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North Bound! September was really busy with a short visit to the far corner of northern Luzon. What I discovered surprised me a little because though I knew that Kalinga and Mountain Province was a goldmine of epic bike rides, I didn’t expect it to be as picturesque as it really is when you see it up close and personal. I’ve been meaning to go back and do another series of rides there but it seems that will have to wait as I have two other projects that I have to attend to. One is in Mindoro and the other is in Romblon. Where exactly these rides will be I’ll just keep as secret for now so it doesn’t ruin the effect. I promise it will be incredible! I’m currently busy working on a new adventure television show so I’m out most of the time, doing stuff. The good thing is, doing stuff means being on my bike most of the time looking for great places to visit. I’d like to give a special thanks by the way to Gran Trail Cycles for being my new sponsor for 2012!  –Myles

Latest News: This isn’t actually new stuff but I think it’s still worth mentioning. Melo of Out of Town Blog wrote about the new direction that the Philippine Department of Tourism is taking. The newly-appointed tourism secretary, who comes from an advertising industry background, is bringing the department back from the brink with an innovative new approach using social media as its platform of choice. Read the story HERE.

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Supported by High Sierra, STARBOARD Philippines, Weekend Warrior Magazine, and Gran Trail Cycles.

Niner Rip9! I’ve been a hardtail mountain biker for as long as I can remember. I guess it was the most natural thing to be right after moving up to bigger tires after a lifetime of BMX riding. I learned to believe that a hardtail was all I needed, and it was. That is, until I started exploring farther off the beaten single-track. Riding established trails is fun, of course, not to mention convenient. In fact, I could ride trails like that forever and never find anything to complain about. I slowly discovered my motivation to ride elsewhere because I write about places and things that aren’t found on established trails. Slowly, I got into the kind of riding that required a lot of pushing my bike and often carrying it over terrain that is just too impractical to ride with a hardtail. Of course, you could ride over almost anything if you really wanted to. Although, that wouldn’t be the point, the problem about doing that is not a question of “doing” but whether the bike could take a beating like that for days, out in places where there aren’t any bike shops to get spare parts or repair. In such places, you break something, you walk home. In most instances, walking home means pushing your bike for the next 60 kilometres. It’s just not a good idea to break stuff out there. This is where I got to try my very first full-suspension bike, and a 29er at that, courtesy of Gran Trail Cycles. It feels completely different from a hard tail cross country bike, and it does take some getting used to, but the benefits are astronomically greater than sticking it out with a bike that is just not made to go beyond the hard-pack. Don’t get me wrong, I’m keeping my hard tail, and I’ll still be riding it for all its worth. But when I stumble upon a trail along the way that veers off the main, It’ll definitely be time to break out the big stuff. Niner Rip9 @ Gran Trail Cycles, check it out!