Friday, September 30, 2011

Much of Pampanga and Bulacan is still under Deep Waters

Have bike, we will help save the earth...

Recent tweets and newsfeeds reported that much of Pampanga and Bulacan (especially Hagonoy) are still under
water. I hope the rescue boats arrive there together with much needed supplies soon.

Our bikes could not save our kababayan who have been flooded.  How can we help?

At the time of Ondoy's wrath, we were pitiful then... (2 years ago.)

Bikers Who Commute Found to have more Soot in their Lungs?

Have bike, we will help save the earth...

A recent news feed reported that bikers have more soot in their lungs than walkers do.  Some reasons given are:  they are nearer the motor vehicles with emissions;  since they exert more, their lungs suck in more air and pollutants that go with the air. So commuter bikers, wear masks and beware.

Hmm I could feel it.  (I am a hypochondriac)  The tricycles and motorcycles we ride with on Sunday morning emit a lot of pollutants.

So biking is not that healthy after all; if you commute and if you ride with other motor vehicles.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Nagcarlan Oct 2, 2011 Ride

Have bike, we will help save the earth...

It is going to be long ride this Sunday to Nagcarlan.  It is almost l00 km ride one way (200 km out and back.)  There will be ride going back and it is going to be tough I guess for many who do not have long endurance ride like the gay or real (or Panese men)  Hahahaha.

I hope many will join Tito's 88th birthday celebration (jokejoke)

Link to Google Map of Nagcarlan Laguna:http://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?hl=en&ll=37.0625,-95.677068&spn=48.106236,75.9375&mpa=0&ctz=-480&mpf=0&t=h&z=4&vpsrc=0

How do we call the riders:   Car Men?



View Larger Map

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Some Guys are not with Us (Alak Man texted me)

Have bike, we will help save the earth...

Some guys have not been joining rides lately:

l.  Joel -  I heard his child got dengue (H fever).  I hope he is well by now.  I am wishing his child well. (Engr June corrected my earlier post.  Thanks po)

2.  Ben -  they said he has prostrate problem and is having treatments.

3.  Ado (Alakpa, Alakman) -  I dialled his number and he texted. This is his text:

"Dito na po ako sa Umingan Bo. Diket simula pa noong Miyerkules Santo.ito po tuloy2 pa rin ang alak.  Pag Sabado at Linggo nag pag bike po minsan Manog (Manaoag?) akyat ng Dalton ikot ng munoz, guimba, rosales, cuyapot, balungao, san quintin or san quintin, natividad, san nicolas, tayug, sta.maria, rosales, balungao.  Ok po naman ako dito, magsasaka, alak boy pa. mis ko na po tropa; dito mga nakakasama ko kung kilala ninyo tropa ni insot de guzman, malalakas, taga bura nanaman ako, kumusta na lang po sa tropa at lahat."

(I have am here at Umingan, Bo. Diket since Holy Wednesday.  I still drink regularly. On Saturdays and Sundays, I bike these routes....,  I am ok here; I am a farmer and a liquor boy.  I bike with the group of Insot de Guzman if you know him - they are strong riders;  I am the back burner.  Regards to the group and all the rest.) There you are finally, there are some news from Ado who was silent for quite a while

Google Map of Umingan, Pangasinan


View Larger Map

Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Buffer for Motorbiking is 3 Meters

Have bike, we will help save the earth...




 the buffer  for motorbiking is 3 meters

Uneventful Ride Today Sept. 25, 2011

Have bike, we will help save the earth... Today, September 25, 2011, is uneventful, although they said there is a bike race somewhere.

l. I started out at 6:05 and saw Nolite, Tommy, and Smith at Y intersection (near Knights and Archers.) Soon enough Luis and VM arrived. Nolite paced the group; however, at Calumpang, near the Municipal Building, there was a break away and could not keep up. I caught up with them at Morong 3 minutes later.

2. We had breakfast of lugaw and cassava cake at Simple's lugawan in Maybancal.

3. Then we rode from Morong to Pisong kape. Nolite and I paced until we reached the Tanay cemetery and there was again a sprint. I caught up with them at Pisong Kape maybe some 2 minutes later. I continued up to Bugarin and Luis were ahead at the lakeview. Smith was besides me and said others were behind

                                          Silvery View of Bugarin from Km 63

. 4. And then we rode down with Smith, Nolite, and Tommy. I rode very conservatively but kept up with lead pack consisting of VM, Tommy, Jun F, (Oh we met Gerry and Netoy at Pililla.) Smith. Hell broke loose as we climbed the hill near the cemetery and Engr. June rode with 50x11 gears and pulled all of us. Of course, I swept the back.



5. Engr. June sponsored a round of mountain dew at Simple's Lugawan. Thanks Engr. June. You and Joel are very generous.

6. Then we rode home but decided to pass by the bypass in Cardona which was hilly. (and steep) I and guavas were left behind.



7. We met some mountain bikers who came from Cogeo, passed by Teresa, and went to Morong, Cardona, Binangonan, route We were home by ll am. I should do something about my hill climbs. I am being left behind. I lack practice? I am just practicing how to use my new Nikon coolpix camera. I would have to know how to download to the computer.



                                            Banana Rich in Potassium -Good Postride Food


                  PNoy reported that BJ is a good wellness and health drink, Pepsi Will invest in BJ

Please note better quality of pictures;  I no longer use Nokia 2700 phonecam but a Nikon Coolpix L23 10mp camera.

                                    

Some Interesting Stats on this Blog

Have bike, we will help save the earth... I am preparing for my easy ride today and I am looking at this blog site stats. Some interesting notes on the stats:

l. Only 50% of the visitors are from the Philippines; the other half are from abroad;

2. The top visitors are from the Philippines, USA, and Russia;

3. Blog posts on travel destination, churches, food are well visited

. 4. Our top post last week was the accident at Siniloan between a bicycle and a big motorbike. I hope this is a wake up call for safety.

I am trying to figure out why the stats are such?

This blog stat for visits is well past 2000. Thanks for the continued interest of the dear readers. God bless.

I Acquired a Nikon Coolpix L23 to Improve Images at this Blog

Have bike, we will help save the earth...

I just acquired a Nikon Coolpix L23 point and shoot digital camera to improve images at the blog. I took it by card and costs only PHP 3999.00 and has outstanding features like continuous frame shooting, panoramic shooting, macro shoot of only 3 cm. and 5x optical and 4x digital zoom. It uses just AA alkaline batteries and comes with free 2 GB SD card. Wow. That is good for more than 5000 computer quality pictures. It is currently on sale at Picture City (its stores are mostly at Robinson) I just use a Nokia 2700 phone cam (2 megapixels though) for my earlier pictures. But the lens seems to be scratched all ready. I hope to use this soon for my next posts.

I still must figure out how to download pictures to the computer to upload to the the blog.

Just a Short Ride Today

Have bike, we will help save the earth... After our 3 successive epic rides to Real, Tagaytay, and Caliraya, we will take it easy today and just maybe ride to Morong and round Teresa. We deserve a rest. He he he

Friday, September 23, 2011

Beware of Falling Satellite Pieces as you Bike Today

Beware of falling satellite pieces if you bike today... there is one in a billion chance.... A decommissioned satellite weighing 6 tons will fall to earth Sept 23, 20ll. Most of the satellite will fall to earth, mostly stainless steel and rare metal pieces which will not burn completely. It is much lighter than Skylab (which was about l6 tons) which fell in Australia some years back. Scientists can not predict exactly where it will fall. Some say South Pacific? But just beware if you plan to bike today. Or better yet, bike some other day. Hehehe. I just learned that the satellite fall slowed down and has yet to fall. (9/25/2011)

From CBS News - Still Images that Move

Have bike, we will help save the earth...

I think you should see this one - still images that move from cinemagraphs, published at CBS news.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-207_162-10009387-5.html?tag=page

http://cinemagraphs.com

Nice. Fun to watch.  Enjoy Honestly, looks eerie to me and scary too. It is like meeting a ghost?

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Leadership Secret from Navy Seals from Forbes

Have bike, we will transcend our pain...

I just recently read an article from Forbes that I am quoting here.  Biking hard, the long ride I think is just like the Hell Week for the navy seals.  It is not about the rigor of the heart biking.  It is about the idea that you are going to help others - save others that move you on.  Please read more about it.

From Forbes:

"Eric Greitens, a Navy SEAL, recently published an article in the Wall Street Journal called The SEAL Sensibility. Greitens grippingly describes the training that reduced his class of 220 wannabe SEALs to 21 graduates: training that culminates in Hell Week where candidates only get 2-5 hours of total sleep.
“When they really wanted to torture us,” Greitens writes, “they’d say, ‘Anybody who quits right now gets hot coffee and doughnuts. Come on, who wants a doughnut?  Who wants a little coffee?’
“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw men running for the bell. First two men ran, then two more, and then another. The instructors had carried the bell out with us to the beach. To quit you rang the bell three times. I could hear it: Ding, ding, ding. Ding, ding, ding. Ding, ding, ding.”
But most revealing was Greitens’ description of the kind of men who succeed vs. those who fail. An assessment that only confirms a number of my own confirmation biases.


“What kind of a man makes it through Hell Week? That’s hard to say. But I do know-generally- who won’t make it. There are a dozen types that fail: the weight-lifting meatheads… the kids covered in tattoos announcing to the world how tough they are, the preening leaders who don’t want to get their hands dirty, and the look-at-me former athletes who have always been told they are stars but have never been pushed beyond the envelope of their talent to the core of their character.”
Greitens also says that some of the most unlikely candidates do make it: weak men who “puked on runs” and had “trouble with pull-ups;” men whose “teeth clattered just looking at the ocean;” men who were “visibly afraid, sometimes to the point of shaking.”
But according to Greitens almost all the men who make the SEALs share one common quality.
Even in great pain, faced with the test of their lives, they had the ability to step-outside their own pain, put aside their own fear and ask: How can I help the guy next to me? They had more than the ‘fist’ of courage and physical strength. They also had a heart large enough to think about others, to dedicate themselves to a higher purpose.”



Very few of us will audition for the Navy SEALs. But in business and in our personal lives we will all face our own Hell Weeks. Whether through a cash-crunched company, a divorce or the death of child, life inevitably will push us beyond the envelope of our talent to the core of our character. And when Hell Week arrives some will make the cut while others will ring the bell. So in this sense what do the Navy SEALs have to teach us as leaders and human beings?
The first SEAL lesson is that the character traits you need to survive Hell Week must be built BEFORE all hell breaks loose. Crisis doesn’t build character; it reveals it.  History is replete with people like Ben Franklin, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and Leo Tolstoy who engaged in daily character building exercises long before they were needed. For example, in his biography The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life, Buffet attributes his success to his lifelong commitment to the character building exercises of Dale Carnegie: Not to Wharton Business School or even his legendary mentor, Ben Graham.

continued:   page 2

The second lesson is never confuse the heart of character with the fist of skills. Skills are things of the head. Character is who we are, and as Greitens points out, character relies on things of the heart.  You can’t learn how to step outside of your own pain and ask: How can I help the guy next to me? by reading a book or this article. You must become that person by chipping away at selfishness every day no matter how damn busy you think you are.

The third SEAL lesson is aim past the target. Becoming a SEAL is the by-product not the goal itself.  The common denominator that all the successful candidates shared was their concern for others: a concern that transcended their desire to merely become a SEAL. In business if we want big profits we must aim at something far bigger than big profits. Love your customers and the profits will follow.
Carl Jung, the great psychiatrist and student of Freud once said, “Whether God exists or not is a legitimate question. That man needs a God is an incontrovertible fact.”  Whether you are religious or not the final SEAL lesson is that you need what Greitens calls a “higher purpose” that guides and informs your daily life.
Hell Week takes as many forms as there are people to endure them, but by definition they test us beyond our individual strength. Just as a mother will do things for her child that she could never do for herself, you need something bigger than yourself that you can fall back on when everything is crumbling around you. Tragically, as with so many wannabe SEALs, we often only realize the limitations of the fist of selfishness when the bell has already been rung.


The movie Defending Your Life cleverly borrows from several religious traditions to argue that life itself is just one long SEAL training. In the film the recently departed must review their lives on screen and prove to a judge that they successfully transcended their selfish fears.Those that survive this Hell Week “move on.” Those that fail return to earth and do it all over again. I recommend this humorous movie, but we don’t need eternity to make the point. Success on earth is directly proportional to how successfully we step outside of our own pain, put aside our own fear, and ask: How can I help the guy next to me?
Greitens’ new book is The Heart and the Fist: the Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL.  In light of his article I don’t think it is an accident the heart trumps the fist and that his title implies that he is a humanitarian first and a SEAL only second."

My Comments

Character is important.  First you must have it;  but being with a group and exercising more develops character.  In cycling it is the desire to be healthy and be better that counts:  not the skill or the strength they will follow. Maybe those who think that they can defend their country and make America safe for their loved ones pass the Hell Week.  People who care. People who love their country.

That character also involves being able to transcend your selfishness to overcome your own pain and our hardship and start caring for others:  your bikemates, the  view, the nature and all the things that are enjoyable in the ride. Having a more expensive bike and looking more handsome in an expensive new jersey will not make you survive as a rider nor make you ride faster and better.

That is what I learned from the Navy Seals article.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Enterprises and Other Points of Interest at the Cali Ride (Sept 18, 2011)

Have bike, we will help save the earth...

I am beginning to see that a biking blog will eventually become a travel blog or directory.  I think blogging some business enterprise helps others know their stuff, and at the same time educates the blog reader. I did not realize, as I slowed down and made numerous stops (to the discomfort of other Panese men - "napanis sa waiting) there are so many enterprises along the bike routes. Here are some of them:


                                                         Bing's Lakeside Restaurant

                         I did not get the name of this spot with nice view of Laguna Lake

                                                         Carabao Grass for Sale


                                                          Over Kitchenette at Km l0l


                                              Villa Ruthman, Angel Holding our bikes


                                    Another Nice Spot; could not Read the Signboard

                                                     Villa Samonte View Deck

                                                         Villa Samonte Warm Springs

                           Lumban is Famous for Barong Tagalog and Exquisite Embroidery


                                      La Vista Restaurant and Swimming Pool Resort


            Exotica Restaurant In Kalayaan Boasts of Exotic Foods and Ambiance



                     Manay Restaurant in Pakil where we had pre and post climb meals

                                                 Rho Bels Buko Pie in Mabitac.

                                       Bus Stop Resto and Buko Pie and Pasalubong store at Mabitac



                                         JrJ Rattan furniture at San Miguel Mabitac

FRUIT STANDS

There are many fruits in season like lanzones, santol, and rambutan, guavas.  But be sure you can canvass for the price.  For instance it is P30/kilo in Lumban, but P50.00/kilo in Paete. Some costs more because of the nice packaging and display.

One notable thing is the presence all ready of durian and marang in large quatities which before could only be found in Davao and Southern Mindanao. According to the person we interviewed, a whole stretch from Lumban to Paete is planted to Marang and Durian, and very soon, the market will be flooded with this fruit, together with rambutan.

                             Rambutan, the Tuklapin Variety only P30/kilo in Lumban






                                            Display is better at Paete and so is the Price

                                      
                                       Fruit Stand in Paete; Note Durian at the bottom and Marang hanging

                                                Lansones in nice baskets @Pl00.00 kilo

Links to Various Websites on Bicycles and Gears Taken from Cycling Plus Magazine

Have bike, we will help save the earth...

Here are some of the links to various bike stores and manufacturers of bikes and accessories taken from Cycling plus.  They are mostly from UK.  I could not copy paste their ads; so just go to their sites.  And enjoy, even vicariously:

Bikes:

www.ribblecycles.co.uk

www.boardmanbikes.com

www.cube.eu

www.scott-sports.com

Eddy Merckxx bikes

www.gtbicycles.com

Pantani Bikes - True Italian Icon

Cipollini Bikes Made in Italy

www.khsbikes.co.uk

www.canyon.com

www.giant-stores.co.uk

www.kinesisdecade.co.uk

www.lookcycle.com

www.rosebikes.co.uk

www.enigmabikes.com

Other bikeshops for equipment and accessories:

www.primera-sports.com

www.citec@soniccycles.co.uk

www.parker-international.co.uk

www.merlincycles.co.uk

www.bbmrevolution. com

www.welovemountains.com/road

www.rutlandcycling.comwww.hargrovescycles.co.uk

There you are enjoy.  Just admire; but buy from Cartimar, QC or Quiapo where they are much much cheaper. (Or it is cheaper to buy from UK because the value of pound sterling is at all time low?)

What to Do When you Chain Jump on the Gears?

Have bike, we will help save the earth...

As we were climbing Caliraya, the chain  of Angel jumped on the sprocket.  He could not concentrate on his climb.  I told him to adjust his barrel adjuster by l/2 turn.  I thought he knew where it was.  He said he did he turned it but his chain continued to jump on the sprocket.  As an excuse to rest, I went down my bike and adjusted his barrel adjuster.  The jumping stopped.

So I asked him, how does he store his bike after a ride.  He said, the chain is on the largest, and the sprocket likewise is on the largest gear.

I told him to rest all the cables by putting the shift on the smallest chainwheel in front and sprocket at the back.  If the cables are taught because they are on the largest ring or sprocket, the cable will stretch and the gears change will be missed.   Please take note of this helpful tip so you do not make frequent trips to the mechanic.

More Images at the Japanese War Memorial Garden in Caliraya


Have bike, we will help save the earth...

The Japanese were the enemies during the war.  But it is peacetime now.  And enemies are just because of changing alliances. The Americans and the Japanese had great alliance after the war.

Here are some more images at the Japanese War Memorial Garden:

                    The very serene view at the Entrance; those are Japanese Bush
                                 The view of the pool from the top, behind the tall trees

                                                     The Main Shrine


The Yamashita Grave?

                            The Main Shrine:  Japanese Honor Their Dead Very Well



                                     The Greenery Reflections on the Stainless Steel

                                        Stairway to Heaven (?) - to the Main Shrine

                                                     Old But Not Forgotten



                                      Views of the Pool; Reflections on the Water


                                The Cali Men (or Panese) at the Far End of the Pool

                                                      The Pool Bridge

                                            A Dog Wanting to Pay Tribute to the Dead?


                                      Improvised Water Tanks from Plastic Container

                                                   Japanese Bush