It's new bike day! Today, let's check out a new kids bike. As mentioned in the blog page, the Bestrider Pump Pro 20 is a 20 inch kids bike, which will replace the smaller Bestrider Pump Pro 16. As what I did previously for the Pump Pro 16, I ordered the full bike, as it is not available in just the frameset. In any case, it is always good to see how everything was assembled on the full bike, before disassembling it for modifications. Ordered from Taobao, shipped from China to Singapore. Lots of colours to choose from! Fresh out of the box! Well packed with protection at all the right spot ..read more

Continuing from the previous post, where I showed the shifters and brake calipers of the LTWOO eRX groupset, here are the rest of the components. Front derailleur is 140 grams, quite a bit more than 111 grams of the Ultegra Di2 front derailleur. Similar linkage design as Shimano Di2 front derailleurs Inner view, looks the same as Shimano Di2 front derailleurs. I find that the corners of the motor housing look quite sharp, perhaps they can be rounded off a bit more. LTWOO eRX 12 speed rear derailleur. Looks pretty good! Also uses a similar link design as Shimano Shadow rear deraille ..read more

Nowadays, most mid and high end road bikes are equipped with hydraulic brakes as well as electronic shifting. The most common component brands are Shimano with Di2, and SRAM with AXS. Campagnolo has EPS, but it is rarely found because it is so expensive. There are a few brands which are trying to carve out a slice of the market share for themselves, and one of them is LTWOO. They have been making flat handlebar mechanical shifters for a few years, and now they have decided to release a groupset with electronic shifting and hydraulic braking. This is quite impressive as there are many technica ..read more

Quick comparison of 3 different top tier Shimano disc brake rotors! Dura-Ace RT900 - 1st Gen road specific rotor Large cooling fins help to reduce temperature, and prevent a finger from sticking inside, during a time where people were still wary of the danger of a rotating disc rotor. XTR MT900 - MTB style rotor, with multiple generations of the Ice Tech design Latest off-road style rotor, with small cooling fins. Can be used for road bikes too. Dura-Ace CL900 - 2nd Gen road specific rotor Cooling fins reduced in size to save weight. Design has been refined to be cleaner, while the spider a ..read more

Ever since the first Cycliq Fly 6 rear camera + rear light came out, I was surprised that there are so few competitors on the market. I believed that there is probably some kind of patent protecting this design, which is why there are no credible alternatives. I have used a few different generations of Cycliq Fly 6, can see the reviews here. For such a device, the most important features are: 1) Clear video - Requires some kind of stabilization technology, as well as good low light performance. 2) Good rear light - Does not have to be super bright, but should be "good enough". 3) Relatively l ..read more

In the previous post I introduced the new Dura-Ace CL900 disc brake rotors, and in this post I will show how it looks when installed onto the Specialized Aethos road bike. Dura-Ace CL900 rotor on the Aethos! I think it looks better than the XTR MT900 rotor. Close up look at the front 160 mm rotor The CL900 rotor has a more "rounded" appearance that makes it more suited for a road bike's image. Rear 140 mm rotor Looks so new... View of the full bike with the new CL900 rotors. Nice! Outdoor pictures of the Dura-Ace shifters, PRO handlebar and Garmin Edge 530. Trying some artistic ..read more

It has been nearly a year since I changed the disc brake rotors on the Specialized Aethos, but have not managed to write about it. The pace of my blogging is lagging way way behind when the modifications actually took place. Nevertheless, I strive to continue writing about all the changes to my bikes, for archive and comparison purposes. These are the newer RT-CL900 Dura-Ace rotors, which have a different appearance from the MT900 XTR rotors. They are cross compatible, but the CL900 rotors are supposedly more warpage resistant. For me, I usually choose rotors based on how they look and weigh ..read more

I have always had the idea to use bicycle crank arms as door handles, as they seem perfectly shaped for that purpose. When I finally had my own dedicated bike cabinet, I decided to mount my spare crank arms onto the doors, to be used as door handles. It is not a straightforward task to mount the crank arm onto the door, as there is no readily available mounting option. I decided to create my own 3D CAD for the adapters, and got it 3D printed! With the right design used, the crank arms can be securely attached to the cabinet doors. My idea is to connect both ends of the crank arms to the door ..read more

One of the cool accessories that the Lumos Firefly has is the Quad Charging Mat. The original Charging Cradle can only charge 1 light at a time, which is troublesome as I would usually charge at least 2 lights at one go. With the Quad Charging Mat, I can charge 4 Lumos Firefly lights at the same time! Check out the pictures below to see how it works. Quad Charging Mat for Lumos Firefly lights, available as an add-on accessory. Plug in a USB cable into the Quad Charging Mat, and insert up to 4 lights to be charged wirelessly, at the same time ..read more

Here are some modern bike lights with good connectivity! These are the Lumos Firefly which first launched on Kickstarter. It is very well funded on Kickstarter, and they provide detailed updates. Although the first shipment was slightly delayed, as per expected for almost all Kickstarter projects, it was not a big delay. What's interesting to me is that the co-founded and CEO of Lumos, Eu-Wen, is based in Singapore. This meant that the backers in Singapore were the first to collect the Lumos lights in person, from a collection party at Kian Hong Cycle at East Coast Park. Other than the light ..read more