lpolliard

Schwag purchased for or having a motivational effect.

So in six months when pcad is throwing this word around we can look back to who coined its use

I just purchased last Friday a set of new '09 ITM K-Sword bars through eBay for cheap from a vendor located in Taiwan. I quickly noticed the motivational impact of this action over the weekend. This was something new as my bike purchases outside my initial purchase have been small and necessary in nature. I couldn't stop myself from thinking about riding, riding with my new Schwag in place and thinking how awesome my bike will look and feel once the part arrives. I am not even concerned that the bars are being shipped from Taiwan and may take a couple of weeks to arrive. I am enjoying this feeling of anticipation and look forward to turning many heads as mine had turned many months ago upon seeing a set of FSA K-Wings glide by.

Before the flaming begins I did some research on this vendor prior to PayPal'ing the funds. He has a 99.9% positive feed back with over 1000 responses in the last twelve months, sending his product all over the globe. He has already notified me my item was airmailed on Sunday and the shipping fee was more than reasonable at $19. I wouldn't be surprised if my Schwag arrives before this week ends.

What do you think of my Moto-Schwag? Anyone else have a similar experience?

ls01

schwagtastic!

Nachoman

lpolliard

FYI: my K-Sword arrived from Taiwan today, only six business days. Awesome. I will posts some pics once it is installed.

rpeterson

Mine typically come in the form of future race entries.

lpolliard

It is all installed and looking sharp. This was an easy install and I did it all in an evening. I cut down the brake cables to clean it up and to aid with smooth operation. The brake cable housings slid into to bars effortlessly. I didn't cut down the shifter cables as I didn't want to have to re-adjust. Maybe I'll do this at another time. Too bad I couldn't route my Shimano shifter cables through the bars as well. This would have been sweet! I choose to use Fi-zik Silver bar tape and to only wrap the drops as I didn't want to hide any of the bling.


Some of my thoughts from my short ride to the office this AM. These bars are not as stiff as the stock aluminum tubular bars they replaced but they are not overly flexy. This and the carbon material should provide some real vibration dampening benefit I hope to realize over longer distances. I am glad I went with the 42 cm and did not replace with the stock size, 44 cm. I would imagine the flex issue would be even greater on the wider bars as I like to rock my ride hard on sprints and climbs. I believe my choice of the K-Sword over the K-Wing was correct as the palm position on the bends feel excellent, lots of ergo sculpted surface area for my palms. On the K-Wing the pads in my opinion are under sized and sharp cornered. The ups on the K-Sword fill your hand nicely when you have your fingers wrapped around the bar or just lying comfortable on top. I usually ride on the hoods and my hands feel great in this position but I fully expect to be 'chillin like a villain' on the bends and ups a lot more. In some older BF threads on these bars it was mentioned that the drops were fully curved and not ergo. ITM must have redesigned their bars as this is not the case on my '09's.

I am looking forward to turning a few heads in the future.