PureBikes Greed SL - Review

I received the official NTU road frame 3 weeks ago from PureBikes. Aptly named "Greed SL" for all those no-compromise roadies out there who want :

1) Low weight
2) Stiffness
3) high quality material (it uses the same carbon fibre you get in the Giant TCR Advanced)
4) sex-appeal

at an incredible price. This is my third road bike to date, having owned an old Trek 1000 and a 2009 Fuji Roubaix Pro (half carbon). All bikes have been equipped with the exact same Shimano 105-5600 i bought 2nd hand off a friend in the cycling team a year and a half ago. Bearing this in mind, my opinion on the quality of the frame is as pure as can be (no pun intended).

I built up the frame with a 5600 Shimano 105 gruppo, Fulcrum Racing 5 wheels,  Ritchey seatpost, Token Saddle and cheap plastic water bottle holders. Nothing fancy at all.

The first ride was amazing. The frame was stiff, responsive and every pedal stroke kept pushing the bike forward. Gone was the sluggish response I had experienced with my earlier 2 bikes.

This bike is built like Ulrich. BEEFY! Everything about this frame is huge! The massive bottom bracket, the beefy chain stays and the thick fork all scream "STIFFNESS!". And from the 300km i've clocked on it (from secret rides mostly), it certainly is. Its extremely neat as well. Internal routing does away with unsightly cables running down the tubes and gives it a sleek look.

I even pimped it out for a ride using a pair of Zipp 606s I borrowed and this bike was even faster. My unfit body could propel it easily at 33-35kph and I bet with a slicker set of wheels and a fitter body, I could hold 37kph , 40kph easily if I were drafting a peloton.

Wen Jie, the other cyclist in the team currently riding this frame could hold the bike at 40kph in Tuas. Now he's small, so that speaks volumes about the power transfer from the pedals to the wheels.

Comfort wise, let me be frank. I ride the Kranji Loop frequently (part of my secret training route) and you'd know that Neo-Tiew is littered with speed strips and potholes and bumps. My old frames had a very harsh ride, so much so that I'd be off the saddle the minute i saw any non-even surface. The Greed SL on the other hand simply soaks up road vibration making it extremely comfortable. I'd use it for a fast ride as well as a 300km long distance tour.

I will be racing in KL in October during the OCBC Cycle Malaysia and I can't be any happier doing so on the Pure Greed SL.

If you're looking for a stiff, light and fast frameset with sick graphics and sex appeal that does not break the bank, look no further than the Pure Greed SL.

Singapore 2010 Logo Launch Mechanism - Behind backstage!

Memories =D ...................

Finally, a direction!

I've been a tad bit lost for the past few months in terms of knowing what i want to do upon graduation. The initial plan was the graduate with a BEng (Mech) and apply for a job in Singapore as a project engineer, but after a mind numbing, excruciating internship, i've come to grips with one fact about myself :

I CANNOT DO THAT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE

It started out well, new things, having a learning curve, and then came the excruciating boredom. The lack of a thought process in what i was doing for the past 6 months, the daily grind of doing the same thing. Perhaps research would have been more exciting but i'm not the type of person to slave away at a single project for months without seeing some personal gain in it for myself. Call me selfish, but its how i operate.

Then i decided to go start the process of applying to do and MBA, it being one of those exceedingly versatile degrees, widely applicable in any industry which deals with strategic thinking, people and how to conduct business. And then i hit yet another problem. I had no idea what i wanted to do once i got an MBA. Work for a bank? (Ugh, good money but its not for me), high flying CEO job? (too little time left over for personal hobbies when i have shareholders to consider, please correct me if my perception of this is wrong if you happen to be a CEO reading this).

And then i started reading up articles on consulting companies, oil trading, energy management and chancing across companies like Boston Consulting Group (BCG), McKinsey and British Petroleum, all offering MBA holders with engineering backgrounds company fellowships and work which require thinking on day to day basis. An oil trader for BP comes in every morning, pores over notes and news for the day and then strategises his trading for the day to maximise profit. 

A BCG  consultant for example goes over a clients business practice, down to even the positioning of sales counters in a particular store (assuming client is in retail) and uses human behavioral science and relations between sales figures and payment counter locations to maximise profit for the client.

 I find these very interesting, and if an MBA opens those door for me even wider, hell, i'm going for it. 

Now's the time my real education begins.

Cheers from the,

Matrix

Appeal to fellow foodies!

Sin Huat Eating House's Crab Bee Hoon

I have been dying to try out this place in Geylang, Singapore. Pity about the 5 star prices of :

SGD 72 - Crab Bee Hoon

SGD42 - 6 steamed Tiger Prans, yes ONLY 6!!!

SGD25/kilo - Gong Gongs with an awesome chili dipping sauce the towkay takes a day to prepare, even closing his restaurant to concentrate on it.

I mean, come on, this place seems to ring all the right bells. 

I now humbly appeal to food lovers out there to help me enjoy a meal at this place. Dissipation of cost or sponsorship is most welcome. 

Cheers from the,

Matrix

People, Work and the Quality of Life

I love talking to people and finding out more about them. Their views on issues, their backgrounds, their lives, their family and most important of all, their quality of life.

My favourite people to chat up are usually cab drivers. Being locked in a metal box for 30mins does not permit escape from me and my sometimes rather inquisitive tongue ( I do not mean it in THAT way, if you know what i mean ).

A cabbie's life in Singapore is pretty much standard. He/She usually shares a cab with another driver, usually a younger one who does the night driving. Its to offset the SGD86 per day rental for those old toyota cabs and SGD120+ for the faster and more powerful Hyundai Sonatas. Have not chatted up a Merc or a Chrysler cabbie.

I took a cab back last night from a bar and I had the most interesting chat with an old malay cabbie. He surprised me with exceptionally well polished manners and style of speaking. His voice was uber smooth and he spoke with an air of a person with very high self esteem, someone who has achieved something and is proud of it.

I talked to him and learnt he has 4 kids, all above 25, very well educated and successful. The oldest was offered a seat in the NUS medical school and currently works at NUH. The second is a trained electronics engineer working as a senior product engineer at Accenture, one of the world's largest tech consultation company. The third is doing a PhD in the US and the youngest daughter is a lawyer.

The conversation became awkward when i asked him why none of his kids were taking care of him. He was a really small man with wrinkles and white whisps of hair on his head. He shrugged and the car turned silent for the remainder of the journey.

It disgusted me. For all i care, his kids were not successful as he thinks they are, their failure at expressing gratitude and love for a person who had worked so hard, and is still working hard to raise them is inexcusable.

What is society coming to when morals and the value of family is overlooked in the pursuit of personal agendas and happiness?



Matrix

Playtime's Over, lets get serious

Another teary goodbye...

I'm getting pretty serious about cycling now. Was out with Sher Han on an unplanned 70km ride yesterday and the limitations of my much loved Trek was apparent on the steep slope of Mt Faber and the sluggish feeling of the frame on the sprints along LCK and in Mandai.

High time i got myself something lighter and stiffer, yet comfy enough for long rides and it musn't be all carbon fibre. Most important of all, the scrooge in me demanded an awesome bike for below SGD800. 

Behold :

2009 Fuji Roubaix RC

I located the frame going for SGD500 on the second hand market. Knocked the price down to SGD450 after weeks of thinking and trying to look for something better after which purchasing would leave my bank account at a healthy balance. The Cervelo S1 was my initial target, but with framesets going for SGD1000 second hand, it was a tad bit too rich for my taste. And besides, as I had planned to transfer the old yet reliable Shimano 105 gruppo from the Trek, the Cervelo wasn't my choice in the end. A frame like that deserves better components and future Yuva will see to that.

The weight weenie bug bit me when i went down to inspect the frame. Settled on getting a new aluminium seat post and handlebar to replace the steel bits i had on the Trek. Though a far cry from the carbon fibre stuff, u can't complain about something picked up for less than SGD35 each.

Got new blinkers too, wanted to replace the bashed up stuff on the Trek. Requested the mechanic to do a thorough degreasing and polishing of the gruppo before assembly and one of his buddies offered to do a proper bike fit for me.

As a cherry on the cake, I got matching red Panaracers. Slick ones in hopes of me going faster, though with the limitation of not being to ride in the rain. Not that I should too anyway.

Looking forward to an awesome summer of racing, riding, studying and starting my FYP!

Its awesome when you have goals to work towards.

Cheers from the,

Matrix

Its been a while.....

This blogs taken a back burner to pretty much everything else for the past month or two.

Its been quite a roller coaster of a month, what with upping my cycling frequency and juggling 2 projects, my IA Final Report  (80 done!)  at work. Just completed one awesomely long and complicated C program that's been sent over to be used in a gas power plant in Bangkok and if it weren't for this whole Red Shirt fiasco, i'd be flying to Thailand before the end of my internship. The program's a beauty. It estimates the performance of  the power plant in real time, with a 2 minute cycle in between computations. And i also included a sweet graphical user interface to make it user friendly :

where the plant operators enter manual values for different plant operating conditions.

Damn.....

I have come to realise one thing during my internship.

I HATE WORKING FOR AND ANSWERING TO SOMEONE.

Seriously, working for someone sucks. You don't have the luxury to fiddle and really think out a problem when someone is always breathing down your neck, pushing you to set unrealistic deadlines and constantly checking up on you everyday.

I may be an intern, but come on, when i say once that i know what i am doing, please just trust me and leave me alone until I deliver. Crucify me later if i fail, but don't come breathing down my neck every damn day.

On that note, I have decided to apply to Harvard's and MIT's business schools. Both have very good MBA programs which include a 6 month internship and loads of networking opportunities. MIT has an awesome dual degree program which combines engineering and management.

I'll be honest here, all I ever want is just a good balance in my everyday life. I want time to enjoy my hobbies, cycling being the major one. And i can't get that sort of time in a 9-5 job which requires me to rush projects constantly.

I have done 32 hours of OT this month alone, and i'm not the hardest working intern at my work place. I am so going to be pissed if i don't get an A for my IA.

I mean, whats the point of working if you don't get to enjoy life? I enjoy kicking back with a beer and a good book or melting my legs on an all out bicycle sprint with friends on a weeknight after work.

I was toying with the idea of applying for the various graduate fellowships NTU keeps emailing me about, but research has never been my passion. I don't enjoy researching something that probably won't earn make it to the industry any time soon. Perhaps pharmaceuticals is a hot research area with rapid product movement form lab to marketplace, but not robotics.


Cheers from the,


Matrix