well... whether it is on par or not... there is no scientific way to find out unless you own both or there is an independent arm takes all this frames to do frame deflection tests


other than that, it is just you say she say... it can get a lot of stars from god knows where... even the swiftcarbon got high praises on bikeradar making it sometime requiring a double check on it's facts...

and as for hee hong.. i trust them.. it is boardman that i do not trust... the bike business is like this... if a certain manufacturer or brand thinks that you are not doing well to promote their bikes... they can terminate or discontinue the dealership contract with you the next round and then depending on how it goes... it either disappears from the face of malaysia or in some cases more fortunately.. be assigned to someplace that is too far from you....

examples in recent years... you see the changing of dealer for

1) BMC from pedalspot to Pinkbike
2) Bianchi was on the verge from being yanked from under as someone was eyeing the brand
3) Van Nicholas changed dealers as well

that says a lot about how the bike business work...

as i say, i trust the shop... but, sometimes... no shop can have a stronghold on a particular brand for so long especially when there is a lot of people fighting for it.... unless it is started out as a concept shop in the first place like GH did with spez... then, maybe they are safer but most bike shops do not have capital like Gin Huat....

and here comes the nut kicker... what if you bought brand A bike from shop X.. half year down the road, they lost the dealership and it went to shop Y... RD hanger is the least of your worry... for any reason that you have a problem with a defect... you might have trouble with warranty or you will not be satisfied by the rate of how they treat your case or stuff like that....

it is a little more complicated then what i try to simply explain...some people really don't mind because simply they change bikes faster than this things can happen... so, it doesn't affect them much....

here is some good ref...

http://problemsolversbike.com/files/tech/B...s_Reference.pdf

BB30 bore size is 42mm... while PF30 is 46mm... that means the sleeve itself takes an additional 4mm on top of existing BB30 bore sizes...

let's kick this up a notch...

what is reputation??? the name tied to the product itself or the actual place where it is made from (meaning the different workforce skillset, manufacturing tool advancement and yada yada)...

i bet you know by now most manufacturers don't actually make their bikes in their originating country... for example... Trek only makes their top of the line Madone 7 and 6 i think in their waterloo facility in US... their lower end Madone 5 and below if i am not wrong i think is partnered with Giant (if i am not wrong) and made in "you know where"....i used to have a nifty picture showing who makes bikes for who...can't remember where i left it or posted in which version of this thread

so, if you know that.... does it still mean your trek is reputable... the world of bike manufacturing revolves around ODM and OEM today.... most big fellas have to rely on their asian partners to make some of their frames because of soaring costs in their country... and this makes their bikes expensive and not all people are willing to pay....

the biggest 2 ODM / OEM manufacturer in the world now is Giant and Merida... for all you know... your mid to low end colnago, pinarello could be made by either one of them or some even smaller firms...  even some spez is made by merida because we all know the connection merida has with spez on top of the shares they still have in spez....

arguably... the design can come from the originating country... but with carbon industry... the design is not the big thing... more secretive is the layup schedules, recipe to cure the carbon, epoxy, resin used and those are highly and closely guarded secrets... and if they think it's worth guarding... they make it close to them.. for example... surefire bikes that are made from where they claimed it is from... BMC Impec (because of the stupid giant looming system in Switzerland that costed Andy Riihs millions) and the full lineup of Time bikes as reportedly they weave their own carbon cloth or something like that...

so, if reputation is not where it is made... .then it's a simple thing... you just want to buy a nike that is made in a bata factory and nothing else matters.. you just trust it's reputation...

this are sometimes things that people dun really want to dwelve into because it is too complicated and information like this usually never get exposed as one factory can be manufacturing several top end firms bikes and they have to be shush about it....

it's one of those see no evil hear no evil sort of thing....

most have moved to PF30 for lowering costs...cannondale was quite late because they were the originator of 30mm spindles...but even the supersix evo hi-mod have moved to pressfit bb30...

as long as you see the name pressfit there.... it means it uses bearings that are pressed in.. it is only a matter of whether it is 30mm axles (bb30 standard) or 24mm axles (pf86 / bb90)....

you can read this to understand why the move from bb30 standard to pf30....
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/article...brackets-38220/
highway or expressway?

no offence taken. among the bikes pro riders ride, sworks was/is the cheapest. not sure how it got to be overpriced. spez don't pay me to ride/market their frame, but personally i feel they have the best value for a bike in pro peloton. but to each his own. maybe giant can match their price. but giant has all kinds of proprietary stuff.

my sworks sl3 i got it less than 6k, brand new. and not during crazy clearance sale.

colnago oso made in china la... they even admit it. but not sure about C59 or EPS

expressway tak boleh lar... sure kick out wan...

boy... does the wind change direction fast 

how's boardman warranty term? i remember last time i read an oversea forum, owner of a really old spez. his frame was damaged, after maybe 10 yrs of usage. went to a spez dealer, looked at it, took some photos and made a report. maybe due to a manufacturing defect, spez gave him a new tarmac frame, FOC. because the lifetime warranty.

some brands have really solid warranty.

btw ur boardman 9.8 comes with an integrated seatpost right? make sure u got the right person to size up and cut it, and make sure u gonna ride it as long as u can. or good luck selling it in the future.

technically? the taman in front of your house...

i've read one of tech editors or manufacturers response about this and it said carbon will not absorb water.

but some say it can.

anyway, i've had some scratches too. i used auto spray once, didn't really like the result. and then i used plastic model top coat for small nicks.

urs is clear gloss coat or matte finish?

i use something like this



but mine is matte finish enamel type.

stickers work just fine. but i don't like stickers.

you are referring to what you called exposed carbon as in losing some clear coat only right? not seeing the actual carbon tubes cracking...


this is what you don't wanna see irregardless of the length of the crack....

usually... what affects structure will produce some sounds when the tubes is placed under load or in torsion...

unless you hear sounds from your frame... then, i bet it should be safe.. if the crack is already that deep... nothing can save you apart from those carbon repair specialist like calfee...

a picture explains things better...

you either can press damn hard on the crack area or when riding and hear a cracking sound like a faint or loud krakk or something like that... then it should be no good and you should prepare for the worst...

some people use finger to tap... but sometimes it's not accurate cos carbon is not layup the same all over the frame...

WOAH!

try knocking the tubes with ur knuckle, see if there's any significant sound difference

that looked like you cracked the surface layer...the crack won't continue deeper unless those layers have also been compromised by a big impact thus causing some sound when the tube is being torsioned....

i can't say it's not a worry.... but then again, i doubt you want to plant money into another frame again right?

i say ride it and see what happens... there is practically nothing much you can do with this type of damage... the clear coats are just a form of cosmetic protection and they are doing no good to fuse the cracked layers back together....