World Bicycle Day 2021: The New Cool Attitude in Hyderabad, is to Choose Pedal

World Bicycle Day 2021: Hyderabad has plenty of amazing trails, biking enthusiasts would love to cycle, it is not too late to start. Below, we have listed two cycling club stories of Hyderabad, bike affair and cykul, as to how they began, their journey and success.

Gokul Krishna & Krishnendu Haldar- both of them are founders, Bike Affair

In India, about a decade ago, Hyderabad was a backwater, when it comes to cycling scene. There were just mere 200 riders and a cycling culture did not exist. During this time, Gokul Krishna and Krishnendu Haldar launched Bike affair. This began as a cycling group, then it became cycling consultancy and then it emerged as a multi-brand cycle boutique, working with everything to do with cycles.

They were a part of small community in the year, 2009, but today, when they look back, there are around 10,000 riders in the city and the number is go on increasing with the passing day.

We have found that, there are people, who tend to cycle, so that they remain healthy, others for exercise and for most others; they feel it has become the cool thing to do.

Gokul stated, initially, we have kept our jobs and used to work on the Bike Affair on weekends. As the demand started increasing, we had to quit our jobs and we plunged into this full time. I took part in varied cycling events, which include even the tour of Nilgiris. Most cyclists go on short trips outside the city and they ride in their free time.

Deenanath Harapanahalli, founder, cykul

Deenath Harapanahalli, felt there was a need to build a community centred around cycling, this resulted in Cykul, this one is bike sharing firm, having more than 2,000 cycles operational in Hyderbad, Jaipur and Gurugram.

This company also tends to host varied cycling events and it helps promote cycling trips. When I came to Hyderabad in the late 2000's, there were hardly any cyclists in Hyderabad. That has witnessed a massive change.

Recent event, witnessed around 11,000 riders. Cycling, much like the telecom revolution is going to sweep across the nation, very soon. On the roads, you can find, new rider with gear and new age cycles. Our aim is to create an ecosystem, which will encourage people to start cycling. A most important step is, change in attitude.

Deenanath has admitted that, teething problems require to be addressed, for example, bike sharing is very popular in the west, but in our nation, an issue is there, as to where to leave the bike after use, this always comes up. Once these types of logistics are sorted, then more number of people would choose to pedal.