kamotE trails

Japan's Prime Beer; as the label says. I got this one from a local convenience store. I wanted to try Japanese beer and found this one on the shelf.  I don't know what the "First Press" on the label means. Is it really a the first runnings of the mash or just a marketing ploy? It also boasts of 100% malt which is a thing for premium beers in Japan. The label on the side shows the local distributor of the beer. I'm also surprised to see that it was not produced in Japan. Japan's prime beer is made in China. This beer has 5% ABV which is a typical value  for beers. It has a golden colour and clear. There is no IBU value but the bitterness is on the level of San Miguel Light Beer. The 100% malt label lives up to its name. It's very malty flavour makes this beer very enjoyable. The malty taste has a bit of sweetness in the end without being very heavy on the palate.  One can is not enough. 2 to 3 cans of this will definitely...

Last year, I bought a set of Pedro's beer . Pedro is a locally brewed beer produced in my current home town, San Pedro, Laguna. It's a micro brewery that offers a nice set of beer variants. It's a bit difficult to get a hold of these unless you go to a specialty bar which offers local craft beers. Luckily, they have started to offer it in Family Mart, a local convenience store. A bottle costs 150php but at that time they were having a buy 3 get 1 promo so I took the opportunity to sample their beer variants. I got the two Endless Summer Wheat Ales, Procrastination Pale Ale and the Elementary English Ale. They have another flavour, the Wondering Wonderer India Pale Ale which I have yet to try. The Endless Summer Wheat Ale is wheat beer. It has 5% ABV and 13 IBU. Like every other wheat beers, it is citrusy and refreshing. Perfect when lounging in the summer afternoon or even watching a movie. You cannot go wrong with this variant. The Procrastination Pale Ale is mo...

I was looking for a dry lube that stays on longer.  I liked White Lightning's Clean Ride lube but wanted more durability from it.  I also tried White Lightning's Epic Ride for my daily commuter which worked well but still accumulated gunk at the end of the week. I found this Finish Line Ceramic Wax Chain Lube. It's from the same company as White Lightning.  It says its supposed to coat the chain with ceramic.  Less grease since it's wax and more protection. Maximum performance would be after 2 applications since the ceramic needs time to build up in the chain. Maximum Cleanliness It's a bit pricey compared to White Lightning and comes at a smaller bottle. Bottle cap needs a push and a twist to open. I tried it on my mountain bike and the lube was very light. After a slightly damp ride, I left the bike to sit for 2 weeks without cleaning.  I found some parts of the chain with rust. Performance was okay after the ride. Very clean chain. On m...

I got the Token Jockey Wheels to replace the stock wheels of my Shimano Zee rear mech. The stock wheels are already dried and stuck up which made pedalling harder. This gave me an excuse to have the jockey wheels upgraded to a sealed bearing alloy type although I have easily cleaned and greased the stock wheels. The wheels came with an adapter that I don't know what it's for. Installation is simple. The only problem is that you need to tune your rear mech again since the jockey wheels are a bit bigger than the stock wheels. You need to adjust your B-tension screw to accomodate the larger jockey wheels. What I noticed from this upgrade is that there is a metal noise when turning the pedals. This is attributed to the allow wheels coming in contact with the steel chain. Shimano stock jockey wheels are made of plastic so they do not produce that noise. You just need to get used to it. Overall, the deraileur feels smoother compared to the gunked out pulleys from before ...

If you're a big fan of pizza and also want to eat KFC's fried chicken, you must have heard of KFC's latest abomination, the Four Cheese Chizza. It's a flat fried chicken topped with cheese and sliced into four like a pizza.  It comes in a small pizza box which sells the pizza idea well. When it comes to taste, it's not pizza. It's cheesy chicken in a pizza box. It may go well as "ulam" for your rice. For a pizza lover like me, this is highly disappointing. It's a sad fake pizza.

After my Schwalbe Citizen stock rear tire wore out, I decided to get a new pair of tires.  I have heard many good things about Schwalbe Kojak in the local forums so I decided that this would by my next commuter tires. I got a pair of 20" Kojaks for 1800 pesos from a local bike store in Pasay City.  Both the tires were installed and the still good Schwalbe Citizen tire was set aside for the rainy days. The Kojaks were slick tires. They don't have any treads or knobs. I was worried that it would lose traction on wet roads but they held up pretty well.  I tried these tires from light rains to heavy downpour and the grip on the slightly suffered. I just have to be extra careful on those man hole covers and metal gratings. Schwalbe rates this tire with a Race Guard 4 level of protection.  So far, I have less punctures with these tires compared to the Schwalbe Citizen. I got these tires because of the advertised lesser rolling resistance.  They definite...

Specs: Weight: 135 grams Material: Aluminum Diameter: 25.4mm Sweep: 5 degrees Length: 580mm Color: silver Pros: If you want to go lightweight without breaking the bank on carbon bars, this is the handlebar for you. It's made of aluminum but still super lightweight compared to other aluminum bars out there. Cons: Scratches and streaks are easy to spot on the silver/raw aluminum color. You just need to keep it clean from grease smudges and its good.

Since I was having a lot of punctures lately, I decided to give the tire patch thing a try. I usually bring an extra tube during daily commute to work and just swap out the punctured tube whenever I have flat tires. I didn't want to use those cheap patch kits because the last time I used it, the patch didn't even stick to the tube.  Luckily, I chanced upon this patch kit from Birzman. The kit includes 3 patches, 1 tire boot and a carrying case with a built in scraping tool.  I also got extra patches to have spares in case I use up the patches from the kit. Patch Kit with 1 patch used The patches already have an adhesive backing. You just need to locate the puncture then rough up the surface with the scraping tool and apply the patch. The tire boot is supposed to be used when you tear your tire. Failures I've used the patch with varying chances of success. I've had a snakebite puncture and I used 1 patch for this. After a few weeks, air leaked out. It seems ...

I've been using White Lightning's Epic Ride for a while now for my daily commuter bike and my weekend mountain bike. I've nearly emptied the bottle so I think I can give a better assessment of its performance. The lube is meant to be somewhere in between a wet and a dry lube. It's advertised to stay on longer while keeping the chain relevantly clean. On my commuter folding bike, which I use 4 times a week, it performs good enough for daily use. It can last a 4 rides or more without me having to clean the chain and reapply lube. Rain Going through rain is another matter. The lube stays on for my 20 km ride during heavy rain but you need to clean the chain and reapply lube after the ride since most road mud and grit have stuck to the chain. Compared to the Orange dry lube I was using which washed away after just 5 km of rain, the Epic Ride lived up to its name. It stayed on during the rain. The lube was slightly washed away but not to the point that you can fe...

Specs: Weight: 338 grams Color: Titanium Length: 600mm Cost: 1200php I replaced the stock seatpost of my Tern D8 with this Litepro Seatpost.  I also replaced the stock metal shim with the Litepro plastic shim. Pros: It's very light compared to the stock seatpost. The surface is ribbed which is good since it prevents the post from slipping down while riding. Saddle adjustment uses 2 allen bolts compared to the single bolt adjustment of the stock seatpost.  The seatpost has height labels so it's easier to setup from the folding position. saddle clamping mechanism Cons: The seatpost can twist even when the seatclamp is overly tight. This can be due to the ribbed surface which is parallel to the twisting movement. A simple nudge can bring back the seat to its proper alignment. There's also this annoying noise it makes when you move the seatpost in and out of the clamp when folding. The ribbed surface rubs against the shim producing the noise. height label...

I recently upgraded the stock crank from my Tern Link D8. The stock crank is steel which has a lot of flex that eats up the power you apply on the pedals. It also has a cartridge type square tapered bottom bracket that is really heavy. I was contemplating between a Shimano 105 and Litepro.  I decided on the Litepro because of easy sourcing. Specs: Outboard bottom bracket 170mm crank length 56T chainring Aluminum crank for stiffness One piece CNC chainring with integrated bash guard Weight Weight is definitely a big change with this upgrade. The outboard bottom bracket and aluminum cranks reduced the weight of the bike by around half a kilo. Performance The stiffness of the cranks definitely improved the pedaling feel. It felt lighter to pedal even with a higher tooth count. The jump from 52T to 56T increased the top speed of the bike but the climbs suffered. The effect was minimized because of the increase in pedaling efficiency brought by the stiff c...

I have been having a lot of chain drops on my Tern Link D8 recently so I decided to install a chain guide. The stock chain guide doesn't seem to prevent the chain from going to the outer side of the chain ring. I purchased the Tern Mainstay Chainguide from an online source for less than Php 500. The package came with an installation guide which is very handy. Installing it would require a bit of bike technical skill and tools. You would have to break your chain and join it again after installing the chain guide. Fine adjustment is pretty straight forward.  Even with a modified drivetrain (11-36 cogs), the chain guide fits well. I am hoping that changing the chain ring from 52T to 56T would not present any problems. So far, I have not yet experienced any chain drops even with aggressive shifting. It does its job and also made the bike look a bit cooler.

Origin: Munich, Germany Alcohol Content: 5.3% Bottle Size: 500ml I got this beer from the supermarket. It's a bit pricey compared to other importer beers. According to Paulaner, this is a dark version of wheat beer. The bottle and labels are premium. There are sediments on the bottom of the bottle which is due to the beer being unfiltered. The guy on the logo seems some kind of bearded man in robes. The taste is strong and dark. The flavour is a bit cocoa and roasted malt. There's some hint of citrus that gives a refreshing taste. I think this beer is best enjoyed with a bowl of meaty "pulutan". After a bottle, I'm still looking for another one. It's one of the beer where you need another bottle after finishing up the previous. I need to try the other beers that Paulaner is offering.

My old Holy Shit grips are paper thin so I decided to replace them. I've had good experience with T-One grips from my folding bike. I've been using T-One Bricko II grips with bar end for my folding commuter so I decided to get that for my mountain bike. nice packaging I got the T-One Bricko II grips without bar-ends. It has a palm rest which adds comfort for those long road rides. The textured and hexagonally shaped grips provides very good feel and grip. The twisted look also gives additional grip. view from the cockpit I used all the "bricks" for my mountain bike setup. It's a bit longer than the previous grip but still fits well. I like the gold lock-on accents which adds bling to the bars. front view with I-spec levers I recommend this grip for train and bike commuting. 

The sweatband that never saturates. My usual head setup when bike commuting is a headkerchief(a one piece flexible tube cloth) to cover my nose and face and a bandana to soak up the sweat coming from my head.  I wan't to wear something on my head before putting the helmet so that sweat won't go to my eyes and glasses during the ride. I usually bring 2 scarf/handkerchief when going to the office. I use one going from home to the office and one for the way back. These soaks up the sweat for the long ride. I usually hang this on my office chair to dry before storing it in my bag. I discovered something new when I went to the ROX store in BGC. It's the Gutr sweat band. It's pronounced as gutter but they spelled it leaving out T and E. It's probably a marketing thing to make it look and sound hip. It's made of silicone with a rubber ring at the back. The ring comes in three sizes for proper head fit. It's secured with a velcro strap. The headband ...

Noise is a sign that something is wrong or malfunctioning on your bike. Having noisy brakes is irritating not to mention the loss in braking power. Most of the time, the noise is caused by contaminated rotors and pads. This can lead to irregular brake wear. world's lightest 1PC stainless steel rotor I have been experiencing noisy front brakes. This is extremely noticeable during wet rides when water comes to contact with the rotors. My front brake is a 180mm Alligator brand rotor. This rotor is the noisiest one I've used so far. My rear rotor is an Ashima Airotor doesn't make this irritating noise. Since I've had good experience with my Ashima, I decided to replace the front with an Ai2 Ashima rotor. On Paper The Ai2 is an upgraded version of the Airotor . It weighs 97 grams based on its label. It uses less mass so Ashima warns on fast rotor heat up but if proper brake application is used, this is not a big issue. The low mass enables it to cool down faster...

I wondered what an original German beer would taste like so I tried Oettinger. I don't know how to pronounce this right and there are weird letters which I don't know how to sound. I got the 500ml can of Oettinger from the grocery. Only the can is available but I would have preferred the bottled version. It came in a yellow and blue can.  It is a naturally cloudy weissbeer according to the label. Alcohol percentage is the usual 4%. I poured it in a clear glass because I don't like to drink from the can. The taste of this beer is okay. I don't have anything good or bad to say about it. It's just "okay". I can drink this with a bag of chips and enjoy a movie without thinking about how the beer tastes.  Not much to say about it.