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Long-Term Review Footbike Street Pearl Blue

I bought my Footbike in 2009 and now it is time for a review. Primarily I use my Footbike to go from A to B as a means of transportation. And so far I’ve gone about 1800km with it. It took me a little while to learn how to footbike properly without getting exhausted to fast. Especially uphills are quite challenging if you don’t slow down.

But anyways that’s how my Footbike looks like now. Which is not much different from when I bought it two years ago, but…

…we need to take a closer look to point out a few details. First of all the wheels are remarkably smooth running like on the first day, thanks to the industrial bearings.

The frame isn’t exactly a masterpiece as a bit of rust has developed under the maintube support plate.

Ofcourse rust develops underneath the bike as scratches expose the steelframe. If you go a little off the road, something will scratch your frame, there is no way around it.

The platform you are standing on while footbiking is in my opinion quite a hazard. It happened to me that I kicked too close to the footbike and as a result, my ankle hit the metal platform, which cut through my socks and of course skin too. Bleeding ankles were not too uncommon when I was learning how to footbike. I believe the manufacturer could surely improve on that.

Using a footbike on rainy days can be a lot of fun if you don’t mind wet pants. Unfortunately the fender is not wide enough to catch most of the water that comes from the front wheel. Using a bicycle is much better as your feet are not as low to the ground.

Your footbike might gain a couple of more scratches if you lock it to lamp posts or other things around town.

I really like my footbike, even now with all the scratches. It’s not supposed to look brand new cause I’m using it quite often. I must say in terms of gaining endurance and strength it’s the perfect workout machine. I like running a lot but running to work has never been an option to me. The footbike is a great idea if you like to combine your everyday travels with a little workout.

2011: 08/11
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
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Long-Term Review Fivefingers KSO Black

I bought a pair of five fingers at the end of 2009. It’s been almost two years now and I guess enough time has passed to write a long-term review on the KSO’s.
First of all I’ve worn them quite regularly and used them for running, biking, footbiking, hiking, going to work, shopping and other every day tasks, except on rainy days. Ofcourse every now and then I got wet feet and I was hoping that Vibram would start to develop a water proof version. Finally they have come up with an all leather version, which certainly is more water resistant then the KSO’s but that’s another story.

My KSO’s used to be black and now they sort of have a purplish color. I assume the strong UV-light in New Zealand and Australia has bleached the upper material. I didn’t wash them often as I was wearing socks almost all the time. So I don’t think you can blame the washing powder nor the washing machine.

The velcros on both shoes work perfectly fine even after almost two years. I actually thought they would give up just like the velcros you find on jackets. But no, two thumbs up they are pretty good.

Let’s have a closer look at the straps. You can see quite some wear on these but it’s not much of a problem when you slip the VFF’s on or off.

The heel and ankle part hasn’t seen much wear just a little stretching which makes it easier to put the VFF’s on. The footbed material changed from bright yellow to dirty yellow and is asides from that still in good shape.

The rubber sole is worn quite a bit. Interestingly the pinky toe part has lost most of the rubber sole. I assume that happened when I started footbiking in VFF’s. Just don’t do it, you can practically see your sole disappearing, I quit using them and switched to regular shoes for footbiking. Ofcourse the same happens to regular shoes but they are much cheaper to replace.

You can fix smaler holes with bicycle patch kits as seen on the next picture on the second toe. It won’t last forever but you can keep your VFF’s a bit longer.

I’m more of a forefoot striking person while running, therefor the front part has been used a bit more than the heel part of the sole.

And one more picture of the space between the toes. You can see that the glue dissolved and the sole is not firmly connected to the upper material. Note also the color difference between the toes and the upper material.

Well, all in all the Five Fingers KSO are some pretty tough shoes and have lasted a long time. I usually have only one or two pair of shoes and wear them almost every day. A pair of shoes don’t last much longer than two years for me.

I certainly will stick to the VFF’s as they helped me to improve my foot muscles and overall balance.

2011: 08/11
CATEGORY: sports
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Fivefingers KSO Black

I just recently bought myself five fingers, which is a new type of footwear. Unfortunately they are a bit hard to get, depending on what country you are living in, but the guys from five fingers try to sell them world wide as soon as possible. Since I like innovative things and needed a new pair of “shoes” I wanted to give them a try.

First of all they are really very comfortable to wear, like a pair of socks with rubber soles. But if you haven’t been running around barefoot for all your life, you should give your feet a bit of time to adjust to the increased strain. Just as the instruction manual says, the muscles in and around your feet are more heavily used since there is no support from the “shoe” itself.

I believe the point in wearing the five fingers is to use your feet without all the fancy support delivered by modern running, hiking, and other types of shoes they never really needed anyways. Mankind ran around barefoot for thousands of years so why shouldn’t we today.

Here are a couple of close up pictures:

: That’s how they look when you wear them

: That’s the forefoot part of the sole which has quite a good grip on most terrain. Wet gully covers or wet metal in general is quite slippery even with fivefingers.

: That’s the complete sole of a fivefinger which leaves interesting footprints on soft paths ;-)

So far they are brand new, I can’t complain about their built quality and they look quite sturdy. You’ll find the specs on the five fingers homepage. I’ll write more about them after I have worn them for a couple of months. So check back some time again.

2009: 12/31
CATEGORY: sports
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Footbike Street Pearl Blue

For everyone who is considering of buying a Footbike Street here are some pictures for you.

: the whole package directly from the delivery man – its overall size is roughly: width 120 cm, height 70 cm, depth 20 cm and weighs about 13-14 kg

: side view of the package – your model will have the according checkmarks at this side note the “made in taiwan”

: now let`s see what`s in the box – all the parts are encased in protective material to make sure your footbike comes to your door unscathed

: front part of the frame – you can see the stem without the handlebar

: the rear part of the frame plus the rear wheel and other parts are quite nicely protected

: all spread out – the package inlcludes the frame, the front wheel, the rear wheel, some blades and a small box

: the contents of the small box – if you don`t know what these are you shouldn`t assemble the footbike yourself

: both wheels have protective covers at the sides of the hubs and have little airpressure

: assembly one – the wheels are mounted and the footbike looks pretty neat allready

: assembly final

The overall build quality of the Footbike is really great. Before I bought this bike I was unsure whether to go for a Kickbike “Finnscoot” or the Footbike.

Since the Footbike is better equipped and costs less than the Kickbike, I thought well what are you waiting for. But than I looked at several pictures of Kickbike/ Footbike championchips and I hardly ever saw a Footbike. As I couldn´t try both, I went for the Footbike because of its betters specs and because my local dealer told me out of personal experience, that the footbikes built quality is superb to that of a kickbike and I can´t say it was a mistake. All tech details can be found on the Footbike homepage.

The footbike is too new to say anything about its everyday usage but I´m sure I´ll make another post in a month or two.

2009: 07/09
CATEGORY: sports
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Philips GoGear HDD6320/00 take apart

I belive the GoGear HDD6320/00 is a pretty fancy MP3 player with some limitations. Unfortunately Philips restricted its use to MP3 and WMV files – no firmware updates have changed that so far. As I was curious how the player looked under the hood and if there is a chance to replace the battery, I carefully took it apart.