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The Salsa Journeyer build is complete.

Rode a local gravel loop as well as my usual trail past 2-3 days and first impressions are quite positive. Bike is extremely comfortable. The geometry is relaxed and even with drop bar handles you sit lazy. Its good!

Components are mostly mid range without anything extravagant except for the trick carbon handle that has a unique design. The design is somewhat similar to Surly bars but material is super light carbon unlike Surly's. That design allows mounting road style brifters as well as MTB style brake levers and thumb shifter. There are somewhat flatter drops as compared to regular road style drop bars and they also have little protrusions on top. You get multiple options to mount your brakes and shifters -
1. Both mounted on those "horns" and nothin on drops.
2. Brake levers on horns, shifter on drops.
3. Both on drops, nothing on horns.



I chose the second option. To my surprise this style felt extremely natural against my apprehension. Shifting is super easy. Easier than it felt on my flat bar gravel bike.


For the drivetrain, decided to go with Shimano 11 speed groupset - Deore M5100. The wheels are low end as well as the tires but for the time being they will make do as I wait for a nicer wheelset preferably in 650b size.

With heavy wheels and tires I didn't have many hopes but bike is clocking in at 10.5kg which seems reasonable to me, partly thanks to weight savings of 1x drivetrain and MTB style shifters/brakes.

https://youtu.be/5ZLBWWU_Pc4

A highlights video from the 8th edition of Tour of Karnataka, a cycling tour.

Dear Bhpians,

I currently ride a btwin mybike which I bought way back in 2017 and it has given me good companion. I use it for my 15 - 20 km rides and occasional weekend ride of 30 kms.

I’m in a conundrum where many of us here would’ve been, what next ??

My requirements:

1) Daily ( almost ) ride of 25 kms
2) Usually over good roads. Occasionally bad roads as well
3) Low maintenance ( my current one has spoiled me in this )
4) Flat or drop bar ? ( kindly recommend )
5) Budget - 30 k

Looks like Triban RC100 FB is the crowd favourite. Haven’t seen any reviews on Triban RC 100 Limited Edition ( drop bar version of RC 100 ?)

Looking to hear from you all. Thanks in advance, Ladies and Gentlemen

There is a review by bhpian for TC120 GRVL model of Triban. If you check the geometry of that bike v/s RC100 drop bar they are identical except for 1cm shorter headtube on GRVL. Those two bikes should ride almost the same with GRVL being more cushy owing to it's thicker tires.

The RC100 will handle some bad roads but not as well as GRVL which seems to be made for gravel usage. That being said, I have beaten RC 100 FB over moon craters and it held up fine. The wheels on RC 100 are definitely a weak point. Mine had tendency to break spokes and go out of tune.

There are many other bikes that accomplish same thing as RC100 albeit with higher price tag. Wouldn't hurt to check those either but budget is tight so possibly check used bikes too.

As for drop bar v/s flat bar, that is a tough decision. I for one, am all in on drop bar be it short lazy ride or a century. The drop bar allows at least 3 different positions to rest you hands and that itself rules out flat bar for me.

After some getting used to the drops, its hard to go back to flat bars unless you have health/back issues. I still have a flat bar bike that I ride when with friends who are not serious about riding but otherwise I almost never ride it.

Personally, if you are saying you plan to ride everyday 25km I would say go for drop bars. You will be happier in the long run. If you do 25/day soon you will be doing 50s, 100s even more and that is when drop bars will come handy. I did 100 km rides on my RC 100 FB but I think I would have been better served by drop bar model of the same for additional few thousands.

Shimano is phasing out low end MTB groupsets (Alivo, Acera and Altus) with their unified CUES range to support interoperability: https://www.bikeradar.com/news/shimano-cues/. The plan is to eventually replace low end road groupsets (Claris, Sora and Tiagra) too apparently. The CUES range is not backward compatible with the existing products that it is phasing out. :Frustrati

Incompatibility with low end current group sets aside, there are a few great things from that CUES press release.

With CUES all 9/10/11 speed components are compatible with each other. So you can use same chain with any of the 3 Cues groups. Same goes for crankset. This wasn't possible earlier, if you upgraded you had to use specific stuff so that it worked perfectly.

The other thing is, there's too many low and lower mid range components that Shimano produces - that's all getting simplified.

Other big issue with upgrades has been resolved to an extent. There are two 9 speed Cues groups, and two with 11. So now you can upgrade your 9 or 11s Cues groupset within Cues. Shimano always had their top tier groupset all with same speeds in one generation. For example, 11 speed 105, Ultegra, Dura Ace. So if you had 105 you could simply purchase Ultegra shifters and use them with 105. Or you could use DA chain and cassette with Ultegra - the upgrade path on those is extremely well laid out and actually works out cheaper for consumers. On the other hand consider low end groupset like Claris - it has no upgrade possibilities. The only upgrade you can do is change the whole groupset and get to Sora. If you had Sora, again same problem - no upgrade potential. You had to switch everything and get to Tiagra. This is a smart play by Shimano too because once people realize they can do partial upgrade on their Cues group, they will do it more frequently so more money for Shimano and people don't have to shell out for whole groupset like now.

With that said, we need to see if one can use new Cues stuff with current equipment. Shimano is extremely conservative when it comes to product compatibility. If they say their short cage Ultegra 8000 RD support only 30 teeth cassette, you can comfortably run one with 34t. I'm running Ultegra R8000 with 36t. I'm also using Shimano link glide groupset with their old hyper glide cassette - it works about 95% as good as full link glide setup. I wouldn't be surprised if Cues stuff works with Sora/Tiagra.

Another positive thing from this is that Shimano just secured their HG hub standard for decades more. Meaning, all those wheels that people have accumulated over few decades will still be valid without having to change the freehub to newer Microspline standard that Shimano introduced recently.

All in all, barring people holding on to previous gen components this is a pretty great news. It's not end of the world for those holdouts either - support will continue for years to come and third party manufacturers will possibly do the same for a decade or more, besides many things to be had in used market as people upgrade to latest tech.

I understand where you're coming from w.r.t upgrades and it is a valid argument too, since 95% of the folks generally want something fancier and better with passage of time (MTB-->Alloy road bike-->groupset upgrade-->carbon road bike-->carbon wheels-->power meter-->...). But there are also some specimens like me who are bad for the economy in the sense that we buy an item and want to use it until it breaks into two pieces. I have been riding my 8-speed road bike for 7 years now and I have never felt limited by the no.of cogs or its shifting abilities for the kind of riding that I do. And it was an researched decision at that time to buy Claris instead of 105 because I knew the weight savings or lesser jumps between gears or slicker shifting of higher groupsets not have any impact on going faster (all of this is acheivable in a well maintained lower rung groupset too) or improving fitness.

This is what I am counting on!

My advice to these kind of Qs has always been the same - do test rides and then decide. Same goes for the question on flat bar vs drop bar. Don't assume one might be better than the other, just because it worked for others.

Many riders in this sport own two bikes (a mix of road bike and hybrid and mtb) for the benefits of the respective bike. So it's not that they choose only one model and stick to it.

Many brevet riders have done long rides on flat bars/hybrids. I am aware of several riders who have done thousands on their hybrid cycles and still do. My mileage on my flat bar hybrid is much higher than my road bike.

Another example would be our forum bike expert @ebonho's cycling logs. His mileage on his Hercules ACT 110 is more than his road bikes. He's even got a thread that details the positives of his flat bar hybrid bike (e.g. lesser maintenance).

If I were you, I'd decide basis the components specs and what you enjoy riding when you test ride them. And Decathlon allows you to do many trials so go crazy and try all options as much as you can.

Completely agree with you. Shimano has totally lost the plot since their 105 Di2 brainfade.

You cannot be a serious cyclist and not own a flatbar. Simple. Its just a totally different kick. When I climb on my ACT its like I'm riding my Bullet. Slower. Heavier. More comfortable and relaxed. Just something that urges a contemplative state of mind where I can simply ride and think without the razor blade jitteriness and focus a road bike demands.

My ACT is now 20,401 km and the CAAD is breathing down her neck at 20,316 km. :coldsweat There is a race on!

I purchased a flat handle Triban RC about a week back. I preferred it over the Riverside hybrids since it was faster, lighter in weight, had better brakes, and did not come with disc brakes or shock absorbers (lesser maintenance). This was my first road bike purchase. Decathlon crew were super helpful and even offered to try out their bikes extensively during a weekend ride before deciding. You may want to try this option before deciding.

Hi everyone, just picked up a new Triad M7. Triad is brand of ChooseMyBicycle.com as i understand.

Been looking to get a cycle for a long time, but was unable to zero down on any particular model. I used a friends Trek FX Seven.one extensively during lockdown, and that's how that cycling bug bit me.

Have recently started exploring offroad trails with my Yeti and was looking for a mountain bike to take on the trips with me. A couple of weeks back saw the Triad M7 on sale. It seemed to tick every single box on the entry level MTB spec sheet. Aluminium alloy frame, Hydraulic Disc Brakes, 100mm front zoom suspension with pre-load and lockout, 24 Speed Shimano gears with Shimano Acera at the rear, quick release wheels front and back wheels. Bike was available at a very tempting price, at a great discount. Not too many reviews available online, but saw one youtuber from West Bengal who covered a 1,000kms trip on the bike to Puri. He didn't have too many negatives to point out. Ordered it last week and was delivered yesterday.

Haven't had a chance to ride the bike beyond a short test ride post delivery. Bike feels quite light. Was expecting much lower agility, and poorer flat road manners as compared to the Trek. But was quite pleasantly surprised. Bike rode quite well on Mumbai roads, and actually enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to dance around each pothole, and the suspension allowed me to just carry on through them.

Hi guys

Happy to share I crossed 35,000kms today with a century ride :)



My current bikes


Keep riding, be safe!:thumbs up

Yesterday I rode 100K in the Berkshires in the Central Massachusetts region. This was my first time riding in this region. Although the first half was mostly flat, we had steady headwinds. Thanks to my 2 riding partners, we were able to navigate through that by holding pace lines and drafting most of the way. Return leg had most of the climbing though.

This was my 8th consecutive month with a 100K ride.





Congratulations! Wish you many more happy kms!

I had heard about the village Baarle recently and decided to do a trip there on Sunday. Its about 85km from home(Eindhoven). Baarle is strange/unique. Its situated within the Netherlands, but is broken up into patches of Belgium and Netherlands. In-fact, some buildings, houses, hotels, businesses are split between both countries(and also pay the respective taxes). You can read more about it on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle

Was a solo ride. I started around 6.35 AM. Spring just starting, but the cool air meant more protective wear. Headwind during the onward journey, but a relaxing return because of the tailwind.