Do you need gears for riding in Mysuru?
Single speed or seven speeds: how far you ride, the hills on your route and who is riding decide the answer.
Riding during Mysuru Dasara
Closed roads, illuminated streets and the procession day: how to get around the city by bicycle in festival week.
For ten days every autumn, Mysuru becomes one of the busiest cities in South India. The palace is lit with thousands of bulbs every evening, the main streets are decorated and illuminated, and visitors arrive by the busload. It is also, in our view, the best time to ride a bicycle in the city.
In the evenings, roads around the palace and Sayyaji Rao Road fill with cars and buses, and parking becomes almost impossible. A bicycle lets you move through the lit streets slowly, stop where you like and park close to the palace grounds. The lights usually come on around 7 pm. Ride with front and rear lights on and a bell; streets are full of pedestrians looking up rather than at the road.
On the day of the Jamboo Savari procession, many central roads are closed to all traffic from the morning, and police barricades go up along the route. Plan to arrive early and lock your bicycle well away from the route, in a residential side street. Do not try to ride through the crowds. After the procession, leaving on a bicycle is far quicker than waiting for a vehicle.
The festival also brings cycling events, and our Sunday ride during Dasara usually takes a longer route past the decorated streets before the city wakes. We stay open through the festival except on the procession day. If you are visiting from Bengaluru, our rental bicycles at ₹150 a day are a good way to see the illuminations without a car.
