[nemesis86]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Pune cyclist folks,
If you have time to spare this Saturday, do join in for the event being organized by GIANT - ride to Mulshi.

The plan is as of such
- Leave at 5.30 from RTO junction towards Mulshi (~50 km ride)
- Reach by 10 (max) and have breakfast at the lake
- Setup tents at Paradise Resort and indulge in water sports/trekking/short rides during the day
- Night camping etc
- Next day morning ride back to Pune (~50kms)

There is a fee, but overall I consider it to be menial for what is being organized. The only call is to consider keeping Saturday free for the event.

Event Link

P.s. No affiliations with Giant cycles. Just that I'm going, and it'd be great to have fellow bhpians

P.s.s. There's also the 200km night BRM happening this weekend (Link). Now THAT, would be really worth it

Ah! That's too late for me to know. Would have loved to join had i not made any other commitments for the day. Anyways I am off to Alandi ride tomorrow morning.

[maverick1741]

Originally Posted by Hayek

One more piece of unsolicited advice - do get and use a helmet. With cycling, it's a matter of when and not if you will ever fall, and a helmet can make all the difference.

Got a Btwin helmet from Flipkart.

Thankfully my riding going stronger every day. Am now riding 20kms + everyday.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Thank you. Some of the info was really quite useful, appreciate you taking the effort to put up such a detailed post.

Btw one of the feedback point I got from a experienced biker is it might be more ideal to go for high end hybrid than a race bike to avoid the chances of back pain issues. Although I found it weird he gave this advice, even when he recently upgraded to a high end racing bike, would be interested to hear other views.

It's a myth. Yes road bikes have more aggressive fit but you can dial it down a fair bit.. That's enough for most people without a critical back pain issue. I have three slipped discs and have a regular fit.

[ms001]

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

[maverick1741]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Congrats on your new acquisition and welcome to the T BHP bikers club. Do try and keep up the effort.

One more piece of unsolicited advice - do get and use a helmet. With cycling, it's a matter of when and not if you will ever fall, and a helmet can make all the difference.

Thanks Man...
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!

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by maverick1741

Bought a helmet from Flipkart, so hopefully will be riding safe now. 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!

Well done. Trust you made it back home fine and biking in our horrendous traffic was not an issue. Keep posting.

[graaja]

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:

• The first few years of riding the bike with stock knobby tires, I could do an average speed of just 18 or 19kmph and rides of 20km to 30km on an average. Changed to slicks and the average improved to around 22kmph (sometimes 23kmph) and the regular distance increased to 30km to 40km. Any increase in speed required a road bike.
• I recently started riding with a cycling group here in Coimbatore. Most of the riders ride a road bike and used to disappear from my sight in no time.
• I attempted a mountain ride to Kothagiri hills and dropped midway. Though this was in part due to a jammed disc brake, it is still doubtful if I would have finished the ride without this problem.

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.

• Fuji Roubaix 1.3
• Scott Speedster 20 or 30
• Trek 1.5c
• KHS Flite 500

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!

[majumon]

Wow, that was inspiring and the scot looks lovely. Congrats on the new acquisition and may you enjoy miles of happiness every pedal.

[bblost]

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.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by majumon

Wow, that was inspiring and the scott looks lovely. Congrats on the new acquisition and may you enjoy miles of happiness every pedal.

Originally Posted by bblost

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.

Thank you very much for the kind wishes, guys! Hope to do a 200BRM in a few months.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by graaja

The fully loaded bike with two bottles, saddle bag and pump ready for the Vaalparai climb.
Attachment 1243855

That is one beautiful bike!

Congratulations on the bike purchase (again!). And thank you for that detailed analysis-research info you shared.

Originally Posted by graaja

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.

Attachment 1243860

WOWOW! That is an amazing ride. Hills are the key (or bane for guys like me :P ) for hard core cyclists - they swear by the heights they have conquered. Did you practice on such inclines regularly on your Trek or was this something of a first attempt?

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 ) for me sure!

All the best and happy cycling!

Originally Posted by graaja

Thank you very much for the kind wishes, guys! Hope to do a 200BRM in a few months.

I think you'll be doing that within a month if you ask me


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!

[graaja]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

That is one beautiful bike! Congratulations on the bike purchase (again!). And thank you for that detailed analysis-research info you shared.

Thank you Ninja, for the wishes and kind words.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

WOWOW! That is an amazing ride. Hills are the key (or bane for guys like me :P ) for hard core cyclists - they swear by the heights they have conquered. Did you practice on such inclines regularly on your Trek or was this something of a first attempt?

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 ) for me sure!

Yes. Conquering heights definitely gives a sense of achievement! I have not been able to practice on inclines as my regular routes do not have these type of grades. My first attempt was to climb Kothagiri last month, but I had to abort mid way as the hydraulic brakes in my Trek jammed. This was the second attempt and took me 5 hours to complete. Many times during the ride, I thought about giving up and returning back, but just kept pushing. That feeling when I crossed the finish line was simply awesome!! Hope to do more such climbs.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

I think you'll be doing that within a month if you ask me

Thank you for the vote confidence Actually there is a 200BRM coming up on 1st September which I plan to take part. Need to prepare a lot to improve the fitness and stamina levels before that.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Btw owe a vote of thanks to you, @phamilyman and other fellow cyclists on this forum.

You are most welcome. I am really glad that I could be of help. For me too, this thread has given lots of inspiration.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

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.

You are absolutely right there. Only when we start comparing the performance and achievements of other riders, we set ourselves higher goals and thrive to achieve these.

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.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

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

There is just one technique to beat inclinations. Do not try to push very hard. That will tire you soon. I realized this during the Valparai climb. Instead, set yourself a comfortable cadence and gear - even if you have to switch to the lowest gear - and maintain a constant speed. Even if this happens to be a very slow speed of 7kmph, stick to this speed, and you will be successful. When other riders zip past you at higher speeds, you will be tempted to catch up. When you feel that you are moving too slow, you may get bored and try to increase the speed. You should resist these temptations. When your fitness levels build up, you will find that you are able to maintain higher speeds. This just requires patience.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

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!

Wow! Awesome! This is a fantastic result. If you continue with the effort you are putting in now, your fitness level is going to go up several notches in the coming months. Good luck

[alfafan]

@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

[graaja]

Originally Posted by alfafan

@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

Thank you for the wishes alfafan!

Originally Posted by alfafan

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

Doing a ride on steep ghat roads with an MTB is no mean task and needs good fitness and stamina. Great job with the climb. If you are doing 110-120km rides regularly, you, friend, are on the track to become a roadie

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.

[nemesis86]

Originally Posted by graaja

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.

Attachment 1243860

Need to work on the fitness level to get the most out of the bike!

Fantastic read

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.

Originally Posted by alfafan

@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

Hi, nice to see you here. Its a amazing feat for you to climb the singhad fort. I so much want to do it myself but since I already stay a bit far from th place, I run out of gas after reaching there. You for sure are a motivation and I will convince myself to do it in the coming months.

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?