Road biking Gurgaon’s PedalYatri Manger trail
I just finished cycling over 50 kilometers this morning with Gurgaon India’s PedalYatri crew on the Mangar trail. It’s generally hardpack with some washouts and plenty of soft sands and rocky sections that make you think twice about riding through at times. Despite just coming back from 3 weeks in Europe, I did fairly decently keeping up with folks.
Most importantly, out of the 30 plus riders on mountain bikes, I was one of the 3 roadies. I rode the roads and hardpark on my Masi Caffe Racer Doppio. It has 700c x 25 tires at 95 psi. No real problems, even in the rocky hill sections I’d overtake locals on their mountain bikes.
Going further, I rode the trail with clipins, a tribar and commuters rack. The same bike I commute to work with, I rode with mountain bikers. In the road riding sections, it was easy to pick up speed, to 27-31 kph and still have energy to talk or go faster. For the mountain bike riders, at that pace, their legs are a blur to keep up.
Going even further, this same bike is one I’ve ridden on many short and long rides throughout Taiwan. Even when the road become rough or was washed away, I had no qualms with riding a road bike in the dirt.
I’ll admit, if I had a nice sub 7.5 kg carbon fiber, SRAM Force equipped road bike, then I’d be sticking to the roads. Otherwise, in riding around Taiwan’s good infrastructure and India’s rough roads, there’s only been a few times in which a mountain bike would’ve been nicer.
Those times would’ve only been for serious, serious soft pack road sections. Considering that’d be maybe 10 kilometers of the past year’s 5,000, I’ll stick with my road bike. Even then, give me a cyclocross bike with 700c x 32 tires.
In the end, I’ve got a fast light weight touring bike. Why would I want to ride a heavy, sluggish, bouncy mountain bike on the road for kilometer after kilometer?
October 17, 2010 - 2:35 PM
Man, wish I could translate that for all the mountain bikers I see in Taiwan. It sucks that everyone is terrified of road bikes. A few months back I did about 5K of cobbles on my 700 x 28s near Jhuolan. No problem.
Michael
October 17, 2010 - 2:42 PM
Dang that was quick. Just posted and boom, you’re first in with a comment. Glad I got the camel shot for you then.
With riding here in India, I’d really like a cyclocross bike. I don’t see a need for a mountain unless I was commuting in the Himalayas. Even then, I’d try with 700c x 28 or even up to 700c x 35 tires first.
Michael
October 17, 2010 - 2:48 PM
LOL I was waiting for you to get some more pics of India up. Loved the camel pics, btw.
October 17, 2010 - 7:46 PM
I liked the pictures of the camels too. But, I am wanting to see pictures from your trip to Europe too. Love you.
October 18, 2010 - 12:45 PM
Everybody is wanting pictures of Europe… They’ll start going up by next Tuesday.