2011 Biking Rajasthan

By the time we reached Chittorgarh (above), I was having major problems with my bike. (This in addition to having broken off my back derailleur in Jaisalmer, which had had to be gerrymandered back onto the bike. In case you don’t know what a derailleur is… derailleur gears are a variable-ratio transmission system commonly used on bicycles, consisting of a chain, multiple sprockets of different sizes, and a mechanism to move the chain from one sprocket to another. Although referred to as gears in the bike world, these bicycle gears are technically sprockets since they drive or are driven by a chain, and are not driven by one another. Modern front and rear derailleurs typically consist of a moveable chain-guide that is operated remotely by a Bowden cable attached to a shifter mounted on the down tube, handlebar stem, or handlebar. When a rider operates the lever while pedalling, the change in cable tension moves the chain-guide from side to side, "derailing" the chain onto different sprockets… and yes, I just looked that up in Wikipedia!)

Between Udaipur and Chittorgarh I broke three spokes on my back wheel and developed a serious wobble on a now oval-shaped wheel. Replacing the spokes on my expensive and complicated bike proved almost impossible. We did manage in Chittorgarh to find a bike shop that actually sold bikes with gears – the first such shop in Rajasthan. They said they could replace my spokes and we left the bikes with them while we went to visit Chittorgarh’s fort. In the end they managed to replace only one spoke as neither they nor we had the specialty tool required to remove the gears and access the spokes on the gear side of the wheel. We subsequently discovered, having broken an additional three spokes, that the bike shop guys had in fact tried taking the gears apart and had lost some of my ball bearings, thus putting additional strain on the wheel, which, by the time we had done 30km to Bassi (above) and another 38km thereafter, was wobbling so badly it was rubbing against the bike frame!

We hitched, therefore, to Bundi (above), where an enterprising bike shop owner tried clipping spokes onto the wheel. These lasted me 75km before I broke six spokes and was in danger of total collapse. We hitched again to Kekri where we replaced the entire back wheel, reducing my number of gears from 24 to three.

We managed to cycle another 43km en route laid back Pushkar before my new back tyre gave up the ghost and we decided to call it quits. Pushkar is a Hindu pilgrimage town built around a lake which appeared when Brahma, the Hindu god of creation, dropped a lotus flower here. Over 400 temples serve 15,000 residents and countless tourists. We had a little giggle when we encountered a casually dressed Brahmin priest wearing a T-shirt that read “I would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven”. We were invited to visit a tent community where low caste families live under tough conditions. No water or electricity, but also no starvation. This particular community plays music at weddings for a living.

In nearby Ajmer we visited the second most holy Muslim site after Mecca. This was the only place in Rajasthan where we were seriously distressed by beggars (as opposed to being annoyed by beggars). When we stepped from the mosque into the street we encountered several men so horribly deformed they dragged themselves through the dirt on their bellies. Their deformities were remarkably similar and I could not help wondering if they were purposefully mutilated.

We visited also another Jain temple, this one comprising a double story hall and a golden diorama depicting the Jain concept of the ancient world. Astonishing wooden carvings plated in gold and precious stones, which took 20 people 30 years to construct.