Limalenden Longkumer
Mokokchung | April 20
Mountain biking as a sport is gaining rapid popularity in India and here is a cycling club aiming to put this remote and unexplored Mokokchung on the country’s mountain-biking map. Trail Hounds Cycling Club, the first cycling club in Mokokchung was recently formed by a few like-minded young people to promote the sport of mountain-biking in the region. Through this adventure sport, the club also strives to promote preservation of environment as part of their “green initiative.” The club also aims to “mainstream this sport at the national and international levels,” and has big dreams that “perhaps one day our people would come up to represent Nagaland at the Olympics in Cycling.”
One uncommon promise the club makes is that it does not expect assistance from government agencies. “As far as possible we will try not to depend on the government,” says the man behind the club, Atoba Longkumer, a young mechanical engineering graduate and “a proud citizen of Mokokchung.” We have evolved past the concept of “welfare state” where people expect the government to do everything for them, according to him.
The idea of starting a cycling club in Mokokchung first struck his mind way back in 2013 while he was still in college after witnessing a cycle stunt show at IIT Guwahati but he shelved the idea owing to pressing academic priorities then. “After graduating, I came back home and saw the cycling revolution happening in Dimapur and Kohima which again prompted me to go ahead and form a club in Mokokchung. I discussed about my plans with my friends -Lipok Jamir, Wapangsunep, Bendangmeren and Moameren, and they were quite supportive of my vision. And together we formed the club,” narrates Atoba Longkumer on how the club came into being.
On being asked about the club’s future plans, Atoba replies, “We are humbly starting out as a very small organization so we plan to take one step at a time.” At the moment, the club’s first priority is to build up a strong social media presence so as to encourage more people to adopt cycling as a sport and also for health benefits.
“We believe social media is a very powerful tool through which we can send our message to the people to inspire them to take up cycling. With this in mind, we opened up our Facebook page earlier this year. And quite recently we have been receiving a lot of positive responses. Our followers shot up from 300 in March to 1000 plus in April.”
Once a strong base is build, the club plans to organize a first ever “Mokokchung Cross-country Mountain Bike Rally” if potential sponsors show interest. The club is also currently looking for local and national partners for the proposed event which, the club believes, would be an ideal marketing and philanthropic opportunity for corporate houses to showcase their products and services as well as promote fitness and community involvement.
Presently, there are eight members in the club whose average age is 24 years. Membership to the club is open to all but interested persons are required to own an MTB besides undergoing some registration paperwork. Parents’ assent is required for those below 16 years of age. The club became active during March of this year and has been going out for rides every weekend since. The club is also planning to observe World Environment Day on June 5.
Trail Hounds also tries to keep up with its professional image and offers consultancy and technical advice to interested persons, even in choosing one’s bikes depending on budget and utility. The one constraint that cyclists face in Mokokchung is the lack of bicycle showrooms or servicing centres in town. Trail Hounds has its own formula to solve this problem. “We at Trail Hounds provide all the servicing, repairs or bike upgrades for our members at the moment. Since the online shipping charges for bikes till Mokokchung are very costly, we ship bikes to Mokokchung at extremely cheap rates but only on order basis and we also assemble the bikes for our clients,” adds Atoba Longkumer.
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