Cycle university, cycle community

cockpit-full of flowers

photo by kdcamena, 2014

photo by kdcamena, 2014

photo by kdcamena, 2014

fence shooting bicycle bicyclists

fence shooting bicycle bicyclists

fence shooting bicycle bicyclists

grade school cool

"son, let me teach you how it is to be a man. on a bike."

and of course, the pedal power pedicab, most reliable  public transport in the community.

Bike salmon at Sta. Cruzan

Today is end of May and it means--well it used to mean--Sta. Cruzan but we ended up having a on-road fashion show of gowns, with the models' PAs trailing behind making sure that no mascara is running, retouching if there's a need because hell, you know, every event in the city should be for tourism. so we will have more money.

money for what? i don't know.

so vehicular traffic for one lane was rerouted and i chanced upon this guy salmoning. and he wasn't just salmoning in any place he was salmoning on the sidewalk. but i think it's okay considering that onlookers were starting to hog the curb, and most were spilling out on the sidewalk. 

also three seconds earlier, some moped guy almost run us over presuming too much, that the sidewalk belonged to him. that irates me more than sidewalk-salmon bicyclists. but what i hate the most are the sidewalk-parking salespersons. and shop owners. these types always salmon like they own the world and that peds don't even have the right to use the sidewalk anymore. 

but he stopped halfway through his flight to watch the parade. aww. 

three pictures

man, road, river

man, road, river

boy, bike, building

buildings and bikes

it is the year of construction frenzy in Iloilo City.
 i hope they think of us, the bike users, too.
nothing can be more appealing than a city
where people are able to bike in normal clothes, confidence and all.  

Bicycle advertising

In Silay City, Negros Occidental
I chanced upon this man in his bmx with the bike's front rack doubling as an ad space.
I think he is a signage maker or something.
too bad he pedaled too fast i wasn't able to photograph his advert.

splashes of red and yellow

high school girl in her uniform on after school leisure ride around the capital.
red skirts flooding the streets is fail proof signal of general class dismissal;
excited teens wanting quick escape from school into discovering the world with their friends.
and what better way to do it ?
on bikes, of course! 

clever young manugbalot. he knows his reds and yellows well.
there's no other way he could have done it better than
paint his bike with colors that encourage snacking. 

the bikes are out tonight

It's starting to get really hot now--it's almost summer in the Philippines!--and what better time to go out and meet with friends!

Night time meet ups at Molo Plaza...ride, dismount and strut, easy as that. 

well-lighted public spaces like the Molo Plaza are favorite evening hang outs for friends on bicycle, lovers loving, pedestrians walking, children playing and parents parenting their children playing.

and yes, do try to find the bicycle bicyclists in the picture.

Molo has it.

i took pictures of bike users passing by the Molo Bus Terminal. I was quite impressed the versatility that this non-motorized animal has become. i only hung around for less than half an hour, late afternoon of a Saturday and counted more or less 15-20 bike users, including the pedicab/cargo bike users. about 95% of what i saw were utilitarian and urban bike users. and majority of the pedicabs i saw were either junkers, for hire or peddlers. i saw men "junking" with their kids, about a couple of their wives--and in one of the two groups, the wife was pregnant.

there was one bike users that really caught my eye--unfortunately not captured on: they were 4 on one bmx bike. which is pretty insane because, WOW! where do you get skills like that? do they teach that in PhD college or something? do you need like a special course in physics to learn to balance 4 people on one small bike like that? totally blew my mind--and my phone camera was too speechless it didn't open its shutter when i clicked the "take picture now" button. I say to keep this creativity going, we should give them "special roads". I heard in other bike cities they call it "exclusive or segregated bike lanes". this exclusive bike lanes, i was told is a special lane for those who want to use their bikes. and no, it is not shared with cars and trucks and deadly things that run on four wheels (and sometimes two: remember the motorized bicycles? i think they call them overspeeding scooters). Yes, it is a road, and most run parallel to the deadly-four-wheels-only-roads but only that, it is for bike users. and just them. sometimes they also put a strip of green to separate them bike roads from motor-users roads. i was told some places were so far advance they call their special roads "cycle superhighway"-- yes, a highway for just bike users. anyone of ya ever heard of that? my mind is officially blown.

and before that even happens, let me present to you the humble snapshots of the beautiful and handsome bike users of Iloilo City.

Shade-y gents

One of the important accessories to have as a bike user is perhaps the sunglasses, or shades as we would normally call it. it very well keeps those glare late afternoon sun of our eyes, allowing us to concentrate on the road while pedalling to and from home--but mostly to home.

i have never been a shade user myself; i wanted to but i never really learned to get use to it like it was my second eyes. In that case, the cap with a wide visor is always second best choice. 

here are the shade-y gentlemen biker users of Iloilo City, going past the bus terminal in Molo, always looking cool in their main mode of transport. there were more bike users than i expected; my very slow phone camera couldn't keep up with them. 

Pampering thee work horse

The day i took my bike swimming.
My bike is my work horse. Some days, i bring it to the beach to get its much deserve restin' and sunnin'.



photo by Eric Barbosa, Jr.

Our resident photographer submitted this today and I made a story behind it.
Eric has been a great photographer-documentor of critical masses in Iloilo City. We've had about four last year, give or take. He has been doing his documentations while on his white mountain bike. he does it smoothly, coordinating with the route master days prior to the mass, taking notes of the routes, mapping his photo stops to make sure that he gets the best shot with the best iloilo city ID at the background. Eric should make his own photo site soon.:)

Rearing it.

so i left my bike at the courtyard and look! I caught curious cats trying it.
somebody is apparently loving the rear rack.
of course, one has to be in proper biking gear to use my bike, meaning flats, or heels, if one must. and maybe, a crisp,clean shirt for the man is good enough.
or throw in some chucks then man's good to go.

bikespotting.

mid-day visit to the farm.

early off?

red and green.

biking with ice cream.

threesome in a cargo bike/pedicab. best when raining.

balot and carrot cake? seriously?

One, Two, Three, Four, Five!

Riding a bike five ways:

solo.

duo.

threesome, perhaps more fun.

foursome, family style.

or in fives, crowd-getter!