Bike Shifting in Singasandra

Out along the Hosur Road side, a good number of buildings in Singasandra don't have a piped water supply, or not enough of one, and rely on water tankers. Several a day, for a big building. The arrangement is invisible to most residents until they need the lane.

A tanker filling a building's sump parks right outside the gate, often across most of the lane, with a hose running into the compound. It stays for twenty minutes to an hour. While it is there, nothing larger than a scooter gets past. When it leaves, it leaves behind a wet road, puddles from overflow, and mud where its wheels have churned the verge.

For a bike pickup, both matter. A carrier arriving while a tanker is filling can't reach your gate and waits, sometimes behind a second tanker for the next building. A bike pushed from the gate to the carrier across a freshly wet, muddy stretch is a bike that can slip, and a crew member's shoes slip too. The bike also picks up mud on its tyres and underside, which gets into the carrier's straps.

So find out the tanker times. The building's watchman or the society office will know exactly when tankers come, because someone has to be there to let them in and check the sump. Most buildings have a pattern: early morning, mid morning, late afternoon. Neighbouring buildings have their own patterns on the same lane.

Book the bike's pickup in a gap, ideally an hour after the last tanker has left, so the road has dried a little. Ask the watchman to tell the tanker driver that a carrier is coming at that time, in case the schedule slips.

In the monsoon, tankers come less often, but the road is wet anyway; the advice is the same about pushing carefully.

At the new building, if it is also tanker supplied, ask about its times too.

Ask the neighbours when the tankers usually come. On many lanes they arrive at roughly the same time each morning and evening, and a building's watchman will know the pattern. A pickup set for the dry gap between deliveries means the bike is pushed out over a firm surface instead of a slick one, and the crew can lay it down on the ramp without mud under their shoes. If a tanker turns up anyway, wait. Ten minutes for the water to drain is cheaper than a scraped panel. A crew in no hurry is also less likely to slip carrying the boxes past the same puddle, so the wait protects the household goods as well as the bike.

Keep a rag and a bucket of clean water near the bike on the day. Muddy tyres carried into the truck leave a film on the floor and on anything stacked beside them, and a quick wipe at the foot of the ramp prevents that. If the lane has a stretch that stays wet, ask the crew to carry the front of a light scooter across it rather than roll it through.

At the new place, look at the drainage before you choose a parking spot. A corner that floods every time the tank overflows will bring the same problem back within a week.

Our Singasandra packers page explains how tanker water affects a household move. Here we deal with the bike parked on that same lane.

Water and electrics need care. An electric scooter pushed through standing water from a tanker overflow should be wiped dry around the motor and connectors before loading. Mention who made the scooter and its battery type when you book.