Ibera PakRak, Senawang Bicycle Station

I went back to Senawang for Ayah's birthday, and my cousin's son Suhaimi's wedding ceremony last weekend.

There's a nice bike shop in Senawang, which I have been wanting to pay a visit. Senawang Bicycle Station is closed on Sundays (ride day), so I made it a point to go there on Saturday morning. I went out at 10.30 am after breakfast to the bike shop (an excuse to Ayah when he asked me where I'm going to). Before the bike shop, I went to Dataran Senawang to get Ayah's surprise birthday cake (an excuse to the others).

The mission of the visit: One is to check out the shop itself, and the other one is to get myself a Topeak MTX BeamRack, and discuss with Jeffree on which one should I get for the bike - Type A, E or V. At the same time, I'm getting the system bag MTX TrunkBag DX to complement it. Damage to the wallet expected to be in the range of RM350, following discussion with BC Kelolo. All for the joy of back-free RTW journey.

The bike shop is nicely stocked with bikes, parts, and good service. I was attended by Jeffree, all the while. And he remembers my name. From what I heard, he was Negeri Sembilan's cyclist in his heyday. If that's so, he should be good with bikes. Well, I would say that he is.

I told him what I was looking for, and he replied that he's just out of stock with the beam rack. For the bag, he's got only the EX, which is not what I'm after. However, he gave me an alternative - something I have never seen or heard before, goes by the name Ibera.

Huh?

Time for internet research, then. Well, at least they have a website that I could refer to. That evening, I went to my elder brother Amri's house nearby the shop (how nice...), and began my short research. Short, because I was short of time, and there's not much reference in terms of product review for Ibera's RA1 Carrier nor their BA1 bag. I guess I'll be the first to give a review in mtbr. At the time of writing, there's none.

Things that made me buy the items:

(+) The products are of high quality (well, I would say that it fared well compared to Topeak's EX), although both lacks the waterproofness. However, Ibera's have ABS carbon-look plastic base.

(+) It is a system - in this case, PakRak - looks neat and tidy. The carrier is rated at 10 kg, compared to Topeak's 9 kg. However, Topeak's MTX BeamRack is using QR clamp while Ibera is using allen bolt. Well, I could live with that.

(+) Price for both Ibera bag and carrier is RM228 (RM69 carrier, RM159 bag) - saves me $ by a bit more than RM100, although I have to pay RM10 for a year of BS membership in order to enjoy the discounts.

(-) I have to note here that as a system, Topeak's weigh in at 1.7kg while Ibera is 1.9kg.

Next, will be my review in this blog, and perhaps some time later, my mtbr review. I planned to have my first ride with it for RTW on Tuesday. Good things can't wait, I had it on Monday instead. Still to early to give my views, though. I got to tell y'all this: it's great to feel the wind on my back.

Now toying with the idea of a short road tour... hmm...