Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

Which bike do you currently ride?

The Intrepida does look good at least in the pictures i saw online! How much are you getting it for? If you don't mind me asking

Also do share pictures of your rides once you do get your bike!

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

Merida big seven strider.

Close to 1.5 lakhs INR, buddy.

Sure, will share once I get the bike.

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

Hmm, looks like I don't even need to wait till September. .
Just ordered one, now. Garmin 1000 bundle was only 700 SEK away, so went for 1000, couldn't help it .

I no more have any excuses now, MTB, 2.2" inch knobby tyres. Ahem, so this weekend will be a litmus test, then.

BTW, I have tried GPS navigation on mobile and already have a mobile mount on my bike. Battery life is pretty poor with this setup. I almost got lost when I was coming back from Stockholm ride, that was when I thought, I needed a dedicated GPS.

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

I also use a phone for tracking city rides, since i keep it on airplane mode, it hardly consumes 5-6% of the battery over a 2 hour ride. For longer rides i don't use any device!

But in another country GPS is probably very useful. You really are going all out for quality kit!

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

Garmin not only is a navi device but also great for recording the other data for riding. I use garmin mainly to track the speed+cadence +heart rate. I hardly have ever used it as a navigation unless moving out of the city; where I mainly use it as route guide by pre plotting the route. The other great benefit of garmin is workouts which you can pre program and use it as a trainer that feature alone is more than worth its price

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

For tracking, yeah. But for navigation the power consumed is even more.

Thank you. I love quality gear.

Cycle computers I used,

1. Sigma 12.12 BC - Just speed, avg speed, temp and other usual info.
2. Sigma ROX 5.0 - Speed, cadence and heart rate.

I am looking forward to try out the live strava segment feature, there is one segment I have to improve. I always, screw up that one. Lets see whether with Garmin I will be able to pace myself better. I certainly hope so.

So main reason for me to go for Garmin was navigation and ease of transferring all your ride information.

With Sigma, you can also do the same, but have to buy a docking station and paid software, which I haven't done.

BTW, I bought the performance bundle which comes with cadence, speed and heart rate monitor. I don't know if it is something specific to Sigma or Hall effect sensor in general, above 28 Kmph or so, the noise from the speed sensor is audible. The 'click', 'click' noise, not that it is a deal breaker but just thought I will share and confirm if indeed what I hear is correct.

The Garmin uses accelerometers to measure the cadence and speed, so I believe it will be more silent.

I will give a comprehensive review once I get it and use it a fair bit.

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

I have made up mind to buy the Impulso 105 and went to the store today. Since I have already ordered the Intrepida last week, they have kept it ready.

I tried both the bikes to get a feeling of it. What more can an arm chair roadie expert could feel, to be honest, I got totally confused and even tried the Intenso CV.

I don't have a benchmark to compare to, that was the problem.

To be honest with you guys, all I could conclude was Intrepida and Intenso was lighter than Impulso. I spent a lot of time, mind you. reached there at sharp 10 AM, left there by 4PM. Luckily they have a cafe next door, so had lunch from there.

The price dropped from 23,000 with Bianchi carbon shoe(1999) + Shimano pedal(600)
21500
19999 without shoes and pedal
and finally the deal was closed with 17,999SEK with shoes and pedal.

At the same time Impulso had an offer of 14,500 with Shimano shoes and pedals and 12999 without shoes and pedals.

Anyway, I believe I got a further 2000 SEK discount.

Spend a good 1:30 hours to get the proper bike fit, at least by the books, that is.

Thanks a ton guys for the help.

Ahem, roadie has arrived. Weight 9.8 Kgs including tools, 750 ml bottle with water.
First ride impressions, first time roadie, mind you.

Ride is much better than my MTB (high tyre pressure in pursuit for more speed is the cause) because of that I was quite surprised

Brakes, damn, should get used to the rim brakes again. Spoilt by discs, you see.

Clipless pedal and shoes, surprisingly felt home right away.

Climbs, man, this is where I felt the biggest difference, yet.

There is a Strava segement, 0.6 Km long climb, my best time on my MTB was 2:07 seconds, last year and this year was 2:17 seconds.

First time on roadie, 1:44 , 17 Kgs Vs 10 Kgs but still, I didn't expect this much difference.

On straights, previously I used to max out @ 30~32 Kmph on my MTB now at the same road I'm doing 37~39 Kmph.

Overall, I think it is reasonable to expect an improvement of 2~2.5 kmph in the average speed over long distances.

My first proper ride on the new bike.

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

Here are some pics.

Got the carbon fiber shoes free with the bike

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

Very nice man!!!

Well the difference you feel on climbs is not only the function of weight but more importantly the function of Stiffness - power transfer and less rolling resistance due to the thin road tires. Surely there's a tradeoff for comfort which I feel is a minor tradeoff in the large scheme of things. Congrats and have a safe ride ahead.

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

Lovely. The switch from an MTB to Roadie does take the rider by surprise. Spend a couple of months on this and then take the MTB out for a spin again. It will feel alien

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

Thank you, guys.

I was running very high pressure on my MTB, because of that ride was very harsh. Roadie felt far better in comparison. Comparing posture, yeah, MTB is better than on tops on a roadie.

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

What is more important to me in a road bike is the drop handlebars, there's 100s of different positions one can be in comparison to mtb. That alone is enough for a switch 😀

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

My observation was the opposite. After riding a roadie, the MTB posture felt uncomfortable. Like KI mentioned, the number of options available, leave you spoiled for choice. The MTB doesn't allow that!

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

Just started off, guys. My opinion might change, these are first impressions, mind you.

Rode 150 kms over weekend, felt good. Was able to manage 25~26 Kmph for all the rides, longest being 52Kms long.

Need slight adjustment for the gears, now, must have lost the tension being new.

Re: How to select a bicycle according to your needs and budget?

Hi,

I have one query I have compared two bikes Scott Speedster 20 and Trek Domane 2.3, both has almost same group set Shimano 105. Anybody has an idea about the ride quality of both.

I heard that Scott bikes are pretty stiff hence there will be more vibration is this true ?

Thnaks in advance.