This is my first ride with: a road bike, in Kerala. I always wondered about the beauty of Thiruvananthapuram and surrounding areas since 2022 when I joined for masters course in Indian Institute of Space science and Technology.
I want to explore the places around the campus to enjoy the beauty of nature, but the bus rides are costly in terms of time. It takes about one and half hours to reach the city bus stand from campus on a bus, but the distance is only around twenty kilometers.
I am tired with these slow rides on bus and the need of switching multiple buses to reach to places that are under the Thiruvananthapuram district. Then, I saw some people have cycles in the campus and came to know that I can own one too.
So, I checked with campus mates and online, and found a road bike that is affordable for me. I placed the order and received it in the mid of January 2026. It was a moment of happiness to finally own a road bike. The package that was arrived with it is shown below.
The bike is from a new indian brand named Battalion bikes. It had shimano claris drive-train with tektro rim brakes. The inner package that actually had the bike in a semi-assembled state is shown below.
The bike was deliverded during a week day. I came to room in the afternoon with much curiosity and started to assemble her. It is only eleven kilograms in weight. The package came with all the tools needed to assemble her. The final assembled bike is shown below. I named her as the Light Feathers.
The chain came with a fault in it, that it broke when doing a test ride within the campus. It took some time to get the spares and in the mean time, I got all the accessories and apparels needed for the rides that I will embark with her.
Yesterday, I got the chain and the corresponding tool to fix it. I fixed the chain in her, took her for test rides within the campus, and later took her on a very short ride on a path outside the campus that connects the campus’s both front and back gates.
Today morning, I did a few tweaks to enable smooth derailing of gears in the rear cassette and planned a ride in the afternoon. I was accompanied with a good friend Aditya, who inspired me to get the road bike, and we went out on a planned path. But, due to some issues we returned to campus in the mid of the ride. The ride was recorded on Strava and the details can be seen below.
The road was having many hills and valleys, it tested my skills on climbing and maintaining controlled descent. I restarted my lone ride on a loop path connecting the campus’s back gate and front gate, while covering the nearby town called Nedumangad.
The total ride time was around forty-five minutes only. Whereas, it would have taken about half an hour just to reach Nedumangad. On my way, I can sense my heart-beat while doing steep and long climbs. This route and the previously dropped route will be the best for morning regular rides that I will plan in the future.
After reaching the campus, I took the below pic of me with my Light Feathers as a memory for the first ride in the land of beauty.
This time, I didn’t look for beauty of nature, as I was being cautious not to get hit or hurt because this is my first road bike ride that too on the dangerous roads, mainly the KSRTC buses and blind turns. Next time, I will stop and take memories of the nature that I will be passing by. The strava post for the first test ride in this land of beauty can be seen below.
Expect the future rides in exploring the beauty of this land!
