The three-wheeled "soleckshaw" can in principle use solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity to drive its motor. The name itself is misleading with no solar panel in picture.

The story of electric rickshaws in India began with Anil K. Rajvanshi, Director of Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute who published a article in 2002 about the scope of cycle rickshaws in India. - http://www.nariphaltan.org/att42.htm

"Our electric cycle rickshaws were inaugurated in Pune University campus in 2002 and technical details were published in the Indian journal Current Science in its September 25, 2002, issue," says Anil Rajvanshi, an IIT graduate and Director of the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI). - in economic times news report mentioned above.

Our great cunning brains in Delhi decided to steal the idea, fabricate a crude model and put a green label and coin a new name Soleckshaw.

This blog - freedomforscience - has nicely painted true picture about state of Indian science. CSIR, our premier technological R&D institute, is not even capable of delivering a viable solar rickshaw. Their prototypes have been a huge failure. The only people to benefit from it are – S K Brahmachari and Kapil Sibal.

The latter used t hose prototypes in his election campaign and has won handsomely. Brahmachari got many news items that praised him for such a novel concept.

Lack of technological competence is evident in a recent policy decision by Pranab Mukherjee. He stated that no customs duty (and excise duty) will be levied on solar rickshaws. Customs duty?? – Is it not pathetic to think that now we have to import parts from abroad to build a cycle rickshaw?

Finance minister Pranab Mukherji had even spared a paragraph [paragraph- 159] on this unique invention by Indian scientists in his bugdet speech last year

159. The humble cycle rickshaw is now being acclaimed as an environment-friendly means of transport. CSIR has developed an innovative product called 'soleckshaw' to replace manually-operated rickshaws. It runs on batteries which are charged by solar power. I propose to provide a concessional excise duty of 4 per cent to this product. Its key parts and components are also being exempted from customs duty.

The budget speech read out under watchful eye of Soniaji led me to mistaken notion that the customs will not be very harsh on me for importing tricycle and pedal assist units. It was not the case. What the bureaucrats in New Delhi as diversionary tactics wrote to me was -

With regard to the exemption announced in the latest budget , the exemption (in respect of Sl.No.345A, in Notification No. 21/2010-Cus) is for Battery pack, Battery charger, AC or DC Motor, AC or DC Motor controller imported for use in the manufacture of Electrically operated vehicles, including two and three wheeled electric motor vehicles. The condition for grant of this exemption is that, the importer has to follow the procedure set in the Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty for Manufacture of Excisable Goods Rules, 1996. Since the imported goods are not covered under this serial number, the extension of benefit of the aforementioned Notification does not arise

and they have used the taxation under entirely different heading for answering my query. It is like if I asked for a horse and got a donkey.

Coming back to Anil Rajvanshi who pioneered the efforts on Electric assist on Rickshaws in India - "We at NARI failed in our attempt to commercialise our electric rickshaws; if the CSIR can popularise theirs and sell them in large numbers then it will be a vindication of our work," Rajvanshi said.

However, that looks like wishful thinking given the fact that two years after its launch there are no soleckshaws on the road except the 10 vehicles that Maiti said were "currently plying in Faridabad (Haryana) with the initiative of one of the licensees".

This rickshaw can be used to carry heavyweights too is proved by carrying Nitin Gadkari - BJP chief in Delhi on September 17, 2010 says BJP website

The other day, Gadkari hopped on to a solar-powered cycle- rickshaw and went for a merry ride inside the party office! Moved by the experience, he quickly dialled the chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states and asked them to consider including the vehicle in the party’s Antyodaya programme that is meant to help the poor and the needy said Telegraph published from Calcutta.

No idea if Yediyurappa was among those who received his call and whether is supportive of this. The success of the project will not only promote environmentally friendly mobility in big way and may put more people on e-cycles.

Cycles are more expensive than cars

2011-03-11T17:56:00.016+05:30

Vehicle manufacturers employ all tricks to make us feel inadequate without cars and motorcycles. Naturally cars and motor cycles are in the top of shopping list. It is seen as a symbol of success. They’re cutting down trees, bringing down buildings in an effort to build wider roads. They are throwing our farmers out of farmland for the sake of building car factories. Most of the incentives provided to Mr Tata of Nano car and Mr Kheny of NICE road will be well hidden. Their persuasion like in above advertisement makes us feel it is right thing to drop friends of Bunty to school along with him and for that we have to replace motorcycle by car. Our planners will never realize that all these measures will never solve mobility crisis.

Berkley is a famous university town in USA. Recently it was in news for outrageous fines targeting cyclists - USD 220 [ INR 10000 in Indian money] to the students locking their bicycles to a railing instead of a bicycle rack. Adding insult to injury, motorists who park illegally on campus are given a $46 ticket - yet bicyclists who lock their bikes up “illegally” are fined $220. Bike racks are reportedly often full, so locking up to a railing seems perfectly reasonable. But locking cycles to railings are five times more expensive than illegal car parking.

Same attitude exhibited in India too. Customs and Excise duties are like twin brothers. The things imported and levied custom duties and one produced locally are taxed under excise before leaving factory premises.

Traveling by the lonely road is always hazardous and stupid people like me never learn. Our government in Delhi that impose about Rs 10000 as Excise duty on a Nano car, made me pay paltry [?] Rs 68000 [yes, that is about USD 1500] as Customs duties. I had approached the grievance redressal mechanism of Central government Finance Department. Finally Delhi government decided that the duty imposed is fair though it is more than what is imposed on six Tata nano cars.

We have to obey law of land and pay customs duty. But the unexpected thrashing I suffered was CVDs. Countervailing duties (CVDs) are duties imposed under WTO Rules to neutralize the negative effects of export subsidies. The CVD also known as anti dumping duty is levied to protect local manufacture and it is payable equal to excise duty payable on like articles if produced in India. The customs officers routinely exceed their brief arbitrarily imposing CVD on all imports. Recumbent trike, Motorized hubs and Lithium Ion batteries are all not manufactured in India. I paid INR 24000 as CVD on goods that is not manufactured in India which I hope to get back some day.

Cycle and tricycle being symbol of independence should have got more importance, both from society and government. Unfortunately the taxes and penalties on these environmental friendly mobility are extremely high. We are made to pay very heavy price for our principles.

Pedaling with Scouts and Guides

2011-03-05T13:00:00.005+05:30

I participated in two group cycle rides in recent past. The first one was Rx Life Cycle Rally in Mangalore on 5 Dec 2010 and the details I hope to post soon. The second one was Puttur Scouts and Guides Cycle Jatha held on 2 March 2011.

Puttur Scout and guides cycle jatha

Scout and Guide Cycle Jatha in Puttur was a whole day program giving us entirely different kind of experience from the one held in Mangalore. Sunil, younger boy who is with scouts was participating in Cycle Jatha and I decided to join him. There was about 75 students on cycles. There was ten member street play team conducting small dance drama plays on plastic pollution & awareness on uses of bamboo. They performed about 20 minutes program in four places.

We left Puttur at 9.15 AM and first program stop was about 5 km away in Kemmai. The tarpaulin was spread out as soon as we reached there and sound system was organized and program started. Packing up immediately after program, we went little ahead and took left turn towards Sediyapu. At Sediyapu junction, children were given refreshments.

Little later there was a steep incline and all brakes were put under severe test. Some kids complained it was difficult to control the speed as it was long downhill road. We again stopped after 2 km for breakfast. That house was of my relatives and I charged my battery a little bit. All hopped on bikes again and immediately there was a wall to climb. After that about half km in National highway.

There was short program in kadeshwalya village & we continued towards riverside temple. The sumptuous lunch was ready for us on time which we had in temple hall. Children performed their skit plus some music and then to river to play for a while. Teachers bought them back by 3.30 and after giving fruit juice, put them on saddles.

We took slightly different route while coming back with 3 km more of National highway, most of it downhill. I could show to one of the teachers who pedaled with us that aerodynamic drag is less on trike and accelerates faster than cycle on downhill roads with no pedaling.

The most difficult part was ahead of us. The climbing a steep incline that was about climbing 270 feet left everybody out of breath. Many of children on single speed was not trained for such climbing also. There was watermelon slices waiting atop the hill.

A primary school student, little Vaishnavi performed so well in her little single speed cycle which was amazing as the route was difficult for much older students too. Many of the cycles were single speed and it is unfair to put them in competition with geared cycles.

We continued pedaling towards Puttur and were guided thru APMC road to avoid evening rush trafic in Main Roads & reached the starting point around 6 PM. Organizers have done a great job and I express my gratitude to them. My GPS calculations put the distance as 38 km but the terrain taken into consideration, effort was much more.

Return trip to home was another adventure. I suspected not enough charge left and so went to Shankarannas Service Station for half hour topup. It was around seven fifteen when I left there and I put on LED lamp tied to my head. Light beam originating very near my eyes highlighted water and dust particles in atmosphere and effectively acted as barrier. Pure white light of LED is also not as good as yellowish light to show the road in such conditions. Vehicles headlights helped me to see the road and tyres have got into few potholes on the way.

Two kannada dailies, Varthabharathi from Mangalore [clip above is from page 3] and Suddi Bidugade of Puttur have reported the event in thier issues dated 3 March 2011. For me it was 70 km including distance from home which totally took four hours to ride and have consumed about 850 Wh. Sunil later reported almost all children who participated took next day off to recover. I hope and wish the children participated will keep cycling as mobility option all their life.

135 km ride with support vehicle.

2011-02-16T16:57:00.009+05:30

Having done 155 km in day during my long trip, I was keen on crossing 200 km per day which I felt was achievable by me provided battery charging is taken care of. Shankaranna who services my omni past ten years had installed a inverter in his Nano car and offered to join me. When we were finalizing our trip, he called his brother Mohan asking him if he will come with us.

I was scared of chilly weather and left home @ 6 AM with three layer of clothing and lights on. The programmable meter from Canada was restricting the power flow during wet & chilly conditions. So I switched it off till sun came up thereby losing power usage data during those few km. I could get the distance data from GPS. The usual road was dug up for up gradation and I used interior roads to reach NH towards Bangalore.

I was coming out of hotel after breakfast when Shankaranna & Mohan reached Uppinangady. There we kept the battery used till then for charging in Nano. They went inside the hotel for breakfast and I hit the road towards Nelyadi. Part of this moderately uphill road is one of the most enjoyable to pedal I found so far. Dinakar happened to meet us by chance and he gave proper road directions towards Dharmasthala. There are many interior roads in very good condition due to pradhana manthri graameena rasthe ......

There was a switch between Battery and inverter that started malfunctioning and connected cables became hot said Shankaranna and I felt it is a bad omen & will slow down our progress. Still we kept going forward & Dharmasthala, Ujre and Belthangady passed one after the other.

Passing Guruvayanakere I remembered old acquaintance Ranjan Rao whom I had not seen past twenty years. A local TV stringer chased us on motorcycle & caught us while we were having roadside discussion. There we happened to meet a staff of Ranjan who said he is in town & will leave for Bangalore later. So I decided to see Ranjan Rao and followed him. Later we found that he had already left for Bangalore and Smt Vidya Nayak whom we met arranged for battery charging.

Our TV stringer friend after making a video clip summoned a Udayavani reporter who interviewed me while my trike batteries were charging. A studio owner in Ujre had hopped onto bus following us and he caught us near Guruvayanakere and we couldn’t say NO for his request for photo. This has happened to me many times, being followed by photographers and common man. I had to oblige them without losing sight of my target which sometimes is very tricky & I do not want to appear rude.

By afternoon, we felt we couldn’t do balance of 200 km as we had done only about 75 km then. Shankaranna managed to set right the battery switch by then that enabled good charging from inverter but having lost precious time we were compelled to be satisfied with less distance.

So took Venur road and had lunch @ Venur. I took a photo of trike in the road adjacent to Gomateshwara statue. Later narrow road towards Manihalla crossed hills and valleys pretty steep both while going up and coming down. It was quite enjoyable.

Shankaranna was holding camera most of the time with Mohan driving and so could capture plenty of memorable videos. This is first time I was able to get hold of so many video clips & five of them are uploaded to youtube which can be accessed by clicking here. I meet people all the time who capture me with camera or mobile but I never have access to those photos. The shots I capture sitting on trike never show trike or myself. So these photos captured today are very valuable to me.

Six hours riding covered one hundred and thirty five km. Once in Belthangady I did forget to switch GPS on for some distance. Maximum speed of the day was 48.5 kmph with moving average of 21 kmph. Battery power consumed was 1500 Wh. Higher moving average and uneven roads resulted in more power consumed.

Pedalling reduces load on batteries

2011-02-01T14:26:00.005+05:30

Months back I was working on e-assist cycling possibilities for my trike & once had a discussion with Shankaranna. He was very much skeptic that human input can displace battery usage and said it will use battery anyway. Later he admitted it is working after my demonstration, but I never got along to explain to curious onlookers who see me on the road.

At a given speed and throttle at particular level, I can see decrease in battery usage as I increase the pedaling effort that reinforces my knowledge but again it is not obvious to the non user. Yesterday the similarities of using biogas on diesel engines flashed in my mind. Having a gasifier developed in IISc, Bangalore, I have some experience in running diesel engines with Biogas and Producer gas.

Producer gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and Nitrogen produced by burning biomass with restricted supply of Oxygen. So it gets partly burnt and is in gaseous form. Energy equivalent of one liter of diesel requires three kg of wood chips. The same technology was used during WW2 to run civilian transport.

The Carbon monoxide (Producer gas ) or Methane ( Biogas) is fed to the intake manifold of diesel engine and engine progressively reduces the diesel intake to the extent of 75 %. Similarly when I increase my pedaling effort, my Cycle Analyst meter shows the decreasing Wattage being used to propel the trike.

So presently my trike runs on human effort plus battery power. I am working on adding solar energy to the above inventory so that riding range is considerably increased. There are plenty of hurdles to cross and it is expensive too. Plenty of technical problems and right materials not available in India. Will keep looking for a breakthrough.

Trike riding in Bangalore

2011-01-23T10:39:00.003+05:30

My Drift X 170 camera started giving problems in November. I had got it in middle of hectic tour preparations in July 2010 and never bothered to register online for warranty assuming there could be little warranty support in India. When Dinakar agreed it needed repairs when asked for second opinion, I registered it online with a follow up e mail that camera is not working. I was surprised to see their reply asking me approach their dealer, RACETECH in Bangalore.

So I had to go to Bangalore. I wanted to make better use of the trip and with my health conditions going to Bangalore itself mean lot of effort. I felt I can make use of this opportunity to show my trike to two people who means a lot to me.

I did not want to repeat the situation I faced in Bijapur railway station and decided to take a disability certificate. It took some time and I wanted to avoid peak winter weather too. So decided to make the visit on 18^th Jan and booked the tickets on 12^th.

Watching my position in waiting list on internet was part of my preparation for the whole week. Finally I got into RAC on previous day which meant seat assured and maybe berth too. I had pinpointed places I was visiting and loaded all the waypoints to my GPS. I had made complete travel direction chart similar to tulip chart used in Rallies.

I reached Mangalore Railway station around 6 PM on 18^th Jan. I had left home at 12.56 PM and pedaled about 40 km to reach Mangalore Railway Station with some chatting with Ashok while my batteries were charging in his shop. The railway officials did not recognize the disability certificate I had [ Issued by Karnataka Government ] and charged me INR 60 for transporting trike in luggage van. There was some time to spare, I used the opportunity to topup my batteries again from the mobile phone charging sockets provided in railway station.

Reaching Yeshwanthpur I had to collect Gate pass from parcel office and it was in Platform six whereas my train was in platform one. So had to go to parcel office in middle of platform six along with my luggage from edge of platform one and collect the gate pass which will allow me to take the trike out.

Coming out of railway station and approaching Mathikere, I remembered relatives whom, I had not seen past fifteen years. So gave them a call but there was hardly meaningful discussion with my poor hearing. Then we agreed that I will visit them on the way back after visiting Racetech.

Harshad whom I was I was supposed to meet @ Racetech was out and I had to wait for an hour. I was getting frustrated as having come long way from home and wasting time here. I would rather be pedaling exploring more of Bangalore. They said they have a demo piece they will lend me now & once replacement arrives from the company, it will be replaced with a new one. That demo piece was not ready in their hands and offered to deliver to me later and I gave my timetable and it was delivered to me in the evening. Being on one of its kind vehicle has its own advantage :-) Harshad’s assistant very easily located me near Sadashivanagar.

Bangalore city at EveryTrail

Venkatramananna was waiting for me near Dollar colony bus stop to guide me to their house when I was returning from Jalahalli and I spent time with them catching up the news and sharing some food. They had sent mail contains directions from indiatimes ID but it was never delivered to me by gmail & if I had their house stored as GPS waypoint, it would have saved me considerable amount of time.

Next stop was to meet Mr Kesari Pejathaya who had closely followed my trike trip(on his flying carpet) and I wanted to show him my trike. It was a comfortable midday 12 km ride to cooke town, mostly on Outer ring road. I had passed by same road about eight months back and I was shocked to find there was no progress in flyover construction work in two places.

Kesarijee was very happy to see me along with my trike. After reading his books, articles and exchanging numerous emails, I was keen to meet him in person. He presented me a autographed copy of his book ರೈತನಾಗುವ ಹಾದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ to be released on 25^th Jan 2010. Time flew pretty fast.

The next stop was in sadashivanagar to visit Ra-chikki who first permitted me to go to cycle shop with their servant and learn to ride in a hired cycle. Those days I was spending nine months every year in a residential school near their house and opportunity to learn during vacation in our village was very little. The love they showed me during those days have made deep impact in my life.

I must have been pretty tired by then as I had failed to switch on GPS during last part of journey which is reason incomplete loop in map above. Finally I turned up at Yeshwanthpur Railway Station in fading sunlight. The railway parcel office staff tried to say it has motor and so will be charged for 600 kgs, the disability certificate I had carried no weight and it is very frustrating arguing with them. Finally they agreed to charge for 100 kg and it was Rs 110. I was thankful it was not INR 600 but still told them that I had paid only INR 60 while coming to Bangalore.

I paid money and came back to the platform one with trike but without luggage receipt. When I rushed back after realizing it is missing, they told me not to worry and they will send it to the platform.

After coming out of Mangalore Rly Station next morning around 10 AM, I had some food while batteries were charging at Ashok’s shop. Starting from there at 11 AM, I rode continuously to reach home at 12.40.

Approx Distance by trike 120 km

[ 38 km in Bangalore city + 82 km to and from Mangalore]

Moving time on trike 6 hour 16 minutes

Overall average speed 19.2 kmph

Energy consumption 1418 Wh

My battery capacity 720 Wh

The preparations I made with tulip chart and GPS helped to save time and avoid confusion. Google map had mentioned a Indianoil petrol pump in Hennur Road as HP pump and naturally I continued to ride strait ahead though I had noted another landmark, Charles school on left side . While coming from cooke town to Sadashivanagar I took a wrong road [that goes near cantonment railway station] that happened to be one way and that added little bit distance. Remote planning with maps do not take into consideration one way roads.

I took care to be visible to other drivers on the road, especially those of big vehicles. I reached the railway station before it is dark because my trike will be difficult to understand in dark by other road users. The people and policemen I spoke to were very courteous and helpful. Not being used to using flyovers, sometimes it becomes difficult to pinpoint the relevant signal lights.

I could not take the camera out and take photos at any landmarks as I preferred to keep riding. Camera mount was not fixed to the trike to prevent damage in luggage van. There was plenty of opportunities handing camera out requesting to click but this did not occur to me then.

I had taken One hour Nine minutes to travel 18.5 km from Jalahalli Industrial Estate to Cooke town. Though major portion was thru Outer ring road [that had roadblocks due to flyover construction work going in two places ] My speed was 24 kmph in outer ring road and other roads where there was free traffic flow.

I took 52 minutes to cover 10 km from cooke town to Sadashivanagar and journey time was about forty minutes with traffic signals taking away twelve minutes. Like in other big cities, I am convinced that power assisted cycle or trike can help mobility in Bangalore traffic too.

Routine trip to Mangalore – 90 km

2010-10-23T09:39:00.011+05:30

Whether we can use power assist for our routine daily travel was a question which was in my mind for long time. I had some work in Mangalore, about 45 km from home and so decided to make the trip on trike.

It was around 8 AM last Thursday when I left home and weather was still chilly in forested area. The traffic was not too heavy and I had a comfortable ride. Crossing B C Road took some time as roads are bad because of construction work going on and I had covered 16 km to B C Road in 45 minutes.

Roads after that was wide & smooth 4 lane double road and I had very easy time. Normally I have to keep an eye on backview mirror every few moments to evade vehicles coming from behind but wide road means there is ample space for those vehicles to cross. Sometimes I was able to touch 40 km plus while going downhill.

Finally reached Mangalore outskirts @ 9.55 AM after covering 35 km in One hour and 38 minutes consuming about 300 Wh battery power. Same journey by car will take an hour. I put that battery for charging at Ashok’s shop and went around the city attending my work.

Riding within cities is quite easy. With power assist, we can easily reach upto 25 km speed and keep pace with general traffic. Time taken to go from one point to another is also comparable. I wanted to take a small video but with the camera and camera mount combination that I had taken along, my head obstructed the view of road. I realized it only in Mangalore and had little opportunity to rectify the situation.

I paid courtesy visits to many relatives and friends apart from doing some purchases. The GPS tracks will show the route I took and those 15 km inside the city have consumed about 200 Wh power. Consumption within city is more as we use power frequently for acceleration. The roads within city are good but joints inconcrete road makes the ride bumpy.

I left Mangalore around 3.30 PM and reached home before dusk. Rains had started pouring in Mangalore much earlier but here it started after I reached home. I had raincoat with me but putting it on it is bit difficult for me and it comes in the way of pedaling too.

I had crossed 20 Ah power consumption while crossing Kalladka and the remaining part of journey was done with help of charge topup in Mangalore. Totally I must have done 90 km and delayed switching on GPS showed little less distance recorded. Total riding time was 4 hours 33 minutes and even by car – it will take three hours. I have used 850 Wh of power. So for comparison, one and half hour extra time with Rupees Four worth electricity avoided spending minimum Rupees 350 on Petrol.

Kannada newspaper Vijayakarnataka on Thursday published story about my trike trip which can accessed by clicking here and here.

Unfortunately power assist cycling is not given prominence with more focus on my disabilities and on tricycle. Recumbent cycling means more aerodynamic design but it is wrongly portrayed as battery operated tricycle.

I agreed to talk to media not to tell everybody my achievements nor to tell people how I think they should conduct their lives. Such approach is common in environmental circles. In my opinion, a better approach is that of consciousness-raising. I can't tell people what to think, but I can suggest what they might think about. Pedal support systems for cycles certainly deserves such attention and I feel bad about a wasted opportunity.

Trike back on road with power assist

2010-10-20T15:51:00.011+05:30

It is more than a month since I returned home from my trike trip. I am taking trike rides almost everyday - for pleasure, for collecting GPS tracks & to bring home groceries too. Few days after coming back, I could not use power assist system. I was mistakenly under impression that the controller is having problems and resorted to pedaling only mode.

Putting the trike on the top of the bus while returning from Bijapur did really create some problem because of rain which I realized much later. After lot of attempts to rectify the problem & exhausting all possibilities I had approached ezeebike who promptly sent one controller plus throttle. WaiWon had given me hint that water may have entered into the controller while riding in rain but then I retorted have done fifteen km ride in perfect weather and there was no rain past two days. He had asked me to open up and dry the electronics inside.

Once they wrote that new throttle and controller are on the way, I did not attempt anymore to prevent further damage to the motor. Since it is not easily replaceable, I was very careful while handling the assist unit. Soon after receiving spare controller from China, just by chance I connected old controller and surprised to see it working. So there was no problem after all, just some moisture getting into delicate electronics. So I am using old controller now.

It was good that I did not have power support for a few days. I did ride about 20 km per day many times and improved my pedaling technique. I was covering about 13 km per hour then whereas with power assist, my average was about 20 kmph. I wanted to increase my cadence as they say now that higher cadence with lower gear leads to pedaling better efficiency.

Recently I came across a story about a American couple using same ICE – adventure model trike (but no power assist ) to cover about 2222 miles in 92 days this year. They have had problem of tire rubbing carrier, loaded trike tipping over and many such similar experiences like mine. One good things I learnt from their story is communication network in rural US, both net and mobile are worse than in India.

Something that stands out in their trip is they have pedaled during night also to avoid hot daytime. It was sometimes whole night and not just small part. The security and road conditions in India will never allow me to dream about this. The roads here not properly marked will add to more confusion.

Some newspapermen interviewed me few days back. I was shocked to find that importance is given to irrelevant issues and main issue using power assist cycle in place fuel guzzling vehicles is mostly ignored. The report carried a photo of mine sitting on a ATV which I felt is sort of contradiction. Another report gave prominence to handicap & tricycle but the power assist issue unfortunately is not given due importance.

Today morning @ 9.30 AM I went to nearby town Vitla to fetch groceries and came back by a different route. The total distance 25 km took 1 hr 23 minutes to cover and I had stopped for 27 minutes to make the purchases. By the way, I was driving boys to school in Vitla for ten years and used to take about 12 minutes to cover 7 km. Today same distance was covered in trike in 24 minutes. Totally it took 2 hours consuming about 220 Wh and it was pretty comfortable ride. So electric assist trike can be useful to me for everyday trips.

Hope to continue with better preparations

2010-09-25T12:19:00.003+05:30

Sometimes we have to cancel or postpone the expeditions for relevant reasons. One of the pedaling trips I was keenly following is cancelled last week. http://adventuresofgreg.com/blog/2010/09/22/pedal-the-ocean-expedition-canceled/

It looks like I may continue my trike expedition at right opportunity with sufficient preparations. One of the main requirement for next lap is there should be a support vehicle preferably Maruti Omni for obvious reasons. The support person can drive vehicle, take photographs plus help in organizing food and lodging, attend to networking. All these are beyond the capability of one person to tackle alone, especially partially handicapped one.

I could not hand over my cameras to total stranger in unknown places and ask him to take photographs while my legs are strapped to trike pedals. So there are very few photographs of mine along with trike on the road. There was a chance few strangers act decently & I develop the habit of asking all people passing by without paying much attention to the circumstances.

One reason for Omni is carrying solar panels on the top so that I will be more self sufficient in power. Convincing people to give me power was not difficult but there was no power on numerous occasions due to power cut. Coming from a village in Mangalore district where power cut is absent because of good payments, I never realized supply was so bad in other parts of Karnataka, leave alone Tamilnadu and Maharashtra. Four or six panels of 75 W can easily be transferred from my terrace to Omni rooftop and that will make considerable difference.

On the day I climbed shiradi ghat road, I had asked boys & Dinakar who were in Omni to go ahead and buy tea. I could take few sips of hot tea in shiradi village sitting on the trike thereby saving few precious minutes. During my long trip, either I went without tea or wasted lot of time.

My life’s philosophy is to just get on with useful stuff and avoid getting bogged down in pointless debates as walking a untried lonely path always attracts criticisms. I do this with purpose and passion.

Return Journey to Home

2010-09-10T14:42:00.005+05:30

My plan for returning was to take a train and come via Arasikere or Bangalore. So I went to Railway Station after having lunch at Lalith Mahal. The concerned person booking parcels who himself had pronounced limp while walking was a crook. and wanted to exploit me. With a handicapped certificate I could have got free passage for trike, we both agreed.

Knowing it contains a small motor, he said it is going to cost me INR 750 to book it to Bangalore as nobody will come near the parcel wagon in Arasikere to unload in the middle of the night. I said I spent just INR 100 to take it to Trivandrum from Mangalore. He made a scene of talking to his superiors and confirmed it is going to cost what he has already quoted, Rs 750.

While I was walking out of there somebody said there is a VRL bus leaving Bijapur @ 4 PM and just an hour was left for that. My batteries were low on power but I still coaxed them to take me 4 km to VRL office. The booking clerk said the top of the bus is already loaded with luggage & he cannot arrange for its transport.

So I came back to bus stand area and saw Ganesh Travels bus office and it was repeat of VRL story - they have regular luggage etc. It looked like they wanted to exploit the situation. By that time I was sort of desperate. Next came near Lalith Mahal hotel & saw Durgamba bus office. They said they have tickets for days bus leaving in about an hour and can accommodate trike. I said that I will come back after a tea.

When I told my story to cashier @ Lalith Mahal, he offered to get some discount. He said I should have approached him earlier & could have arranged with the busses, I already spoke to VRL, Ganesh - if necessary. He bargained with the bus agency and I reached Mangalore with my trike for Rs 470 including loading / unloading tips.

The trike was loaded by bus agency office staff and hotel boys loaded my bags. I was sort of running around clueless. Luckily everything was in order. I checked the trike that was tied up in top of the bus in Jamakhandi which is about an hour journey and it seemed okay.

When it reached Mangalore, it was upside down and there was considerable damage to the luggage carrier. I was lucky that nothing was missing. Later examination revealed that water had entered the controller which is very important electronic component and have spoiled it. The bus luggage receipt had put the valuation of goods as Rs 300 only.

In the heavy rain I removed the carrier and then summoned Ashok. By coincidence it was Ashok who had put the trike on train luggage van many days earlier on the way to Trivandrum and had come to my help when I reached Mangalore. Both days, it was raining. If the carrier was not damaged, I planned to ride it home – about 45 km after charging the batteries. So left it in Ashok’s house and he offered to deliver it to my home next day.

14th Day Throttle failure leads to unexpected trip ending

2010-09-09T12:31:00.005+05:30

The Lalith Mahal hotel was best lodge in my whole trip. The trike was parked just outside the door of the ground floor room so that loading and unloading of the trike was very easy. The food was good and was just few steps away. There was hot water in the tap and naturally I waited till 7 AM just to have pleasant hot bath.

Meanwhile in the morning I went to KSRTC bus stand to ask drivers and got input that Arakeri road is not too bad. There was many road options before me and I decided to take a local road to Pandharapur instead of National highway options. Having spent some time in Mysore during my childhood, sight of well maintained tongas was a good sight for me. I took the photograph sitting on trike while passing by bus stand.

The road was not very good but passing thru villages makes it a very pleasurable experience. Two youngsters in motorcycle offered to share a cup of tea in Siddapur the last town in Karnataka side which I accepted. The border is simply difficult to make out but for a marathi board indicating the distances to different places ahead.

It takes total concentration to ride in that road which was comparable to Karnataka roads & not better. I had covered about 6 km in Maharashtra when this happened. All of a sudden the throttle in my left hand came loose & when I noticed the spring inside was visible. Immediately I stopped and tried to rectify it but it did not seem to be working. Considering the horrible roads that I had been in northern Karnataka, I was not surprised as the lock of this throttle broken. It could easily be equivalent to three years of our normal use or more.

Then I took out the other assist control devise and fixed it. WaiWon of eZeebike who supplied this from China had advised me to take this along saying it could be used in throttle failure circumstances. So continued another two km with this set up. So some power can be fed from battery to wheel but there was no fine control over that. It was sort of preset and could mean runaway vehicle.

It can be used in roads where there is no road humps & roads are predictable & smooth. It should be matched with the brake lever actuated cut off so that when we apply brake, the power is automatically cut off. I had this at home and felt get it is not easy. Moreover I had brakes fixed to front wheels only and little control over power fed to rear wheel can lead to dangerous circumstances.

With a makeshift arrangement for shoe cleats already in place, another major failure was too much of a risk. I could not get suitable screw for the shoe cleats in Bijapur also and without shoes locked in, riding even 100 feet is difficult. When I asked about railway network with locals, they said no network is available nearby in the road ahead. So decided to come back to Bijapur as continuing in the crippled trike did not seem logical. Moreover next town Mangalvedha, was too far away.

On the way back I stopped under a tree to analyze the situation and access internet. There was no net signals nor Cell One signals available there. Some kannada speaking locals happened to pass by and they offered to arrange some battery charging. When we went near a shop there was no power and expected to restored @ 12. Waited for about 20 minutes and no signs of power even after 12.20. So power shutdown and road condition in rural Maharashtra appears to be similar that of Karnataka.

I was terribly short of time as evening train to Bangalore leaving around 5 PM and had to book the trike well in advance. So slowly rode towards Karnataka and I realized I was on this side of border after hitting a hump and all three wheels were off the ground for a moment. Gradually I got used to this knob turning business but coordinating it with pedaling was not easy.

I asked for the railway station and was said I had to take left turn at a particular circle and bus stand was half km strait ahead. Still I opted to have lunch at Lalith Mahal hotel as the staff over there knew me & will watch over my trike & bags when I have lunch. After a quick lunch, rode to railway station. Seeing the Gol Gumbaz sign, I went inside for three minutes just to take a snap.

I must have cycled about 60 km on this day. I have done about 1400 km cycling from Kanyakumari and including the distance 100 km done from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari to that - total will be 1500 km over 15 days of cycling. The story of traveling back home will be in next post.

13th Day 100 km to Bijapur

2010-09-06T21:05:00.004+05:30

It started to rain as soon as I left Kudala Sangama. I was determined to move on and it was very pleasant cycling in light shower. The approach road to Kudala Sangama was very good but once I reached the highway, it was same old story. Good thing was there was no potholes, just pockmarks for next 20 km.

The land was very level and you could see for very long distance all around. The black soil was tlled but there was no evidence of planting yet. Saw some sunflower fields at distance.

I reached Almatty at 9.00 AM and had good breakfast there. The photograph above shows Almatty Dam in the background. Checked my cleat and the screws appeared okay. The temporary arrangement made yesterday was working well. I may continue with this till I get better screws somewhere. I feel the constant rattling might have played a role in loosening the screw.

There was plenty power to continue then and I decided to have power topup at Muthgi Cross which is supposed to be 20 km away. I was in a shock when they said power comes at 3 PM while it was still 11 AM. Tried at a petrol pump but they said they don’t switch on power continuously. So kept moving and hoping for a miracle.

It happened. When I consumed about 19 Ah, when I reached a KPTCL substation. The lone operator there was sleeping & I had to woke him up. Shivananda helped me in hooking up chargers to power supply but as soon as we completed it, there was power failure there also. So we waited for half an hour and finally power started to flow at noon.

The roads continues to be very strait. Some drivers do drive rashly but there is no shoulders to move on. The road edges are very steep and could topple the trike. The dual lane work is going on and most of roadside trees have been cut. Actually I was a unfortunate witness to JCB cutting tree. So no shelter if it rains.

I was under impression that I can go to Horti and stay there. People I met said there is no lodging facility in Horti and I have to go upto Zalki, 50 km away & there is little chance of reaching there before dark. Since this is National Highway & lot of fast moving trucks present, I did not want to risk at fading light. So decided to stay @ Bijapur.

Since I stopped early, I asked for a engineering college so that I can expose them to this most energy efficient way of transport. That gentleman I met on the road said there are two in city & took me to gate of one. The Secab college that I went to failed to understand the rare opportunity they had and treated me like I had come for free meal. So pedaled out of there into Hotel Lalith Mahal.

Did two stupid things about data collection today. Failed to reset Cycle analyst electronic meter in the morning and reset the GPS without recording the track in the evening. I was concerned as last time when I switched GPS off, it showed low battery indication and in haste to put battery for charging, failed to transfer the track to computer

Will be entering Maharashtra tomorrow. So this is last night stay in Karnataka. Then I can say having pedaled across two states.

Day @ Kudala Sangama

2010-09-05T21:33:00.001+05:30

I had spent seven hours struggling with pedals yesterday and it was really tiresome, both mentally and physically. I love to be totally engaged like it happens in all thrilling games and it was just that. Only problem is my body cannot take so much abuse.

I was awake in the early morning @ 4 AM today thinking about options before me and then I realized that it is logical to take rest today and improvise on the cleat screws. Once I decided that I am staying back, I could go back to sleep.

I went to many shops and finally got hold of some screws in cycle shop which offered some hope. I tried many combinations and finally fixed the screws without the plate the bind the screws to the cleat. I hope this holds till better solution is available.

Not getting enough sleep is really alarming me. I am able to squeeze only 5 hours sleep on riding days and this is simply not enough for me. I may just post photos and GPS tracks with less text in future if that becomes necessary. This kind of trip is best done with a support team and I am all alone. Lugging the batteries and sometimes trike too both at beginning of ride and end of ride takes lot of effort. Most of the lodges have rooms upstairs.

Yesterday I had used up 40 Ah which means double the capacity of my batteries. It also indicates that even in worst circumstances you can get 31 km from a charged battery.

This blogsite is blocked in China and occasionally I mail the blog contents to W W Ching, Owner of eZee technology who made my power assist system. I have to say about 1300 km done so far was made possible with this wonderful assist unit and this have been part of many expeditions so far. Here is his comment which he naturally mailed to me.

Govind, you are going so fast I think you probably set a cycling record in India.
Take care and warm regards.
WW

I hope to reach Ahmednagar in four days and it might be via Pandharapur or Sholapur depending on road condition input I receive tomorrow in Bijapur.

12th day to Kudala Sangama 125 km

2010-09-05T10:34:00.011+05:30

I put on knee pads today morning and found that they are very much useful. Anil suggested this and lent me the pair. So there was less pain due to knee muscles today. So I got out of the lodge fresh after hot refreshing bath around 730 AM. There are three lodges under Pai management in the same road and this was best lodge so far I found on my journey. Everyday many people gather around me when am packing my things in the morning and photography is last thing in my mind. I simply want to pack & leave. We can see Tungabhadra dam in background in above photo.

One person among gathered told me that having seen my interview in Samaya TV. Actually it happened because Dinakar gave clue of my home visit to a TV reporter and many press people had come to my home together. It was bit awkward talking about cycling advantages sitting on petrol hungry ATV

The road after Hospet town was very bad & my progress was very slow. There were plenty of large car carrying trucks but they are far more responsible than the mining lorries. I sometimes compelled to take the unpaved parts on the sides of road but edges are sometimes too high to get back. One triple hump had me in grip. Almost thought had get down from the trike to get it out. I had thought of having breakfast on the way but there was no suitable hotels, only dhabhas of various kind. Moreover I wanted to cover some distance before breakfast. There are some paddy cultivation after Hospet maybe because in downstream of Tungabhadra river.

Some boys were holding a long rope across the road and stopping trucks. Looked like Ganesh Chaturti collection but I did not stop as I wanted to get ahead. I was both hungry and keen on covering some distance.

At about 1030 I saw a primary school and Kushtagi next town seemed unreachable with power in hand. So went in and asked the teacher if I can have some power. He agreed and my trike was kept in school corridor. Later I got bisibisi oota also in the school. Since today was Saturday they had meals earlier and for me it was late breakfast too. There was rice plus sambar and sure tasted good.

After 45 km from Hospet the road was very much better and this best part continued for another 35 km. Last 45 km was tolerable but had some potholes here and there. I had uswde up 40 Ah today which is double my battery capacity.

A motorcycle overtook me around 2.15 and forced me stop. He introduced himself as reporter for local Kushtagi town newspaper and spent ten minutes talking to me. It was first interview by a newspaperman with me sitting in trike. Then I explained my time limitation and asking him to email me if any more clarifications required.

The roads are very strait here reminding me of American roads. Once you are at the top of one hill, you see a long strait line to another. The surface is tolerably good. Some potholes create headache as you are sitting very close to ground and difficult to imagine its depth.

I passed by Ilkal town around 345 and took some more charge. There was not enough charge to comfortably reach next town. I noticed the one of the shoe cleat screw was loose and tightened it. There seems like lot of stone block mining and all around the highways we see waste pieces. It is not very pleasant sight and looks sort of graveyard.

There was heavy rain once I left Ilkal and I continued for ten minutes and stopped under tree for another ten. It looks like stopping under tree is better practice than wrapping up all my stuff and rainfall is never too long.

I did not like the look of lodge in Hungund and decided to continue another 22 km to reach Kudala Sangama. Actually this place, sacred to Lingayaths is 7 km off NH 13 and that means 14 km have been added to traveling distance. There are two places to stay here run by Jains and Lingayaths. The jain establishment is more expensive & opted more modest Lingayath Ashram. About 60 boys stay here and so today both Lunch and dinner was with the kids.

When I was about to get off the trike, I found that one of the screws that holds the cleats have fallen off. I had tightened it in llkal, about 40 kms from here. I have screw of the same thread but that have protruding head and this one has to have recessed head. So this may mean forced rest today and being Sunday some workshops may not be open in the town. This is too serious matter to be overlooked.

11th day 121 km to Hospet

2010-09-04T05:33:00.008+05:30

Today I could leave the lodge only at 8.30 AM. The road surface was quite good and I was pedaling quite comfortably. Remembered telephone talk with Dinakar yesterday regarding the photo and video coverage. Unfortunately I am not able to pay attention as much as I want to and that was partly due to rain. The camera have been placed in a pouch bag on Vani’s suggestion and that works better. Her other suggestion about the charger in the top bag did not work out. So took camera out and clicked a snap just about to leave Harihara and arch says 116 km to Hospet.

Around 9.30 after I covered about 10 km some villagers stopped me & there I had breakfast in a village hotel – chithranna plus tea. The tea was good and was served in a cup about the size of ounce glass and cost was Rupees Two. Then a grandpa came riding the moped with a baby monkey with him. I asked him if I can take a photo and he agreed. Grandma by then suggested it is better to take a close up & so took another snap.

There was lot of road humps and most of them unmarked. So it was very much nuisance. There was a ditch in the road about 8 inches deep and it can be easily visible for other road users but since I am sitting very low, I was at disadvantage.

There is a long downhill just before Harapanahalli and I was coming down very fast – About 49 kmph, maybe record speed so far followed by a Mangalore registration tanker. They knew I am from Mangalore area as I had loudly asked when they had stopped by roadside - Have you come from Kudla in Tulu and they were thrilled to hear that. I was scared that I may have to climb that distance once again as I could see hills all around on reaching Harapanahalli.

Same thing happened when I approached Hospet. There was hills on all sides but so far eZee pedal assist kit have flattened all hills for me. The mild knee pain continue to haunt me. There is considerable change in the scenery. The paddy fields have given way to other dryland crops and there are lot of hills all around. The road from Harihara to Mariammana Halli was very good compared to Karnataka standards.

Harihara, Harapanahalli, Hagari Bommanahalli and Hospet are all about 40 km apart. To be on the safer side, I topped up the batteries both @ Harapanahalli and Hagari Bommanahalli and data recorded proved my instinct was right. There was chance I was running out of power if I had neglected to so.

The last 20 km ride after Mariammana Halli was worst I have faced so far. SH 25 merged with NH 13 there. It was nightmare. There was absolutely no roads and moreover no road rules apply for those mining trucks which zoom at dangerous speed. I had to ride very carefully as toppling was easy and it will be close encounter of fatal kind. I stopped once when I saw Tungabhadra reservoir on my right side.

There is hump and Hospet is on the other side. There is board that says ghat road is dangerous and again there was no road surface as heavy vehicles have destroyed that. Daylight was fading fast when I entered the lodge and owner gave me 100 Rupee concession for this three bedded room. So I am charged Rupees 200 and this is second time I am getting room rent concession.

Bijapur is 200 km away on NH 13 and looks like there is heavy traffic on the road ahead with plenty of road trains carrying cars and other heavy duty trucks.

10th riding day 98 km to Harihara

2010-09-03T06:31:00.006+05:30

My hosts got up early and gave me heavy breakfast so that I can have a really good start. The sun was shining and road was tolerably good and I was making good progress. Bhadravathi Shimoga road is double lane and really good. Few people followed me for a couple of kilometers by a rickshaw tempo and was able to stop me on damaged road. Here is a small clip of them discussing about my trike.

I had reorganized my baggage for easier handling and one of the changes was putting both Li Ion chargers on the bag on top instead of pannier bags. I realized my mistake when they sagged on one side and top heavy meaning higher centre of gravity means stability problems. So placed them in panniers once again. This took some more precious minutes.

Clouds start accumulating in the sky by the time I reached Shimoga and anticipating the rain, I put on my space suit and covered the baggage with plastic sheet. Actually it was false alarm and there was not much rain.

The road condition deteriorated once I turned towards Honnali road within Shimoga city. The scenery after Shimoga was lovely with lot of paddy fields and some plantation crops too. I was very happy when I saw couple of Mitsubhishi power tillers with trailers attached. It was first powered vehicle I drove in road almost forty years back. It needed no license & I was underage for getting driving license.

I had very miserable time in Shimoga Honnali road. Constant rattling means even pedals get those shocks and transmitted to knees. I was worried as my knees may not be able to absorb these shocks continuously. Pedaling had become more difficult. As I suffer from urinary inconsistency, the rattling squeeze the bladder too. So my napkins get saturated in very little time ands I have no privacy by roadside to change them.

Meanwhile I saw a elderly gentleman sitting on a stone slab and spoke to him. He invited me for tea and I said I will be coming for tea only if I can get some power too. He agreed and gave both. He was in his seventies. He had some land under paddy and areca and two sons in local politics. He spoke about labour problems and harvesting is done on contract basis.

Twice people in cars/ tempo stopped me for a discussion. As usual gave them ten minutes intro and continued. Finally reached Honnali @ 2.30 PM and sight Udupi hotel was wonderful. Had my lunch there. There are couple of Udupi hotels in Honnali.

Road after Honnali is okay. There is some climbing involved in hilly area which locals call as ghat which I did not find too difficult. Other side of this ghat was a big lake. When I went near water so locals advised me to go to the other side meaning water is cleaner there. When I repacked my bags and about to leave, while turning upwards on left side, there was imbalance and trike toppled. On the other side of lake, I lost interest to take photographs or to wash myself.

There are plenty of lodges in Harihara and I checked into Nandini and went out for some food. I did not try to continue as next town with lodge is too far away. The rattling experienced yesterday in Honnali road is still felt, especially to rib cage and I want a hot bath before I move today. I hope to go beyond Hospet today.

Taking longer break @ Home

2010-08-30T21:05:00.004+05:30

It was good thing that I took a break again. I slept like log couple of times intermittently yesterday. I cannot sleep continuously as the staying still even during sleeping creates lot of back pain and that wakes me up.

Many people have written to me, pasted comments and sent SMS but I did not acknowledge most of them. I express my gratitude here for standing by me & regret that I could not acknowledge individually because of ability limitations.

Looking at rains here today, I feel it was good that I took Tamilnadu route. There was considerable rainfall there too but it did not slow me down. Unexpected rain in the evening did make me miserable with wet clothes / socks and assist unit complications but never too serious problem.

Taking the chargers & cables out of pannier bag for mid day charging takes considerable time & effort. I have to loosen all the straps to make this happen. A made to order bag to keep this would have made this job easier. A small change made in Laptop bag today @ Puttur will make laptop and cameras more easiler available. .

Right now, most of blogposts are written at the end of the day and are too general. The change in scenery, food and peoples attitude do not find way to the posting, making it very bland. It looks like a doctors end of day report – saw 30 patients and some had fever and some had stomach ache. I will try to make more mid day notes and maybe this blog will have kannada paragraphs.

Recent comments widget was present in the blog and today noticed it was not working. There was a additional spacing in the code which prevented its working so far and till I left Kanyakumari there was no comments & after that I did not have time to attend to that. So today was able to correct it and was able to do small changes in blog arrangement too.

I am leaving for Bhadravathi on Wednesday morning and next lap of my trike pedaling will commence on following day. Rains and family commitment have now added another day @ home.

9th Day 45 km upto Bhadravathi

2010-08-29T15:46:00.005+05:30

There was a reporter from Vijay Karnataka and a police official in the send off party when I left Birur. There was a brief interview by the reporter too. My host, Manjanna followed me for a couple of km on motorcycle & so my riding thru Birur town was recorded.

After a couple of km I had a rest stop and a villager noticed the tire was rubbing the body and he felt it was because the load was unbalanced. There was considerable wear out of the tire sidewall and naturally I was concerned.

I went near a cycle shop in Tarikere and there the cylcleshopwala said it is case of loose axle bolt and he had come with 22 mm spanner plus a hammer. He tightened it after loosening it a bit. He said it is okay & charged me Rupees 20 for that.

I said we will take near his shop and remove my luggage from the carrier and he said there was no need. One of the tirewall is very close to the body and I agreed it must have rubbed there. After few more km I checked the temperature and the tire had become warm once again. So the problem still remained.

In Tarikere lot of people had gathered around the trike and touching everywhere including battery switch which was bit hidden from view. It made me realize that I cannot unload the luggage anywhere on the road for a thorough inspection.

Meanwhile met old friend, filmmaker Abhaya Simha and our families have known each other before we were even born. He spent ten minutes talking to me & introducing his colleagues.

When I realized I cannot pinpoint the problem while on road, I decided to take shelter in a close relatives house. When I reached their house, cousin brother, Dr Shankar Bhat was not in. Immediately I pinpointed the problem after unloading the luggage. The bottom of the luggage carrier was touching the tire sidewall after being loaded. So I changed the position of the suspension bush thus raising the height of the carrier.
After that the computer I carry along started giving problems. Then I felt it is better take it to my computer consultant to prevent repeat of Tarikere mugging. I depend on my net connection for communication and cannot manage without it as my poor hearing prevents sensible dialogue. So left the trike and baggage in Bhadravathi and took a bus home carrying the notebook computer along. I cannot upload any photos or GPS tracks today as all my stuff is in Bhadravathi.

The computer is fixed now & it was just loose contact with battery as we suspected. There is considerable sleep debt which I hope to remedy before being in road once again. Having pedaled almost 1000 km continuously my body needs some rest too. I will resume the journey on Tuesday 31 Aug or Wednesday 1 Sep morning after two days rest @ home.

8th day 98 km upto Birur

2010-08-28T06:07:00.002+05:30

I could not start very early as Murthy helped me in fixing the safety LEDs in the back of the luggage carrier.

The direct route to Arasikere was extremely bad and Murthy came with me for some distance to show me alternate route. I made good use of opportunity and handed him the drift camera. He took some videos both standing by roadside & also chasing me on his motorcycle. http://is.gd/eGVvT Whenever I upload a video the link in mentioned in twitter but mention may not be in blog pages. I will be uploading videos and GPS tracks whenever possible. Please excuse for poor narration quality.

I was very happy to be back in Kannadanadu and have familiar food. In Tamilnadu most nights I had to be satisfied with Dosai and Chapathi as most hotels do not have meals there during night. Same thing abut scenery, I could not make notes during traveling & the story typed out at the end of the day looks more sort of data entries than travel story.

The route thru Nittur and Harnahally was really enjoyable. The passage was thru villages and riding in narrow road was quite fun. There was many downhill high speed rides today.

I happened to see a cycle shop in Arasikere town & went to buy a horn there. Immediately lot of people gathered and I rushed back to the trike. I casually mentioned I need some charge and one of ther gathered person offered to give it. So my trike was taken inside a cement shop and connected to charger. Meanwhile I had lunch and sent SMS and Twitter update. Udaya TV reporter was present there but I declined to do demo or interview till battery is charged and I had some food. He was not around when both of these was done & I was not disappointed.

After that about 45 km to Birur in a leisurely ride as my hosts of the day were to reach town in late evening. I decided to accept their hospitality as my quota of about 100 km per day will be met and I will be off the trike at usual time, late evening.

Right now I am leaving for Shimoga and on the direction of Hospet. I keep making change in routes cnsidering road conditions inputs I may get. Then will be Bijapur, Sholapur and Ahmednagar within ten days. Shivaram have asked me for posting route beforehand but it is simply difficult to predict as road surface and terrain plays a big role in deciding on route.

7th day 33 km Family meet, Rest and Maintenance day

2010-08-27T20:29:00.000+05:30

Since I had only 33 km ride, took my time to pack up and leave Holenarasipur. The roomboy bought me dinner and morning tea to my room. There was hot water bought in bucket and I could take hot water bath after many days. It was good but since I was going to old friend Murthy’s house in Hassan, this is something I could have had there also. I spent 10 Ah for the trip which is understandable considering Hassan is at higher altitude than Holenarasipura.

There was considerable climbing involved and in one downhill ride near Ramasamudra, I could reach 49 kmph which was thrilling at the same time it must be one of the highest speed recorded so far.

It was nice to see family members who came to Hassan to meet me. So wet and dirty clothes were replaced with clean clothes. They also could make sure I am healthy enough to continue after a week on the roads.

I am happy that I could oil my chains here and fix ribbons to my flagpost. Thanks to Murthy & family who helped with this and for their hospitality. I hope this will increase visibility to other road users.

I am still considering the road options to continue. I will generally go north and less attention paid on the name of towns on the way. While in US for cycle tour, I took even numbered roads taking care of the directions. Over there even numbers have east west direction whereas north south means odd numbered roads. Similarly I will choose the roads depending on various factors, especially inputs on road condition.

I am spending more time on travel and not interacting much with the people. Sometimes I feel it is not worth it looking @ the questions people have on trike or electric mobility. No intelligent discussion possible with people who ask petrol, diesel, battery or remote. When they put their valuation @ 15000 Rupees, I nod in agreement.

The pamphlet has really helped as I hoped. I can give it to people and keep moving. People really interested do not mind paying its cost price. Moreover I give it to people who provide electricity.

6th day 125 km upto Holenarasipur

2010-08-26T15:19:00.004+05:30

It was bit cold in the night and I had got up middle of night and wear sweater. It had rained whole night and outside was very muddy. I had fairly good sleep at police station and woke up @ 5 AM as usual. Then found that there was no power. The constable on duty was not sure if it was blown fuse or there was no power in the particular line and so back to camp bed for some more time.

I could not do much uploads from Kavalande as signal strength was very weak, that hobli headquarters was not included in 6 lac villages in India this network is supposed to cover. This was repeat atop Dimbam town too from where you can see miles together from this hilltop town but the signal strength is poor.

I left the police station with luggage fully covered and me wearing rain coat at around 7 AM. It was still raining and the tea shops nearby not open yet. The road was not too bad and I reached Nanjangud @ 8 and had breakfast there in a restaurant. It was a welcome change having food in a good hotel after having had to depend on lousy hotels on the way.

The ride to Mysore from there was bit more difficult as reduced power took more of my effort. The road was bad, lot of road humps and heavy traffic and light shower adding its contribution to my misery.

I crossed Mysore without asking for directions as I had spent considerable amount of time there. I took Chamaraja Double road and to Hunsur road via Crawford Hall. Everything seemed familiar but less trees was noticeable. Thought of calling friends but that also meant losing precious daylight hours.

I had consumed about 16 Ah when I passed Hebbal Ind. Area as bad roads and lot of road humps had used up more power. The road humps that we see all over takes up lot of energy and small energy mobility like electric assist trike suffers considerably. My range was reduced from about 90 km to around 60 km mainly because of those two reasons. The reduced range and power failures like that happens frequently in rural areas plays havoc with the planning.

While passing by, I was alert about charging possibilities and remembered Shreeharsha whom I had met once ten years back and had a bread factory there. So decided to see if he is around as I was keen on battery charge and also work on computer. He was happy to see me and we had nice time.

First thing I did was putting chargers to work. One of them indicted FULL after maybe 45 minutes or so and I had no reasons to suspect anything as I had came from Kavalande to Nanjangud in Single battery and assumed it is same battery. Much later when I checked the voltage I found it low and reason for FULL indication was loose connection. So I had spend much more time charging this battery alone so that I can reach Holenarasipur, about 80 km away.

There was little point in having charge but not enough daylight to reach the goal and started around 1.45 PM though the battery was not yet full. It started to rain too but I was fully prepared for that. I told Shreeharsha that there is discontinuity in today’s GPS tracks as I did not switch on while leaving Nanjangud and just when I about to leave, he reminded me to switch it on. But in next stop @ K R Nagara I Again forgot to switch on which resulted another discontinuity. Last evening when I transferring the tracks to computer there was low battery indication. Hope to buy another charger in Hassan tomorrow as single pair charger proves insufficient.

I could not bring camera out today as it was raining in morning, afternoon and evening. Low illumination results in poor quality photographs. So this photo of him reminding to switch on GPS was sent by him. It also shows even the flag which is still there is not much visible. Second flag flew off couple of days back & only flagpole remains which I hope to remedy the situation tomorrow in Hassan.

I reached K R Nagara @ 3.15 as roads were very good. One good place where power is always available is KPTCL offices and so when I saw their office in the edge of the town, naturally I went inside. The staff there was very nice and carried my trike over the steps into their offices. So was there for an hour topping up my batteries.

There road is good all the way upto Holenarasipur from Yelwala. There are couple of road humps but they not too bad. It is fairly level upto K R Nagara but after that there are couple of hills. Anyway by nightfall I had reached Holenarasipura and one of the lodges had a mini theatre too in first floor. So trike was carried to this mini theatre for safekeeping and my room was in second floor .