Hercules Ryders Act 110 – A beginner’s Review

To get a sports bicycle was my long time dream and it came true last week. Got a Hercules Ryders Act 110. I was searching in bikeszone.com and
other online forums for quite a some time for bike related information. Hercules Ryders Act 110 is an Indian Hybrid bike from TI cycles of India.
It cost Rs 9700 in RR cycles Madiwala (Bangalore).

Specifications:
Bike comes with Shimano 21 speed gears, alloy frame, shimano gear shifters with integrated brake levers on the handle bar. The saddle, handle and the wheels have quick release adjustment options. 700*35C tyres are slightly thicker than the normal road bikes and are thinner than MTB’s.  Wheels don’t have suspensions and no disc brakes.

I rode the bike from Madiwala to Electronic city (14 Km’s), a good distance for a beginner, without any breakes and it took around 40 minutes. I couldn’t explore the bike much because of road traffic and for most part I had to be in lower gear combinations. Towards the end I felt a slight back pain and both the wrists went numb. This is because of either saddle height or the handle bar adjustments.

Next day morning I moved towards Jigani. I lifted the handle bar up by about 50 degrees this time (Initially it was perpendicular to with the front wheel
forks). The quick release levers are really handy and helps you make all the adjustments on your own. The route I took (Electronic city – APC junction – Chandapura – Electronic city) accounted for about 32-35 Km’s.

Early morning ride was very lovely, the roads were empty and I could feel the firmness and power of the bicycle. The bike moves like a lightening in flat roads and feels very smooth in slopy inclines. Couple of times I could test the extreme upper-end gears and it resulted in real fast pace and power.

Observations :

The handle adjustment really helped and I did not have any back pain this time. But still I could feel a slight numbness in the wrists. May be because of the body weight falling on arms. Need to lift the handle a bit more next time.
The absence of shock absorbers can be felt in non paved roads. But i feel that it is not a fact to worry because the bike can take the descent  bumpy roads with it’s solid frame and hybrid tyres if not the rocky one’s. I am not happy with the brakes because whenever I apply the brake, I noticed that the bike gets dragged for a while without immediate stoppage. This is only when I tried to stop from higher speeds. I do not know if this is the case with other bikes too or may be it is because of the high momentum. The pedals make slight noise at times and there is a noise when you shift the gears too. At the higher gear combinations like 3-6 and 3-7, the chain touches the derailers and produces a noise. All these boil down to mechanical adjustments and need to get them corrected with the dealer.

I am very happy with the performance of ACT 110. Looking forward for more rides. A 150 KM ride from Sakleshpur to Madikeri is in pipeline.

Tags: Cycling Diary, Hercules, Hercules ACT110, Hybrid Bike, MTB, RR Cycles, Ryders Act, Shimano, TI Cycles India

• June 23, 2010
• Cycling Diary
• 25 comments