i never heard that exitway is from the US... if it is.. and the products looks like what it is now.. then, it is quite disappointing...

exitway does not have a big brand presence, just take a look at their dealer list and you understand why... that is the sole reason that for the same amount of money you spend.. . you get a better spec'ed equipment on the exitway bike than more reputable brands, based on the first look and on paper.... this however, does not consider the quality of the frame or the efforts put into designing and engineering and not to mention production quality of the frame itself...

polygon, for me is actually no far better than exitway in some ways.. but it has a big force behind it pushing it's presence... while it did not make a lot of fuss about what technology goes into their frames and using a lot of marketing strategies... they at least have quite a big support in the brand and if you visit indonesia... they have polygon concept shops scattered over the country....

merida.. also not as famous as some other big brands like Trek, Specialized... but they are similar to Giant as they are a very big OEM, ODM for even some of the top brands in cycling... so, they know how to make bikes through the years working with the big guns...

also, i am not saying that this will happen.. but you have to plan for it in case you realize that you actually don't like the sport after acquiring a bike... this is where the resale value for an exitway vs. a Polygon, Merida, KHS, Fuji or Scott comes into play...

so... from this point onwards... you have to weigh your options wisely.. one is superb value for money on paper.. the other is a reputable brand that provides excellent design and manufacturing...

maybe some cinaman go US start a company but manufacturing is done in china leh... macam apple dulu... "Design in California, Made in China"... see adi potong stim maximum...especially when you spend RM6k buying a rubishing laptop from them...

except paying for the bill

Scott maybe a bit too far away considering having to purchase full gear...

Merida still possible i think...go take a look and see what they offer you first before deciding... as the decision also causes you to stick to that particular shop due to after sales service... sometimes it is worth to pay just that little bit more because you find 1 particular shop better than the other even thought the price is slightly higher...

it's a long term relationship if this hobby becomes a permanent..

the idiots answer to your question is "always get the best you can afford to"... whether it is RM3.8k or RM13.8k...

but, the big question is... would you find yourself itching to make changes / upgrades to the bike if you buy one that is under RM2k... an 1.8k bike with a full 105 groupo swap will land you a RM2k debt easily... of course, you can make some money back by selling your old parts and stuff.. but, why the hassle?

then comes the 2nd question and this will make your life even more difficult.. since you are considering tri.. are you considering a tri-specific setup or a normal road bike setup with drop bars and clip on aerobars? (assuming you don't want to spend on having 2 bikes) latter is the more common route for budget people since the bike can be used for training and racing despite some setbacks...

if you will be looking for base bar-aero bar setups with bar end shifters... 10-speed is definitely the way to go for a new bike since there is no longer 9-speed bar end shifters in the KL market anymore... all shimano units are 10-speed dura ace units... and with 10-speed.... it is easier for you to find more varieties in cassette options... i know quite a lot of the endurance fellas run with 11-23 cassettes and you won't find that easily on a 9-speed cassette even if you want to (at least not easily)..

the best guys to ask for their setup and experience i guess would be sky and vin_ann since both of them do a bit of endurance events with their bikes..

most brands offer an entry level, mid-range and high end bikes...

question is.. which brand is more expensive? for example, the likes of bmc, trek, specialized, scott, pinarello's are all sort of boutique brands and their cheapest bike would be considerably more expensive than brands like KHS, Fuji, Merida, Polygon...

it is hard to tell since you don't know the market that well... and most of this brand sites don't actually list MSRP on their bikes...

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Added on August 11, 2012, 10:16 pmbet you're happy like a kid in a candy store... how much does the wheel cost?

This post has been edited by butthead: Aug 11 2012, 10:16 PM

That will be under RM1k already wor..

nicely said...

leaky frames is a funny reason... which frames don't have drain holes to let water out in case you ride in the rain?

i won't vouch for polygon designs... personally.. i don't think much of that brand for somethings i've observed over time... but that is just me nitpicking on things that i should only expect when paying top dollars... overall a brand that makes entry level road bikes all the way up to carbon road and TT bikes must not be too shabby any way you see it...

exitway, polygon? it's your own judgement call at the end of the day...

how much is this?

guan chow as far as i know is a major distributor like gin huat if i am not wrong... not sure if they actually manufacture bike parts.. but they are listed as the distributor in malaysia on exitway... i am not sure they will sell direct to end user since i mailed them before enquiring on some gore ride-on cables... i wanted to see if they brought into malaysia and i got no replies... they said they have a showroom... but not sure if it is meant for end users or the dealers...

you don't want to go into swapping groupsets... very painful process not to mention the money you have to re-invest... if you start with an 8/9 speed.. you will be looking at a complete group swap for almost the price of your bike... even if you just change the chain, shifters, cassette forcefully without the derailleur... purchasing those items separately is going to cost you considerably more when you compare it to an entire group itself...

not to mention if you start off with a pricier 10speed bike... you get better stuff to begin with.. maybe seatpost, stem, handlebar, and saddles are a notch up than your 8-speed bike...

if you remotely have the slightest thought about that... i prefer you either spend more initially or delay your bike buying process and save up until you can afford it...

BTW, there are no longer 8-speed in the market my bad... forgot about the st-2300... even the cheapest sora is already 9-s???

on an MTB... the difference between 9 and 10-speed are sometimes not that felt...yes, maybe there can be an extra 36-t cog instead of just a 34-t...but, on a roadie... more cogs meant less jump in teeth count and that lets you maintain a much lesser difference in cadence when you shift up or down during rides... by far, not a very important thing... but helps reduce a certain amount of fatigue in super long rides...and most importantly.. easier for you to find that right gear just for the speed you are riding...

there is no such things about no future upgrades... but, it's good to help prevent UN-necessary upgrades... for example... let's say you have a set of shimano 2200 or 2300 group on your budget bike and you want a swap to new 10s transmission because you want more gear choices or a wider range casstte but you are limited by $$$... so, you get the cheapest there is... a tiagra set... then once you are on a tiagra... you start wanting more and you aim for a 105 or ultegra... then you have to plan for another upgrade which means more $$$... but this time... there isn't much functional diff. except for better performance and stuff... not the best of examples... but if you feel what i am trying to convey...and all the time on a ill matched frame which is kinda demoralizing...

there are also instances where you find yourself in a pickle for example, if your old 9-s shifter broke and you can't source a replacement 9-s shifter... then, you are forced to move to a 10-s unit... and more money is spend on changing thing you might not want to change...again lousy example.. but possible to happen...

i won't guarantee you a no upgrade story... but at least if you get the base functionality on the bike right during the purchase.... you can possibly delay that upgrade by a bit or hopefully for that impulsive thought to blow over and be contempt with what you have in hand and save up for something bigger...

like i said above... maybe, maybe not.. but once things gets serious... you will at one point find the use for that 1 or 2 extra cogs... and this is a sort of inevitable thing...

i am on a wide range cassette and i miss out on a lot of cogs especially in the mid range... so, i sometimes find it hard to find the right gear on the flats... but i can laugh at other people on the slopes... sometimes, you just wish there is another 2 or 3 cogs to fill that gap...

as long as you ride by yourself... you don't catch the difference as quickly.. once you ride with a group of friends... you will find yourself comparing and analyzing when you are trying to follow wheels and things like that... this is where the danger comes...

This post has been edited by butthead: Aug 12 2012, 11:45 PM

of course la... your TCR SL3 is almost the cream of the crop in alloy bikes already..only the CAAD10 or canyon AL9 ultimate will be capable of topping your giant...

i am quite resistant to super cheap bikes from my past experience.. i bought a super cheap mountain bike... considered cheap as it was the only 3 figure MTB with a disc brake and 9s drivetrain at that time... and i saw some SRAM X5 parts and got too excited for that price...

little did i know... it came with some lousy crankset... poorly made hubs... and within the first 2 months of riding... ran into problems with a loose BB and forced to change it was busted... then, not long after... it was busted again with the crankarms coming loose once in a while...finally, fed up and decided to spring a bit more to fix the problem once and for all... had to buy a shimano entry level crank with it's BB for a little over RM200... that much for a bike that only costed RM950... then came the wheels which i had to swap out because rebuilding with a replacement hub costs as much as the factory made wheels and i had to fork out money as the factory made shimano wheels demanded a different rotor (center lock) and that was more money down where i don't see a purpose... that's among the list of problems that i ran into with that bike... total tally of repair costs on that bike alone is much more than the initial costs of that bike itself...

i would have been so much better off (financially) getting that giant bike with 8-s and v-brakes... at least, it had a complete more reliable shimano group on it...

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Added on August 12, 2012, 11:40 pmthen you qualify for this after that...



This post has been edited by butthead: Aug 12 2012, 11:40 PM

let's not hope for that to happen... pain is the inevitable thing if that happens... being in the hospital explaining what happened to the doctors is totally another thing that you do not want to go through after the amount of pain being endured...

that's why it's critical to see further ahead... if eventually you see yourself splurging for it... might as well be patient and save up a bit more and get a more suitable one later on...

no point trying to save a couple hundred bucks here to land up with another easy 4 figure debt later on...

that is purely the reason you have to think very very hard on your roadmap for the bike... think far and ahead...

i know it's hard especially being the first bike... but there is still somewhat a balance between needs and sacrifices that can be achieved and there is many ways to get there... like trying out friends bikes and stuff like that if you have that luxury...

else, be contempt with what you have gotten yourself in a haste...

find some time, think it over and make your decisions patiently... good things comes to those who can wait...

don't let the bike shops rush you into decision by letting them coax you on getting a cheaper bike...they tend to do that when they sense you could not afford something they recommend and they don't want to lose your biz.... definitely a plus for them since you might come back and buy another bike or upgrade if you are not satisfied which is also more biz for them... know what you want and stand firm for it...

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Added on August 13, 2012, 10:56 amit's an old professional riders trick... jus stuff it under the jersey...


i sort of think it doesn't really work as well here... because most of this happens in european high mountains where the air is too cold or there is a possibility of high humidity that the riders want to use the newspaper to soak up the moisture... now riders have very good inner wear and race jackets in the events of a cold descent which the team soigneurs will prep and hand to them at the top of the climb...

This post has been edited by butthead: Aug 13 2012, 10:56 AM

i jus banzai down the descent without anything... jerzey zipper open fully somemore...

malaysia is shit hot la... never experienced any situation so cold that i tak boleh tahan... pneumonia is definitely a no happen over here...

my worst day pun... pakai arm warmer only...the hands too cold and very hard to grab the brakes.

WRONG!!!...

just proves that i have more layers of fat than you do... and fat keeps shit warm... like polar bears and penguins...

he didn't do it on his BMX did he?

high speed descents is quite a norm for them as they have each other to draft... genting highlands are laid full of corners and each no futher than half a K apart... i couldn't muster past 100k on genting highlands either... not even from descending down to ulu yam which is much straighter than sempah...

if you looks at one of the merckx documentaries... there is a section talking about bikes during that era descending the technical descents of the pyreneesian climbs... and team cars of those era was driven so hard just to follow their riders that tires were screeching away..

even the moto calvacade nowadays are finding it hard to keep with bikes on the more technical ones... they need long straights in order to catch up to them...

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Added on August 13, 2012, 4:00 pmwho's the culprit

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Added on August 13, 2012, 4:03 pm
don't look like much..


not really too fancy... but just right...


your desk job not interesting?


danger lanes


jerseys-jerseys...


whose office is this you might ask...

dead giveaway...


for more needless information...
SRAM World Headquarters Tour

This post has been edited by butthead: Aug 13 2012, 04:03 PM

for the old farts...

the days of the SRAM ESP carbon derailleur... a failure if not an epic one...



and their roots in drivetrain manufacturing... their acquisition of sachs gmbh.

cross bikes, yes... general road bikes, no...

cross bikes needs it because of the fact that the disc is further away from ground and prevents mud splatter from hitting braking surface..

and most road bikes have very little spoke count nowadays and the disc mounted on the hub creates additional stress where there is already a lacking of support.. and for disc to take up some space on the hubs, they will sacrifice the width of the hub body and reduce the spoke bracing angles / stance making a less stiffer wheel laterally... so, for disc to come into general road bikes... quite a big revamp will be involved in the wheel industry..

and not to mention the weight weenies... there will be no disc brake systems that will ever rival the sub 250 gram / pair calipers of eebrakes and the likes...

don't see much trend in it personally... i might be wrong, which i am most of the time

regarding overheating, i don't think it will happen unless you go on banzai descents with super late braking... it should outlast most carbon or even aluminum rim setups... the only worry is the resin compound on the pads start gliding and lose it's drag coefficiency a wee bit in long extended heat soaks...

at least, you won't be seeing this happening to bike rotors..

wah.. can't even pay for the 10% deposit wor....

you looking at the Civic Hybrid... or

JENG!!! JENG!!!

not exactly new la.. but, i just mention it for fun

i don't really get the point of hybrids... got the chance to drive a jazz hybrid not so long ago... wasn't really as economic as i thought it was going to be (very dissapointed after all the forumers say them hybrids can do magical figures with 1 tank)...

and frigin terrible car during traffic jams... it either doesn't want to move with very low throttle or it rushes forward when you give it a bit too much (can be the fact i am not accustomed to it yet la)... and then there is the thing with the darn thing keeps shutting the engine down or kicks the charging mode on at the wrong timing and causing tiny jerks when the car is coming to a stop from crawling slow speeds in jams... don't think you can see it from outside.. but definitely feels that a new driver dunno how to operate the clutch in a manual box...

freaking annoying for paying almost 100 grand...

and... it's a ticking time bomb for the friggin battery to expire on you... i heard something like an RM18k replacement...WDF... dun even know if it can reach ROI before it farks up...

your one rubbish la...

my one older than yours... below 4 figure... got 9-speed already...

that depends on what you are deciding to get... and if you do upgrade, are you satisfied with your current bike or even it after the upgrade?

you don't want to go down the path where you've done all the upgrades to find that you actually don't like the frame or something like that... you get a double whammy at that point....

since you are already at that point.. it's better if you think of the long term rather than the short term changes...

haha.. RM340... the time when chicken rice was still under RM2.50 per plate la... now RM340, carrefour also don't have bicycle to buy... maybe the kiddie ones...

i used to frequent edwin's shop to get the fake GT triple triangle MTB frames too.. haha... no money buy GT or Gary Fisher back then la....

the allez 105 is kinda pricy... but heard it's not a badly made frame especially if you get the E5 ones over the standard A1...

my favvy aluminum bike will always be the canyon AL9.0 ultimate...

weight is no issue la... it will come down with enough effort.. jus get some reliable wheel initially and you will be safe...

yeah.. those were the days when you swallow 3 big bowls of noodles and still dun feel sorry for anything... now, 1 bowl already feel sorry for the wallet...

apa komplain komplain la... home made lunch = self made lunch... komplain komplain mah end up komplain kat sendili...

actually... only 3 extreme sport sifu la... 1 national athlete, 1 endurance athlete and 1 ultra marathoner....

the rest are all here c0cking only...

RM1.5k... no way... i rather spend a bit more and get a more reputable one.. i am sure there is some in the RM1.8k range... maybe a sora mix 9-s bike...

point being poison...

no lar... let you reference ma... the price might not reflect the actual... but it should be quite close to it...

yeah... the price is only less than 2k away from some of the entry level carbon models... which makes some people rethink their choices....

was among my consideration at one point too but the price did put me off a bit after including the costs of some parts swap..

there is no relation of frame to groupset... all groups are designed to work with any frames... the only exclusion is the front derailleur as there are several clamp sizes or braze on types...

all else, the same...you just need to check before purchasing..

no, you didn't... wat is tat about... me interested too...

wat is defined by cyclist friendly property??? and wats special for runners... they dun have elevator and make you run up to your unit through the stairs???

one to buy me a bachelor pad so i can bring my slam piece to my 2nd home every night

bike geek....or awkward weirdo who has sex with his bike... whichever you like...

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Added on August 15, 2012, 10:05 amwith uncle tan ar... you better not expect too much ohh...

u let him see your face 1st then only you know... or you have someone who knows him well...

eerrrrr.... how can "no body will come and ask u anything" = "good service"...

or you tokin bout workmanship?

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Added on August 15, 2012, 10:28 amwe used to joke about unker tan's mechanics... tortoise slow as they use all the tools to do their work like headset bearing cup press to install the headset on new frames while other bike shops just take a wooden piece and bang the thing in...

those are the days when people still build bikes from the frame up and carbon has not become mainstream yet la..

today, if you find any bike shop banging on anything... they immediately need getting a walloping immediately...

different level of service and workmanship nowadays... especially when customer of the bike is present...

This post has been edited by butthead: Aug 15 2012, 10:28 AM

you mean fapmobile....

here is a bunch of fap girls...


i had never stopped grumbling and ranting at any and everything... maybe i did... most probably my keyboard got tired of my incessant c0cking and decided to self implode on me...

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Added on August 15, 2012, 12:06 pmhe got his own plan la... go merayau-rayau with his GF...

and YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!... i get to go see hot pants all by myself... all for me and for me only...

no way man...i still wanna eat pork...

anyways... i dun celebrate anything... no x'mas, no raya, no deepavali, no CNY... although i welcome the gifts, ang paos, green paos and watever paos that is of value... no dao sar pao, chasiew pao, kaya pao, lin yong pao, sang yuk pao pls....

This post has been edited by butthead: Aug 15 2012, 12:09 PM