Guide to buying a cycle in Bangalore

I decided to visit Majestic, SP Road and Commercial Street, in that order, to find out more about Hero Thunder Racer

A. S. Char street is close to Majestic and has a long line of cycle traders. Initially, none of the traders I asked had ever heard of this bike, finally somebody pointed out a shop called Jayant Cycles at the end of the street who were supposed to be the largest dealers around.

The owner of Jayant Cycles, a dude called Hemant Shah, seemed to be a jovial dude, passionate about cycles. He not only had my bike but also had showrooms for Firefox and Trek bikes. The Thunder Racer costs 6500 bucks without gears and 7,900 with gears. He then talked about the Hero Octane and praised it no end. He did not have any of these bikes assembled so I had to just evaluate them according to pictures and tech specs.

I finally had the following choices:
1) Hero Thunder Racer (with gear) - Rs. 7,900
2) Hero Octane - Rs. 9200
3) Firefox Target - Rs. 11,500

The Target seemed too expensive so I had to stack up Octane vs Thunder. Octane has disc brakes, full suspension and Shimano 24 speed gears. Thunder Racer doesn't have any of these and would be fitted with 6 gears of some local brand. So I decided to buy the Octane.



The moment I saw the assembled bike, I regretted my choice. It had a weird looking frame and the carrier was sticking out. But it was too late to do anything since I had already paid.

The first time I rode the bike, the reflector on the pedals broke off. I had to ride back through busy Majestic and couldn't get the hang of the bike since the gears felt very different.

I can't stop regretting my decision. I had set out to only find out more information about road bikes and ended up buying an MTB instead. I hope the Octane proves me wrong !!