Pune pedals hard to reach the first Lifecycle mall

Did you know that the ubiquitous bicycle can actually cost more than a Maruti-Suzuki car? Well, actually it can. A ‘Giant’ or ‘Bianchi’ mountain terrain bike (MTB) actually costs a whopping Rs2.5 lakh and is now available at ‘Lifecycle’ Pune, which could be India’s largest speciality cycle mall.

Spread over 6,000 sq feet, Lifecycle has three floors and is choc-a-bloc with at least 160 cycles from eight of the leading international brands, namely, Giant, Trek, Bianchi, Merida, Firefox, Cannodale, Rockrider, Schwinn and B-Twin.

Much of the excitement on day one at Lifecycle recently centred around the outright sale of two costly bikes, a Giant Anthem X 3 — for Rs95,500 — and a Trek Fuel Ex, for Rs91,000.

A business venture of cycling evangelist Ulhas Joshi, founder of Zen Cycling, and Manish Sabade, a city-based travel and tour entrepreneur, the venture, as claimed by the duo, is the largest mall of its kind in the country. “The largest cycle store so far is only 1,600 sq feet in size. Hence we are certainly the largest cycle mall in the country,” Joshi said.

According to him, cycling enthusiasts in Pune approached cycle dealers who procured only two or three foreign bikes. “Today, the cycling enthusiast can walk into our mall and choose from eight international brands,” he said.

The basic objective behind starting the mall was to popularise cycling as a sport and give an impetus to cycling as an adventure activity, said Sabade.

“We are keen to create a mass of cyclists in Pune, so that a pressure group is formed that can insist on good quality cycling tracks which could make cycling safer for all,” Joshi said.

Lifecycle had mooted the idea of an exclusive cycle park in the city. “Such parks have been created in cities like Hongkong and we can certainly look at it in Pune,” Joshi said.