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IFmove: did Apple design this folding bike?

IFmove Folding Bike

The IFmove is the kind of bike that would get Jony Ive’s thumbs up

Folding bikes have an offbeat geeky coolness to them. One minute you’re happily riding one, and the next minute your ride is neatly tucked away in a small corner barely taking up any space. A folding bike could fit in the trunk of your car, or a small closet, and you can even carry them with you on the train or bus.

But folding bikes are not for everybody. Their eccentric looks may attract people who like offbeat and weirdly cool stuff, but their quirky designs don’t really appeal to a larger audience. They represent the engineer’s function over the designer’s form. Most folding bike enthusiasts I know will agree with me on this and say beauty is relative.

However, sometimes something comes up which wonderfully messes up the order of things. Earlier this month, Glorious Ride Bike Shop lent me a foldie whose appeal went beyond its geeky ability to morph. The IFmove bike from Pacific cycles is not just a great folding bike; it is a sleek bicycle that attracts curious and envious eyeballs from bikers and non-bikers alike. This thing is a fine looking machine. If most folding bikes were Androids, the IFmove stands out like an iPhone. Makinis. Maangas. Read more [+]

Testing the CarryMe Folding Bike

CarryMe Folding Bike

Trains, buses and planes. You can carry this bike anywhere

Honestly, I think someone should give a Nobel to the guy who first thought of making bikes that twist, fold, and morph to just a fraction of their original size. Whoever you are sir, hat’s off to you! There’s just an undeniable quirky geeky coolness in these two-wheeled gizmos that easily reminds you of a Swiss Army knife or the Transformers—and I’m talking here of the beloved 80s animated series and not that Michael Bay abomination.

I’ve been lusting after folding bikes for some time now. But due to my severely limited financial capacity, all I could do was eyeball them from afar. My luck changed last month however. I got asked to test what is undoubtedly one of the quirkiest folding bikes out there—the “CarryMe” by Pacific Cycles. Read more [+]

Gear Review: Spyder Alpha and Tank shades

Spyder Shades atop Mt. Iraya Batanes

Shades: essential gear for the outdoors. Taken at the peak of Mt. Iraya in Batanes

Sometime ago, someone also asked me what sort of shades would be great for mountain biking. I wish I could do an exhaustive review of several brands and models, but since I don’t really have the budget of more established outdoor blogs out there (honestly, no budget at all) I can only recommend what I already have.

So what sort of eyewear do I use? Spyder shades. Why? Four words: Bang for the buck. They’re not that expensive, and they look good. Plus they have features that I really like. Right now, I’m using two different models from Spyder: The Alpha H and the Tank H, and I am very satisfied with both. Read more [+]

Testing Bike Lights on a Night Ride in UP

Bike Lights

Trying to spell “Bike” using light painting is trickier than it sounds

Bike lights are essential if you want to ride at night. On the trail, there are no lamp posts so you need to bring your own light. If you’re a bike commuter in a city like Metro Manila (where motorists crash into each other with frightening regularity) bike lights and blinkers are a must kung ayaw mong masama sa report ni Doland Castro sa TV Patrol.

Sometime ago, a reader here asked me if I could do a review of bike lights. I thought that was a great idea. But since I was not exactly blessed with a glamorous bank account like Instagram king Jolo Ejercito, I didn’t know how to go about it. I did not have any spare cash to buy several bike lights.

Fortunately, our friends at Glorious Ride Bikeshop were cool enough to lend me some of the bike lights they had on stock and test them out. They’ve got lots of bike lights there for every budget level, so do visit them when you have the time. Here are a few of the bike lights and blinkers you ought to consider if you want to ride at night.

Read more [+]

Gear Review: Merrell AllOut Fuse

Merrell AllOut Fuse

Introducing the Merrell AllOut Fuse

Buying a new pair of running shoes is a tricky affair. There is a bewildering variety of shoes to choose from. In the old days,  all you had to consider was color (uy ang ganda ng red!) and brand (parang mas seryoso ang dating ng Adidas kesa Nike). Now a shoe buyer also has to consider whether he needs traditional thick soled shoes divided along stability, neutral and cushioned; minimalist shoes that promise to get you more connected to the ground; or maximalist shoes that promise to keep you floating over the terrain.

I’ve always preferred minimalist shoes. It may not be a style that suits everyone, but it just works for me. So when my road runners began to show signs of falling apart, I started scouring the running blogs for a shoe that would be a worthy replacement. The blogs all hinted that the shoe I needed to buy was this: Merrell AllOut Fuse. Read more [+]

How About a 650b or 27.5er Bike?

Mountain Bike Wheel Sizes

PIck your poison–29er, 27.5er or 26er

Buying a bike used to be easy. You just went to your friendly neighborhood bike shop and picked one you like. But today, with so many types of bikes to choose from, picking one that suits you seems to have become much harder.

This is especially true in the world of mountain biking where new stuff gets unveiled and marketed almost every day. 29ers used to be cool. 29ers were once the hipster anti-mainstream enfant terrible of the mountain biking universe. But nowadays bikes with 29-inch wheels are more often seen as “the establishment.” Like all rebellions that became all too successful, the 29er movement seems to have lost its aura of defiant nonconformism. It is now the mainstream.

Now it seems that 27.5 inch wheels or 650b is where the action’s at. Bike manufacturers are betting big on 27.5, with Giant even putting all its eggs in the 650b basket. So what’s the hype all about? Read more [+]

Tips on Upgrading your Mountain Bike

So you’ve bought your first bike and tried out mountain biking. You got to experience the trails, learned to climb and descend, and had the time of your life with your new found buddies on that astig gnarly killer epic bike ride to some never before explored majestic waterfalls and carinderia and bulalohan in the middle of nowhere.

But regretfully, you also caught that debilitating biker’s disease called upgraditis. You look at your bike, shake your head, and feel something just ain’t right. You visit bike shops and leave drool puddles on the floor while looking at that shiny new groupset, those blinged out wheels that sound mayaman, and that fork with those golden stanchions costing half your son’s pang-tuition. You are certain that if only you could have them, the magic will return.

And since you’re not exactly a porked-up senator or Janet Napoles with bathtubs full of filthy cash, you need to decide which part (or parts) of your bike make the upgrade shortlist. So here are a few tips to consider before you go to the bike shop and part with your hard-earned cash. Read more [+]

Biking Gear and Tips for Rainy Days

Biking in the Rain

Summer’s over, but the biking shouldn’t stop

Summer in the Philippines is now officially over. The rains have become an everyday phenomenon and the evening news is now saturated with reports of floods, traffic jams, landslides, government officials looking stupid and making excuses, and a whole litany of other depressing stuff. This doesn’t mean though that you should stay indoors, sleep all day and start to complain that there’s too much rain

Biking in the rain is actually quite fun. Like I said in an earlier post, the rains take away some of the bite from the tropical heat. The hills come alive with a fresh wardrobe of green. And finally, the trails become a mess of mud and puddles that will put your bike skills to the test. But biking in the rain requires some adjustment, and a few extra gear. Here are some of them. Read more [+]

Music for Faster Runs and Rides

Music for Running or Riding

A wise man once said: What is life without music?

Let me qualify that, as whoever this erudite hombre is, he obviously never lived in a place where wannabe crooners occasionally inflict their alcohol-addled versions of Pusong Bato on their hapless neighbors.

What the existential hallmark card writer should have said is: What is life without good music? Almost all human activities are made better when these are accompanied by good music. Researchers from the University of Southern Queensland’s Department of Psychology have also found out that listening to up tempo music can actually make you faster! Apparently when you move in sync with music you like, you perform better.

Read more [+]

Minimalist Running

Minimalist shoes for manimalist running

It’s all about shaving soles and getting your foot as close to the ground as possible.
The minimalist Merrell Trail Glove vs the normal New Balance 810

There’s a militant movement that’s slowly taking over the world of running. Its committed acolytes, nearly all of whom radiate an aura of electrified righteous anger, are calling on runners to shed their high-tech thick-soled shoes and return to the purer embrace of barely-there foot gloves. The most puritanical of them even call for the complete abandonment of any artificial protection and go full monty on the feet.

I have to admit, I am somewhat of a convert. But first let’s talk about how I came to embrace this new sect in the religion of running. Read more [+]