BICYCLE REVOLUTION

 

 

How times have changed? Every generation must be saying so. How time flies is an age-old adage too. How have things improved over the years? How technology has improved our lives is also what we are witnessing and experiencing every day.

 

It happened so that as I was taking my evening walk when someone on a cycle whizzed past. The speed was quite fast as I had a close brush. The street lights had not come on, so it was a near miss.

 

Kids today are engrossed in their own thoughts. Bindaas, carefree, happy go lucky, above all oblivious of their surroundings. Our colony being a gated one, they do not even bother to lock their bicycles. They crisscross the roads at will, ride on the wrong side as if it is their ‘baap ki sadak’ and rove in groups of five or more, occupying the complete road space.

 

With exams done and dusted, it is time to take out gadgets, bicycles being one. This time is the ‘best days of their lives’. What caught my attention was that the cycle had a tail light. I couldn’t resist but inspect the cycle up close.

 

I remember during our childhood, an uncle used to go to his factory on his cycle. We used to be very intrigued by the headlight which he used to fix on its handle.

 

When no one used to be watching, we would park his cycle on its stand and paddle the cycle by hand and watch the headlight glow. The faster we rotated the rear tire, the brighter the headlight would glow. There used to be a ‘dynamo’ attached to the rear wheel. A slight press and it used to stick to the tire and rotate with it. It used to be an eureka moment for us. This was in the 60s and 70s.

 

The cycle this boy was riding today was with gears. Geared cycles have become quite common with bikers. The style of paddling told you that this person’s cycle has gears as he would be moving very slowly but paddling at top speed, like when our  cycle chains used to come off.

 

This boy was not paddling but his cycle was moving at more than 30kmph. Our bicycle in question was a ‘battery operated’ one. The handle had an accelerator, a mobile holding clip, an indicator set and a tail light. Under the carrier was the battery pack. The boy said that the range is about 45 km on full charge, which is quite a distance.

 

Imagine, now you do not even have to paddle your cycle to go and meet friends.

 

In our times, we would wait for the sun to go down. On the quiet, fetch a torch and flash it on the rear reflector for it to glow red. For us, that used to be the ultimate tail light. Many times, our chain cover used to get dislodged and our pants (if we wore one) got caught in the chain. We would use it as a ‘gear lever ‘and change gears like a truck driver would do while balancing the cycle with one hand.

 

We would convert our bicycles into imaginary motorbikes. The modification was simple. We would go looking for empty cigarette packets strewn all along the road. Those days finding one was not very difficult. People used to smoke a lot then.

 

The innards of the cigarette packet would be removed, including the silver foil and the rest of the pack used to flattened. A hole was made ‘off center’ and stuck in the bolts of the rear brake shoe. Then the sound was checked for its loudness. Parrrrrrrrrr, it would go when we paddled, like a racing bike.

 

The contraption would not last more than half a mile. We did not have the universal binder called the tixo tape to keep that packet in place. A pitstop to find another packet, pierce it in the same manner and continue on our cycling sojourn. After a little while, racing cycles would be the next game. We would forget attaching empty cigarette packets and just race.

 

To see who is a better biker, we would get down to the old style called “kainchi”, with the rod in hand and legs in between the frame paddling away to glory. Slow cycling was another game which was quite boring because of its slow pace.

 

A bicycle was our ultimate toy. We considered ourselves grown ups while riding one. The ultimate bicycle for us used to be one which had a totally covered chain cover. Boys with lots of imagination was all what we used to be. Today, we have hover boards also.

 

What will be next in the bicycle revolution? I wonder!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© ® NOEL ELLIS