Comments on: Buying a bicycle in Bangalore

By: sunil

sunil — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:51:28 +0000

Hi Namit
This is excellent review. I just had been to a RR cycles, Yeshwathpur. And the owner was nice to allow me to try few brands there. And first one i tried was BTwin 5.3 I think. I just fell in luv with this thing. Then I realised the difference between good bikes and cheap ones.
Now it is always on my mind. called up LifeMojo to book one. They asked me to goto their Sarjapur road reseller store and try out all models and decide which one suits me.
Can;t wait to have one soon and start enjoying my rides.

By: namit

namit — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:58:53 +0000

@Satish when I was considering to buy a bike, I tried them all out. I think it was Rohan @ BOTS who said “Buying a Bike is like buying a nice digital SLR vs a automatic digital cam. A good camera pushes you to do great things…” This is something that I totally understand now. If I had any other bike that I tried, I might not have had the courage to go on long weekend trips. It is about your comfort with the bike that you ride! I guess you should ride them and decide which bike is best for you…

By: Satish

Satish — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:26:11 +0000

Dear Friend,
Nice to see sharing your experience. I am also planning to buy a bicycle. Getting confused which one to go for. Last weekend I had few shop visits near K R Market. I found Hercules ACT 110 and Hero Octane bikes. Now I am getting confused of which one to go for. I am planning to take bike to office on every Friday (The current plan). My office is around 8-9 Km from my home. I want to go for a very comfortable, less strainful bike to cover this distance.
Would you like to give some suggessions to me!!!

By: namit

namit — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:42:01 +0000

@RR

Initially, I had trouble understanding why the hell are all these bikes so expensive. Now after riding one for a while, I can feel that the components are actually superior to the ones that I can find on Indian brands. Everyone says the most important thing is the frame and I have no idea on how to judge the quality of the frames. So, I take companies’ and riders’ word for it and trust that they would be good. As far as the set of shifters, brakes (i guess) and derailleurs are concerned, I guess SRAM and Shimano have a huge range of products that you can have a look at. And the *are* really different.
I would say don’t worry about it right now and buy the bike you are comfortable with. I guess everyone realizes what they want, once they start riding…

By: RR

RR — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:15:53 +0000

Good post , I am also thinking of buying a bike.

I still dont get what makes a bike so expensive ? I see some bikes selling from 40K and above ? How can a bike be so expensive – are they simply cashing in because some people have money to burn ?

Thanks

By: namit

namit — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:58:57 +0000

@Kiran I bought 5.2 for 15.5 K from the Decathlon Store (as a reseller) MRP is I guess 17 K.

By: Kiran Jonnalagadda

Kiran Jonnalagadda — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:34:28 +0000

Thanks, Namit.

I deliberated for over a year because I wasn’t sure I would ride it after buying it (my commute at that time was 20km from Hulimavu to Rajajinagar and I was in no shape to bike it). I finally took the plunge after moving to Langford Town, but bought a “cheap” Rs 6000 aluminium bike, because I wasn’t sure I would use it enough. I didn’t. For two years, the farthest I went on that bike was 5km, and that was from the shop to home. My daily ride was a mere 1km each way.

Today I do 30km 2-3 days a week quite comfortably, and I’m finally convinced about spending on a good bike, although it’ll have to wait until later in the year when I can afford it.

Incidentally, how much did the 5.2 cost?