[vinya_jag]

Had been planning this thread for a while now. All of this started around a year and a half back, when we started cycling, for fitness, and formed a small group. None of us knew much about cycling, not sure which cycle to buy, how much distance to ride, where all could we ride to etc. However, after a year and half of riding, and a few pandemic breaks in the middle, listing some of the most scenic and cycling friendly(unfriendly too) routes around Bangalore (North). Starting with our first

Hennur Bamboo Forest
Place: 5
Cycling inside: Allowed sometimes
Route: 3 (Via Hennur road)
Difficulty: 3 (Watch out for traffic on Hennur road)
Eateries around: None (Pack your food)
Notes: Google Map destination leads you to a dead end. Stay on the main road to reach your destination. Each season has a different colour to these trees. If you are lucky enough, you might spot a peacock or two.

Route:


Place:


Avalahalli Forest
Place: 5
Cycling inside: Allowed always
Route: 4 (Via Presidency school)
Difficulty: 2
Eateries around: None (Pack your food)
Notes: Best place around Bangalore for Cycling forest trails. Mountain Bike or Hybrids are preferable. However I have taken my road bike there. With a little difficulty and a little carrying around, you will be able to make the circuit of around 3-4 Kms within the forest itself.

Route:


Place:


Hesarghatta Lake
Place: 4
Cycling inside: Allowed always, Need to carry cycle and cross a couple of small gates
Route: 4 (Via Avalahalli)
Difficulty: 3.5
Eateries around: Darshinis a few kilometers away (Pack your food for the lake bed)
Notes: There are multiple routes to this place. Choose the Avalahalli route for easy access and fewer inclines and declines. Still a medium difficulty route with sparse traffic and scenic roads. You will find a lot of cyclists smiling at you along the way.

Route:


Place:


Hesarghatta Lake Via Rajanukunte
Place: 4
Cycling inside: As above
Route: 5+ (Via Rajanukunte and KMF)
Difficulty: 4 (Distance)
Eateries around: As above
Notes: Best road for cycling, or walking or anything. The KMF to Hesarghatta stretch is picturesque

Route:


Route Pics:


Devanahalli Fort
Place: 5
Cycling inside: Allowed. Need to carry cycle up a few steps to reach the fort wall
Route: 4.5
Difficulty: 3.5 (Cross winds)
Eateries around: Along the way, you will find a few
Notes: Airport road is a cake walk on any day, stay on the flyovers and you will have uninterrupted cycling for hours. Distance and cross winds while coming back make the ride tough.

Route:


Place:


Hennur bamboo forest and chokkanahalli forest Mandur bamboo forest
Place: 5
Cycling inside: ALlowed sometimes, but this route goes through Chokkanahalli forest
Route: 4.5 (Via Airport road, Razak Palya road)
Difficulty: 3
Eateries around: None
Notes: This is a circuit road, chosing the best of routes for cycling

Route:


Route Pics:

[vinya_jag]

Bettakote Amanikere (Airport lake)
Place: 3
Cycling inside: Sneak in
Route: 4 (Via Hennur road)
Difficulty: 4 (Watch out for traffic on Hennur road, distance)
Eateries around: None (Pack your food)
Notes: There are a couple of farms on the road towards Devanahalli. Sneak in, and nobody would complain. You get a good view of Flights taxiing.

Route:


Place:


Bhoganandeeshwara Nandi
Place: 5
Cycling inside: Yes, till the shoe stand
Route: 5
Difficulty: 5 (Distance. Early start is a must)
Eateries around: A few stalls around for water and other small things (Pack your food)
Notes: World heritage temple. We have gone here umpteen times, but only once while cycling. Hope the Kalyani door opens soon

Route:


Place:


Dodda Alada Mara
Place: 3
Cycling inside: No
Route: 2 (Distance, Narrow crowded roads, accent and descent)
Difficulty: 5+ (Health hazard)
Eateries around: Pack your food
Notes: Once a famous getaway from Bangalore. Not a cycling destination. Roads leading upto this place are terrible for cyclists. Specially Magadi road.

Route:


Place:


Hosakote lake
Place: 4
Route: 3 (Distance, Narrow crowded roads, accent and descent)
Difficulty: 3
Eateries around: Pack your food
Notes: Not much of a cycling route. Just another destination in a different route

Route:


Place:


Madhure
Place: 3
Route: 4 (Via Rajanukunte)
Difficulty: 4 (Distance
Eateries around: None (Pack your food)
Notes: Beautiful temple. Huge lake which had patches of water when we went there. Excellent cycling route

Route:

[vinya_jag]

Turahalli Forest
Place: 4
Cycling inside: No, Actually even walking is banned. We sneaked in
Route: 2 (For North Bangaloreans. Traffic, Honking, Accent and Descent)
Difficulty: 3
Eateries around: Pack your food
Notes: Most famous cyclist destination around Bangalore. Post Covid, the park got closed. There is very little of it left, with Apartments and shops crouching to gobble the whole forest. It suits walkers than Cyclists.

Route:


Place:


Avathi Lake
Place: 4
Route: 5
Difficulty: 4.5 (Distance)
Eateries around: Pack your food, You might find some fresh Fish
Notes: A small town after Nandi Upachar, a lake with a small hill as a backdrop. Temple atop the hill

Route:


Place:


Nandi Uphill
Place: 5
Route: 5
Difficulty: 5 (Ascent)
Eateries around: Yes
Notes: A pure 45 minute heart workout. Second half has +15% Inclines, specially around the curves. A must for all cyclists. An even tougher challenge could be to ride all the way from Bangalore to the top and back. This is for experts only.

Pics:


Airport Time trial
Place: -
Route: 5
Difficulty: 3
Eateries around: Yes
Notes: A regular route that you could use to train your heart. Go Solo. Try and hit the 30Kmph mark.

Pics:


Nandi Upachar
Place: -
Route: 5
Difficulty: 4 (Distance)
Eateries around: Best Masal Dose for your workout
Notes: Post pandemic, we have started to go to eatery destinations. Nandi Upachar, Taaza Tindi, Brahmin's Coffee Bar, Veena Stores, Vidharthi Bhavan.

Pics:

[chiyaanchinnu]

Thank you so much for taking time and compiling these destinations. I recently got my 2022 Marlin 6 delivered. Now I got some miles to cover

[zavegur]

Thanks for the post Vinya_jag , really great destinations that you have posted.

I used to frequent the Airport road from Hebbal and there is another route to airport through Hennur-Bagalur that I have grown fond of. In the later route, I skip the airport diversion and on to the Aerospace park and beyond, it takes you to the Hoskote highway. This route is scenic and has very very limited traffic, roads are good, some food spots (bakery) are around. I prefer this route for it being quiet on weekends, good tarmac. I ride a roadie.

The other one, which you have partly convered is the the ORR-Hoskote-Kolar; from my home this is a decent 130km return journey and its a great route to flex your roadie. Best route to hit 28+ average speeds easily, wide roads, has a few spots to eat as well, I have seen decent biker traffic in this route on weekends, the road traffic is also quite sane in comparison to the airport highway.

Thanks for your route options, I will definitely try a few.

-Z

[npawan29]

Amazing one, love this post, motivating, hope to pile on add one destination at the least.
thanks for sharing this.

[majumon]

Wow fantastic, thanks for covering so many places. I have a Trek 3700 and still enjoy every bit of the bike. You have picked a super bike which will be with you for years. So good of you to capture so many places. Keep riding. Which would you rate the best place of all, Turahalli is it? Did you miss out on GKVK.

[vinya_jag]

Originally Posted by zavegur

I used to frequent the Airport road from Hebbal and there is another route to airport through Hennur-Bagalur that I have grown fond of. In the later route, I skip the airport diversion and on to the Aerospace park and beyond, it takes you to the Hoskote highway. This route is scenic and has very very limited traffic, roads are good, some food spots (bakery) are around. I prefer this route for it being quiet on weekends, good tarmac. I ride a roadie.

The other one, which you have partly convered is the the ORR-Hoskote-Kolar; from my home this is a decent 130km return journey and its a great route to flex your roadie. Best route to hit 28+ average speeds easily, wide roads, has a few spots to eat as well, I have seen decent biker traffic in this route on weekends, the road traffic is also quite sane in comparison to the airport highway.

-Z

Can you please add your routes here? We will follow your routes from now on

Originally Posted by npawan29

Amazing one, love this post, motivating, hope to pile on add one destination at the least.
thanks for sharing this.

Please do. We are looking for more routes and destinations

Originally Posted by majumon

Wow fantastic, thanks for covering so many places. I have a Trek 3700 and still enjoy every bit of the bike. You have picked a super bike which will be with you for years. So good of you to capture so many places. Keep riding. Which would you rate the best place of all, Turahalli is it? Did you miss out on GKVK.

For offroading, Avalahalli is the best. It is big, and has a mix or terrain, leafy trails, hard rock trails, steep inclines, thorny bushes. Best of all, you could make your own trail. Personally, I don't like offroading, but my friends are looking for every opportunity. GKVK was closed since the pandemic, and a couple of weeks into riding, GKVK became our meeting point before we headed off, so yes, never taken our cycles inside. But yes, a really nice place to Cycle, inside the campus. Mango season is coming, love to grab a few dozens from here.

[shancz]

Excellent rides, pics and most importantly info.
I never knew about these places in/around Bangalore, Thanks
Subscribed will hopefully execute it someday if I am around.

Looking forward to more.
Ride On.

[Fillmore]

Very nice .
Appreciate your compiling the same

[Fillmore]

Adding for South Bangalore (there are many more )

Aagara Lake View Point (off Kanakpura Road)
Distance from JP Nagar : 16 KM
Difficulty: 2.5
Eateries around: None (Pack your food)
Notes: Good place around Bangalore South for Cycling Hybrids are preferable. Leave early because Kanakpura Rd can be painful as the traffic builds.
Going is a breeze because it is mostly slope, but returning is tougher.
However most of the road is well laid.
Location : Google Maps

Route


The Place

[majumon]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

Mango season is coming, love to grab a few dozens from here.

GKVK was our weekly routine and we used to find different trails nearly every time and never get bored. You must ride during April-May for a red carpet of Gulmohar flowers, am sure you would love to keep them as you screensaver. Mangoes and Jackfruit are round the corner, you can also pick your own mangoes straight from the tree and weigh and buy, it is an awesome experience.

[audioholic]

Excellent thread. Thanks for sharing these locations. I recently jumped the gun and got myself a basic Hercules MTB since I was missing cycling after returning from Germany. This had everything I need with a 24 gears, front suspension and disc brakes front and back. But the quality is nowhere compared to what I had in Germany. However I didn't want to spend too much on this. My intention was to cut use of my Dio and cycle around the neighborhood since my area has a good network of residential roads with almost no traffic which is safe. Apart from this I plan to use the cycle around my farms and native. But these locations also look attractive for a weekend dash. I plan to explore some areas in south Bangalore and post the same here. In Germany I was used to doing a 22km half or 46km full circuit around where I used to live every weekend or sometimes half a circuit during the week. But I wonder how much is possible here since in Germany most of the distance would be on cycling or walking tracks and we could do good speeds without much effort.

[vinya_jag]

Originally Posted by audioholic

But I wonder how much is possible here since in Germany most of the distance would be on cycling or walking tracks and we could do good speeds without much effort.

No cycling tracks here. The only place I saw a green patch was near the planetarium. But roads are relatively safe, I feel. One, due to our average speeds, two, other road users respect cyclists. I have seen this while crossing roads. 3/4 people seem to let cyclists go, and not compete.

Avoid highways that don’t have medians (like Magadi road). Avoid bad roads (Hennur and Thanisandra main roads were so bad in stretches during the pandemic, that riding on those stretches were irritating). Avoid dusty roads. Get onto country roads at the first chance

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

...

Originally Posted by Fillmore

Adding for South Bangalore (there are many more )
...

You guys have covered a decent number of options towards north and east. I'll add a few more more towards South and West Bangalore that I have already covered in another thread with photos and additional details

Thippagondanahalli Dam

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Route: JP Nagar - Outer Ring Road - Kengeri - Thippagondanahalli Dam - Manchanabele - Mysore highway - Kengeri - Outer Ring Road - JP Nagar

Manchanabele Dam

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Route: JP Nagar - Turahalli - Kengeri - Mysore highway - Manchanabele - Kengeri - Outer Ring Road - JP Nagar

Kelavarapalli Dam

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Route: JP Nagar - Silk board - Hosur - Kelavarapalli Dam - Bagalur - Sarjapur - Outer Ring Road - JP Nagar

Kanakapura highway & neighboring forest areas

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Route: JP Nagar - ORR - Harohalli - Kanakpura - Thattekere - Bannerghatta - JP Nagar

Outer Ring Road circle all around Bangalore city

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Route: JP Nagar - ORR - Marathalli - Tin Factory - Hebbal flyover - Yeswanthpur - Banashankari - Basavanagudi - JP Nagar

Dobbaspet

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Route: JP Nagar - Yeswanthpur - Nelamangala - Dobbaspet - (off) Tumkur