My cycling trainings were doing really bad after the initial couple of months on my new Schwinn Sporterra with a good 475km in total from them which was much higher than what I could do on my Hercules Arrow.
A couple of things slowed me down, first I started to ride much higher distance through villages in the outskirts of Bangalore with no backup measures such as a portable pump and flat repair kits. One day I had a series of flats on my return after which I lost the courage to ride far without such backup measures, I would says these were mere mental blocks.
After I did my first half century ride, I was highly confident of my improvements in fitness and I was looking for more, but on a day’s short ride I happened to witness a fatal road accident involving a Honda Activa and a truck carrying sand load, a lady on her way to work lost her life on the spot. This incident shook me a lot and I took a while to get out of my fear for roads. It was not many days later I started for a morning ride a bit late and happened to have a weird crash on a busy road. I was trying to take a tur while using my right hand for signalling, my front brake which was on the left hand side somehow got pressed hard and I had a somersault upon a front wheel lock. I jumped out of my bike and avoided falling on the road head on. There were minor scratches on my hand and knees else I avoided something which could have been worse. This totally had a toll on my monthly mileages.
My problem was that my work hours stretched till late night and was never a morning person. Riding outdoors beyond 7:30 am posed a big challenge, I was looking for ways to get back to cycling.
In the month of November 2012, I got an opportunity to be in California on an official visit for a week’s time. I took this opportunity to buy and bring a cycling trainer home. After spending time researching for various types of trainers, their advantages and disadvantages, I stumbled upon on Kurt Kinetic Road Machine trainer, the cost was of course another factor to consider.
The trainer did cost me 350$ from Amazon.com and I am so far happy with my purchase. Along with the trainer I bought a few more stuff and enabled myself fully in my quest to find fitness through cycling.