XO Durian Cheong Fun
House of Rice Roll & Porridge
75 Killiney Road

served cold
with sprinklings of sugared crushed peanuts
the traditional chee cheong fun
with a dessert twist
imagine soft and light rice flour rolls
which are true for all their huge range of cheong funs
(see their prawn version)
this one is packed with thick durian pengat
and u get this delightful treat
im glad they didnt sweeten out the durian paste
made for a real fusion dish
with authenticity in it
which may seem paradoxical, an authentic fusion
good stuff.

Cannondale for G-Star Raw

Raw Cannondale

this is a collaboration between g-star raw and cannondale
this is part of g-star raw's crossover concept to tie-up
and produce products which reflect its rugged image
and its industrial look
so besides this they also have stuff like
the raw defender and raw ferry
this is pretty much the standard "bad boy" frame
with the headshok and all
but its got lotsa custom parts
like tricked out fenders and leather saddle
hydro disc brakes
and there's only 500 of em
sweet.

laksa cream seafood pasta
creation cafe
shaw towers (beach road)

this is really good
damn good food, damn good price
haha better than botak jones anyday
in terms of value
for 15.20 nett
a dinner set meal will give you
soup with bread
one pasta
dessert
drink
the laksa cream sauce tasted authentic
but for one thing
if they put the laksa leaves
it would've smelt much much better
but still, it was very well done
for dessert, the brownie was standard fair
but what stood out was the apple crumble
so i would say dont waste time on the brownie
all desserts come with a dollop of vanilla ice cream
shioks

back.

i'm back!
had lotsa fun relaxing and drinking coffee in hcmc
i swear if there's one thing i didnt wanna leave behind it was the coffee
oh well i posted photos on my facebook
im too lazy to put entries here
hahaha

thunder tea rice
suntec city food republic

supposedly a hakka dish
i had absolutely no idea this thing even existed
but considering the super vegetably taste
and the chlorophyll tasting soup
kinda reminds you of that korean rice bowl as well
strangely, if i get rice and food and soup at home
sometimes i pour the soup into the rice
which is precisely what you do here
you pour the bloody green nonsense into ur rice
i thought it was a bit iffy at first, but it turned out ok

seen at bikeasia08. (cannondale ON)

seen at bikeasia08. (colnago for ferrari with lightweights)

another colnago for ferrari bike
but this one has custom
lightweight wheels by carbonsports

just look at these huge ass hubs
they're supposed to be the stiffest in the world

one word says it all

seen at bikeasia08. (cannondale supersix)

Cannondale SuperSix
first full carbon frame from dale

zero gravity brakes

zipp carbon crankset

sram red rear derailleur

sram red hollow cassette

EXAMS ARE OVER!

seen at bikeasia08. (bianchi & ducati)

bianchi had some really nice stuff on display
loved their classic stuff so much
cuz they have this really nice shade of pastel green
as their trademark colour
and this badge was so ol sch
i had to take a photo of it

the 928 carbon
veloce components
full carbon frame

this was a beautiful steel bike
with really cool reverse brake levers (below)

did you know bianchi made bikes
for ducati as well?
yeaps
if u visit the bianchi website
there's a ducati section
this was the ducati bike on display
at the ducati section of course

seen at bikeasia08. (cannondale slice ultimate)

this is the beauty
that faris al sultan is riding now
its a really sweet ride
and my friend josh was lucky enough
to see it when he went for ironman langkawi recently
he also met the man himself!
haha damn lucky to be so close to the kona winner

thats the bike on the left
and josh on the left
the cool part about faris's version
it the xentis integrated aerobars at the front
and the mark 1 aerowheels from xentis as well

faris al sultan in the middle

images kopped from facebook, thanks josh!

seen at bikeasia08. (colnago extreme power)

more ram bars
pure art
this one had pictures of the cinelli logos
in doodle form
bright colours covered in high gloss
really trick

i want to achieve critical mass

seen at bikeasia08. (cannondale six13 6)

Cannondale Six13 6
in Lightning White
full shimano tiagra groupset
which is like second from the bottom in terms of groupsets
i was really surprised that this groupset which is normally paired
with lower end bikes
was put on the six13
which is a very very high level composite frame
i just thought this was a one off just to display the frame
as a full bike for the show
but lo and behold
i went to cannondale's website
and there it was
the Six13 6
full tiagra
right at the bottom of the tier
reduced in hierarchy
by the SystemSix and the SuperSix
to an "entry level" model
thats damn sad
it was only in the year 2006
that it was the most elite model from cannondale
absolutely ridiculous
but i guess this sudden rate of technology transfer
was due to cannondale jumping on the carbon bandwagon late
so due to consumer pressures they had to quickly
downgrade all of their aluminum models
which is very sad
because prior to the carbon revolution
cannondale was known for making some
of the lightest aluminum frames

lust.

i want this baby.

image from wacom

seen at bikeasia08. (shimano deer head)

Shimano Deore XT "Deer Head" Group (1982)

this was officially the first mountainbike
groupset ever made
it was ridden by pioneers in mountainbiking
when it first started out as a very niche sport
I have my speculations
because on certain old documents
the components are labelled
"deer head XT"
deer head/deore/deer head/deore
say it fast enough
did our beloved deore
stem from the words "deer head"
i think it is a little far fetched but not entirely impossible

but that being said
these were probably the most pimp and zhng
parts available during that period of time
the brushed silver finish
with clear graphics of the deer head
was a metaphor for cowboy style riding
i think the simple logo is visually very appealing
there is a slight relief in the black area
which makes the deer head come out at you
i think this is retro fierce

fd-m700 front derailleur

rd-m700 rear derailleur

sl-m700 shift levers

seen at bikeasia08. (high end polygons)

these are all of polygon's high end offerings
all in full carbon fibre frames
with the highest end components
a couple of years back, polygon gave me the impression
of being this really crappy market bike
and being the elitist shit that i am
always used it as an adjective for a market bike
needless to say my opinions have 180ed
and well, you really couldnt
(even if u tried)
to call these beauties
market bikes.

the helios spirit, the highest end tt bike
full campy record
mavic cosmic carbones
vision carbon integrated tt bar
8700 sg yuan
i've been wanting to take a look at this in their shops
but i never did get to see one
saw it since last year

the helios 780
with full campy record
mavic ksyrium es in this display
although the website shows it with sl's
full ritchey wcs carbon components
4900 sg yuan

the 780 again, in full dura ace

this baby is the cozmic rx3.0
full carbon hardtail
sid fork
full xtr
ritchey wcs
mavic slr wheels

i believe that other than the tt bike
the others offer really good value for money
although please dont quote me on the pricing
its just what i saw on the labels at the show
i highly doubt the campy version of the helios 780
is the same price as the dura ace
which is what the tags there seemed to indicate

seen at bikeasia08. (wr80 womens road shoe)

SH-WR80
this is shimano's highest end
women's specific road shoe
its made smaller for female feet
especially for asian female feet which are typically shorter
it also comes with shimano's
new heat mouldable technology
so you get a custom feet for your foot everytime
actually i took this shot cuz i love the colours
but its really sad i cant show them here
they're really a nice shade of baby blue trim on white
and the model number is this yellow in cursive at the rear
nice.

paris-roubaix

at almost exactly 11pm singapore time

BOONEN WINS

with Cancellara in second
cyclingnews site was totally lagging
from the live feed traffic

image from james huang, cyclingnews

seen at bikeasia08. (pro stealth evo)

once again, this is from pro
the stealth evo carbon integrated handlebars
in white
the anatomical model is displayed here
you can see the very wide top section of the handlebar
which allows you to comfortably rest
in a relatively upright position
it weighs in at 350g
which is a pretty decent weight for a wing bar
i took it cuz it would make perfect eyecandy for katrina.
a full white bike
hmmm
paolo bettini....

seen at bikeasia08. (brembo carbon disks)

the very very pimp
brembo carbon disk brake rotors
used by the best in the moto gp

this is not exactly bicycle related
but i was just musing that since the disk brake for bicycles
was taken from motorcycle technology
will we see carbon rotors soon?
or even ceramic composite rotors soon?
i believe the possibility is not far off
it might even happen by next year
considering the rapid technological advances that have happened
over the last few years alone
so dont be too surprised or skeptical

i can already imagine the xtr cnc'd on the caliper

seen at bikeasia08. (sram gxp1)

this is another thing which is not on the manufacturers website
i believe right now it's only stocked on oem bikes
the sram gxp 1

which is currently stock on this cannondale
the north american version of the rize 4

which interestingly is very different from the
european version
which uses more shimano parts and mavic rims
the eu version also uses avid diskbrakes
in favour of the states's hayes ones

so after digressing,
the point was that the sram gxp1 crank
is the same crank as the truvativ stylo 3.3 team
which is not surprising, but i think
the new look of the gxp1 is more geared towards
the "red" range that sram has launched for the road groups
with its gunmetal anodized chainrings and wet black finish
most alloys will go for the wet black finish these days
as it looks very much like a carbon clearcoat