Poojya Basavaraj is one-half of Pedal in Tandem, a Bangalore-based company that organises and leads cycle experiences through different parts of India. She is also a yoga teacher, muralist, and just the person you want on your side as you're sweating up long uphills in the forest.
MM: Hi Poojya, welcome to my magazine! There are a lot of moving parts to your job, how would you describe it?
PB: Hi, I’m Poojya, and I’m one half of Pedal in Tandem! We curate cycling experiences in and around Bangalore city. What we do is an intersection of cycling (or fitness), and travel.
We’re not looking at how fast you ride, or who came first, or who did not finish, all that doesn't matter. Our whole thing is about going to a destination, and exploring it on a bicycle. You can’t say "I went to Mysore", ride on a highway and come back — that’s a cycle experience, but not a travel experience.
We’re not looking at how fast you ride, who came first, who did not finish, all that does not matter. Our whole thing is about going to a destination and exploring it on a bicycle.
Apart from just operating tours and rides, we also have a bike shop in Bangalore, where we do bike sales, bike services, all of that. We also do custom bike builds.
And one or two days of the week, we also spend in the recce [reconnaissance, learning more about an area before planning a tour there]. If I need to curate a 25km loop, I should have recce’d at least 100km of that area. So we strap on our bikes to the car, and drive out for these. We also spend some time coming up with the tour itinerary, and talking to the homestays and local people. You cannot do this experience if you don’t know somebody local.
At the end of the day this is an adventure, and god forbid you need help; there is some emergency, and something you need to address. You need to have support in those situations. For one ride, there are easily 2-3 days of preparation. So a week is pretty much like this - a mix of some things at the store, recce’s during the week, planning out of itineraries, and putting processes together for the future.
All that, and then actually executing a tour over the weekend.
MM: How did you get into cycle-touring? Is this something you ever foresaw for your future?
PB: So Dheeraj (my husband) got into cycling first, and he got me into cycling as well. A couple of years back we strapped on our bikes and drove down to Varkala, in Kerala; and that’s the first time we were out for more than a day. For three days we just rode along the coast, it was so interesting, and that’s when I felt the connect to the place. It felt so different travelling like this, versus travelling to places in a car; and that’s when we were like okay, there’s something here.
For three days we just rode along the coast [...] and that’s when we were like okay, there’s something here.
Once we got back to Bangalore, and started exploring routes around Bangalore, we loved the places we explored. And then we took a few friends, and then we realised there’s some potential here and that’s when we started a club. At that time we never thought we would be running something like this, curating tours in the Himalayas, like Kyrgyzstan and Nepal and all that… I don’t think we really thought it that far, that we would have a bike shop; nothing of that sort.
MM: Switching gears a bit, we must address the pandemic — it put the brakes on business for a while, but I’m guessing things really picked up once the lockdown was lifted?
Post-lockdown, when people were allowed to go out but still scared of being out together, I think they preferred to cycle.
They felt like cycling was safer, it was outdoors; and even if you’re doing it with company, you’re still far away from each other. We started doing rides again after the curfew was lifted, and I think that’s when a lot of people took to the rides. And we were surprised.
Before the pandemic, we were looking at maybe like 8 to 12, maybe 15 people a ride. Now we were seeing 20, 30 people in a ride. People were fed up of sitting at home, I think they were looking to get out. So yeah, post-pandemic, we’ve seen a lot of people take to cycling.
Before the pandemic, we were looking at maybe like 8 to 12, maybe 15 people a ride. Now we were seeing 20, 30 people in a ride. People were fed up of sitting at home, I think they were looking to get out. So yeah, post-pandemic, we’ve seen a lot of people take to cycling.
MM: So you have a lot of tours through really popular places — Spiti and Hampi for instance — but I know you go out of your way to plan routes that maybe wouldn’t be in tourist guidebooks. Can you talk a bit about building those routes?
PB: Sure. So any place that we start recce’ing, it’ll be through a personal recommendation. Somebody would have told us, “I think you guys should check this place out”, or something like that. We start from there, and we do a complete research online.
Hampi for example — we made a list of things to see, homestays, the people we knew, tour guides, and all of those things. For the recce, we spend at least 2-3 days to get a proper sense of these places. Usually for a place like Hampi (because it’s also a UNESCO Heritage Site), it’s not fair that you only do offbeat stuff there. But along with that, you want to also show them the other things that Hampi has. So on our typical Hampi ride, one day is through the ruins (so we do the famous Vitthala temple), but then we do a little hike on that day. You have the Tungabhadra river, and we also ride along that canal and, so that is something different from what Hampi itself is known for, you know?
So on our tour you'll get to travel through the historical sites, but not with a guide who tell you all the stories of the place — they are great, but those stories can still be told without us. You don’t need me to curate that for you. So we try to make it a mix in all of these touristy destinations, and we mix it up so that people don’t feel like they went somewhere but didn't see what the place is really known for. We try to plan it so that people really feel like they got their money’s worth.
MM: Can you tell us a bit more about the tours coming up in the next few months? Which ones are you most excited for?
Oh my god, I’m excited about everything! This year we’ve launched something called the Call Of The Mountains — it’s basically a series of tours that we are doing in the Himalayas. It’ll have tours of Kashmir, Spiti, Zanskar, and then Manali to Leh. Apart from that we will do quite a few tours in Karnataka, we’re coming up with Nilgiris next, then we also have Coorg and Gokarna, and Hampi of course. In November we’re going to do a tour of Rajasthan, then in December we are planning to do Vietnam.
MM: How do you think about safety on a tour, and how do you prepare for it?
PB: Safety is always a big thing right, you’re travelling with strangers, and you’re going to be out there with them… If I was an outsider to this group, I'll always be thinking, are these people even genuine? Am I going to be safe? Who are these people?
So both Dheeraj and I put ourselves out there, we talk to all of our clients as soon as they book a tour. And the women, I always try to have a word with them. Even if I’m not going on that tour, I would have spoken to them, and I would have told them this is my husband, he’ll be on the tour, and they feel more safe at that time.
And the women, I always try to have a word with them. Even if I’m not going on that tour, I would have spoken to them, and I would have told them, this is my husband, he’ll be on the tour, and they feel more safe at that time.
It is not a conscious thing that we went about doing, but we’re very clear on certain things that we do on a tour. Simple things like, both Dheeraj and I don’t drink on the tour, except the last day (maybe), so that we are there, available, mentally and physically in the right state to help anybody. Then there are certain things that we don’t talk about, controversial things in terms of religion, politics — we try and evade these topics, because some people will not feel comfortable talking about it, and all of these add to the safety and the experience. We cut off people when conversations become toxic. People who have travelled with us, they see how the group dynamic works. What we have always wanted to do is build a community around touring, not just a company. So we have a community where you could call for help, and anybody would help — may not be only on a PiT ride, but those are the kinds of friendships and relationships that we always want to build. Hopefully, that creates a safe atmosphere.
And in terms of safety on the road, we try and keep the routes to the safest of places, and have local contacts along the way. There are some things are not always under our control. But what is under our control is how we handle the people on the tour; and we when there is something unacceptable happening, we make it very clear, we just say no. We’ve not had to do that many times, to be honest, and I think it’s simply because the community has come together that way.
MM: I also think there’s something about cycling, sweating with other people, being outdoors, it puts you in a very different vibe …
PB: Exactly! For example, just you and me, we’ve had such deep conversations … the kind of conversations we’ve had, it’s irrespective of the place we’ve come from — we’ve come from completely different places, different backgrounds, age groups, right, and we’ve been able to connect.
With cycling, our inhibitions are down, we have a very informal space, and I think nature has something to do with it, it’s very healing…Perhaps I’m getting very spiritual here, but it puts you in a place where your mind is free. So when you’re struggling, and you see someone else struggling up a hill, you know what the other person is going through, and you can bond over it very easily. It’s the same over anything hard that you do in the outdoors.
With cycling, our inhibitions are down, we have a very informal space, and I think nature has something to do with it, it’s very healing…Perhaps I’m getting very spiritual here, but it puts you in a place where your mind is free.
And when you cycle through villages, or anywhere really, people somehow feel that we’re very approachable. They’ll come talk to you, they’ll ask where you’re riding from, is this a race — not that we ever look like anybody who’s racing, but yeah. Suddenly language has no barrier. When they see you on a bicycle, and they’re ready to offer help, any which way, even if you don’t need it, they’ll offer you water, they’ll offer you food, and all that. It just opens up everybody’s heart, that’s what I feel.
MM: That’s a lovely note to end on! I’ve run out of questions for my interview, but if there’s anything else you want to add, something about cycle touring you would want people to know…
PB: Yeah, I’d like to add that cycle touring, it’s not so hard. When people want to join our rides they’re waiting for some company, they’re thinking “let my friend also come and join me, then I will go” — don’t do that! Just take the plunge, get there for a beginner ride, just join, and then you will know that this community is there to support you! It’s so easy to get into, it’s not as hard as it sounds, and it’s so much more fun than you’d expect.
You can learn more about Pedal in Tandem's upcoming experiences through their website or Instagram page.
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