tons too look at. all goodies.

whenever i am in a bike shop i immediately turn into this open-mouthed five-year old child inside a toy store unable to speak a coherent paragraph let alone complete a sentence. all you will hear from me are “uy“, “uuuuuy“, “uy!“, and “!uy!” — its the equivalent of “omg! omg! omg! omg! omg!” but with lesser syllables.

 a couple of days ago i met up with a friend of mine at cristy’s bike shop to look at what’s new at cristy’s and hopefully take some photos. and as expected — i gawked and the camera sort of stammered so these were the precious few photos that i was able to take. i’m officially calling it a disorder.

but i did see some yummy stuff. i promise to take more photos the next time i visit.

yup. track bike (just take off the brake). high profile rims. loving the handlebars.

fixed gear. i think its the katana ii by rh+o. its got a flipflop hub and semi-aero fork profile. and its in bright green. there’s a bright orange one somewhere in the shop.

noel on ayala bridge. photo by litoben.

 litoben and i rode about town last maundy thursday. the ride wasn’t long and it wasn’t even difficult mostly because there was hardly any traffic on the roads. the streets of manila are almost always deserted during holy week so its an ideal time to go out for a bike ride or two. it was the most fun i had riding in a while. we ended having a light breakfast by manila bay.

photos were taken by litoben. i don’t really know how riding no hands comes so easily with some people and lito’s one of them. i think that photo of me (above) is the first one taken of me riding. thanks bro.

looking at the photos (yep, there were more) i realized that:

• i need to get a new helmet
• i have to raise my seat a bit (done that)
• i don’t look good riding a bike wearing walking shorts
• i have to get thinner
• and try to get a sideview photo of me riding (hint, hint)

our bikes — laling 2.0 and alli by the bay. photo by litoben.

i didn’t feel like riding today but i still wanted to be around my bike (is that weird?) so i decided to give it a little tlc and just do some cleaning and waxing. this would also give me a chance to look for rust or dings in the frame, any chipping or scrapes on the paint job or any wounds on the tires. at the end of the day i am left with a squeaky clean bike and a silly, satisfied smile on my face. this actually made me more eager to ride.

i think this little cleaning session should be done at least once a month or once every two months.

that’s morayta (on the left) merging with lerma (on the right) into españa (bottom). traffic can get much, much gnarlier than this. there are cycling commuters but not bike lanes in sight.

cycling in manila traffic is crazy. there’s no other way to put it. the jeeps, pedicabs (or sidecars), taxis and fxs are all over the place. these vehicles sharply swerve left or right just to pick up or drop off  passengers. sometimes these creatures just stop in the middle of the street with no consideration for the safety of their passengers or the other vehicles behind them.

when i wrote this there are no bicycle lanes along major thoroughfares to speak of in manila. none. nil. there were designated “bike lanes” in the cultural center of the philippines (ccp) complex but that was viewed more for recreational purposes and the bike lanes lasted as long as the paint they used to make the lanes which was a handful of months.

mandaluyong has been allocating road space for use as bike lanes for quite some time now and they have been well received by the locals. but i don’t live in mandaluyong. i live in manila and i fervently hope that more can and will be done by the city to make it a little more bike friendly.

WeFXD Trailer from Leo Diño on Vimeo.

Trailer of WeFXD's upcoming short film/documentary about the local fixed gear scene in Manila, and the Philippines as well.

Stay tuned for an awesome journey of a group of friends and their lives with their fixed gear bikes, the streets, the paries, the good vibes and good rides and everything in between!

SUMMER 2013!

Good vibes, good rides!

Andy White – Turning Pedals from Gavin Bannerman on Vimeo.

Andy White of Fyxomatosis talks about how he got into bikes, from riding on his parents' property to touring in South America to being a bike messenger in London. He discusses the events such as Melburn Roobaix, the ins and outs of trading bikes, his Llewellyn road bike and the story of when he broke his neck on a training ride. More details at www.bikingbrisbane.com

my first ride of 2013 was short and sweet — it was a trip to the local drugstore about three blocks away. on my way to the store another cyclist struck up a conversation telling me where the broken glass were along the road, no doubt the result of drunken new year revelry last night. he also showed me the small bag neatly tucked under his seat where he puts his tire repair kit.

there was almost no vehicles on the roads so the trip back to the house was super easy. halfway through the ride back a slight drizzle started which made the rest of the ride more pleasant and relaxing. this was great first ride for 2013.

++ i’ve also decided to clean up my installed plugins — deleting inactive ones and looking for better plugins — so some posts may get messed up.

LONDON TO PARIS (FULL VERSION) from Ladoja & Sons on Vimeo.

“a 134-mile chain of beautiful scenery, grueling climbs, challenging surfaces through little-known areas of eastern pennsylvania.”

2011 Rapha NE Gentlemen’s race from RAPHA on Vimeo.