Carry Me Delight! Avid Brake Levers and Ergon Grips

A new addition to the bike family! In addition to the Dahon Boardwalk X20-R, Dahon Vitesse P18-TT, and Flamingo London S7R, we now have a Carry Me!

If you don't already know, the Carry Me is a folding bike with tiny 8" wheels that folds really compactly. It is made by Pacific Cycles in Taiwan. When fully folded, it has an extremely small footprint and can literally go on any public transport at any time. It rides surprisingly well and it always brings a smile to someone who is riding it for the first time.

I got the bike second hand, but the condition is practically new! The previous owner did not really use the bike a lot and so I got a really good deal. Best of all, it was a really nice blue colour!

Overall view of the Carry Me

Front knob for locking down the main frame. I tried using a QR lever instead of the knob, but found the knob easier to use.

Came with upgraded Ezy Wheels! Very smooth rolling indeed.

Rear caliper brakes. Not of high quality, but it works.

Front caliper brakes. Seems that this bike needs long reach caliper brakes and thick but short brake pads.

Special drivetrain system, with half-pitch chain and gears. Crank arm is only 160mm to minimise pedal strike.

Front chainring with 84 tiny teeth. The bike is in such good condition that the plastic wrapping is still on the frame!

Rear sprocket with 14 tiny teeth.

With the 84T in front and 14T behind, it gives a driving ratio of 6. Together with the 8" wheels, the gear inch for this single speed bike is 48". This is not a high ratio, equivalent to about 52/21 on a 20 inch bike, but it feels just right for the Carry Me.

I have already started to zhng the bike! There wasn't any investment in components needed, thus I just made the switch. Also, I checked every bolt and nut on the bike to make sure that none of them are loose.

The stock brake levers are pretty bad, thus I switched in a pair of Avid FR5 brake levers that I had lying around as spare. At the same time, I also installed a set of Ergon grips which were previously used for the flat handlebar Dahon Vitesse.

Original brake levers and grips

Upgraded Avid FR5 brake levers and Ergon grips!

It is now more comfortable to grip the handlebars, and the brake levers seem to feel less squishy. Other accessories added are a set of small front and rear blinkers for night riding.

Riding this bike can be quite fun, as the turning radius is so small that you can practically keep turning on the spot. It takes a while to get used to the narrow handlebars, which makes the steering more twitchy. But it is very useful for getting through tight spots! Riding on the roads is not really recommended due to the slow speed and also small size which makes you less visible.

The small wheels means that you will feel every little bump on the road! But when pumped up to the recommended 80 PSI, the bike is surprisingly comfortable given such small wheels.

Some pictures of the folded Carry Me below!

 Only occupies one small corner

Takes up only 6x6 dots on the MRT platform!

Express fold, only half folded. Handlebar and seatpost not lowered.

Fully folded view. Tucks in anywhere discreetly.

Takes up less space than a rubbish bin!

This bike is perfect for mixed mode commuting. With a bike this small, you can go onto the MRT at any time. Very useful for getting to places within 3km of an MRT station/bus stop. Any further than that is still possible, but be prepared to sweat a little more and take a while longer!

Overall pictures of the Carry Me! Note where I wrapped the rear light.

Journey of the Boardwalk: Part 5 (PZ Racing & Gold Bling)

It has been a while since I last posted! Had been busy with cycling events such as NTU Bike Rally and OCBC Cycle. Suddenly had an inspiration to continue with the story of my Boardwalk, so here I am.

In the previous part of the story, the bike was upgraded from 7 speeds to 8 speeds and then to 9 speeds. The stock Dahon Neos Derailleur was used, even for 9 speeds. It worked decently, although it can be seen that it sometimes struggles a bit when changing gears. But it must be said that most of the time, it works extremely well, with fast precise shifts. A very decent derailleur.

In order to improve the shifting by changing the rear derailleur, an adaptor/gear hanger for the derailleur is needed. The problem with the Dahon Speed/Boardwalk series of bikes is that it does not come with a gear hanger fixed on the frame, neither does it come with a blank on the rear dropouts that can be swapped for a gear hanger, such as those found on aluminium frames such as the Vitesse or Mu series.

I actually came across some online sites from Taiwan and China that sell the special gear hanger for Speed/Boardwalk series bike frames, but it is a problem buying it as they usually deliver only locally and/or accept only local modes of payment.

However, I happened to ask KS from MBS about this, and he said that they have the gear hanger! In fact it was the last one available there, and it took quite a bit of effort and lots of searching before it was found. Really lucky of me to be able to get it.

The rare and elusive gear hanger for Dahon Speed/Boardwalk frames!

Of course, with the gear hanger, the next step would be to find a suitable rear derailleur. Since I already had a 9 speed shifter, the SRAM Attack, I would only need a compatible 9 speed derailleur. Initially wanted to get a black 105 RD, but it was not available. Settled on an Ultegra Short Cage RD instead. A bit of overkill, but I couldn't wait to get a new RD. It was not much more expensive than a 105 RD anyway.

The new Ultegra 10-speed RD looking sweet on the Boardwalk!

With the new cable routing required, a new gear cable and cable housing was also required. Also, the rear quick release only just managed to fit in, due to the additional thickness of the gear hanger.

Another significant upgrade that followed was the changing of the wheelset, again, from Kinetix Comp to PZ Racing. The front hub of the Kinetix Comp is actually very good, with smooth rolling sealed bearings. However the rear hub, which still used loose ball bearings, wasn't very smooth. Better than the stock wheel, of course, but still not as good as a sealed bearing hub. The only ones suitable, and available at MBS were either the PZ Racing wheelset or the Kinetix Pro wheels.

Settled on the PZ Racing wheels as they have more spokes that the Kinetix Pro wheels, which makes me feel safer and less likely to be in trouble due to broken spokes. They may not look as speedy or lightweight, but they roll very well indeed. The PZ Racing wheels also comes with nice carbon-wrapped rims and black bladed spokes. Sealed bearings front and rear makes the hubs roll very smoothly. Not to mention the loud and nice sounding freehub of the PZ Racing rear wheel! Once again, I was lucky as I got the last set of PZ Racing wheels available.

New PZ Racing wheels!

After upgrading practically every part of the bike, there isn't much left for upgrading. Came across this website, torontocycles.com, where they sell anodised aluminium bolts in many colours, some of which are specially made for bicycles. At that point in time, the only bling part which I had were the gold quick release skewers and the gold chainring bolts. Black seems to go well with gold by giving a very unique look. Therefore I decided to deck my bike out in more gold bling, by getting some gold bolts.

They even have the brake lever adjustment bolts in gold!

Some gold bolts here and there for the brake calipers.

Unique gold accented Ultegra RD!

Changed to the gold RD mounting bolt, cable clamp bolt and jockey wheels. In fact I got the whole derailleur kit in gold, but the other bolts such as the cable tension adjustment bolt and the high-low screws did not fit very well so I didn't change those. The RD mounting bolt as seen in the top of the picture was really tough to assemble, as the strong spring made it really difficult to align everything properly after dismantling. It took one hour and many sore fingers before it was assembled. Will not take it apart again!

The Token brand gold jockey wheels are really smooth compared to the default Ultegra jockey wheels. Definitely worth the upgrade and for the bling factor. However, as the jockey wheels are aluminium instead of the default plastic, they will tend to make more noise at certain speeds.

Gold QR and Presta Valve caps.

Gold accented drivetrain!

Very nice shot of the rear wheel and RD, courtesy of Taiwoon!

It has been a fascinating journey so far, with much knowledge gained and lessons learnt along the way. Of course, upgrading never really stops. In the next part of the story, the rear derailleur and shifters are changed yet again! Not without good reason though. Stay tuned!

Specialized Mountain Bike with Top End Components

Came across this very nice MTB with high end components. See only also shiok.

Bike for show only, never been ridden!

Super lightweight crank and XTR front derailleur

Very lightweight carbon rims, at 1250 grams per pair, its even lighter than the 20" Kinetix Comp wheelset! (~1500 grams)

Top end X0 shifters and Avid Juicy Ultimate disc brakes

Very good looking X0 rear derailleur with some gold bling.

Bike Testing After the Rain

Finally had a bit of good weather today! Ground was still wet but at least it was not raining. Decided to bring out the newly upgraded Vitesse for testing. Major upgrades include Kinetix Comp rims, Kinetix/Avid brake set, Ultegra RD and XT shifters, 9 speed cassette and chain. With so many changes at once, it is important to test out the bike nearby before going on longer journeys.

Went to the nearby Bukit Batok Nature Park for testing, because it has a long straight for me to test out the high gears (and top speed) and also a steep slope for testing the lower gears.


With the newly added fenders, I no longer have to worry about small puddles of water! I used to slow down to a crawl to go through the puddles, so as to avoid splashing the bike with water. However I can now go through at a good pace and the fenders will block everything. Although the fenders means the bike does not look so fast or lightweight, its really practical, especially if wet roads are expected. Saves a lot of cleaning too.

The XT shifters on the Vitesse are quite amazing. On the bike stand there was a bit of hesitation when shifting from gear 5 to 4, but during actual riding there was no problem at all. The chain shifted smoothly up and down through the whole range of 9 gears. Some of the upshifts are so smooth that I'm not sure if it has shifted, the only indication that it has shifted coming from the increased resistance at the pedals. The shifts are really crisp and fast and silent. Fantastic upgrades.

Next it was the Boardwalk's turn to be tested. Rode the Vitesse home and brought out the Boardwalk. However it started to drizzle again when I went downstairs. Thus I just rode circles around the void deck testing the gears. Somehow the shifting of the X9 is not as crisp as the XT, even though it was the other way round on the repair stand. I believe its because I was pedaling very slowly, thus the shifting was hesitant. Have to test it in a proper riding condition before conclusion.

Hope to go for a ride tomorrow (Wed) before the Chinese New Year weekend!

Journey of the Boardwalk: Part 1 (Kinetix Comp & Avid Brakes)

Shall now document the upgrading of my Boardwalk, from its humble beginnings to its current version, Boardwalk Z9, where Z stands for Zhng, haha.

Some pictures of the almost stock Boardwalk, with 7 speed cassette, Grip Shift, original brakes, and Dahon Neos derailleur. The saddle was the first to go, bought a Biologic Aria saddle, still using it even now. This was followed by the brake pads, switched to Gigapower brake pads.




One of the first components that I upgraded was the pedals. Very smooth and nice looking MKS FD-6 folding pedals. Still using these pedals now.


Soon the poison began to seep in. Out went the stock wheels, in came the Kinetix Comp rims and the Marathon Racers. Got the rims second hand, so it was a good deal. Together with the new tires, there was a significant improvement in the ride! These fast rolling tires and wheels enabled my top speed to increase by at least 5 km/h, even riding casually seemed to take less effort. Plus, the 3M reflective strip on the sidewall of the tires look good too!



Next, the brakes were changed. I did not like the mushy feeling of the stock brake calipers, which seemed to flex too much. Also, the brake levers had too much play up and down, and did not feel assuring. Found that the Avid Single Digit 7 calipers and Speed Dial 7 levers have very good reviews, and are reasonably priced. As a bonus they come with stainless steel hardware, so I no longer have to worry about rusting on the brake parts.


Again, this upgrade proved to be worth it as the brake feeling has improved tremendously. The brake levers feel very solid, and the brake calipers rotate very smoothly on its bushings. The levers also come with a red knob to modulate the braking power, where you can control the force transmitted to the brake calipers. In the end I did not use that feature as all, just left it as it is.

Most importantly, the brakes also look good! In the next part of the Boardwalk Journey I will be describing the switch to 8 speeds and also the Ergon grips.