A green clean initiative by a group of friends who turned a fun cycling trip to a revolution is Chain Reaxion. I heard about them when a friend had put up this status message, ” Cycled for 45kms. Was fun.”. That was in August and I got curious. Called her up and started to dig for details. Thus began my introduction to Chain Reaxion.
My first ride was on the 4th of October. Was actually scared about the ride. The practice sessions were excruciating, riding a bike after like 8 years is very difficult. But the difficulties lasted for the first 3 days. After which the body gets the rhythm. After all, i did cycle to PS from my 6th to my 12th standard. Water therapy 48 hours before the ride is definitely necessary. I campaigned and got in 4 of my friends interested. We went as a gang and registered at the Mylapore BSA showroom.
Sunday dawned. Assembled at Thiruvanmiyur, and the cycles were awesome.! Disk brakes, 21 gears, Wow! Excitement, nervous! But the crowd was very very encouraging. One thing that was very evident was the organisation and management was done well and things were kept simple. It took me a full 3 hours to get to mahabs. Each pit stop was a godsend. Chocolates, water, Red Bull were all necessary to keep me going. But a sense of triumph was satisfying. It was totally worth it.
I have been on 3 rides so far. I cycle everyday for an hour at boat club road. My timings have come down to 2 hours and 5 mins. I don’t stop at pit stops anymore. Overall health and fitness have improved a lot over this period. All smiles. Anyone speaks of going to mahabs anymore, i got this feeling that it is so near and i can just cycle there.
I definitely gained a lot personally. But i see a decline in the quality every time. The second time, Redbull stopped coming. The third ride (december) was probably the worst planned. There was no one at the pit stops. Punctured cycles took a very long time to be replaced. Timings were not noted. Photographs were not taken. Cycles did not have mud guards or gears. And it had rained the previous night.
And to top it all, i realised that i had kept my ipod on the table at GRT temple bay. I mailed the organisers and i did finally track it down. My sister would have killed me for losing it.
Thanks to chain reaxion that i started cycling again. Its been very helpful. As in Sohail’s words, ” Used it as a platform” to making cycling a regular activity. I just hope that the organisers bring up their game to the new comers in the coming rides.
Happy Riding.!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=104560052264&ref=ts
P.S: I know this is not my usual style of writing. Experimenting with very short sentences.. 
