kamotE trails

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...