Journey of the Boardwalk: Part 9 (Upgrades from Taiwan)

More upgrades to the Boardwalk! Upgrades are never ending, especially if you already have an upgraded bike!

Went to Taiwan recently, thus I had the chance to buy some special components that cannot be found in Singapore, and possibly outside Taiwan!

As always, I like to keep to my colour scheme of gold and black, thus I already had in mind what I wanted to get before I went to Taipei. Also prepared a list of bike shops to visit, as can be seen from the previous blog post.

Initially wanted to get an aluminium Vitesse frame, but they did not have the type of frame I wanted (with luggage mount at front). Thus I decided to keep my trusty Boardwalk frame and upgrade other components instead!

Bought an Aerozine Road BB in gold colour, with ceramic bearings! Just spinning the sealed bearings by fingers, it feels a lot smoother than the original BB. Goes really well with the black 105 cranks. However, when actually riding the bike, the difference is quite negligible. The drag from the BB is quite small compared to other forms of drag, such as aerodynamic drag.

Also bought some gold coloured brake pad holders, which add to the bling! However these brake pad holders are "thicker" and "taller", and I had problems aligning the brakes to the rims properly. In the end I only mounted the gold brake pad holders onto the rear brakes. Note the alternating layers of black and gold across the brake area!

Also got a gold headset for my Dahon bike, but only when I tried assembling then I realised that the bearing races are press fitted into the frame and onto the fork. Thus I could only change the spacer/cap that is at the top of the headset.

More bling to come! Even the small details will not be overlooked, check out the gold brake cable housing!

The biggest change of all is the wheelset! Check out the gold rims with some slight profile, brings out the gold look of the bike! The spoke pattern is quite special too.

6 pawl freehub, slightly more drag but stronger.

Opened up the freehub mechanism and found that there was actually quite little grease in there. Decided to add in more grease to make the freehub smoother, but the additional grease will cause the noise level to drop. Note that the freehub grease is not your normal grease, it is actually a mixture of oil and grease, giving a grease that is very light.

Before changing the components, I found it easier to just strip the whole bike, clean everything and then assemble with the new components. Enjoy the pictures!

And finally, thanks Joeel for the great picture!

Taiwan: Land of the Bicycle

I'm back after a long break from blogging! Had an eventful June/July period, the most significant of which was the trip to Taipei!

Taiwan is the land of bicycle manufacturing, where most big brands base their operations. Naturally there will be many bike-related industries, such as bike accessories, modifications, customization services all around. Just in Taipei alone there are so many bike shops, but most of them are small shops. Very few large shops, and even fewer large folding bike shops. I had identified a few larger shops in Taipei to visit. Also happened to pass by some bike shops which I did not know was there.

The shops are rated according to 3 criteria: Range of accessories, Accessibility and Variety of folding bike stuff. The stores below are those which I feel are worth going, be prepared to get poisoned!

城市绿洲
104台北市中山區中山北路一段21號1樓
http://www.hometec.com.tw/
Accessories: 5/5
Accessibility: 5/5
Folding bike stuff: 4/5

Giant bike shop I came across near 巨蛋。

Stripe Magic (魔術方塊摺疊車專賣店)
104 Taipei, Taiwan台北市中山區復興北路36巷1號1F
Accessories: 5/5
Accessibility: 4/5
Folding bike stuff: 5/5

Bike shop outside Hualien Train Station

柒號公園自行車有限公司
臺北市信義區松隆路10號
Accessories: 3/5
Accessibility: 3/5
Folding bike stuff: 1/5

Bike shop at 淡水老街. Good to rent bikes from here to cycle to 渔人码头.

Bike shop opposite Miramar
Accessories: 4/5
Accessibility: 5/5
Folding bike stuff: 2/5

There is another bike shop, 八里羚羊車店（蒞達自行車行）, which is apparently quite good with a wide range of Dahon bikes and other brands. However it is not near any MRT station, thus we did not pay a visit to it. Although it should be quite easily accessible by taxi. The address is 台北縣八里鄉頂寮三街16號. Accessories: ?/5, Accessibility: 2/5, Folding bike stuff: 5/5?

Some of the other more interesting things can be seen in the pictures below...

Book on Shimano Road components maintenance!
At one of the book stores along 书局街。

Colour-coded modifications!

Black Vitesse at 城市绿洲

White Boardwalk at 城市绿洲

At 城市绿洲

At 城市绿洲

Pink brake pads at 城市绿洲

Carbon mini velo at 城市绿洲

Bike with kangaroo-like pouch on the top tube。 Seen at 五分铺。

Integrated front and rear lights at La Boutique Du Velo.

Carbon mini velo with special wheels at Stripe Magic.

New Bashguard for my Boardwalk!

Just got some new stuff to "zhng" my bike today! Remember the last time when I added a bashguard to my bike? It is to prevent chain drop, which tends to happen when I upshift when pedaling down a slope. I am happy to report that after installing the bashguard, there has been no chain drop issues at all! I can pedal and change gears whenever I like without fearing that the chain will drop off the chainring.

However, the bashguard which I installed the last time was gold in colour. Even though gold is part of my bike's colour scheme, the big disc of gold stands out too much and does not fit the overall look of the bike. The new black bashguard looks so much better! Also, I get to use my gold chainring bolts hahaha...

Birdy Disc Brake Review!

e-Walker had its official opening last Sunday, and it was quite a blast! Many people turned up to try new bikes, and we had the chance to bring the bikes out for an extended spin! These demo bikes included those in the Pacific Cycles range, such as the Birdy, Frog, iF Mode, CarryMe, Reach etc. There are also many configurations of each model of bikes, with different component set ups.

I chose the Birdy Disc Brake, because I wanted to check out how disc brakes would feel on small wheeled bikes, and also because I wanted to see how good the suspension system is. It is really a good looking bike, no doubt helped by the fact that it comes in a drool-inducing polished silver!

Me and my bike-of-the-day!

Initially I thought that it would not be easy for me to get used to the bike, because the geometry and riding feel would be different from my own Boardwalk. However, I found that the steering and stability feels very much the same as what I am used to. Although it is an 18" wheel bikes, at no point in time did I feel that the wheel size is smaller than my own 20" Dahon Boardwalk, and the smaller wheels is certainly no disadvantage.

Gorgeous looking Birdy!
Note that the saddle seems to have been attached to the seatpost the wrong way round.

Before I left e-Walker with the bike, I asked Fu De of e-Walker if the bike can hop down curbs with no problem. He replied confidently that the suspension of the Birdy will take care of it. To test out the suspension, I kept going onto the pavement to make the suspension work, going across tree roots, broken pavement and other obstacles on the pavement. As a final test, I went off the curb onto the road. When it landed, I could feel that the suspension seemed to compress a lot, but I did not get a feeling that it has bottomed out. This is probably due to the Polyurethane elastomer suspension in the rear, which did its job brilliantly.

Red coloured standard stiffness elastomer. Simple but effective.

It is quite amazing how the front and rear suspension dampens out most of the road vibration. Even on broken roads or uneven ground, the suspension works perfectly, ensuring that the rider does not feel much bumpiness. It is something that you have to try the bike in order to fully appreciate it. Another kind of ground on which this little suspension bike excels in is those kind of red-tiled pavement/road or speed limiting strips. The bike essentially glides over these bumps without trouble, allowing you to maintain your speed even through these bumpy areas. On the other hand, a bike without suspension would not be able to go so fast comfortably because there would be excessive vibration.

Spring suspension with elastomer.

However, the disc brakes were quite disappointing. They are Avid BB7 cable disc brakes, supposedly quite a good set of brakes. However, the braking performance was not what was expected of disc brakes. The braking power was barely equal to a set of good V-brakes. I'm not an expert on disc brakes, so I am not sure of the reason behind this poor performance. It is probable that the rotors may not have been run in, or the adjustment was not properly done, or maybe the rotors just needed to be cleaned, or a better brake pad used. With the highlight of this model of Birdy being the disc brakes, it definitely does not justify the extra cost of the disc brake model. Unless the braking performance is greatly improved.

Front and rear disc brakes.

The wheelset that comes with the bike is excellent, very smooth rolling. The default Marathon Racers are perfectly suited for this kind of bike. If a slick tire such as a Durano or Kojak is used, it would be risky to go slightly off-road, even though there is suspension, because the slick tire would have less grip, be more likely to get stuck in a groove and be more prone to punctures.

The Shimano 105 derailleur works fine, but the Shimano R440 9 speed flatbar shifter did not work perfectly. Maybe because I'm too used to top end shifters haha. Less discerning cyclists would not find a problem with it. The FSA Gossamer crankset works well, no flex in the bottom bracket at all.

The folding was a bit awkward, probably because I was folding it for the first time. The folding package is still rather large, and it looks like the bike is broken haha. It can be hard to balance it on the ground too. But I find it ingenious that the folding joints are also used as the suspension, eliminating extra pivots, joints and ultimately weight.

Overall, I find the Birdy to be an excellent full-suspension small-wheeled bike, and it is most effective when travelling on less-than-perfect roads, such as along Pioneer road towards Tuas, and along tiled pavement or roads.

The Good:
-Full-suspension
-Lightweight
-Good geometry
-Good wheelset
-Stiff handlepost
-Excellent suspension!

The Bad:
-Poor disc brake performance
-Awkward and odd-sized fold
-Expensive

Rating: 9/10

Me and my new bike! I wish...haha