if you feel felt is the bike you want...then go for it... as long as you are spending the amount of money on a reputable bike and not some XDS or unknown bikes... then it is ok...

as i have said from earlier... you have to make a decision yourself...no point this or that, review this and that, opinion this and that... at the end of the day, it is a question of whether you trust our bullshit, bike shop's bull shit or the bull shit you see from the net...

as long as it is a good brand and a good bike at the same price range of something you are targeting at and most importantly, you like it... then don't think twice unless you want to go on searching for more alternatives...
i think you have the concept of the best shop ever wrong..."卖花赞花香" if you understand the chinese term...if a shop sells trek and tell you to go get something else because it is more worth the price and you pay less for the same thing... that is one hell of a good shop... unfortunately, there is none such shop...everyone wants your business and money...

if this is the alpha 1.5 you are referring to and priced the same as the giant tcr 2 and the racelite 903??? then, it is a question of why not??? unless you don't like the color or design..
http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/road/...rt/1_series/1_5

it has to be something nice at the end of the day that you like...
we can't ride all the bikes and even if we do... it makes no sense as it will only be a first impression which can be very different from a long term feel....first impression can always be very inaccurate because the bike feels different than yours and you sometime feel it is better but in actual fact not... it is just a different feeling...

furthermore, it is only a little bit of difference here and there... if you niggle on this bits, you can continue on analyzing 50 different bikes in the coming weeks...

there is others... but there isn't much of a point telling you things you can't acquire from afar... almost all manufacturers have budget bikes with the exception of manufacturers like look and time...

the thing is, if you set the polygon as the base for a value for money bike...  i can tell you upfront now that there is no point is looking elsewhere because there will be no bike that can topple the RM3.6k price of a polygon C6.0

you are referring to this right?
http://www.polygonbikes.com/index.php?pgid...eid=483&par=390

this is 3.8 or 3.9 from what i saw at rodalink
http://www.polygonbikes.com/index.php?pgid...keid=528&par=11

you can always look for some cheaper bikes from scott, jamis, fuji, khs if it is available at your place... i believe EMC, boardman also has bikes down to those level but they are in KL and i don't think they are distributed to penang as far as i know....

aster @ velocipede works (in KL) lso has some very interesting models..... some SRAM Rival equipped bike for RM4.1k on the price tag... not sure how much they can discount...

they might cut some corners here and there to make it compete at the same price bracket as the cheaper brands...

the logic here will be very simple,
1) cheaper brand, compensated by better componentry
2) better brand, cut corners on components to make it compete with cheaper brands of same price
2 steps closer to sl5....