First Ride With Refurbished Hero

Went out on a leisurely ride on the newly refurbished Hero. The ride is okay but there are a few small issues. A. The seat post needs to be adjusted. I need it to be a bit higher. B. The gear shifter is quite a pain when down shifting. It takes a huge effort and often it engages somewhere between two gears. C. The rolling resistance being high - fat tyres with MTB type grooves - it is a slow bike. Pedalling is quite an effort but then it is good exercise for my legs. D. In a city like Calcutta one definitely needs a bell. But on balance it was fun. I went through Chetla, New Road, National Library, Bijay Bose Road to Jogu Bajar and then back to Southern Avenue upto Keyatala and back. It was a Sunday but the traffic was really heavy. After all it is the last Sunday before the Pujas. Among accessories, I will go for a Cat Eye, a bottle cage and bottle and possibly a holder for the mobile phone.

The Old Hero

My old Hero got a new lease of life from Someswar. It has new wheels, tyres, forks, gears, handle, brakes, seat. In fact except for the frame every thing else is new but the parts are perhaps the cheapest option available in the market. I took delivery of it in Chenku's house last night. Today I came home riding the bike. It is a full fledged MTB now.

It is rolling well. Much better than earlier. The gear has to be turned like a throttle. It is a 6x1 Shimano Tourney gear/derailleur/shifter set. Upshift is fine but down shift takes effort. I think one has to get used to it. 

Everyone is asking me why I invested money into the old bike, particularly when I had a new road bike. Well, first of all, the old bike had become unusable. It was gathering dust in the old house. When Someswar said do you want to give me a free hand to modify it into a proper MTB? I said take it and just do as you please. We put it in the car and I delivered it to his home in Shalimar. 

The other reason for making it road worthy was to have a bike that is easy to ride on the rough roads of Calcutta in a relaxed way. You cannot ride the Merida in a relaxed way. You have to be involved in the process. Here you can ride the cycle and observe life around the road. I love doing that, particularly on the winter mornings and on old familiar streets of South Calcutta where once upon a time I used to walk as a child.