So I got a new bike, I was over the moon, but I was new to biking. I wanted to take it to all parts of the country, but knew nothing about safety gear or fixing small issues with the bike. I knew what I had to do...join a biking group.

Search for a biking group

On a long ride, it's so important to ride in groups(smaller groups though). You always have someone to back you up in case things go south. You learn new things almost every time you ride with them. Every day, the only time I was riding the bike, was to and from the office. It wasn't much and unfortunately full of traffic. I never got to test its high speed!!!. I'm glad I didn't, I wasn't ready. Hence my search began for a biking group. I asked around, left some texts to people around my neighborhood, but no luck finding a group.

It's very important to join a small group of responsible riders. Too large a group and nobody cares about you, most of them don't even know you. Too small a group and you miss out on all the pros. If the people in the group are not experienced and responsible, you pick up bad riding style and make that a habit pretty soon. We all know how that ends!!!. It was my first bike and 4 more were on the way. I wanted to ride long and all over the country, who knows, even outside the country. Finally, one fine day, I woke up to a nice little surprise.

New biking group

There was a message on one of our society's group about someone enquiring if anyone else rides a bike and would love to join for a group ride. Hallelujah, before sunset there was another biking group with 4 members in it. I was happy, excited and was looking forward to next weekend for our first group ride. Alas, everyone bailed out but two of us, but we went anyways. For the first time I touched 120kmph and it felt exciting as well as terrifying.

Following, our first group ride, there were many plans we made and all of them got canceled. Good thing it did. One of the guys in our group was already a part of a 7 member bike group. One fine day, being not so happy about all our canceled plans he asked if we would like to ride with their group. Two of us said yes and the very next weekend, we were riding in Kartik's group. Finally, I was a part of a biking group.

Something to look forward to...

I learned a lot about safe riding and group riding from him and other members of the group. We did many smaller rides followed by some long rides. I'll tell you guys all about it later. For now, I'd like to take this moment alone to thank Kartik and Sankalp for being a mentor and a really good friend.

That's it for this one guys, stay tuned for the next one, where I'll tell you guys about some of our short rides and take you guys along me on my biking journey.

Stay tuned and I'll see you around