Reflections of a bicyclist-5

On my first day to the University, after being appointed to the Department of Chemistry (Central College) as a Lecturer in 1988, I innocently pedaled to work and was looking for a suitable parking place, when the office attendant (a kindly soul) sidled up to me and whispered that it would do no good for my maryada (loosely translated into English as ‘self respect’) to be found cycling. I was amused. Subsequently, he was amused too, to discover over the course of the coming months my full fleet of vehicles- one TVS 50 (since sold), one Kinetic Honda (still in service), one LML (originally belonging to my father, now kindly lent to my wife’s student), one Maruti 800 (since replaced by WagonR), one tricycle (tadpole trike) and one bicycle (Hero ranger, still in service).
The one vehicle that I truly enjoyed was my trike. That was Shekhar’s truly original invention. We made it in 1991, when the internet did not exist (at least, I did not know of it). Shekhar was familiar with the city market gujali (junkyard). We picked up a second hand ladies’ step-through frame from the Sunday market and went to a welder in Kalasipalyam and put in two front wheels (18” dia), a low seat with a back rest welded where you would step through. The pedals were located forward in between the two front wheels. The position was semi-recumbent. This trike design which is now widely available abroad and easily seen on the net (example cheetahracer) is now christened ‘tadpole trike’ to distinguish it from the rickshaw (two back wheels) trike. I rode this for nearly six months every day to college and tested it on all the slopes of Rajajinagar. The greatest thing about this vehicle was that I did not need to put my feet down on the ground at traffic lights when I had to stop. I leaned back in my seat, feet up and relaxed waiting for the lights to turn green. It was a great feeling- one that I don’t get to this day even in my new car. On up slopes, I could lean against the back rest and pedal with such vigour that I ended up with a bent crank (is it called the crank, the arm of the pedal?). I overtook most mopeds on up slopes. Looking at my low seating position, I was often mistaken for a disabled person. I remember once a policeman at KR Circle stopping traffic to wave me on and then being visibly surprised at the speed and dexterity with which I whizzed past him. Hardly the way in which disabled persons on corporation gifted vehicles move! The only problem was that I used to have knee aches for short periods (about 10 minutes) after long rides. I mistakenly attributed this to the recumbent seating position. Looking back I now believe that the knee ache could have been due to the fact that my seat was sloping slightly forwards (a problem with the welding) rather than backwards. So I tended to slip forward and my knee was taking some of my weight. I know this now as my current recumbent bike (a BMX modified with a boom over the front wheel) does not give me a knee ache despite the fact that I am now ten years older. I must confess though that I do feel more energetic and fit these days than ever before post twenties.
I would like to make a trike again or even a four wheeler (www.rhoadescar.com). But since the internet, I find that I have no new ideas. This world is populated with 7 billion other human creatures. Anything that I can conjure is already thought up by hundreds of others. The bright side of this situation is that you don’t need to spend time and energy thinking. Just survey the net- everything is there, pick what fancies you most and copy it! I can assure you it is great fun.
But between then and now, for the past approximately ten years, I became too busy with my career in Chemistry and neglected my main passion. My trike fell into the hands of street kids. But they made amazing use of it. They rode it doubles, triples, quadruples---. I once remember how an under-10 year old was riding it vigorously. He had to sit on the edge of the seat to reach the pedal. This left sufficient space behind up to the back rest. His identical twin sisters (both barely-able-to-walk-infants) sat behind clinging to the back rest, facing sideways, feet dangling in the air! Feats that adults would not dare. The trike gamefully put up with all this creative activity till some crucial weld gave way. Shekhar and I were too busy to attend to it. It lay rusting in Shekhar’s house and was finally shoveled into garbage. I am however left with a few photographs, which my wife (not an overt admirer of such eccentric tastes) thoughtfully took complete with a footscale to indicate size.