The online community of the GHBC was started in August 2007 with around 22 members to start with. Eight of them were present on our first ride, which was an off-road ride in Vikarabad. Mr. Krishna Vadi is the founder while Danika Durant was the first member of GHBC. Mrs. Uma Maheshwari along with her son was among the first members on the first ride.
Around August 2008, Shay Mandel has taken on the responsibility of organizing the club and the club never looked back. His enthusiasm and the love for cycling and the guidance he provides to other riders are unparalleled. Slowly, as enthusiasm and love for cycling as the only criteria, a core organizing team has formed with people like Sunil, Matt, Ed, Sandy. The online membership has now grown to around 600. Although, not all of the online members are active on the rides all the time, it nevertheless shows the amount of growing interest for cycling and fitness in Hyderabad. The average number of riders on most of the rides is around 10-20 riders.
Members are from all the walks of life and give the club an exquisite and distinct flavor. Our youngest active member is a nine year old Pradyumna, who accompanies his father GR on the rides, while our most senior member is a toss between Ramany, a retired Wing commander and an ex-fighter pilot now manning a cycle, and Dr V Nagesh. Habeeb, an intermediate student, is our youngest assistant organizer. The experience levels of the members is as diverse as well, ranging from cycling novices who manage a few kilometers of riding a week, to contestants of marathons, triathlons and Ironman like competitions, who manage hundreds of kilometers at a stretch.
HBC organizes the rides every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. There are two chapters of HBC one of which operates from Sec’bad area while the other operates from Gachibowli area. The Sec’bad chapter, with a core team of people like Krishna, Ramany, Chandra and Habeeb, takes care of organizing the rides around Necklace road and around Cantonment areas. The Gachibowli area chapter, with a core team of people like Shay, Sunil, Ed, Matt and Sandy, goes all around covering areas like Vikarabad, Narsapur, and any place with in the radius of 50-100kms. A few cycling tours to historical touring spots like Warangal and Hampi are also organized from time to time for all those who are interested.
The Wednesday rides are usually short power rides while the weekend rides cover beginners to experienced riders with a whole range of distances and routes. The organizers and assistant organizers usually make sure that even the slowest of the riders is accompanied and taken care of. Many of the riders carry basic tools and puncture kits to take care of small repairs and punctures on the rides.
The feeling of flying with the fresh morning breeze on the face is something most of the members of HBC are addicted to. One would not have thought that there are so many places and trails in and around the city to explore until one joins the HBC family and our many rides. The simple joy of cycling keeps the hearts and minds alive and the guys on HBC always ride savoring the magic of that joy.
“We never lose our way, we only find new trails.” This sums up the HBC philosophy and the spirit of its riders."Just Ride" is the HBC motto.
Just Ride..
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Venky
Team HBC
Venky
Team HBC
初次造訪~安安^^.........................
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