Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra Group, lauded Sudhir Bhave, a 75-year-old mechanical engineer from Vadodara, for his innovative spirit and dedication to fitness.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mahindra highlighted Bhave's remarkable journey into designing affordable elliptical bicycles in India, challenging the notion that entrepreneurship is solely for the young.
This wonderful story showed up in my inbox today.
July 18, 2024
I bow low to Sudhir Bhave's irrepressible creativity and energy.
Sudhir has demonstrated that inventiveness & a startup DNA in India is not only the prerogative of the young!
And if you want to use the workshop of our… pic.twitter.com/0Cp821pIyABhave, who retired after a 40-year career in the steel industry, drew inspiration during a visit to the USA in 2015-16, where he encountered an elliptical bicycle. Despite its benefits for exercise, Bhave found the imported models prohibitively expensive, prompting him to develop his own versions back home.
AdvertisementMahindra's post not only commended Bhave's ingenuity but also offered him access to the Vadodara factory workshop for further experimentation.
Utilising his expertise in mechanical engineering, Bhave created eight different elliptical bicycles specifically designed for exercise. He named each bicycle after family members and friends and regularly uses them himself to stay fit, as per the media platform DeshGujarat. Bhave relied on references from YouTube and his own experience to design these bicycles, using locally available parts for most components. He personally designed any parts that were not available locally.
He collaborates with friends to manufacture these unique parts and assemble the bicycles entirely in India. The process of creating one bicycle takes approximately three to four months due to the meticulous design and assembly involved. Each bicycle serves a specific exercise purpose, targeting either the upper body, lower body, or providing a full-body workout for the user.
AdvertisementBhave's creations include 'Shloki', a lightweight bicycle ideal for prosthetic knee users, and 'Arjun', which targets waist and pelvic organ exercises with a unique rear-wheel pedal design.
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