Hamster wheel

Keeps on spinning...

Bloody valentines
Last time I rode more than 100km it was 2 years ago on valentines day from Manila to Santa rosa laguna. After a much needed rest in Binan laguna (?) things got dicey when I was about to attack a two lane bridge crossing. Avoided a pot hole only to end up on road shoulder which had accumulated a lot of road dust in turn burying the tiny 20 inches tire resulting on endo. Unluckily my right hand took a hit along with my right knee. Suffered a deep gash on my palm and soreness on my knee was really fucked-up bad.
Still not wanting to turn around I shouldered on to Nuvali with mario (very patient dude) and watched bike shop buddies compete on duathlon event.
This day will be the last time I rode over 100 km for almost 2 years and will be forever known as the "bloody valentines" ride.

This signaled the END for that year. And on the next year purchased Grand tech which took a year to complete.
Read here

200, 400...
Now I want a medal, an AUDAX medal, and the only way I can GET one is by participating.
Getting back on the saddle and getting in riding shape will not be easy. Without training I could easily ride at least 60km with at least a month of training I can double my mileage but it is still not 200km. Plus I weight almost 20 pounds heavier than the last real ride (bloody valentines). This endeavor not going to be easy.

200km then...
Credit to the owner of the pic

Ernest Rufo

Project bike: Bridgestone Grand tech GR27 > Complete

Was planning on making a step by step break down on bringing GR27 road worthy. But was to lazy to document it because most of the work was done at the bike shop (ULYBY San Andres, Manila).

Version.1 The plan
This was suppose to be just a runner, most of the parts are in good working condition all it needed was cleaning and a tune-up.
Couple of days into the disassembly and parts prep I could not stand the old rattle can-job the old owner did with the bike.

Old spray can black was removed from the frame and the fork.
Upper-rear chain-stay only needed a little surface rust removal and lots of polishing.
Fork was powder coated "almond brown" for that 70's bike color accents.

Yes 5 pieces for just the frame

Naked and loving it
Grand tech sat for 6 months without any cockpit, drive train parts, also sold the whole rim-set to a friend.
 

Condo decor

Version.2 Completing the bike
With the sudden (4th quarter) increase on Shimano complete drive train price and my unwillingness to try drop bars the plan of buying complete group was ditched.

Instead of Shimano Claris 8 speed we dug deep in old MTB parts bin for some key components.

Old MTB parts
Shimano XT 11-36 cassette
Shimano ZEE 10 speed shifter

New parts
Shimano SORA brake calipers
Shimano Non-series brake levers (flat bar)
Shimano DEORE 10 speed chain
Shimano DEORE 10 speed RD long cage w/switch

Opted to use the stock from the 80's Sugino no.3 crank on knee busting 48T, along with almost new-ish Sugino bottom bracket that was on the bike.
When Mel (the only mechanic that touches my bikes) removed the bottom bracket earlier he commented that it was barely used and was in great shape for the bike age.

Now the build is going the MTB inspired route it will now take a sharp left turn yet again on ROAD bike path.

Purchased known reliable ROAD training wheel-set from Shimano the RS11 along with Schwalbe road+ tires on meaty 28mm size.

Now for the contact points like handlebar and pedals. Had a track bar (bullhorn) on project. SS beater.
Pedals are old VP steel commuters (shin destroyers) which came with bike.

Quill stem SR (Suntour) and Seat post SR (Suntour) stock parts was cleaned and re-used. While the old headset was serviced.

Version.3 Flat bars for keeps
Track bars are awesome they are most comfortable for sprinting, climbing and track work. Which does not require two brake levers and a RD shifter.

Bullhorns was crowded with all the un-necessary stuff I demand to use with the bike. Again searching my MTB parts bin found an old up-sweep handlebar which was also wider.

Before

After

Bridgestone Grand tech

They say that they never make em' like they used to. Underneath all the neglect and crap that the previous owners did to the bike. Money, time that I spent making the Grand tech my own bike well worth everything.

Would like to thank the missus, mom, my son.
Ulyby bike shop, mel, and all friends of shop.

Ernest Rufo

Hamster wheel: 2018

Keeps on spinning...

Happy NEW YEAR! Welcoming 2018 with a bang, bang!

Photo credit: Bridgestone

Yowamushi pedal
Not familiar? Manga to anime shonen (Comic/cartoon that caters to young males).
First season of the Anime being aired locally my kid been watching the show weekly. He loves the protagonist Sakamichi Onoda and also the awesome villain Akira midousuji. It is great that NOW we have a wide range of sports anime for kids and parents to enjoy.

Yowamushi pedal also has a lot of bike and tour the France reference for hardcore road cycling fans.

Right cadence is your friend and here a great video from the dudes on GCN to explain.
Cadence

Yowamushi manga: photo credit to the owner

Cavite
Fondo's supported by major bike companies are NOW starting to come to cavite. For those not living on this side of the south a huge chunk of Cavite situated along the coastline has good, hilly roads for cyclist to enjoy.

Bridgestone Grandtech

Updates? YES! Finally completed the bike and now in process of fine tuning the setup for the drivetrain, and cockpit/contact points.

NAIC cavite first test ride

 Ernest Rufo

Project bike: Hamster Bridgestone grandtech GR27

Welcome 2017! Been a while and now coming right at you with a new bike.
This time we got something special a relic from the late 80's Bridgestone grandtech GR27.

Photos courtesy of "Bike guru" site Sheldon brown

This one a bit of an oddball a 700c, full-size, steel, folding bike from a tire manufacturer and it is PERFECT for me.

The story
Sold some bike parts, got a tip from a friend, visited the seller, bought the bike.

Grand scheme of things
Family lives in the middle of Manila on a limited space so storing full-size bikes can be a problem. Folding bikes the obvious solution so I purchased the Giant FD806 just for that. The 806 fine in the city and hilly Cavite province but I want a bike that can DO IT ALL.

• City
• Touring
• Must be steel
• Full size BIG wheel
• Must fit on my car trunk

Hamster Bridgestone grandtech

Puti with his pal grandtech

DIY

Bike paint is shit. Mechanical s are fine but I wont be using some of the stock parts. Got all the stuff I need to fix the bike. That on future installment of "Project bike".

Ernest 700c Hamster

Bike ride: Tanza and Trece martires (Oct.30)

Before I start let me just say that the traffic at Coastal road toll gate entering Manila bullshit!

I feel you south folks (Nov.2)

Backyard exploration this holiday weekend the route Governor drive naic, governor drive tanza-trece martires road.
With Four days of vacation at my grubby hands I should have ridden my bike everyday until my knees get mushy. That was the plan but I had other commitments like subdivisions trick or treat celebration, cooking my specialty pasta dish for my mom-in law birthday and mall runs with the family. As always I like taking long relaxing rides on a Sunday, because the buses and other road warriors out there less stupid.

Straps not just for BDSM play

The governor drive run through parts of tanza (naic) fairly flat. Reaching governors dr. going to trece martires where all the fun is at. Climbs are long but moderate the only real problem on this route is if you are fat and your bike is not properly geared. Again the folding bike 52-24 lowest gearing is not low enough as the sustained climbs not kind to the knees. Add to that all the open fields left and right and you long haul cyclist know what that means.
When you finally get the feeling of despair you will see the first sign of HOPE "SM 4km away". At this point a mall starting to sound not expensive, while sawing through four kilometers of climbs you will notice that false flat roads starting to get hilly. Here you will start with steepest ascent counted 3 punchy hills before a long ascent with final hill. When I finally stopped huffing the rest stop was in sight.

Somewhere in Governor dr. Tanza

Two blocks from the mall the intersection going to tanza-trece, Dasmarinas (if you go straight), and Indang if you turn right. Tanza-trece route going home.

No V8, gutted Mustang mach 1.
American pony car shell waiting for the earth to reclaim it in Cavite.

Mustang mach 1 on the road to Manila

First time doing this route and will probably make this my Saturday route warming up.

You see this sign a lot in Cavite. But I would rather stay.

Ernest "no sock" Hamster

Hamster wheel

Keeps on spinning...
When I started driving 18 yrs. ago Metro manila was awesome place to have a car. Now it is the worse place for any motorized or pedal powered form of transport.
Why? Lack of implementation of the law, congestion and road works that just will not get done.
On some places you see compliance but in most areas it is just a mere "suggestion" for the constituency.

Motorist with erratic behavior tend to dominate the streets, with courtesy and common sense not usually present.
So how do you deal with said people? Be predictable.

Be the sheep follow simple rules and for fuck's sake use your common sense. Instead of imposing your "privilege" just comply. We all need to go to our destination in one piece so being one less dick on the road will help.

Pedestrian
No grand theft auto video game here you cannot plow unto people.
The real problem lies on the mindset of pedestrians that they can get away with being stupid most of the time. YES you can but with serious consequences if that person you are challenging wielding a ton of moving metal does not yield.

Back to basics
Teach them while they are young, have somebody from concerned government institution draw up a campaign to educate. Stop wasting money on senseless "traffic parks" and Pokemon go cosplay...REALLY do shit. An hour a week extra class educating about traffic basics on the streets will do wonders than a field trip to some park for traffic awareness.

Heck! I would even volunteer for this joint.

"Splash its super effective!" Pic from the net

Do it yourself
Teach your kids. I do it while driving with my son the same way my Tito Joe would while we accompanied him while driving around Manila in the 80's and 90's.
As a parent you are the first line of defense against IGNORANCE of common traffic/road sense.

And?
Walk, ride a bike, take public transportation once in while. Having a car or two nice but having to experience the raw mess your daily commute dishes out to MOST of the people around you makes you appreciate how good you have it and somehow reduces that urge to be an asshole on the roads...or not.

Ernest "slap in the face...its super effective" Hamster

Bike ride: Tagaytay...

Tagaytay my mythical unicorn staring at me saying FUCK YOU while its horn glisten with discontent and failure. Honestly I do not like the place because it feels like any other city, polluted, congested, and expensive but because of its elevation and somewhat cold weather it attracts cyclist looking for that casual weekend challenge, or stupidity in my case.

Pic from the net

Last weekend weather in Cavite was like a child favorite basic crayon color Yellow which means RAIN and lots of it.

Normally when such information constantly being fed to you a sane person would just stay indoors do nothing for the rest of the day and wait for the deluge to past. On hamster land we are not having that, plus I already made a bold commitment on facebook that Sunday is the day of truth so I had to do it.
Carbo-loaded hard the following day, slept like hibernating bear the rest of the afternoon. Saturday went by with almost no rain but during dawn and the rest of Sunday morning the storm unloaded HARD.
Break on downpour happened around 9 am had around 6 hours to go before we travel back to Manila so I proceeded with my journey.
Route was Tanza junction/city hall going to inner road to intersection of Gen.Trias and then entering conchu road until reaching amadeo, and tagaytay boy that was easily said than done.

Entering conchu I was already pushing my lowest gear slowly grinding. The climbs are mild but it goes on for meters, to kilometers without a break in elevation. The rain (surprise) made it even worse as most of the road badly paved, on some parts small potholes covered with streaming rain water will catch you. Grip was also an issue as slick-ish tires of the bike was slipping on puddles, roots and leaves that littered the road. On two instances the rain came with a vengeance and I had no choice but to take shelter on one makeshift waiting shed, and some trees for 10-20 minutes killing may momentum. Still the climbs looked to end and I realized that I had way more road to travel and not much time left on my schedule. Plus I was arrogant/stupid to not properly haul food and enough water bad for a fat diabetic person.
Turned around and blasted my way down. It was the highlight of the day as for the first time in hours of pedaling my legs could finally rest while the bike magically took control  and rolled on its own until I reached main road.

Point of surrender

Trip back around the town of Bagtas I came upon a small roadside stall which was selling some Lambanog (local moonshine) got to chat with the dude about how wonderful cavite is and about his libation business.

Orange flavored lambanog

Really hate not making it to tagaytay. During the car trip back to Manila later that day I did not feel numb, nor did I feel frustrated, I wanted to surprisingly tear tagaytay a new one or blow my knees trying to, or its just the Lambanog talking?

Ernest "buy local products" Hamster