A Pinoy Biker’s Philippine Rural Adventures

With a heavy heart, I am leaving the blogsphere and my bike to work routine for a while.  Lately I have been busy with some extra work that I have at times, completely forgotten to update my blog and more importantly, visit other blogs as well. Another reason is, I still have no internet access at home, and I do not know when I could have one.  The problem is with the electric supply that goes into the subdivision where I now live.  I was hoping to have my pc working last week and I actually applied for wireless internet service with Smart Bro but unfortunately, Meralco did not deliver on their job to provide the electrical connection with them. My pc would not run on the current power supply.  I am now at their mercy if I am going to have a working pc or not in the next months or so.

That explains why I am not able to access the internet.  But about my being unable to bike to work, I have already explained that somewhere in this blog.  I hope to resume sometime in the future but I am not sure when.  I do bike around the place where I live once or twice a week, though it’s not enough to keep me fit.  Alternatively, I walk towards the mountain nearby. (I should post a picture, I know). Sometimes I bring one of my children with me, specially the youngest one but at six years of age, she couldn’t keep up walking with me up the mountain.  She did manage to go up with me to the top yesterday and she was so happy with her achievement.  Halfway towards the top, she stopped and I thought she was about to quit but she smiled at me and announced: “Kaya ko ‘to” (I can do it!) while holding up both her arms.  I told her I was really proud of her.  I guess she was inspired by her older brother who was able to go up with me last Monday.

This will not be my last entry but the next one maybe long in coming…

We need to set up storage spaces in the new house so I was going through the Instructables website scouring for ideas.  But instead of focusing on it, I got sidetracked when I came upon this very good idea for a biking jacket: it has turn signals built on to it.  The author also featured it in her website where she gives instructions on how to create it.

This would really be very useful to me here specially when I bike at night.

By the way, I have actually sort of resumed biking to work but I have an erratic schedule.  I have been doing it at least two times a week- Tuesdays and Fridays for the past month but not on a regular basis.  It takes one hour to negotiate the route from my house to my workplace.  I have no problem biking to work since I usually leave the house at one pm. Either it is raining or the sun is shining really hard but I could manage.  My problem is going home: the roads leading to our new house is quite hazardous at night since there’s hardly any street lighting at all.

I tried sleeping at work in one of the several sleeping quarters provided for employees but it turned out to be not a good idea at all (for reasons I will share later in this post.) At those times that I tried it, I woke up at 4:00 am and was on my way home a few minutes later.  It takes me more than an hour going home since there is a slight uphill climb for a little less than a kilometer very near our home. I huff and puff going up that road.

After doing it two times though, I am having second thoughts about continuing to bike to work.

I have no problem going to work on the bike but the return trip is proving to be a challenge: it’s impossible to bike home at 12 midnight because of reasons stated above; but it’s also impossible for me to sleep at the sleeping quarters at work and then pedal home at dawn.  I say impossible because of the snorers at the sleeping quarters; I myself may be a snorer but certainly, I could not stand others who do so. I could do with only like 2 hours of sleep at night and just take some time to sleep more in the morning at home but this would not be really healthy for me, considering my condition.

But there is where my dilemna lies: I have to bike to work if only to keep my heart healthy but I cannot do so because it is unhealthy for me to have less sleep at night.

I just hope to have a solution to this soon.  In the meantime, I try to bike around the neighborhood and go halfway up the nearby mountain.  I’ll post some pictures later.

This is a very late posting as I have not been able to access my web-based emails from the office and I have no internet connection at home.

Posted by KRX in the Firefly Brigade Forum

Join us and discover how fun(??) it is to ride in different urban routes you never new. Or at least, get some experience in riding the scary streets. Maybe someday, you may even try bike commuting.

This month’s theme is “Rainy Day Ride!”

START-End- Parking lot in front of LifeCycle Bikes, near KFC/Mister Donut Greenhills Shopping Center, San Juan

ROUTE
Greenhills Shopping Center-Wilson- P-Guevara, Shaw, Nueve de Pebrero(Arsobispado ), Mental Hospital, passing through Boni, Makati/Mandaluyong Bridge, Makati Ave., Salcedo Market. 11km.

We can have some snacks at Salcedo Market. We can break out after the snacks. Or We can also visit the newest bike shop in Metro Manila, MT Probikes in Makati.

Afterwards, we can go back to Greenhills. Round trip distance of Greenhills, Makati, Greenhills is around 19km.

Google route map-
http://i156. photobucket.com/albums/t30/bikerkrx/July19CMRroute1.jpg

MEET UP TIME - 7:00 AM
BIKE OUT BY: 7:30AM

SKILL LEVEL- Newbie to intermediate( basta malakas loob)
No SAGS, no Medics, no MMDA, just bikers

PACE- 15kph

THINGS TO BRING- Bike, Helmet, Raingear(optional) , wallet with laman, sense of humor, friends, smiles.

To learn more about Crtical Mass, you can visit

http://video. google.com/videoplay? docid=1893144582 00750949

or search “We Are Traffic” in Google.

Other CMR Scheds
http://s156. photobucket. com/albums/ t30/bikerkrx/ ?action=viewcurr ent=cmr_poster.jpg

Kitakits!

kRx
0917-6039258

There was a bamboo bike, and then there was a wooden bike.  But now a cardboard one? A keen cyclist, Phil Bridge from Stockport, UK built one, which according to him will be a deterrent to bike theft.  Says Phil:

I was looking at bicycles and how people use them and one of the main problems to me seemed that they were too valuable. People don’t want to invest in a bike which cost a lot of money and then leave it on the street where it could be damaged or stolen. So my main goal was to completely devalue the bike into something that everyone had that could be thrown away, left anywhere and you wouldn’t have any worries about it.

He used a hexacomb board with built-in honeycomb structure which made the bike rigid and rideable.  It is inherently waterproof so it won’t go soggy when wet.  He estimates the bike’s lifespan to be about six months of constant use (well at least in the UK; here in the Philippines, I estimate about a month or so, owing to poorly paved roads, and with rain almost everyday during the wet season, I guess it would be much less.)

This is a very laudable effort since it targets two birds with one stone: cycling to save gas (which cost more than Php 62 now, depending on the brand, and bound to go up soon), and the cardboard could easily be recycled to form the frame of the next bike.

Let me have one, Phil!

——————-

As in my previous post, I have less opportunities to bike to work, so in the meantime, please bear with me and enjoy the posts from elsewhere in the cycling/bike to work world I will be featuring.

This is my first post for this month, mainly because I haven’t found the time and energy to write and then, there was the move to a new home last Saturday.  We were supposed to move June 30, a Monday, but because it was a school day, the wife and I decided to move on July 5 instead.

Anyone who has moved his home would know how stressfull this is. Not that we have lots of belongings (we don’t) but the planning, the actual packing of our things, putting them in the truck, then unloading them and deciding where to put them in the new house…well these really made me tired that night.  My brothers and my father helped me of course but still, it was tiresome.  Judy and the kids stayed with her parents while my father and I stayed in the new house that night to get things right.  I figured it would be bothersome for the kids if they would come and find the home all in disarray.

This move made my bike to work trip longer - about 30 minutes more is my estimate.  I haven’t really tried it yet because the return trip is past 12 midnight and  I am not yet familiar with the roads, which are really in poor shape as one gets near our home.  Then there is also the lack of street lighting in the same stretch of poorly paved road.  I told Judy that if only the contractor who made that road did his job correctly we would not be suffering the inconvenience of travelling any time.

As of now, I am using my motorbike to go to work.  I plan to resume biking as soon as I feel comfortable biking through unfamiliar roads.

One more thing.  I don’t have internet connection in the new place.  It is not being serviced by the  major telephone companies.  They are yet to install wirings from the main road towards the subdivision.  There are wireless services available though, but as I heard they are not reliable, I am deferring my application for internet service as of now.  And this is one major reason I am not quite sure if I will be able to blog consistently for the next days or months ahead.  But for sure though, I will be visiting my favorite blogs.

First it was an interview on Futureradio wih Doc Joy in her weekly radio program, Usapang Pinoy about my  bike to work experiences here in Metro Manila. Now, it’s an appearance on British TV! This time however, it had nothing with biking.  The documentary where I appeared for about 10 seconds  was about the experiences of Doc Joy, a Filipina who is doing very well in the UK.  One thing she said that struck me was that, according to her own admission,  “love brought her there.”  It is heartening to know that even as she experienced discrimination, once while trying to board a bus and at another time, being thought of as a cleaning lady, just because she looked Asian, she was able to hold her own and come out a success.

She came back to the Philippines last May with her British husband, Tom, and a British TV crew to film the documentary entitled “The Incomers.”  In it, I gave my own views about the reasons why Filipinos want to go abroad. Ambo of pinoyambisisyso was also featured there and gave his own views. The one beside me there is my wife, Judy.

From The Los Angeles Times, Monday: The Day in Photos, dated June 1, 2008 -

This is what happens when we fail to share the road with others who have equal rights to use it. This is a sad incident because someone died here while 14 others were injured. Was there a failure on the part of the race organizers to warn motorists about the race? Did the driver choose to ignore the signs? Did the bikers recklessly pedaled on the wrong way? Whatever the cause was, let this be a lesson on road sharing.

The theme for this month’s CMR:

“World Environment Ride - The Greenest Ride!”

Route: UP, Diliman - La Mesa EcoPark - UP, Diliman

Date: June 21, 2008 (Saturday)

Assembly: 7:00 AM, UP Diliman, AS Parking Lot Palma Hall

Ride Start: 7:30 AM

Ride End: Lunchtime!

SEE YOU THERE!

Look for me, I’ll be the one with the bike.

Sphere: Related Content

I posted the Blue Wave incident (see previous post) to simply report what a fellow Firefly experienced.  He had posted his report in the Firefly Brigade Forum where issues about cycling and its concomitant social responsibilities are discussed.  There, you can read something about the environment, like global warming and how cyclists are helping in the conservation of the Earth’s limited resources, not only through the use of the bike but also through their own personal efforts to use more of nature’s sustainable energy.  The forum also has become a medium where other cyclists can communicate with each other and share common cycling experiences.  In this light, the fellow Firefly reported the Blue Wave incident and I echoed the report here.

The incident seemed to have touched the nerves of bike commuters who have had similar experiences.  That particular post received a comment from one who, as he wrote in Pilipino, has no belief in our advocacy of defending and promoting the right of cyclist, that those who do so are “elitist whose bikes are expensive and does not have a single scratch on them.” According to him, those who would usually “make noise by complaining” are just like the politicians who are out for an opportunity to promote themselves.  He seemed to have the notion that the advocates are just “arrogant week-end riders.”

I replied to the comment explaining what we in the Firefly Brigade (FB) has done to make the city more bike friendly.  The FB is not a political group but an NGO that responds to a particular social need.  Because the commenter expressed his unbelief in what we do, I decided to post his comment in the same forum where I got the report, and also in the new PMTB forum.  I invited them to read the comment as it is in my blog.  There were those who responded in the blog and there were those who made their comment in both fora.

With the indulgence of those who commented in both fora, I am posting their comments here.  I did some editing for the sake of clarity.

From: robert concepcion
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 03:18:59 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: [fireflybrigade] Re: blue wave in macapagal is at it again

… kung tutuusin, valid points ang sinabi ni Sikyo Biker … his view was actually wider than the blue wave issue, it speaks of all incidences na natanggihan ang isang tao … di lang naman “no bikes allowed” ang nararanasan sa pilipinas:

no parking; motorized vehicle not allowed; no pets allowed; bawal tumawid bawal sando / slippers / etc ..
bawal ang nakasimangot.

lahat ito ay merong reasons, most of the time nga lang: nobody tried to explain; nobody tries to understand; nobody wants cares … basta ang sarili ang masunod. and I am proud that the sikyo spoke up (or wrote up, whatever applies …) maaring ngang mali ang bluewave, pero maari ring tama si Sikyubiker. Lahat naman tayo gusto ng maayos, di nga lang nagkakaintindihan.

From: Mai Francisco
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 13:29:27 +0800
Subject: Re: [fireflybrigade] Re: blue wave in macapagal is at it again

ano ba itong reaction ng sikyu biker!??

am too shocked to react. Na kaka Dismaya naman……

Wala naman ke mahal, or mura yung Bike. Hindi naman karamihan ng Weekend bikers are arrogante. At sa hirap ng buhay ngayon, ke poor or middle class, well even the rich are feeling the hirap, maski papaano.

P100 pesos for Tricycle fare going to palenke!?? Grabe. Ang kagandahan, dumadami na Bikers kasi mahal masyado ang gasolina, diesel at Pamasahe. At madami narin enlightened people who walk or bike — for the environment.

Mabalik tayo kay sikyu, siklista– it just makes more sense na payagan tayo mag Park sa malapit na safe and secure. Sa commercial establishments na pinu puntahan natin.

Madaming places and incidents na nagka problema, pero ang maganda experience natin sa Biking advocacy natin — Madami narin tayong nakukuhang IMPROVEMENTS sa pag uusap, pag ne negotiate sa mga Real estate, Commercial establishments na ito. And they eventually become enlightened, Pro-Bike, Pro-Environment places.

Good examples are Bike parking and Bike friendly places now sa Makati/Ayala malls, Eastwood city and Cubao commercial center.

NUON, BAWAL na BAWAL bikes duon, at dami Unpleasant bike experiences. Pero through patience, advocacy, by complaining and meeting, and negotiating, campaigning ang through our advocacy, and meeting with the Different SECTORS, ay eventually bumabaet at nagiging Pro-Environment, Pro-Bike ang mga MANY PLACES na ito.

Sana eventually ma-Enlighten na ang Blue wave area, and Manila Ocean park areas, among other places!!

From: SIDNEY GIL FERRARIS
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 20:23:54 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: [fireflybrigade] Re: blue wave in macapagal is at it again

@kyusi baiker..
i’ll agree with you…if the managment of all/some esbablishment is imposing their rules, wala na tayo magagawa.
mga sir na fellow siklista almost every biking trip ko i’d experienced those kind of problems,
but still i’d ignore those rules implemented by the management, common sense lang po kahit itanong nyo pa sa NASA or rocket scientist?. so if those areas are unfriendly to bikers, look for another place diba! just driving your car if this place is a no parking diba you look for paid parking area or free parking…….

why is it masyadong maingay ang siklista if our rights has been violated? is it (because) the bike is too expensive?
is it (because) the bike is low budget? is it (because) the bike is a hard earn(ed) money investment? is it (because) the bike will got some gasgas? o baka ma bike nap? or etc. all i can say is padyak lang tadyak…….

peace!

A fellow member of the Firefly Brigade reported that the Blue Wave in Macapagal Avenue has been turning away cyclists who wish to patronize the establishment. He said that a guard, who was even wearing a barong tagalog insulted the cyclists who just wanted to have breakfast and coffee there.

Some bikers who read his report in the FB forum wanted to stage a mass action by bikers against the Blue Wave, complete with media coverage. One biker even posted a call for the different biker groups in Metro Manila to join, such as the Foxbat, PMTB, MCCI, HDLC and Barkadahan. I don’t know if this is the right measure to do, but many infuriated bikers are willing to join and express their disappointment. Apparently, this was not the first incident of bikers being denied service just because they came riding their bikes.

There is a branch of the said establishment here in Marikina, but unlike the other one, bikers are welcome and in fact there are bike racks available for parking. But perhaps because it is in Marikina where there are laws protecting bikers.