Journey of the Boardwalk: Part 3 (105 Crankset, OTA Seatpost & Dahon Tour Bag)

Went out to buy a Dahon Tour Bag the moment it was available in Singapore. It was the ideal bag for light touring/commuting: Waterproof, strong outer shell, ease of removal, comes with carrying strap, and has many compartments. Note that only the newer Dahon bikes come with the front mounting point required for the support truss.

Also managed to get the lightweight OTA seatpost from a friend, who brought it over from Taiwan. It weighs only 350g, as compared to the original D7 seatpost that weighs 590g. Looks good too! Only problem is the seat clamp, which had dimensions that were slightly off from the seat rail width. Had to do a bit of bending and squeezing before the seat could be mounted properly.
Was in Hong Kong for a short holiday in July, and came across these two bicycle shops along Tung Choi Street in Mongkok.

The shops are quite interesting as they sell many different things that can't be found in Singapore or other places. For example, just for Dahon seatposts, they have like 6 different types of seatposts for sale. You can see the prices on the seatposts if you enlarge the image, and using the exchange rate of SGD $1 to HKD $5.5 at that time, you can get a rough idea of the price. Not cheap. By right photography was not allowed, but luckily I was not caught and chased out haha.

Tried my luck asking for Dahon specific skewers, which has a 74mm front width, as opposed to the usual 100mm. I was in luck as they had one pair in stock, in a nice gold colour. And that was how I got my special, unique skewers for my Boardwalk.

At this point, the only major component that has not been upgraded was the crankset. Read some reviews and found that the Shimano Hollowtech II cranks are really light and strong, and the external bearings make the cranks really stiff too. Decided to look around for good deals. As always, the first stop to look for good deals would be at Gee Hin Chan.

Brought my bike there one day and asked to upgrade the crankset to Shimano 105 crankset, with new Bottom Bracket too. Had a choice of last year's black 105 cranks, or the 2011 version of the 105 cranks, in silver colour. Decided that the black matched my bike more than the silver one. Because the 2011 version has just arrived, they didn't have it in black colour yet. For some reason the newer 2011 version was also cheaper by around 10%.

Of course must change the crank bolts to gold, to match my gold skewers! And as I expected, gold goes really well with black, especially on the 105 crankset. Removed the inner 39T chainring as I didn't need it.

Had thought of changing the BB to also a gold coloured version, probably a Token brand one. But it would have costed 3 times more than the 105 BB. In any case, the 105 BB works well and looks good on the bike, being an intermediate colour between the frame and the crank arm.

Could feel an immediate improvement in the stiffness of the cranks! There is no flexing when you push down hard on the pedals, and it feels smoother due to the sealed bearings in the 105 BB. Definitely worth the upgrade, although it is rather pricey. 10/10 for the looks of the crankset alone!

In the next part of the Boardwalk journey, I will talk about how I changed the bike from 8 to 9 speeds, changed the tires, and customised my own 9 speed cassette.