I Bought Bike Magazines!

This is the first issue of Mountain Bike Philippines

I don't know what's gotten to me yesterday that made me buy bike magazines after a long time. At this day and age I'm usually OK with going online and visiting several cycling sites to get my bike info fix, but yesterday I somehow had the urge to buy printed content.

It all started with me looking for a copy of the latest local magazine, Mountain Bike Philippines. I went first to Fully Booked in the Power Plant mall in Rockwell. They don't have it, so I went one floor down to National Bookstore. They don't have it, either. And that's when I grabbed the latest copy of Mountain Bike Action and What Mountain Bike. I think it's my way of trying to satiate my craving for a glossy.

A long time ago, I used to take trips to the local bookstore and magazine stand every month to get the latest bike magazines. I even had a Bicycling Magazine subscription before, but I didn't renew it because my copies usually arrive later than the local newsstands.

In our trips to Batangas during weekends, Duff and I would read old magazines in our small room in our Shell gas station before we hit the sack. After a ride, while cleaning the bikes, we would spend the lazy Sunday afternoon in Riego's veranda, reading bike magazines he bought when he was working abroad.

Back then, reading bike magazines was a social activity to us (and no, that's not read as sosyal). Together we would dream of setting up our bikes with the latest parts, debate on the correct tire pressures, and argue on the advantages and disadvantages of triggers against twist shifters.

Maybe this is what I'm looking for now. Maybe this is, indirectly, why I bought magazines again.