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

Night ride with Siglo Siklistas

Hamster dreams of stars

Butt still hurts breaking-in the new saddle of the camino. After this ride the cheapo seat going to SS beater could not take the ass beating anymore.
Started in middle of afternoon along usual route to QC while climbing nearby bridge could still feel the burn on my legs from the last ride. Arrived quite early at the meeting point, proceeded to HEC BBQ with Doc arvin. Waited for the other dudes to arrive before we took of.

QC, manila, makati, capped the route at El chupacabra.

Enjoyed this ride a lot, thankfully the only part on my body that got sore my buns. Hamsters legs, lungs working fine.

According to strava clocked-in 89 Km worth of rides this week. On Sunday will capping 100 km by touring WWII historic island of Corregidor on Manila bay with Siglo's Oscar, and uly owner of Ulyby bike shop.

Strava or it did not happen!

Ernest "fueled by juice and..." hamster

Bike ride

Removing the ego
Fairly new to this bike thing with only 3 years worth of rides under my saddle. When I started other bikers would pass me left and right, today they still do but with a little more effort. Since return to riding with the Siglo Siklistas my stamina improved the usual MOA route would usually be 3 hours long with only 20-25 km covered with lots of rest. Now the only time I stop is when I have to adjust my cycling underwear being swallowed by my huge butt.

Have developed a route which is fairly straight, covers a lot of kilometers with only two stop lights, not a lot of vehicles, and without getting in the way of roadies on morning rides.

Along the route would usually encounter other cyclist some cruising, some looking for trouble. Even if you exercise respectful overtaking some would take it as a challenge...well if in the first place you do not want to get overtaken by a 300 pound man with weird looking bike then DO NOT ride slow.
In such situations the bad hamster in me would not take this sitting down, but during such stupid pissing contest I know that I would usually lose because I am not that explosive out of the saddle, giving too much weight to power (hehe), and need to sustain stamina through out the route. So in this situation I would maintain my speed, wheel suck when they pass and let them take the blunt of the wind. In their minds they know that THEY won over a fat, weak, guy but little do they know that they cannot sustain such high output for long. And when they get gassed I continue on passing them and be on my marry way doing my laps.

Riding with different folks can teach you a lot. Specially with bikers having that "mamaw" badge, I know that I will not reach that level anytime soon but at least I won't get dropped that far.

Strava or it did not happen!

Ernest Hamster

Bike ride

Friend reminder
Before coughing myself to sleep at around 11 pm last night I felt bloated from all the eating, drinking, partying on last quarter of December. My voice still hoarse, my body weak, and occasional phlegm would trickle out my nose. Put myself to sleep by browsing the interwebs for bike related stuff I do not need, luckily I did not get the night buzz I usually have the combination of cooking, driving, and hosting parties took its toll. Deep asleep I would not usually remember my dreams but this one got noticed.
Friend passed away this summer and he was in my dream. On occasion my deceased relatives close to me would show up on such but this was the first time my friend appeared. Honestly I miss the dude, could still remember the first thing I said to him when he got back from work stint in middle east "tara bike tayo!" now what if he got into biking? Would he still be with us today? That got me into thinking...I need to RIDE my bike NOW.
So I woke up, got dressed, drank a glass of water and proceeded for first new year bike ride.
Manila route similar to last ride with tito romarico. Instead of just doing laps around Mall of Asia which is boring. I did the slightly long route, took the most straight streets which I could get up to speed and pedal like a Hamster.
Twenty KPH my minimum and no matter who's in front of me I needed to maintain that on 32T ratio up-front. Would occasionally get up to 25 kph but that was it.
Sure enough the spin bonanza ride proved effective. Did 3 laps around CCP, MOA, area and logged in 38 km on ride total. Looking at the data a small chunk of route was missing during the beginning of the ride at least 2-3 km give or take. So YES I did 40 km today not bad effort coming from binge fest that was the holidays and the ghost of a friend past.

Strava or it did not happen

Ernest Hamster

Bike ride: urban fun

Back with the boys of Siglo Siklista's for fun filled night of riding, food, and bikers juice.

Started at Dapitan where I got to gawk at pretty girls attending the event at nearby college while waiting for the group. Instead of the usual route through quiapo we proceeded to inner parts of binondo until we reached lucky chinatown mall then jones bridge, inside intramuros, roxas, baywalk, moa, vito cruz, kamagong, jupiter to El chupa cabra for grilled mexican food, I had a tasty burrito!

Shout out to the dude on a motorcycle who saw us leaving dapitan and later saw us (me) on makati en-route to mexican place. Got to chat with him while snaking through traffic along jupiter he told me that his a mountain biker himself a member of Comembo (?) bike group.

Ernest "blown knee" Hamster

Bike ride

The mission

Manila historic route ending on day appropriate (National Heroes day) bike park in Taguig HEROES trail.

I♥MANILA 

The start

Two hard boiled eggs, two banana's and three glasses of water before departure. Not to mention prepping my son's and wife breakfast before leaving. 

Bridges and trolls

Nagtahan northbound and southbound that's it. Before sleeping the night before was thinking of doing Pedro gil. , Sta.Ana, Lambinggan bridge, followed by San Juan roller coaster route to N.Domingo exiting to Sta.Mesa then Nagtahan to wherever. Couple of bridges and varying degrees of uphill BUT I woke up late so save this for next Manila Loop ride. TROLL!

I love Manila

What can I say Am lucky to live a couple of kilometers away from Spanish era, history of Manila. Just love being a dude with supple time to kill before peddling like a hamster.

Cobblestone road besides St.Agustine Church

Memory of the victims Manila liberation 1945. Great aunt was a victim of liberation.

Dragon? Swamp monster? Plaza roma in front of Manila cathedral

Baywalk dash

After taking my marry time around Intramuros. Quirino grandstand signifies the beginning of putting down the Strava stats.

Aptly called BAYWALK DASH it is straight sprint from US Embassy to Folk arts theater. The stars aligned and I got a clear DASH so to speak but did not blow past 25 kph was saving myself for bulk of the route. Next time BD, next time.

Roadie kingdom

Strangely Mall of Asia today not dominated by our brothers in tights. Not doing any laps here just passing by.

Zombie apocalypse? MOA

Macapagal...death by stupid buses

Instead of exiting on Solaire doubled back  to Coral way and DFA. Macapagal Blvd has a LOT of lanes for those f*cking buses to pass, ONE decided to cut-me off. This is the third effing time this happened to me while passing here. I do not HOG any lane, staying way deep, almost near white line. I ride like this because I respect faster vehicles right to pass me. The only time I go in a middle of the lane if I need to overtake something, turning on streets and intersection.

Arrrggg my revenge came when we ALL turned right to NAIA RD traffic! Bicycle party piece? I could snake through said traffic.

Pinch!

Is it the Schwalbes? Probably because the middle knobs are almost bald. And its a lightweight XC tire with thin sidewalls so.

New 30mm outer rims? 2.1 Rocket Ron's look like 2.3 tire on these suckers. So it might be stretching the Cross country tire to point of tubes pinching?

Ah...going through a tube per ride since I got the new rims. NOW I really need to try to run them tubeless. 

Because tubeless ready.

Tang*na!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fail

While fixing the flat. I decided to bin the planned last destination for this ride, Taguig Heroes Trail. Still have a lot on the Old Hamster tank but the risk of flatting AGAIN without any spare tubes or a patch kit can lead to more FAILS in my part so NAIA rd, Macapagal, Baywalk roxas, Malate, Singalong, HOME final route.

Buko juice for the win!

Forty for the fifty

Would easily pass the half-century mark if I continued to NAIA 3, Taguig Heroes Trail, Pasong Tamo, South super, home route. If I had the balls to risk it all...Nah.

Was hungry, was already low on funds, and I promised my wife I would be home before lunch. Couple of minutes late on that promise but still...Happy wife, happy life.

Hamster SMASH!

Today the BIG ring ride MASHING. Top end transfers to 42t not that fun as spinning but it sure is nice to maintain at least 20+kph sustained.

Strava data overall: 18kph sustained (total for whole mapped session) not bad.

Touring Camino road warrior

Ernest Hamster

Misc. Pictures!

Manila cathedral

Ilog pasig

Lake view condo's hehe

Walled city

Pinch flat valley beware!

Bike ride: kissed the dirt and I liked it...not really.

With availability of WAHOO fitness (WF) app for android phones future "bike ride" articles will again have map data uploaded to Strava. The WF app records your workout via GPS and optional functions via specific WF gadgets like heart rate monitor, cadence sensor, bike computers etc. The best feature of WF is it does not have to connect to your phone carrier mobile internet data to record activities/workouts. It only requires the user to enable the phone GPS which is free. After each activity you now have the option to export files on your favorite tracking app like Strava, mapmyride, etc.

Ride a typical PATW to nearby (8km one way) Heroes Bike park. I do not know what the temperature is that day but it was hot the trail was also dusty. For those not familiar with Heroes it is around half a kilometer worth of man made trail. Comprised of Three sectors which test various degrees of bike handling skills. Sector one the entrance with easy sweeping berms and couple of switch backs with the steepest climb around. Sector two pump-track section, while sector three the rooted fast sections. The best thing about Heroes layout is that you can custom link sectors that can be accessed via adjacent fire road.

Bike ride: SS does errands and gets new accessories installed

SS beater now ready to haul

The heat killer only had 2 hours of sleep and I have to fetch my son report card in Malate. Also did the laundry yesterday and my back killing me contemplated in using my car but somehow did not succumbed to convenience. Now the only thing I have to decide is which Bike should I use? The EL Camino or the SS?

Bike ride presented by SIGLO SIKLISTA: First century ride for 2014

Week after Maarat Race Siglo Siklistas (SS) organized an "Easy Century ride" starting from Quezon City home base to Malipay Paliparan Trails Cavite. Joined them roughly 30 km less on Taguig Heroes Trail where I padyak all the way (PATW) from my home in Manila.