Rock Lizards are on Haber Türk Ankara Newspaper

For last thursday, as soon as we heard the announcement of Thursday Night Cyclists (Perşembe Akşamı Bisikletçileri-PAB) for a cycle with a theme; we quickly decided to participate. The theme: make a cycling tour with elegant dresses, and in the center of Ankara! It is a perfect opportunity to both show other people that bicycle can be used under any condition and create some awareness. Moreover, it is perfect fun to do this with 100 people sharing the same idea!

We quickly started preparations. As we were trying to decide what to do, Deniz arranged beige vests that will look stylish on our elegant dresses. We completed team uniforms with the print of a big Lizard logo and web address on the back of the vests.

When we met in Güvenpark on 8 p.m., all cyclists had already gathered in anxiety. We also joined the crowd. We quickly found ourselves talking to guys in the group of almost 100; telling about Rock Lizards, that we all work in the offices but we are struggling to achieve something; how we want to encourage people who are not involved in sports and outdoor activities and so on. All the people we talked to listened to us with a great interest and encouraged us. All those guys are people that already share the same idea. Friends from the media organizations also followed the group with their bikes, showed great interest to Rock Lizards, taking photos and making interviews.

And the snapshot above is a photograph on the cover of Haber Türk Ankara on 16th of June, taken after an interview.
Moreover, the news on PAB activity with an information on our team on Bisiklet Haber can be reached from this link .

When we arrived at the last stop, Kuğulu Park, we gathered around the tables. Together with the new participants, we introduced the team and talked about our vision. We were witnessing how a group of people in a harmony could be so successful to spread out the culture of cycling. And here, we want to repeat:

Dear Thursday Night Cyclists! We know that we can do so many things together as a group and we are supporting you all. We, Rock Lizards will be together again with you! See you on thursday nights!

By the way, Rock Lizards had many photos in the news of Bisiklet Haber. Also, there is a video including a short interview with Mert on the bike. The following are some of the photos and the links of the others. We want to thank Bisiklet Haber for the photos. The links are below:

Rock Lizards are together with PAB

We are introducing ourselves on the last stop

Team clothes

During the ride

And the links for these and other photos:

Rock Lizard Clothes                           Kertenkeleler Arkadan

During the Ride                                    Sürüş Sırasında

Mert on the Bike                                     Ateş Bisiklette

Banu on the Bike                                     Sırayla Sürüyoruz

Mert and Ateş during photo taking             Kızlar fotoğraf çekiliyor

The guys are posing                  Konuşma sırasında

Our experiences in Eymir confirmed our mistrust in our old bikes. We had to find an urgent solution to this problem. After breakfast we went to Delta Bicycles (yes we still had to work to do). We had worked on a list of bicycles and bicycle parts a few days earlier, but with proffessional and constructive help from the Delta Bicycles crew our list turned into something completely different. During our interaction with Delta Bicycles, we had the opportunity to introduce our team and the race that we were going to participate. They were really enthusiastic about our team and the race. They were really helpful and gave us ideas concerning the race. We chatted about past and future projects (we all have many, don’t we). We learned that they had carried a bike to the top of Mount Ararat, and were jealous of them. You can click here or here. We told them that we would love to participate in future activities. After a two hour meeting we believe that our team and Delta Bicycles have formed a bond of friendship and support.

We went home, but our minds were on the bikes. Were at Delta Bicycles early in the morning. Our bikes were reserved and the first checks of the bikes were in order.

Our new Correatech bikes

Our new bikes need some introduction. Corratec X-Vert S 0.4. We had some experience riding a X-Vert Halcon and the ZZYZX MTB 660 handlebar was really comfortable. Cannondale’s Trail SL 1 was an alternative. At last we decided on the X-Vert S 0.4 with the help of the Delta Bicycles crew. A detailed bicycle review will be posted shortly.

New shiny chain on our new bikes

We loaded the bikes into the car, went to campus. Even though we had lots of work to do we could not resist the urge to go on a ride. We should have known that it was not possible to go on a “short trip”. We found ourselves in Yalıncak, going uphill through a path known as Bugi Bugi. Normally we would be hard pressed going up due to balance and terrain conditions, but this time -with the help of our new bikes- we went up with comfort and joy. After the ride we left our bikes at the office and went home.

Start of a new week, Monday morning. We left the house for office with our old bikes. It was kind of an emotional ride because I was riding my 18 year old bike Bianchi Meta for the last time. At noon we got on our new bikes, and went to Yalıncak even though it was really hot. We settled at a calm place in the shade, got our food out and spent some time reading and relaxing. Just what we needed to get rid of Monday blues.

Ateş came to the campus just when it was beginning to get dark. We went on a trail running workout, which we have been postponing for some time. There were losts of steep and long uphill trails in our workout. We ran through trails that we never have passed before, and was surprised by the nature of Yalıncak once again. We watched the sunset while we ran..

Lunch break in Yalıncak