Team-BHP - The Bicycles thread

Hey Rough Square, that's pretty neat! It's good to see people take the initiative, instead of talking about how people buying the Tata Nano are going to spoil the environment. I mean if we are so genuinely concerned then the alternative is to cut down on pollution ourselves. After all we are using bigger vehicles that consume more fuel.

I too bought myself a cycle in March. It's called a Hercules Ryder ACT 104 (cycle jargon starting to become as complicated as car names). It's fun, and I have at times gone by cycle instead of by car during my customary evening visit to the beach which is about 6 km one way. It's an absolute pain at times driving on our roads and feel it could become easier if I fix a right-side rear view mirror :). Well seriously, when you are riding on the left side of the road and you have obstacles like pedestrians, canines, cows, non-existant roads as well as some vehicles of various shapes and sizes coming in the wrong direction (all this when you manage not to fall into an open drain), a right side mirror will help me determine how far to the right I can go without getting knocked out.

@Cyrus43, I love your bike dude, I actually was thinking of a road bike like that myself, how do you find it? Practical? I mean do you feel the thin tires give you a disadvantage at times on pothole-splattered roads? How much does it weigh?

And I hear in India too, there are quite a few people who have already started riding instead of driving to office, what with some pretty good bikes like Trek in the market now and also some inclusions like LED lights for the front and back!

Some interesting links:

Cycling in India:
BikesZone - Cycling :: Index

A nice blog on bicycles:
Bicycle Design

Hey RS,
Nice topic and a pretty good write-up. Have been thinking on how to save the fuel costs. A few things I thought off -
1) Take the car to office only when needed, at other times use Office
transport (This I understand can be difficult for people without office
transport)
2) Next time I take teh car out for errands, I have to make sure I have atleast 3-4 things to do. No point going on a trip just to accomplish one task
3) Drive economically (stupid: Not possible in the dog-eat-dog traffic)

Cheers!!

Even I had thought about cycling to office sometime back. Bangy climate also suits it ( better than other cities anyway ). But the utter disdain for cyclists from fellow motorists scares me. Be it an educated IT guy in a car or a truck driver.
One of the things we would need to do is to have dedicated cycle ways in roads and have it enforced strictly. Other is to create awareness about being kind to a fellow cyclist who is pedalling away in sun ( or rain ). If we as members of forum can be kind and considerate (dont honk/ dont cut lane), We can bring a change , atleast to a small percentage and hope that the behaviour catches on.

Me too thinking the same. I hope we can discuss vearious models available in this thread. I am unaware of present cycle market and models. Think Hero has some good models with gears/shocks. Recently heard of Firefox Bikes - join the trail! . For street use which one you suggest? I am looking for one in street/road/atb range with adequate gears.

Quote:

Originally Posted by santhosh_kumard (Post 854991)

Other is to create awareness about being kind to a fellow cyclist who is pedalling away in sun ( or rain ). If we as members of forum can be kind and considerate (dont honk/ dont cut lane), We can bring a change , atleast to a small percentage and hope that the behaviour catches on.

I always try to minimize the inconvenience and safety risks to cyclists, and most of the time the cyclist just act shocked because they are so used to being 'run-over' by all other traffic. Slowing for cyclists at intersection(s) does seem to annoy the traffic behind me, and they duly protest will loud horns, wild gesticulations et al.

The climate here in large parts of MP, Rajasthan, Haryana etc is not really suitable for cycling, particularly in summers. Seems like you can only cycle 3 months of the year. Also cycling is now seen as a "low-class" activity in some circles, and you can tell that only people who can't even afford a (seond-hand) motorbike use pedal power.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbelekar (Post 855018)

If you want a good cycle go for FireFox. Its a very light, great looking cycle with 21 (7X3) gears. It should cost you somewhere close to 16K.

Looking at their site, they appear good. But they have many models with gears starting from 4-5K. Refer the link I posted in my previous post. Just wanted to know more about their weight. Could you please tell me the model name by checking with your colleagues that they have got?

Its really good to see TBHPians talking about buying a cycle. But lets consider the other factors. How practical will this going to be? Can we cycle-down to office everyday? Now the question that comes to mind would be how far is our office from house? considering this, It may not sound very practical to use it on a daily basis. However, once or twice in a week would be really good for health also:D