![]() | #1921 | |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: May 2013 Location: Pune
Posts: 47
Thanked: 14 Times
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![]() | #1922 | |
BHPian Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Delhi
Posts: 29
Thanked: 166 Times
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Got a Btwin helmet from Flipkart. Thankfully my riding going stronger every day. Am now riding 20kms + everyday. | |
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![]() | #1923 | |
Senior - BHPian ![]() Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Gurgaon
Posts: 5,952
Thanked: 4,488 Times
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![]() | #1924 |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: bangalore
Posts: 981
Thanked: 138 Times
| ![]() I am on the lookout for a good hybrid bike for occasional use. I have a Hercules ACT 110 which is not very comfortable on lonng distances . Is this is a good deal ?Need expert opinion http://bangalore.olx.in/scott-x50-hy...-iid-641646786 All new hybrids are upwards of ~33Ks |
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![]() | #1925 | |
BHPian Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Delhi
Posts: 29
Thanked: 166 Times
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Bought a helmet from Flipkart, so hopefully will be riding safe now. The cycling's goingt on well. Have put in 130 kms in 2 weeks and today's the first day I try and commute to office and back on the cycle. Have already come in... now it's only a matter of making it back! Safe riding everyone! | |
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![]() | #1926 | |
Distinguished - BHPian ![]() ![]() Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Bombay
Posts: 1,568
Thanked: 10,784 Times
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Well done. Trust you made it back home fine and biking in our horrendous traffic was not an issue. Keep posting. | |
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![]() | #1927 |
Distinguished - BHPian ![]() ![]() Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Coimbatore
Posts: 2,518
Thanked: 13,997 Times
| ![]() After riding an MTB (Trek 4300D) for four years, the last year and a half with slick tires, decided to upgrade to a road bike. A few factors that prompted that it was time to upgrade:
There were many decisions to be made in selecting the right road bike. Budget: I started with a budget of 40K. But a friend of mine, who is an avid rider, told me I should rather stick with the Trek 4300 than upgrading to a road bike at 40K. He asked me to either up the budget to at least 60K to 80K or save for a few more months before going for the upgrade. As waiting was not an option, decided to up the budget. Frame type: The same friend who told me to raise the budget, also suggested me to consider a full carbon frame bike as this will be very light and will absorb the vibrations from our rough roads. But I found that a decent carbon bike would cost upward of 1.5 lakhs. Also the affordable bikes came with low end components, compared to the alloy frames. So, I had to rule out a full carbon frame bike and decided to go with a bike with alloy frame and carbon fork. Fit: I first started my hunt looking for a frame with an endurance fit. But as I talked to many riders, I found that I could also go with regular fits and make them more comfortable with some tweaks like reducing the stem length, flipping the stem angle etc. Also, as 2014 Fuji Sportif comes with disc brakes which I wanted to avoid (owing to the problems I have faced with my Trek 4300D) Components: After reading many reviews decided to go with either Tiagra or 105 group set. With the above criteria, shortlisted the following models.
When choosing a road bike, the frame size is very important. Choose a bike with a wrong frame size, you are sure to end up hating biking. Though there are many online tools to choose the right bike frame, nothing beats a test ride. However, I could not find any dealer who had stock of road bikes to test ride. So, I had to make the choice based on the online tools. After checking out various online tools, found that I could use a 54 or 56 size frame (of course the fit between various frame sizes also changed between manufacturers). Luckily, there were a couple of riders in the group that were riding the Scott Speedster, one was riding a 54 and another a 56. Found 54 to be more comfortable. Also, found a Scott dealer who said he had a Speedster 50 in 54 frame size for a test ride and he himself was riding a 56 frame size. Went and did some decent test rides (2 to 3 km) on both the bikes and finalized the 54 size. With these test rides, I just dropped the others from the list. As Speedster 30 was available in 54, I went ahead and ordered that. This model also happened to be in a combination of white and blue, my preferred color choice. A few photos of the bike. Side view. ![]() Front three quarter view. ![]() The front crankset. Speedster comes with either a triple crankset with three cranks or the compact with two cranks. I went for the 50/34 compact crankset. ![]() The rear cassette, 12-30 ten speed. ![]() Rear deraileur. Super smooth and quick shifts. ![]() The saddle. ![]() The caliper brakes. They offer decent braking. This was more than enough during the descent in the hill roads of Vaalparai. ![]() Gifted myself this Garmin Edge 500 GPS computer with cadence/speed sensor and heart rate monitor. ![]() The speed/cadence sensor. ![]() On the advice of many cycling friends, I also decided to go for clipless pedals and shoes. Again there was a choice to make: SPD or SPD-SL. SPD is mostly used by mountain bikers, and SPD-SL is used mostly by road bikers. Both have their advantages. In the SPD touring shoes, the clip is flush with the surface of the sole, so that you can normally walk around (though the sole is a bit stiff). On the other hand, SPD-SL shoes have the clips protruding out and hence one has to walk on their heels. But they provide fantastic power transmission. As I like to get down from the bike and walk around or have that occasional snacks in road side eateries, I decided to go with SPD touring shoes sacrificing some power. Got these Northwave Fondo touring shoes. ![]() ![]() The SPD pedal from VP ![]() The fully loaded bike with two bottles, saddle bag and pump ready for the Vaalparai climb. ![]() I have done about 160km in 3 rides on this bike, and I am loving every km of the ride. My average speed has gone up by a few kmph. The riding group that used to disappear from my sight, now I am able to keep them in my sight (still could not keep up with them). The gear shifts are quick and smooth, the braking is very good and the bike rides and handles well. I also finished a mountain climb to Vaalparai which is an elevation of about 1300 meters with 40 hairpin bends. Though I took 5 hours to complete the ride (the fittest of the riders did it in a little less than 3 hours), I did manage to finish the ride. ![]() Need to work on the fitness level to get the most out of the bike! Last edited by graaja : 25th May 2014 at 13:23. |
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![]() | #1928 |
BHPian Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: bangalore
Posts: 192
Thanked: 158 Times
| ![]() Wow, that was inspiring and the scot looks lovely. Congrats on the new acquisition and may you enjoy miles of happiness every pedal. |
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![]() | #1929 |
Team-BHP Support ![]() ![]() | ![]() That is a very beautiful bike. Thanks a lot for sharing the pics and the story behind it. Wishing you a lot of super fast kms on this beauty. |
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![]() | #1930 | |
Distinguished - BHPian ![]() ![]() Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Coimbatore
Posts: 2,518
Thanked: 13,997 Times
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![]() | #1931 | |||
Distinguished - BHPian ![]() ![]() | ![]() Quote:
Congratulations on the bike purchase (again!). And thank you for that detailed analysis-research info you shared. Quote:
Either way doing such a great amount of inclination is really good! Now that is going to be an inspiration (or nagging at the back of my mind ![]() All the best and happy cycling! Quote:
![]() Btw owe a vote of thanks to you, @phamilyman and other fellow cyclists on this forum. It's been about 5-6 months since I have taken on this hobby - and successfully been able to convert it into a habit. It takes a bit of brotherhood or call it positive - competition or comparision or any other adjective; but being able to keep check with other riders and comparing how one fares relative to them helps egging one back to the grind. As I mentioned above, inclination is my bane (currently), I find it tough to do 200 mt inclinations (with a gradual increase of >5%). So your ride is going to become one of the benchmarks :-P Cycling was/is a fun thing to do for me. Half a decade back it was tennis, and cricket before that. Never looked at it from any other angle. But thankfully there was one side effect - weight loss; something one never complains about, no? Here's a bad 'Before/After' comparison - the right pic is about 9 months ago. Well if I want to add numbers to the pic, it's about 12 kgs difference. I hope to add 10 more to that in the 2nd part of the year! ![]() | |||
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![]() | #1932 | ||||||
Distinguished - BHPian ![]() ![]() Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Coimbatore
Posts: 2,518
Thanked: 13,997 Times
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Thank you for the vote confidence ![]() Quote:
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Also, it is good to ride occasionally with riders who are several notches above you. Till I met with the cycling group here in Coimbatore, I was doing just 30km rides regularly with 50k+ rides reserved for week ends. And I was only competing with myself using the data from Strava. But since I joined the group, my regular rides have become 50k+ and I have to push very hard to keep up with the group. Though I have not been successful yet in keeping up with the group, the amount of lag is reducing. Quote:
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![]() | #1933 |
BHPian Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Hindustan
Posts: 35
Thanked: 11 Times
| ![]() @graaja - Fantastic looking bike , congratulations to you, have personally experienced how road bikes fly compared to mtb's and considering your passion the same makes perfect sense Ok friends, did the unthinkable for me today, climbed sinhagad fort on my third attempt with my btwin rockrider 5.0. Started at 5:30 AM reached Sinhagad based at 7:00 AM and after 2 grueling hours of uphill cycling made it to the top Been around 1.5 months after i purchased this cycle and have been riding 110 - 120 kms over weekends. The experience has been simply amazing, and some of my friends have mentioned that i seem to be losing weight pretty quickly ![]() Overall i would say the decision to invest in a bicycle to be one of the best decisions i made on personal fitness |
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![]() | #1934 | ||
Distinguished - BHPian ![]() ![]() Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Coimbatore
Posts: 2,518
Thanked: 13,997 Times
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![]() Unlike cars, which are depreciating assets, an investment in a bicycle always provides a positive return (provided one rides it) in the form of health and fitness. Enjoy your biking and do share your experiences regularly. | ||
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![]() | #1935 | ||
BHPian ![]() Join Date: May 2013 Location: Pune
Posts: 47
Thanked: 14 Times
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![]() I did follow your feed on Strava and was amazed to see the total elevation gain of 1300 meters. It was jaw-dropping stat for me ![]() And congratulations on your new acquisition, hope it serves you well. I will also jump into the road-bike market next year. Will take a tip or two from you. Quote:
Where do you stay in pune? and what routes do you take for your weekend rides? I stay in Magarpatta and go to Khadakwasla, Alandi, Nagar roads alternatively. Any other route that you might suggest? Last edited by aah78 : 14th June 2014 at 22:10. Reason: Quote fixed. Posts merged. Please use QUOTE+ / " " MULTI-QUOTE when responding to multiple posts. Thanks! | ||
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