MTB
And it looks pretty swag!
What exactly is mountain biking? For most of us, a memory of cycling is in our childhoods. Probably epitomised by the 1993 cult classic Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. More so by the climax where an underdog Aamir Khan pedals for his life in epic slo-mo to beat the bad guys (which in bollywood means simply dressed in black).
Well, mountain biking is nothing like that. It simply involves navigating off-road mountain terrain. It requires technique and skill acquired by strenuous discipline. Cycle sports are huge in India. It's kinda like rock music, which has several sub-genres that have diversified into their own niche cultures. Recently several bike brands have entered Indian markets in a major way. Brands like Specialized began with a standalone showroom in Bangalore and have explanded to a showroom in Pune. India's sees about eight MTB events through the year and several more for road biking. Of all the MTB disciplines downhill (DH) and Cross-Country (XC) are the dominant disciplines in India, with the latter forming the majority.
India hosts several MTB races through the year which is evidence of the large talent pool presence. It's only natural it extends to a MTB park to hone a special skill set. Pedaler's Village in Guragaon is exactly that. It has a well crafted pump track designed for Indian talent. A pump track is continuous loop of rollers, berms and jumps allowing you to ride without pedalling.
This was the dream of 34 year old Mechanical Engineer Tarun Dagar from Delhi. We speak to him about why on earth would he want to build a MTB park in India.
How did the project come about?
Being a bicycling enthusiast from childhood days and working for bicycling companies for past decade, I was following bicycling culture and trends all around the world to stay connected and updated with the latest trends, technologies, innovations, events, riders etc. I found how these bike parks with pump tracks, dirt jumps started popping in US, Canada, Europe and all over in the West few years back and this got my attention. People were building them in their backyards. I realized how we have ample amount of talented riders in India, however there was no platform that professionally aid the need of training these riders hence the idea of building Pedalers Village - India's First MTB skills park shaped up. When we started building this facility we got much more clarity, and today we are engaging with right people and right projects to build the whole new ecosystem around biking which never existed in India. Its a very safe, healthy and amazing concept to learn how to use different terrain to your advantage while riding, learning to control bike over different technical features, body positioning while pumping, jumping, on berms etc. This is not only fun but taken as a full body workout.
What is your occupation?
I have a Computer aided design and engineering consultancy firm of my own which specializes in Bicycle and automobile design catering to the need of our clients spread globally.
What was your inspiration while designing this park?
Inspiration has been the youth of this country (India), their energy, never stop exploring nature. They are inspiring me and many others innovators to think out of the box and build something as unique and as raw as Pedalers Village for riders of all age, and all kinds. This generation expectations are high, and as we build facilities like these and other services we try to be at par their expectations.
How many people were involved? How much time did it take?
In the beginning I was alone and worked towards training labor and machines hired on daily wages basis. But as it progressed it became truly a global venture. A couple of my friends and some riders who came to ride here got involved with me. Anniesh Gupta started guiding us on building our Marketing and Promotional strategies by sitting in USA, Sandeep Dixit looked after Logistics and Administration, Cberrocal Pablo is our coach, while Shashank Moitra help us collate our digital content. Pedalers Village is our first layout and it took us around around 4 months to build the first layout. This being our first build we had our learning curve, we had challenges in building skills in labors, getting building material and machines, heavy rains, but as we went through all these it just evolved. We still are improvising it daily based on feedback from our riders and and our experience.
Will this be a paid park?
Yes it will be paid facility, besides these services for riders we are committed in identifying, training and providing support to all talented riders.
What challenges did you face while building this park?
Since Pedalers Village is India's first MTB skills park, we didn't had skill set in labors, material, tools and ideal machinery. Execution in middle of heavy rains was a challenge too, but I guess all this added to our experience and have made us skilled enough to build the facility much faster and effectively when we build it in our future projects.
Can you tell us some memorable stories from the journey so far?
This is truly a global venture in many ways. Imagining how we collaborated with few folks helping us remotely from USA, to reaching a point when we recently completed our first year of this facility on 15th June 2014. We invited riders and Invites were out on social media and to rider community for the evening event, preparations were done and just one hour before the event time its started raining heavy, the whole park was flooded with water and roads were flooded too, we thought this event is canceled. but then slowly people along with kids started coming to the park and said they still want to ride. Lots of riders also came in and no one cared about rains and water they just came and enjoyed riding. In the end it was all fun and joy and everyone went back happy and satisfied.
Another one that comes to my mind is about kids once they are here they just dont want to go back. There have been lots of kids here and when ever the parents ask them to pack up the little kids say "just a few laps more" this is what motivates me to get more and more kids here on this facility and provide them right training, channel and support.
