A mall? and that too for cycles? especially at a time when there seems to be a mad rush to buy and be seen in the latest car in town? 😛
Well, yes… people are actually becoming more concious about the environment as well as the need to keep healthy and fit, and here’s where Pune’s (or is that India’s?) only cycle mall comes into the picture.
Called Lifecycle, the mall opened a couple of months ago and is located on Tilak Road near the Tata showroom (Pandit Automotive). Over the past few weeks, I’ve been using that road to commute from office to home, and having heard about this mall, I decided to have a dekko last week. The people behind this novel idea are Ulhas Joshi, founder of Zen Cycling, a cycling group, and Manish Sabade.
The concept itself is quite unique, as till now we always had cycle ‘stores’, typically upto 2,000 sq ft.  This mall however is huge at 6,000 sq ft and spread over three floors. The cycles are all premium brands and I found myself doing a double take at some of the prices. Mind you, one can buy a car – yes, a car – at the prices some brands seem to command. 😮
Admittedly, I’m not much into cycling at all and only three brands seemed to strike a chord with me – Firefox, Trek and Bianchi, and even those purely due to Twitter, where some people I interact with are / have become avid biking enthusiasts. Last year, I’d visited the Firefox store in Bangalore, located near The Forum Mall, purely to ogle at those bikes.
There are all kinds of bikes here from the regular road bikes to the MTBs (mountain terrain bikes). There is also a folding cycle, which I thought was quite a neat idea, as you can carry it along in the boot of your car.
There are a variety of accessories provided like helmets, air pumps, kiddie baskets, saddles, gloves, pedals, locks, grips etc etc and frankly, the sheer range of cycles and accessories left me quite dazzled, not to mention quite excited too, and I’m actually thinking of shrugging off my laziness and taking up cycling seriously now.
Whether I actually do so or not, only time will tell, but watch this space! I just might… 😉
PS: Sorry – no pics, forgot my cellphone in the car while parking. Maybe another time.
