Hyderabad Bicycling Club
The Hyderabad Bicycling Club is a bicycling club for riders in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Founded by Krishna Vadi in 2007, which has now emerged as the World’s largest Cycling Club on meetup overtaking the Denver Front Range Cycling Club, USA to achieve the same under the mentorship of HBC Chairman, DV Manohar. It has grown six times in the last three years to reach the present membership strength of over 7500 members and 2800 members on Facebook. Hyderabad Bicycling Club is a not for profit organisation registered under section 25 of the Indian Companies Act. It's Bike Stations at Gachibowli and Necklace Road have transformed the city, resulting in more and more people taking to cycling.. The club organises regular bicycling events in and around Hyderabad, broadcasting their upcoming and past events on Meetup, Facebook and a closed Facebook group.
UN Habitat agreed to partner HBC in its unique initiatives to promote cycling in India. HBC is a Founding Member of World Cycling Alliance and Associate Member of European Cyclists Federation. HBC tied up with GHMC, Hyderabad Metro Rail, TSIIC and the Traffic Police to promote "Cycle to Work" initiative in a big way in Cyberabad area to substantially reduce vehicular pollution and traffic congestion there.
Club Goals
- Promote cycling as an environmental friendly commuting option
- Increase the awareness of cycling as a sport, by:
- * Exposing it to a wider audience
- * Increasing the knowledge about cycling using movies, courses and training sessions
- * Creating events around cycling for amateurs and families
- * Create marked trails and improve existing ones
- * Use cycling as a venue for supporting the community by hosting charity rides to raise money, riding to villages to increase their awareness of sports, and volunteering as a group to support villages and schools.
- Provide a networking venue for adventure sport seekers
Members
The former organiser of the club was Shay Mandel, an experienced cyclist who has been cycling internationally for more than twenty years. Under his patronage, the club grew to a very large group of people, who now ride regularly every week. They get technical lessons on biking, bike maintenance and other useful tips from the organiser. Shay stressed the need of a balanced cycling regime, including power, endurance and speed building rides.
Currently the Hyderabad Bicycling Club proudly boasts of over 2000 Members from the Twin Cities of Hyderabad & Secunderabad and its suburbs. The Hyderabad Bicycling Club in association with the GHMC has set up its own "hbc Bike Station" on the Necklace Road, having 30 Hybrid Bikes, 30 MTB Bikes, 10 Tandem Bikes, 15 Road Bike and 15 Kid Bikes. These bicycles can be used by any person with a nominal rent per day on the necklace road.
Chapters
As Hyderabad is a big city, the club has two chapters - the HITEC City Chapter and the Secunderabad Chapter. Each chapter has a few ride-leaders who organise at least one ride a week.The riding starting point varies for each ride, and is designated on the club's meetup website.
Media coverage
The activity of the club and its members have been regularly covered in the media. Following are few of the mentions:- Pedal Power: You & I magazine published this article in its issue #52, January 2009 edition on page #54. This article summarised the activities of the group and talked about its unique existence.
- Pedalling away to heart’s content: The national daily newspaper, The Hindu, published an article in its main paper on the 2nd page, on 19 February 2009. This led to a lot of new riders joining the club.
- Cycling for the cause of environment: The Hindu newspaper also published an article about Shrenik Rao, a member of the club, who cycled across the length of India, for the cause of environment.
- Reachout Hyderabad had an article published on the Hyderabad Cyclathon.
- Happy Roadies: Hyderabad Cyclathon held to promote cycling in Hyderabad had pictures of the club members published on the daily newspaper, The Deccan Chronicle, on its second last page.
- Cross-Country Cycling race: The first ever cross-country cycling race conducted by HBC in Hyderabad had an article and pictures of the race and club members published on the daily newspaper, The Deccan Chronicle's primary supplement Hyderabad Chronicle, on its front page.
- Eenadu cover story: The local Telugu daily Eenadu had a cover story about the club activities. Publishing of this story resulted in a huge influx of cycling enthusiasts joining the club in a short span of time.
- ODE coverage: Monthly magazine, Of Distinct Expressions, had a main article published in their April issue citing the club and its members. It elaborated on the club's activities, its aims and achievements.
- Cool techies cycle to work: The English daily’s primary supplement, Hyderabad Chronicle, had an article covering the members of the club on its front page.
- Pedal Power: The main article in Sunday portion of the paper covered a story about all the existing bicycling clubs in India. HBC, its organiser and its activities were mentioned in the article.
- Ride with the wind: The information site covered a main page article on the existence of club in Hyderabad and elaborated on its activities.
- A healthy toast to freedom: An article about the freedom ride preparation by HBC members in Hyderabad.
- Eenadu story of Narsapur ride: The local Telugu daily Eenadu had a story about the club members maiden ride to Narsapur forests in the Medak district which covered a loop of 100 km.
Events
Enduro3 Adventure race
Enduro3 is the only adventure race held in India, which combines various activities of cycling, trekking, rowing, orienteering and river crossing. This race is one of the most difficult races held in India, where less than 40% of the participating teams are able to complete the race successfully.The race mandates a team of 3 members, with at least one female member. HBC had sent 3 teams for the adventure race, namely:
- Team HBC Beacon: Shilpa Garg, Shay Mandel, Sunil Menon
- Team HBC Quake3: Nileema Shingte, Bachina Satish, Sandeep Pathak
- Team HBC Sharkies: Isha Arkatkar, Sudhanshu Mohanty, Ankit Kumar
Cross-Country Cycling race
HBC conducted the first ever cross-country cycling race in Hyderabad on 29 March 2009. Held in the picturesque background of Hyderabad Central University, the race attracted 30 participants, covering a distance of 15 km in 3 laps. The race trail included flat roads, muddy tracks, rocky mountains and water crossing. The motive of the race was to promote cycling amongst people, to voice the concern for the ailing environment and to raise awareness about maintaining fitness in the sedentary lifestyles.The race attracted people of all ages, profession and sex, and was a huge success.