[graaja]

Originally Posted by ventoman

...
I recently started interacting with few riding groups and planning to join them for longer rides apart from the work commute. Additionally smitten by the road bike upgrade on seeing few overtake me with ease. I started hunting around and not sure whether to go for a proper road bike (concerns over bad roads all along my work commute) or an endurance bike (learnt about these over last few days) or a slicker Hybrid.

Hi Ventoman,

Sorry for the delay in response. As I was on vacation, could not respond.

If you have poor roads in your commute route, then a road bike may not be suitable for your commute. It would be better to stick with a hybrid bike for commutes, or replace the knobby tires in your MTB with city slicks and convert it to a commuter bike. This will increase your speed on the commutes.

I don't think you can have the best of both worlds with a single bike. If you also want to join group rides and keep up with the roadies, then it is better to get a road bike for such rides and keep the hybrid or converted MTB for commutes.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by varunanb

Very early in my life have been attracted to fat and bigger tyres be it motorbike or car. So the fat bike is tempting. Maybe some day I’ll add this to my set of wheels.

Have fun with it.

The LA Sovereign FatTire Bike is very good fun.
I just got in from my morning chukka.
Love riding it in the early mornings when there is no traffic. And I love the quiet lanes of my neighbourhood to circle about in.

One thing I’m just not able to get - with all these advances in technology, why is it that the old and relatively simple Dynamo powered headlamps and tail lamps do not seem to be available at all? All that one is able to get nowadays is this rechargeable type lamp with an USB charger.
I think the old Dynamo powered lamps were so much more intelligent and so much classier, considering that they simply put one’s self generated Kinetic Energy to work in an useful manner!

[ventoman]

Originally Posted by graaja

..
If you have poor roads in your commute route, then a road bike may not be suitable for your commute. It would be better to stick with a hybrid bike for commutes, or replace the knobby tires in your MTB with city slicks and convert it to a commuter bike. This will increase your speed on the commutes.

I don't think you can have the best of both worlds with a single bike. If you also want to join group rides and keep up with the roadies, then it is better to get a road bike for such rides and keep the hybrid or converted MTB for commutes.

Thanks Ganesh. I've come to the similar conclusion after speaking to few other experts and bike outlets. For now, I'm planning to swap my MTB with a Hybrid such as trek fx sport 4 for commute as well as initial few long rides. I'll decide on adding another roadie if the long rides gets frequent.

Requesting experts here to please opine on the trek or suggest any other hybrids around this budget (70k).

[Samurai]

I have a bit unusual requirement for a bicycle.

My second son is autistic and his therapy center has asked for a bicycle for him, using which they plan to teach him to ride. It is part of his therapy, this cycle will never go on the street. It will be mainly used within gated area, or a playground. It is to get him used to the concept of balancing, so we don't want training wheels.

He is about 12 years and almost 5ft tall. What is a good bicycle for him? We don't want expensive brands considering the kind of usage.

[sdp1975]

Originally Posted by Samurai

He is about 12 years and almost 5ft tall. What is a good bicycle for him? We don't want expensive brands considering the kind of usage.

You can consider Decathlon's My Bike for 4.5K or the Riverside 50 for 7K. For his height , a small size will do. These two are steel framed gearless cycles , a little heavy but sturdy.

https://www.decathlon.in/15107-bikes

[shankar.balan]

Just putting out a couple of sketches of Le Velo, done on my iPad Pro with iPad Pencil.
Just for “Yenjai” as they say hereabouts...

[svpdgod]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Thanks I will check them out.

Has anyone heard of XMR helmets? I saw one in Matt black at Track n Trail. Looked really good. Was retailing for 999.

Bought one XMR Volcano medium sized helmet recently.
Checked the size at a local store.
Bought at a good price online.
I am bald, so comfort / softness is is critical for me - this helmet was the best in terms of comfort, at it's price point.

Originally Posted by ventoman

Hi Ganesh and all,
I've a request similar to that of Amitwlele, except mine's for Bangalore. To introduce my situation, I accidentally resumed cycling (after a gap of about 20+ years) around 4 years back when I and a friend walked out of Decathlon with RockRider 5.3 MTB. I had no idea of road, hybrid and mtb when this happened. Since then I started cycling to work once or twice a week. Its a considerable stretch of around 21kms one way in about 1 hour, with 60% bad roads and potholes, fair mix of up and downhill on both ways. This has now become a norm and I've covered about 6k kms which is not much when compared to most of you here, but I've just been riding to work 1/2 a week.

I recently started interacting with few riding groups and planning to join them for longer rides apart from the work commute. Additionally smitten by the road bike upgrade on seeing few overtake me with ease. I started hunting around and not sure whether to go for a proper road bike (concerns over bad roads all along my work commute) or an endurance bike (learnt about these over last few days) or a slicker Hybrid.
Appreciate any inputs on this.

PS: I'm 41 years old, 178cms tall and weigh about 78kgs. I generally average around 17-20kmph on rides so far.

With those stats (both your ride and yourself), you are my twin !
I used an MTB initially, then moved to a hybrid and now use a road bike.
Bad roads mean a road bike is out of question (there are road bikes which can take the bad roads too but I can't afford them).
If I were you, I would go with a slicker hybrid.

Originally Posted by ebonho

Thanks for those great inputs guys. I'm sure the drop bar on my roadie will be all you guys claim it to be. But I'm currently still fixated on my flat bar hybrid.

I'm a bit confused with one part of your post Prabuddha.

Where you say a flat bar with bar end extenders will possibly have more positions than the bullhorn bar?

Shouldn't they be exactly the same, just that the bullhorn is a single piece?

You can change the tilt of the horns by rotating the bar on the stem clamp. On the flat bar you can do the same. Or you can adjust each barend angle individually as well.

I guess the big advantage I saw in the bullhorn bars I saw recently in Geneva was the curved corners. Those would be more comfortable to rest the base of your palms on - against the pad of the thumb ... As the thumb either hooked around the outside or the inside of the horn (that's actually two different hand positions, with subtle difference in pressure points).

In the flat bar with bar end extenders, that's my go to cruising position, as I have my bar set quite low, as the frame is small, and it gives me a good driving aero position (at least, my body has adapted to it). Only thing is, the sharp round end of the bar, and the overlapping clamping ring of the bar end provide a sharp edge which bites into the flesh if the palm over distance, even with padded gloves.

I've found a workaround which is a foam tube cover over the bar ends, which I've cut at the ends of the clamps so that they can slide over and under it and give some extra cushioning.

Another option I've not yet tried is taping around that sharp corner edge. Though I've been told that drop bar bartape will just get cut there.

Hope you guys get what I'm describing without a specific foto to point out the exact offending region.

Cheers, Doc

P.S. I prefer narrower bars too Graaja. My urban bar on the ACT has barely an inch of unused space on either side after barends, grips, brake/shifter, computer/light, and center clamp. As a result of which the default hand position described above is more comfortable for longer, than the hands straight on top of the actual grips (I use that only as a change relief).

Ever since I moved to a road bike (June 2018), my observations are as follows :
1. The Bull horns on my drop bars provide phenomenal improvement in
control on steering; if you want a figure, I would say 3X of my hybrid.
2. The bull horns feel like a couple of machine guns in your hands ( , ready to fire away. very confidence inspiring.n
3. Your hands never slip off, due to the shape of the horns.
4. Biggest advantage : the brifters - With no change in hand position, you can brake and shift gears - very useful in traffic.

[ventoman]

Originally Posted by svpdgod

...

With those stats (both your ride and yourself), you are my twin !
I used an MTB initially, then moved to a hybrid and now use a road bike.
Bad roads mean a road bike is out of question (there are road bikes which can take the bad roads too but I can't afford them).
If I were you, I would go with a slicker hybrid.
..

Wow. That's nice to know on the similarity.
Yes, I'm hunting for a slick hybrid and so far shortlisted Trek FX Sport 4.

[eyesice]

Anybody has experience with Scolarian bikes - https://www.scolarian.com/

Seems to be a passionate bunch who make home grown fixies / single speed bikes with Chromoly 4130. All bikes are sub 10 kilos, components seem to be good. I wanted to give a try as I would be visiting Coimbatore sometime later this month.

My love for SS / Fixies are growing ever since I rode one 3 months ago. If someone has come across this brand, can you provide your inputs?

[Iyencar]

Originally Posted by eyesice

Anybody has experience with Scolarian bikes - https://www.scolarian.com/

Their prices seem really expensive. IMO you can just buy a cheap Hero Hawk (https://www.amazon.in/Hero-Nuage-Sin...owViewpoints=1) and change/add the components you want to get a similar/better bike for cheaper.

[eyesice]

Originally Posted by Iyencar

Their prices seem really expensive. IMO you can just buy a cheap Hero Hawk (https://www.amazon.in/Hero-Nuage-Sin...owViewpoints=1) and change/add the components you want to get a similar/better bike for cheaper.

I think they are reasonably priced considering that the frame is double butted chromoly ( foreign brands are upwards of 35k just for the frames alone) and the other components.

The Hero Hawk is an old school steel cycle which is too heavy.

[graaja]

I have been trying to improve my cycling power to get better timing in triathlon events. Only way to improve power is by structured workouts like intervals or sustaining various power levels for a set duration or distance.

But I do not have roads nearby for this type of training. All roads that I have access to pass through villages with speed breakers, broken roads, pedestrians, dogs etc. so that it is very difficult to maintain consistent power during the rides. Because of this, performance gains are very slow to come.

Recently came across some YouTube videos where lots of athletes use indoor trainers to achieve consistent training. I have started experimenting with an indoor trainer and Zwift, a virtual training app.

The setup requires a computer running the Zwift app ($15 a month subscription), optional connection to a television, a ANT+ USB dongle that connects to the speed/cadence sensor in the bike and the heart rate monitor, and an indoor trainer (borrowd the Btwin Inride 300 trainer from a friend).



In Zwift, we can select various courses that have different elevation profiles (flat, hilly etc). Zwift reads the speed information from the bike's speed sensor, calculates power for the particular trainer and calculates the equivalent speed on the virtual course. For example, you may be riding on the trainer at 30kph. But on the virtual course, if there is a hill, the actual speed on the virtual course would be say 15kph. Similarly, you could be doing 30kph on the trainer, but on the virtual course, you could be doing 70kph downhill.



We can link Zwift and Strava accounts so that Zwift rides automatically get uploaded to Strava.



I have done 2 rides so far and found them to give a much intense workout than riding on road. I will still be doing regular rides on road so that I do not forget road riding skills.

Any Zwift users here? Please share details of your setup. That would help a lot.

[Ithaca]

Originally Posted by graaja

I have been trying to improve my cycling power to get better timing in triathlon events.

I love to see your commitment to cycling. The set up looks great.

OT.
I love your home theater rig.
Could you provide details of the same in home theater thread.
The thread is linked below.
Thanks in advance.

Home Theater Thread

[yogi1771]

Have been using Zwift from the time it was free but not that regularly, the setup I have is with a smart trainer now (Tacx Neo) earlier had a similar setup as yours (dumb trainer).

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by graaja

I have done 2 rides so far and found them to give a much intense workout than riding on road. I will still be doing regular rides on road so that I do not forget road riding skills.

Any Zwift users here? Please share details of your setup. That would help a lot.

Well I guess you never coast so that makes it much more intense. I personally love the flexibility it brings. You can do specifically structured workouts, ride anytime not only early morning, not subject to rain and finally protected from reckless traffic on our roads.

I use Zwift with my wahoo kickr snap smart trainer. I sometimes also use the native wahoo app. 90-95% of my rides would be indoors i think.

Attaching a few pics of my set up and some from a few recent rides.