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View Full Version : Riding in the Phillipines, a blast..!



terbang
18th April 2008, 11:58
I just spent last week in the Philipines attending a wedding. Blairos, a member of this site got married to a Filipino lass in a place called San Juan. San Juan is south of Manila in an area called laguna which sports a couple of large lakes and some volcanoes. A nice quiet place outside of the madness of the sprawling Manila. Or so one would think! Blairos new Father in-law is the president of the San Juan riders club (the SJ riders). The SJ Riders are a group of guys and chicks who are really passionate about their motorcycles (well arn't we all) which also double as their only form of transport. They generously found a couple of spare bikes, some gear and took us on one of their day rides.
Blairos can sure choose em, she's gorgeous, intelligent and her dad is the president of a motrocycle club..!

The basic format being typical of any group of bikers the world over, find a nice curvey road, find a suitable eating house and go out there and enjoy your motorcycle in good company, finishing up with a few bevvies... However there are some fairly noticeable differences between riding here in NZ and a day out with the SJ riders. So a group of us set out for some serious fun.

(1) The weather: At this time of the year the Phillipines (14 deg north of the equator) enjoys dry conditions with temperatures rising to 33 deg C during the day. The SJ riders wear light gear with basic armour which is practical for the climate. Helmets are the norm.

(2) The roads: They are like american roads being a series of concrete slabs all joined to create a road and the surface was in fairly good condition. But thats where the similarity stops. Its a real mission in negotiating obstacles such as people, cows, pigs, dogs, coconuts and also drying rice. We also ran over a snake..! The locals use the surface of the road to spread out their rice for drying which takes up one entire lane. They generally give you a fair warning of such, by placing a large concrete block or similar a few metres in advance, right in the middle of your lane. They are also not concerned about doing so in the middle of a bend either! They drive on the RH side of the road and it is very easy to revert back to NZ habits and find yourself being lured back to the left. This is a real problem on a motorcycle as there isn't the obvious "im sitting in the other seat" to remind you to keep right.

(3) The bikes: you bucket people are gonna love these things. The largest was 125 cc. They start their lives out as the 110cc honda scooters that are sold so widely across asia. Add some serious bling and some nice toys and you end up with something very worthy of any keen motorcyclist. The bike I rode was seriously modded. Disk brakes all around, monoshock with appropriate stregthened swingarm, USD forks and bored out engine. The engines on these things are the same as the ones that we see on the postie bikes over here, they have a kick start, four gears and a centrifugal clutch. The one I was riding had some cam work done to it, Yoshi exhaust and they had also plumbed an oil cooler into the camshaft oil gallery. All this was set up on Pirelli Sport Demon tyres.

Riding out of San Juan towards Lake Caliraya, the first thing I noticed about my bike was the brakes. The thing had extremely powerful (Brembo) front wheel braking that required a very gentle and cautious touch, though with the fairly sticky Sport demon tyres, I soon found that one finger was more than adequate for a rapid stop. Fairly comforting in the unpredictable Filipino riding environment.

Lake Caliraya, a man made hydro lake is about 2000' up, so the climb to the summit on a pleasant and curvy road in traffic was an absolute blast. The engine on this thing was lively enough to successfully overtake the "jeepney" traffic that was also steadily grinding towards the top. OK, I'm used to 100 HP plus and yup, it wasn't long before I was using all the little engine had to offer. However I saw 120KPH, with Blairos in hot pursuit, a couple of times on some of the up-hill overtakes. Much to the horror of our fellow Filipino riders who tended to prefer a more steady riding pace.

A casual drink break at the summit and the message was subtley given about bogun Kiwi riders on strange roads. But we are having so much fun on these hot scooters..!

Down the otherside saw the road tighening and my little steed, with the assistance of 9.81 m/sec/sec, really started to perform. Whoever had modded this bike certainly knew their stuff. It was light (I could just about pick it up) and nimble and the tyre/suspension setup gave this wee thing a very rapid turn in. Riding in a sporty stance courtesy of rearset footpegs and a clip-on bar combination, I had the tendency to oversteer at our sensibly restricted pace, while the machine was begging to be ridden faster through the bends. Lots of potential there. A quick glance in the mirror confirmed that Blairos, sharing the same experience, was also making like a 'pig in mud' on his postie bike..!

At the bottom again with heads spinning and armpits pouring sweat after an awesome piece of road, we stopped for lunch in a place called Santa Cruz. A typical arrival outside a cafe by a bunch of rowdy motorcyclists, drawing much attention to themselves with the added freak show of a couple of grinning white boys.

Sleepy after a large lunch, we rode quietly back to San Juan in heavy traffic with lots of lanesplitting and innovative ways to keep things moving. Probably the most notable thing about riding there, in contrast to NZ, is that whilst the roads are fairly chaotic, the other users are courteous and patient and give motorcyclists lots of slack. It really makes a huge difference to the way you feel after a days ride and there is no anti-cage sentiment among the riders.

A good ride is always followed by after-jazz, a feeling of something achieved and survived. And as per the world of motorcyclists, this needs to be relived in much animated and excited fashion. We did this to effect in grand Filipino style and from there on I only have vague recollections of eventually taking my warm fuzzy, coconut wine dulled brain, off to bed in the small hours.
Same theme, different country, different people and machinery but an awesome experience that (once the wine wore off) I shall never forget. Thanks to Blairos and the San Juan riders for making 2008 such a goodun.

dhunt
18th April 2008, 13:18
Sounds like awesome fun. Makes me wish I was back there :(. I sort of miss the driving there where brakes, lights,indicators etc all optional as long as the horn works!!!

I've never been to San Juan and tried to avoid Manila at all costs. It sounds like things are a bit more 'civilized' up in San Juan. I often use to see people with no helmets or some even carrying their helmet on their elbow. Buses pulling out to pass people and flashing their lights and if you are coming the other way you just have to pull over :argh:.

CookMySock
18th April 2008, 14:35
awesome, great story!

Blairos
19th April 2008, 21:11
Well Mr Terbang, you certainly summed that up very well!

One thing he forgot to mention was the SJ Riders also formed up a wedding escort of over 30 bikes (given it was the Club President's daughter getting married to this old bogun :ride: ) for the run to the Church, and then onto the reception afterwards...

And they couldnt wait to get pics with the Bride/Groom at the photos afterwards, pretty special seeing them all out there in their riding gear busting to get their pic taken afterwards with us... Will post some more pics of these guys/gals once we get them back from the photographer in a few weeks...

Currently slumming it at Kota Kinabalu's Shangri-La Rasa Ria resort :rolleyes:, start the journey home on monday :crybaby:

terbang
21st April 2008, 09:57
Here they are...