Merida TFS … 4 days on and it’s impact..

It’s been 4 days since I have been riding on my Merida TFS…for photos visit http://picasaweb.google.com/yranade/MeridaBike# and I am absolutely loving it. It’s an amazing cycle, excellent balance, excellent ride positioning, excellent saddle and awesome speed. It just lurches out of the blocks..there are so many fascinating items on the bike, I am discovering them every time I ride. I am not really going to list down the Pros and Cons…yes there are some cons, but what in the world is perfect …u tell me ? The fact is that I love this bike and I love bicycling more now…I actually don’t enjoy driving my Swift anymore…It’s only in the weekends that I will use my Swift when we need to travel together as a family. Btw: I am planning to reduce my driving as well…my lovely wife Sawani has started taking driving lessons from last Tuesday in a local driving school nearby our house…the plan being to handover the Swift to her. ;) I would obviously use it on long drives and stuff, but it’s primarily going to be her vehicle going forward. I definitely plan to take good care of this bike and once Arjun turns 5 (on March 27th), I plan to start taking rides with him (on his little bicycle) in the apartment. I feel the seeds of cycling need to be sown early. One day they will bloom…it’s been 10-12 years since I last bicycled in late December and am I loving it or what ?

So what happened to my Ultima 6 speed ? It has been a good bike that served me well. I had it with me for almost 3+ years (2.8 years was just lying in my house)..I decided to pass this bike on to Shiva, our office boy..he’s been with us at IntelliNet for more than 6 years now, and he is an extremely helpful, hardworking and cheerful chap. He said he needs to buy a cycle for his son, so was way too excited to see a geared bike up for sale…considering the increase in the costs of bikes recently…a normal gearless bike would cost 3K minimum. I decided to pass this on for about 2K..which he readily agreed. Why did I sell it and not just pass it on…well there are reasons for it…but rather not talk about them here. ;)

Here’s some number crunching:- All the following are now on my Merida

22nd Feb: 30 kms (Kanakapura to Brookefields)
23nd Feb:15 kms (loop near my home)
24rd Feb: 20 kms (office and back) – Started going to the gym as well. Did 2.5 kms run (treadmill @ 8.5) + 2.5 km walk (treadless @ 6.4) + stretches + abs
25th Feb: 20 kms (office and back) – 10 mins on treadmill at 10 speed. Stretching and Chest + Triceps
26th Feb: 20 kms – 20 mins on treadmill (3kms), 20 mins on treadless (2.5kms) + Stretches + abs

Total Distance Covered on Merida: 105 Kms
Total Distance Covered on Cycle: 675 Kms

Cheers,
YVR