[ebonho]

This thread is the story of Blue Flame (Blue for short), my Hercules ACT 110, and our journey together, as well as dedicated to this iconic legend of yesteryears of Indian cycling, and its community of owners and fans, many of whom still keep these little gems in spite of moving on to more technically advanced machinery.

Call it emotional strings and nostalgia. Or call it the appreciation of a cyclist for a fundamentally good frame and machine, regardless of price or componentry or age.

The ad photos on OLX in January 2017 that caught my idea and started it all.





I couldn't believe my eyes. Yes it looked shabby, and poorly kept. But a lifetime of riding bikes and doing used bike deals helped in seeing more just below the grime. A lot more. I was essentially looking at a bone stock Hercules ACT 110, of the latest (last) lot, with a road crank (which I did not know at the time), that was hardly used (tyres) and had all its original parts intact, though worse for exposure to the rain outdoors on what looked like the balcony of the apartment.

I called the guy and told him I would come over to his place in the evening. He was a techie living in Hinjewadi, nearly 30 km from my place, well across town, literally outside Poona. Drove down in my Storme. Full money in my pockets. 5k in a bundle. And then 1K 5 bundles stashed away in different location, for incremental negotiation. He was quoting 10K. I was determined to get it under 7K (pending physical inspection).

Cheers, Doc

[ebonho]

The chain was dry and rusty. The crank and freewheel were gunked out. The handlebar that was steel had rust on it. All the wheel spoke nipples were fully rusted. Some spokes were broken. Both tyres were flat (and had been for some time as was evident from the sidewall cracks).Derailleurs were gunky (especially the rear derailleur jockey wheels) and there were rust spots on the rear and front derailleur chromed cages. Teeth front and rear looked great. Shifters and levers were pristine and not damaged.

All cable outers were good. Pedals were good and rotating free without play (one of their cages had a star screw missing) and all reflectors intact. Crank had no play. Both wheels had no play. Frame was undented and paint was in good nick with hardly any scratches. Seat post and front wheel quick releases were undamaged and worked. Saddle was in good uncracked shape. I had no idea if the gears worked. And I knew that the wheels would need work (at the time I did not know how much, or that the rear wheel and seat post would both be replaced eventually).

I sent the below photos to my mechanic, got his opinion, and negotiated the final price of the bike for 5k, because I pointed out the rust damage and the tyres that would need replacing, and that would easily cost me close to 2k more. Finally we shook hands at that price. The money was paid. He told me he would look for the original Bill (which a day later he told me he could not find) ... And Blue Flame became mine!













Cheers, Doc

[ebonho]

Deal done, hands shaken, money paid, pleasantries done, it was time to take my new bike home.

The first time I actually picked her up I was very pleasantly shocked at how light she was! I was totally salivating at the thought of how she would fly. Remember I was coming off of riding a 19.5 odd kilo steel framed and wheeled MTB. The ACT felt LIGHT in comparison.

Loaded her into the back of my Storme for the first time, and drove home excitedly. It was late evening by then, dark now, but I did not care. I was DYING to introduce her to a microfiber and a bucket of soapy water (for what looked like must have been the very first time!).

Here are the photos of her in the back bay when I reached home, and then after a nice soapy wash, both sides. Man she was gleaming! And it was love at first sight.









A minor frisson of fear that I had broken something when the clip on plastic guard around the crank came off while washing her. Luckily after some trial and error, I managed to fit it back.



A small sagan (pooja) and aacchoo micchoo (nazar battu) with milk, rice, coconut, egg, flower garland, and red tili (tilak, with red sindoor powder and water paste) at all strategic locations of the bike) was then done by my wife to welcome her into the home for the first time. This is done for all new vehicles by Parsis.

Cheers, Doc

[aargee]

The word ACT in bicycle caught my attention because...I own a cousin 104 from the same family since 2007 May





Feel free to report to remove my post if you feel it's irrelevant on your ownership thread.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by aargee

The word ACT in bicycle caught my attention because...I own a cousin 104 from the same family since 2007 May

Feel free to report to remove my post if you feel it's irrelevant on your ownership thread.

Not at all. This I hope will be the "catch-all" thread for all Hercules ACT discussions, and therefore a great archive to have for owners and enthusiasts.

I cannot tell you the number of times I have gone on to the net and searched for technical information on my ACT 110 (like length of BB spindle, or length of drive side versus non drive side spokes for the rear wheel) and found NOTHING.

This will be probably the only repository of its kind on the internet. And I will eventually search out and report ALL ACT related posts (95% plus will be about my bike) here for migration to this thread.

Cheers, Doc

[ebonho]

Some pictures of the original tyres. Quite good tread. But the sidewall of one of them was totally cracked quite bad (both were actually, but one was worse). In the current tyre situation of Covid 2021 and Ralsons, I would have happily used them (I have still kept them), but as this was a new bike and I had serious randonneuring plans for her, these really did not inspire confidence.









So brand new Export-only tyres (headed to Russia, Spain and Brazil) were procured from GRL directly from the company, along with a set of Butyl Shraeder valved tubes (keeping the old ones, in perfect nick, as spares).







I liked these tyres so much (these are still running on my ACT in 2021, 16,000+ kms later) that I bought a second set as well, which I have as a spare waiting to go on to Blue's rims and take over from the old pair.

They have a neon stripe along the sidewall that really pops in the night ... I guess that's why they are named "Edge".

The other problem area that needed immediate attention was the broken spokes and misaligned wheels.

Spokes are expensive, and these were good quality black anodized factory ones too, so I only replaced the broken ones at Giant (30 bucks per spoke).

Some photos of the first shakedown ride with my son to Chandani Chowk and back, with the new tyres and tubes, and the wheel spokes and alignment and hubs done up, with new brake shoes front and rear (Jagwire, from Giant)

You can make out that the rear wheel and V brake calipers are misaligned here. Still learning, early days.













The other massive eyesore from Day 1 were the low quality Chinese spoke nipples that were all completely rusted. These are closeups of how they looked whe I got the bike from the first owner.









And this is the fully done up wheel with the new brass nipples, looking very nice now. The nipples were now all removed and brand new brass nipples replaced them and the wheels were re-laced and balanced. Also both hubs were cleaned and balls and grease replaced (the old grease was literally caked dry).



Blue was coming along nicely, bit by bit, one day at a time. I was preferring to ride her and work on her in parallel, rather than just give her to the workshop and dump a whole lot of new parts on her in one go, without realizing what worked and what did not, and being able to actually appreciate what difference each change made.

Time consuming and drawn out, but a lot more effective and enjoyable for me. I was in no hurry. This was not a race.

Cheers, Doc

[ebonho]

Now that the bike was set up well, saddle height and set-back played with and kind of stabilized, wheels good (for now ... the rear one would soon start popping spokes), the riding got more serious, faster and longer as my body and the bike frame gelled together. Soon I was clocking well in excess of 2-3 kmph faster overall for the same loops that I had been doing on my steel Top Gear.

By now with regular cleaning and lubing and not inconsiderable the drive train of the bike was so much cleaner and better looking and slicker shifting compared to what I got in the earliest photos above. Mst importantly (for OCD me), all signs of dirty brown rust were nearly gone. A comparison!









Where I was struggling (or not happy mentally, and probably also not strong enough yet) was the climbing, especially the ghats that form a staple for any Poona rider. So the next target on the agenda was to look at the gearing and what could be done to help me out on the climbs. The big ring 48-14 top gear was a decent speed proposition and I wasn't yet spinning that out mainly because my cadence in 2017 was lower than what it is today in 20121. Also I wasn't doing too many serious descents yet. But the 28-28 lowest ratio was still a bit of a pain.

So searched on the net and found a 14-34 Mega Range "Alpine" 7 speed freewheel exactly similar to the 14-34 6 speed one on my Top Gear, and ordered it as a replacement for the stock 14-28 (which I found a couple of weeks back, wrapped in the same bubble wrap the 14-34 was shipped to me in).

Meanwhile, my mech found an old 7 speed 14-34 for me to try out while I waited for the new one to arrive, and he swapped out my 14-28 for that used 14-34 and I did a few Bopdev and old Katraj climbs with it. It was BRILLIANT and I LOVED it!





The bike's original alloy bottle cage one day came apart into two on a ride, with the bottle and the lower part disengaging from the upper part and falling on to the road while on the move. I was surprised to see the flimsy construct of the cage wherein the lower part basically telescoped into the upper part and was press crimped in place. Those crimps had failed with the jostling on the road and the weight of the water filled bottle, and had given way. So I ditched that cheap alloy cage (I still kept it) just as I had earlier ditched the bell (I kid you not!) and the alloy side stand the bike came to me with (which would always get in the way of my left crank, not nice at all, too fussy to keep in the right position), and replaced it with a nice bright neon yellow plastic cage from Decathlon (which I use to this day, and to which I added a second one on the seat tube, with zip ties, which eventually failed, and I am yet too lazy to replace).





The new Mega Range finally arrived and I had some concerns about the indexing of the shifters to take the much larger lowest cog jump (28 to 34) and the HUGE 10-tooth jump between the second lowest cog 24 and the lowest 34 now. Also, would the chain be long enough, or would I need to add links to it (something I was really loathe to do, and would have ended up buying a new longer chain instead).

Long story short, 30 minutes is all it took to do the swap and re-indexing for the new freewheel. And it shifted SUPERBLY, effortlessly climbing from the 24 to the 34 with a slight chikchik, slick as is possible with such a huge jump (not even the modern 1x gravel "mullets" have such a huge jump, for perspective)!

Also see below the first shot of the new cleaned and lube sprayed integrated shifters.



New Mega Range 14-34 "Alpine" freewheel



Old standard 14-28 freewheel (that most entry level 7 speed bikes come with even today)



The "Made in Taiwan" stamped integrated shifters. All metal body. With gear indicator window. All intact and in good nick (still in good nick 4+ years and 16,000+ kms on).



The bike fit, rolling chassis, and drivetrain were now sorted. And the new freewheel was a big addition to the mix. And is still going strong today, along with the rest of the drive train, 4 years and 16,000 kms on.

Cheers, Doc

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by ebonho

The bike's original alloy bottle cage one day came apart into two on a ride, with the bottle and the lower part disengaging from the upper part and falling on to the road while on the move. I was surprised to see the flimsy construct of the cage wherein the lower part basically telescoped into the upper part and was press crimped in place. Those crimps had failed with the jostling on the road and the weight of the water filled bottle, and had given way. So I ditched that cheap alloy cage (I still kept it) just as I had earlier ditched the bell (I kid you not!) and the alloy side stand the bike came to me with (which would always get in the way of my left crank, not nice at all, too fussy to keep in the right position), and replaced it with a nice bright neon yellow plastic cage from Decathlon (which I use to this day, and to which I added a second one on the seat tube, with zip ties, which eventually failed, and I am yet too lazy to replace).

Cheers, Doc

Just checked the time stamps of the photos of the bike at Old Katraj top. They are from April 2017. Blue is still running her original offset single bolt seatpost and original rear wheel. Also while I've raised the handlebar with the adjustable stem (a position I've ridden almost the entire 16,000 km with, except for a brief period when I was racing with 23c road slicks) it still does not have the bar ends.

[GTO]

You guys are really taking our new bicycle forum to the next level . Thanks so much. It seems, every other day, a cycle thread goes to our homepage hot threads.

Like today:

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by GTO

You guys are really taking our new bicycle forum to the next level . Thanks so much. It seems, every other day, a cycle thread goes to our homepage hot threads.

Like today:
Attachment 2189169

Thanks for giving us the platform GTO. I actually saw my thread on the homepage by chance. Was so excited that I shared the link with a whole lot of cyclists on Whatsapp. And the views have jumped from 400 odd this morning to over 1600 now! lol

Nearly all of them got the importance of a Cycling thread on a old and reputed pan-India and Global platform like Team BHP. And they were mighty chuffed about it (if not a bit amused at my love affair with the humble ACT, and not some fancy shmancy mucho dinero carbon spaceship).

Cheers, Doc

[ishan0278]

I've the same bike and I haven't really used it in the past year. Thanks for the highly detailed Thread Man. Cheers !

[EshanS]

Awesome write up and experience there! Yes, the ACT 110 is basic but ticks all the right boxes, and it's super light and fuss free as well.

Do you ride on everyday basis or just over the weekend sorts? I can join too, I stay on Baner-Pashan Link road. The fuel pump in the rides is the one in Bavdhan - 15mins from where I stay.

Ps- almost a regular to Roopali and Sambar!

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Not at all. This I hope will be the "catch-all" thread for all Hercules ACT discussions, and therefore a great archive to have for owners and enthusiasts.
....

Your bike looks great! I have an olive green ACT that I bought way back in 2012/13 don't recollect the exact date. The bike has not been ridden much, initial few years used to bike during the weekends for 15-20kms(no where close to the 100s you guys seem to manage). Immensely enjoyed the experience, but was put off by other motorists on the road, felt unsafe and the cycling reduced. Around this time my daughter had outgrown her decathlon mistgirl bike. So, she inherited this for her school commute, which is a around 3Kms from my place.
And has been her daily commute for almost 2 years before covid stuck.

Now a days, it has not been regularly used, and also gets exposed to moisture since it is parked under a balcony for convenience. I see the odd spokenipple (as mentioned in your post) attracting rust.

The bike is a stock one apart from the mudguards and a light luggage carrier I fitted during the purchase time.

Till date, the bike's been running without any repairs, barring exactly 2 punctures and 1.5brake pad replacement. Still on the original set of tires.
Off late, I get complaints that the rear brake is not effective - need to look into that one of these days.

[ebonho]

So from August to mid November, through the rains, there was some serious riding and good rides that happened ... and even though at that time I was simply riding for fun, the volume of work (training without a fixed purpose!) I was putting in was preparing my body for the rigors ahead.

Along the way I was fine tuning the bike as well, and the three big additions that happened in this period were a more stable direct angle (zero offset) two-bolt seat post and a rounded (non box type) aero deep section better quality rear wheel (complete built up wheel with the rim and rim tape and spokes/nipples and hub and solid axle ... both very kindly gifted to me by Ryan of TI Cycles, who was in charge of their Racing division in Chennai.

In addition I also added the original alloy bar ends of my old Top Gear to Blue's handle to get a more comfy perch and a custom built long distance cruising cockpit. Put foam sleeves over both, and boy did they completely change the feel of the bike! I was in a nice tuck which my body immediately sucked up greedily and took to like a duck to water. I loved it, and I cannot ever go back to a naked straight handlebar ever again. I tried, and felt as if my hands were always going to slip and slide off the sides.

Also got a frame bag from Ali Express. which carried my eats and other stuff on long rides. I did not need a second bottle, as those days I used to ride with a 2.5 liter CamelBak (the zippered waterproof pocket of which would carry some allen keys and money). So the bladder was my water source, and the single bottle up front was my energy/salt/sugar/electrolytes drink on the go. The cable lock can be seen wrapped tightly around the stem. And a SunDing wired bike computer, and lights I picked up from a superstore in Australia (later stolen off my bike at the end of a brevet at the final CP) completed the cockpit.

Since it was monsoons, I also got a set of those flappy plastic mudguards from Decathlon. A couple of rides was all it took to show me that the front mudguard was directing all the water on to my crank and chain, and the rear one was simply too short to protect my back from the spray and was essentially a useless appendage. Having spent 500 bucks on them I did not want to throw them away just yet (I have now) so I cut out a shampoo bottle and made a flap extension for the rear mudguard (screwed on), and two rubber flaps for the inside of the rear mudguard (to protect the front derailleur mechanism) and the lower part of the front mudguard, to protect my feet and crank and chain. Useless design by BTwin on this. Wrote to them and told them as much.





















































Cheers, Doc

P.S. Looking at these old photos I realise that somewhere along the way, at the start of a brevet, the front reflector snapped off, and even though everyone was racing away, I stopped, picked it up and put it in my frame bag. Later realized it was un-FeviQuik-able, so discarded it eventually. Original is original ...

[promit]

Kudos. Lovely thread and bike! Its second stint has been royal. I have started spending a lot more time in the bicycle threads lately Learning a lot from you guys.