The next store I checked in at was Procycle located in Indiranagar. Incidentally they were the distributors for Brompton foldable cycles in India, and were quite happy with my Brompton review video... they were quite thrilled with the way the check in video turned out!!!
In my interactions with various novice cyclists, I realised that most of them did not know how to change tyres, they assumed (quite naturally) that it would be complicated and difficult like a car or motorbike. This led me to the next video - How to change tyres / tubes.
By now I was quite used to people pinging me on facebook messenger with their comments.
Through all this, I was in touch with Rohan (BOTS) and was talking to him about which other cycles he had for me to review. He gave me a Specialized Crosstrail, a hybrid with front shock absorbers. It was quite comfortable even when I was riding it onto and off footpaths, so I made a review video with clips of me racing and on bad roads too!!
My next vlog was an event coverage - the BBCh cross country race. Though this was only my second BBCh event, The close knit nature of the cycling world allowed me in and encouraged me in my endeavors.
The jovial fun loving nature came out when I was shooting on the trail and I saw Nikhil (Crankmeister) and asked him to give a smile for the camera his immediate retort - You come pedal and I will film!!
This event saw me being introduced to Santosh from icycle, they were the organisers for MTB rides and tours around the countryside. Their most popular one being 'The Great Malnad Challenge' - a gruelling mountain bike tour of 650 kms over 7 days through the picturesque coffee belt in the Malnad region of Karnataka. I started off this adventure with a check in video on icycle.in
Next was a triple bonus from BBCh - the criterium (or crit) series of races. These races were held in the same venue for three consecutive months. Being a closed circuit, it was fun and the cyclists could push themselves without worrying about traffic.
The community show here was amazing with lots of friendly banter and teasing. I was glad to be a part of this as I was meeting many interesting people. I had my 'its a small world moment' when I realised that one of the cyclists - Imad Sait was an old friends nephew!!
By now my cycling vlog was taking up quite a bit of my time, I would be gone to cover an event early on a Sunday morning and would typically return by 10:30 - 11:00 to face my kids wrath!!
In order to pacify my kids all of 4 years and 7 years, my ice-cream bills were mounting, but who was I to complain as I enjoyed the ice-creams as much as them!!