When people lie snug in their beds enjoying the peaceful slumbers on a weekend, Jack Leenaars wakes up at six in the morning so that he could get on a bicycle for a ride in the lanes of old Delhi. And he is not alone! There is a whole group of cycling enthusiasts who accompany him on their bicycles. The tour around old Delhi in a bicycle, he says, is one of the most incredible ways to see the city.“I knew the roads as I used to drive my own car but then I started discovering the city on my bicycle. It’s different. The city presents itself in a different way. The smells, the feel, it’s all very different. It’s really intense,” says 34-year-old Leenaars.
You might say that bicycle rides would be the last thing you would like to go for, especially in the crowded metropolis cities of the country. But seems like there are already groups of people who enjoy doing that and do not mind shelling out money for that kind of street experience.
“The response has been really great. People I don’t know, even they have started sending me emails or make phone calls. Couple of people have come for the second and third time as well but mostly they tell their friends and relatives about their experience who also come to me,” he adds.
Leenaars who is a journalist by profession came to India eight years back from Holland as a south Asia correspondent of The Telegraph, the Netherlands. He says he always enjoyed cycling and three years back started cycling around in Delhi, mainly in the old Delhi area and Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi where he resides with his family.
“It was just me and I explored the city all by myself,” he says.
The tours are fun, adventurous, and unique and come for Rs 950 per person. But if one tries in a group of five one just has to pay Rs 650. It starts from New Delhi railway station, where the cycles are parked, at 8 o’ clock (in winters) in the morning. The summer timings are scheduled even earlier. The cycles are provided by Leenaars and are well-maintained.
It’ a three-hour tour and one also gets to see historical sites like the Red Fort and Jama Masjid.
Leenaars’ youngest member in the group is a 13-year-old and the oldest is a 76-year-old man from Holland. The average age group, though, is 20-30 years and includes both men and women. They go for the tours in the morning time due to several reasons. Firstly, because the traffic gets bad after 10.30-11.00 am and then it gets hot as the temperature rises. “The morning time is absolutely fabulous. Those coming for the ride have to report at 7.45 am, and 8 am sharp we leave, latest we are back by 11.00. We meet at the New Delhi railway station, “says Leenaars whose first commercial tour was in January this year.
“Earlier, there weren’t so many natives coming, now we have more and more Indians coming to me,” he adds.
While the journalist, who likes to write on international politics, always loved to go around places in his bicycle, it was only last year when he went to Bangkok on a holiday and met this person from Holland who conducted bicycle tours there, he thought of doing the same. “I really loved it and I realised that I could start the same thing in Delhi. So, I came back to Delhi and I took few months before I put it into action. I went for an old Delhi tour on bicycle with my friends and they liked it a lot. Later, I went to the bicycle market and bought five bicycles,” he says.
Leenaars started it on a small scale. He started it with friends, then friends of friends and then experts. He also used his network and his wife’s company CARDS 4 U to advertise and publicise the tours. And it’s working! He conducts the tours three to four times a week. In these tours they cross Kashmere Gate, go into GB Road, take a ride in the small lanes, end up at Fatehpuri road, spice market, and then Civil Lines.
“I believe in exploring the old Delhi area but I don’t really try out when I am with the bikers as there are chances of bumping into a block way which people don’t like. So, I do the exploring bit by myself,” he says.
Interesting as it may sound, it is also a great business opportunity and Leenaars approves of it as a business option. The response is good and people don’t mind shelling out few hundreds to become a part of such a rare experience.
“For sure, I can turn this into a good business and people are really enthusiastic. Right now I conduct these tours three to four days in a month but I plan to expand it from early September because by then the hot season would get over. I am planning to do two tours in old Delhi in a day and may be shift to New Delhi. If I can do it in old Delhi, I can do it in New Delhi as well,” says Leenaars.
And the best thing about this whole idea is that bicycle tours can be conducted in any part of the country and doesn’t need much of an investment. So, if you love cycling and would like to see your city on your bike, go ahead, conduct your own tours and rake some moolah as well!
