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Originally Posted by ringoism we do have some moderately steep gradients on roads here, but not as much as some hill-stations, and I'm not doing trails at this point.
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Well, I guess now I'm doing trails... (that didn't take long)
Rode down with family to one of the forests in Manali vicinity. Two sections there - one evergreen, which is full of protruding rocks and a few strewn boulders and roots everywhere, most covered in either moss or a layer of pine needles:
...The other section deciduous, and currently carpeted and canopied in full color:
I'm sure I haven't had this much fun on a cycle since my adolescence, when I rode the hills of my home state on a (Raleigh) Rampar R11-XL (Reynolds 531) BMX bike. Took that one fearlessly over countless jumps (on occasion ridiculously high) and even on frozen streams. But I don't recall doing forest trails much. We typically walked / ran those. So even in my childhood I had missed out on the kind of entertainment I enjoyed today.
Why I had to wait till I was over 50 (when I've been here for years) is beyond me... But glad I've got back to enjoying riding now, and in the forest context, I can see how rock-hopping / stump-jumping can become addictive for some.
I'm no trials rider obviously, but the ACT108 Max seemed very much at home, very controlled and balanced... I was surprised what I was able to do as a not-very-young newbie.
I'd had two hangups about cycling in this region that kept me mostly off the Merida these several years I've owned it:
First is that in cycling on roads I felt the usual conditions of vehicular traffic/dust/pollution combined with the deep breathing of serious exertion was a very bad combination health-wise. And of course I'd wanted to do this for the sake of health more than anything.
Secondly, here in the hills you can often trek places nearly as fast as you can drive them. And much faster than you might be able to cycle them. As good as mountain/trail bikes may be, they cannot manage many of the types of narrow paths / inclines / obstacles you find on mountain trails around here. Trekking allows you to bypass switchbacks on roads in favor of the quicker, more vertical route.
So if it's gonna take me longer to get there, and I'm going to get a lot of unhelpful stuff lodged in my lungs by cycling vs. trekking it, I was inclined towards the latter.
Well, this pretty well solves the dilemma. Not that I'm really getting to any destination out there, but I'm having enough fun to make it an end in itself, I'm surrounded by natural beauty, and I'm breathing clean air. Win-win. Finally. Only wish I'd discovered this 15 years ago, but hey, better late than never!
I do credit this particular cycle for inspiring me to give this kind of riding a try... and am so grateful that I found it... without even looking for such a model or being aware of its existence.
As far as technicals go:
I did get a long aluminum seat-post for it - seems strong and light enough, set me back Rs.625.
The "Alpine" gearing Doc mentioned is probably not going to be required, though I may try it out of curiosity sometime. As it is, First is low enough for anything I encountered on-or-off-road so far. Never had to walk it. As my skills and aspirations increase and I tackle steeper inclines offroad it may be helpful, but as of now, it appears I would be traction (vs. torque) limited.
The front shockers do knock on full-extension under these conditions, so will have to open them this winter and see what can be done about that and also see if they've got replaceable bushes in the top to deal with the fore-aft play.
Brakes (160mm front and I guess 140mm rear) have settled in and are sufficiently powerful for anything I expect to want to do. This is not a high-speed machine.
The twister-shifters are good in terms of basic operation, strike me as pretty unbreakable under trail conditions, but I've got a lot of clunkiness in the rear changing that I need to look into. And for some reason this particular set works at variance with all others I've seen. Right side grip: gears advance when twisted TOWARDS the rider, Left side: they advance when twisted AWAY. It's not that I have them reversed L-R, as the number of detents are right... so this is a bit mysterious. Actually prefer the right one this way, because as I'm beginning to raise my body to stand and pedal up a steep incline, my hands naturally rotate forwards anyway. But would rather have the front gearset working the same - forward for lower gears, backwards for higher.
Never could grasp why all cycles seem to have the left and right changers functionally opposite... One side gearing up with the thumb, other side gearing down... and same with these twist-types. One gets used to it and there's probably some good reason for it that's beyond my current level of skill/understanding, but anyway, it seems naturally counter-intuitive and I might mod this towards my own preference... I also put the rear brake on the right handle as per non-Indian standard... I don't think anyone else will be riding this, and I won't be riding too many other cycles, so not worried about any confusion. And I suspect things will be moving this way anyhow, as higher-end stuff has, and Shimano sells their turnkey hydraulic sets only in this configuration.
I suppose at this point I've got no more than Rs 3-4,000 in this thing, it rides well, and if I ever go in for the full-polish (Wifey would prefer that, she's not too keen on dirty-looking old junk, just doesn't grasp the Mad Max thing!), it's gonna look like a million bucks!!!
-Eric