Bicycle Ride in Sibulan

It's coming up on the anniversary of my downloading an app onto my phone in order to monitor my bicycle rides. There is an option where I can video the ride. I've uploaded those videos from time to time on to Facebook. I don't usually upload the videos to Youtube, but I thought I would do so today. 

When prompted by Youtube to answer questions about the content, I said it was OK for kids. I thought that meant there was no sex or violence or adult specific content. It turns out it isn't kid safe after all because the app I used included an ad in the video.

 I changed the settings and now I'm good to go.

Fun At The Vulcanizing Shops

 

In March of 2021, less than a month from my 69th birthday, I purchased a mountain bike. It wasn't my intention to do my biking off road, but knowing the condition of the roads in this area, a mountain bike seemed a safer option than a road bike. Prior to buying this bicycle, it had been 40 years since I last road one. It would take time to build up my endurance, but I would eventually get up to seven days a week, averaging sometimes 15 miles a day. I would often get in 100 miles a week.

A few months ago, I decided to cut back to five days a week. This would mean - weather permitting - Monday thru Friday. If, for whatever reason, I lost a weekday, I'd make it up on Saturday or Sunday. This past Saturday I was not scheduled to ride, but as I was up early (as usual) I wanted to do an inspection of my bicycle. There it was - a flat front tire. Depending on what causes the flat, sometimes a tire will flatten while I'm on the road and that requires an immediate detour to a vulcanizing shop, of which there are, thankfully, many. Sometimes, the object that causes the flat will be so minor as to be unnoticeable until the next day when I go outside to go on my ride. That was the case this past Saturday.

I was planning to meet a few fellow Americans that morning, so I removed the front wheel, put it in the back of the car to be taken to a vulcanizing shop after breakfast.

As it turned out, the man at the shop said the tube was damaged due to the spokes rubbing the tube. There is a lining, of sorts, around the rim which is supposed to prevent that. Obviously, this one needed to be replaced. This lining wouldn't be something a vulcanizing shop would have, so I decided to wait until a bicycle shop in Dumaguete opened up Monday where I could buy a new tube and liner for the rim.

The bicycle shop doesn't open until 9:00 AM, so I wouldn't be able to get a ride in on Monday. Today, I went outside at 6:00 o'clock to go for my Tuesday ride and all looked OK. Unfortunately, I hadn't gone more than a mile when I got another flat. I was able to flag down a pedicab to take me and my bicycle home. At home, I removed the front wheel - I'm getting good at that. There was a rather nasty looking pointy thing sticking in the tire. I took the tire to yet another vulcanizing shop for repair. Hopefully, I'll be good to go Wednesday morning.

A word of note - the photos of the pedicab and the offending object are from today's adventure. The other two are from earlier flats.

 

The New App

After posting about yesterday's flat tire adventure I realized that it had been far too long since I last posted anything about my bicycle rides through Dumaguete and Sibulan and I haven't made any comments on the new bicycle app I installed on to my phone.

As I mentioned in a post from March of this year, I purchased a traditional odometer for my bicycle sometime around April, 2022. This odometer has a part connected to a spoke on the front wheel which sends a signal to another part attached to the bicycle frame whenever the wheel makes a revolution. The computer in the odometer uses π (pi) and tire size to calculate the distance traveled with each revolution. This worked well until around July of this year when the bike computer began to malfunction. Although the clock on the device works fine, the odometer was way off in it's measurement of speed and distance. It might show me traveling 80 or 90 kph when it was obvious that that number was impossible.

My first thought was that the battery needed replacing. Replacing the battery did not fix the problem.

In August of this year I installed a phone app which would provide the data I want using GPS. I began using the app on August 3. I've found this app to be so helpful that it has pushed me to ride farther every morning.

As seen in these screen shots, my distance for August was slightly more than 400 miles. My distance for September was just over 404 miles.

This app not only measures distance traveled, but the duration of the ride, the average and maximum speeds, calories expended, the elevation gain (and loss) and the average pace. It even records a video of the ride using Google Maps.

 

The Cubiertos Volkswagen

 

I first posted photos of the VW Beetle that is located outside the Cubiertos Restaurant and Grill in Sibulan onto my sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken blog in October of 2018. At that time, the VW was painted a bronze color and was basically used as a large flower pot. (see photos at the above link).

In February of last year, I met with 3 American friends to have lunch at Cubiertos and discovered that the flowers had been removed from the trunk of the VW and the car had been repainted a canary yellow.

Cubiertos is located on the National Hwy. in Sibulan in an area where I do not normally ride my bicycle, so I only recently learned of the changes involving the Cubiertos VW when I happened to drive by in the car.

As can be seen in these new photos taken this morning, the VW is still the same canary yellow, but now sets atop the roof of the restaurant. I logged onto Google Maps in order to add these photo to the restaurant location on the map and I discovered that Cubiertos was not on Google Maps. I was sure I had seen it there previously. At any rate, I edited Google Maps and added the restaurant. It should show up in a few days.

Below are the photos I took this morning.

 

Bicycle Ride to Calabnugan

A friend of mine recently posted onto Facebook a few photos he had taken from the Calabnugan bridge. Seeing his photos, I was reminded of some photos I had taken from the same bridge and had uploaded to Google Maps. I've ridden my bicycle a few times to the bridge, but it occurred to me that I had never crossed over the river at that point. I decided to remedy that.

I looked on Google Maps and saw that there were a number of places that I could photograph for the website. These included the Calabnugan elementary school, the Calabnugan Barangay hall, the Tsuri Cafe and Pis-An Store.

My original plan was to go out on my bike early Friday morning and take the photos. Unfortunately, I discovered that the rear tire on the bike was flat. There's a vulcanizing shop within walking distance of my house, so I removed the rear wheel and headed that way. The inner tube was patched and I walked back home.

I've always had somewhat of a difficult time taking off and putting back on the rear wheel; dealing with the derailleur has always been a hassle for me. By the time I managed to get the rear wheel on, I was too hot and sweaty to do the 11 km (to and from) ride to Calabnugan. I'd put that off until Saturday morning.

Going out Saturday, I noticed that the derailleur and gear cables were in need of adjustment. I believed, however, that I'd still be able to make the planned ride. I was mistaken. I was able to ride, but I was not able to switch into a full selection of gears and getting to Calabnugan was harder than it should have been.

I turned around before getting to the elementary school; I'd have to postpone the full ride until after I had the cables and derailleur adjusted. After arriving home, I caught my breath and rode to a bicycle repair shop in Sibulan.

So, Sunday morning, with the bicycle back in 100% running order, I managed to complete my planned ride to the Calabnugan elementary school and take the photos I wanted for Google maps.The photos below are only a small sample of the photos taken.

 

A Volkswagen Update

This afternoon I went with 3 American friends to have lunch at Cubiertos Restaurant in Sibulan. It was the first time I had visited this particular restaurant in quite some time......it's probably been more than a year.

Something new has been added.

My regular readers know that whenever I come upon a VW Beetle in the area, I will photograph said Beetle and post the photos to my blog. (now "blogs"). In Oct. 2018 I took photos of a VW parked at Cubiertos Restaurant that was basically serving as a large flower pot. One of the photos from that time is posted below.

 

Today, I find that that VW has been updated. Looking closely at the body, I'm sure it is the same VW....only now it's painted yellow and is no longer holding flowers.

I've no idea why the change was made. I'm simply reporting it.

Back in the Saddle

I mentioned in last Thursday's blog post that after 2 weeks, I was finally able to have my bicycle repaired. I went for a nine kilometer ride Friday morning and noticed that the mechanic had not properly adjusted the gear cables. He came to the house Friday afternoon and took care of that.

Saturday morning, I rode out to a friend's place where he was able to take a few photos for this post.

When Ken sent the photos to me I thanked him, but had to ask, "Who's the old guy on my bicycle?"

My wife often tells me that I have an angry look on my face - which I couldn't believe. It's just my "normal" expression. When I saw these photos, I had to agree that I do look angry, but I'm not.

 

Bicycle Repaired

A day or so before Christmas, my bicycle was damaged while I was on my morning ride. It's difficult for me to explain exactly what happened. I was just past the Tubtubon Barangay hall when I felt a problem with the bicycle chain.

The chain had come loose, with the end result being a flat rear tire and a damaged derailleur. Whether the loosened chain was the result of the flat tire, or if the chain problem ultimately led to the flat is hard for me to determine. It's like the question of the chicken and the egg.

So, I'm about 2 kilometers from home, with a damaged bicycle. How was I to get back to the house?

Fortunately, I had not been down long when I a saw a pick-up truck heading my way. I flagged the driver and offered him php200 to take me and the bicycle to the Magatas Barangay hall. He was kind enough to take me and the bike where I needed to go.......refusing to accept the php200. It was almost Christmas, he said.

The end result of all this was that I've been unable to ride my bicycle for two weeks. I had to wait until after payday before I could have the necessary repair work done .

This morning, I was finally able to get the bike back on the road. We managed to locate a bicycle mechanic who came to the house today.

He replaced the derailleur, put in a new tube and rotated the front and rear tires. Naturally, I've a few photos.

 

Dog Food Run - Alternate Route

I've written before about making the occasional bicycle ride to Sibulan to purchase dry dog food. Of course, it isn't something I do every day, but once or twice a week is a regular routine.

As I wrote in an earlier blog post, taking the most direct route to the Gentle Paws Pet Store is 2.8 kilometers (one way) for a total ride of 5.6 kilometers. This is slightly less than my usual minimum of 7 kilometers morning run. So, this morning, I decided to take the 2.8K ride to the pet store, but take an alternate route on the return.

This alternate return route takes me past Simms Store and then on thru Tubtubon. This route is 4.4 kilometers, making the total morning ride today 7.2 kilometers. That's certainly more in line with my goal. Add to this the additional 2 kilos in my backpack and this a nice challenge.

Six Barangay Halls

This morning I wanted to indulge in four of my hobbies - bicycling, photography, blogging and posting to Google Maps. With that goal in mind, I decided to ride to six of the barangay halls located within cycling distance from my house. While there, I'd snap a photo.

For those reading this who aren't familiar with some of the ways of Philippines, each city and municipal area is made up of "neighborhood areas" called barangay. For the most part, the barangay will have a barangay hall / health center, although I have been in some barangay so small that a barangay hall is nowhere to be found.
The six barangay hall I rode past today are - 1) Magatas 2) Camanjac 3) Motong 4) Pulantubig 5) Boloc-boloc and 6) Tubtubon. According to Google Maps the distance traveled was 10.5 kilometers.
Magatas
This is my home barangay. Our house is less than 200 meters from the barangay hall and it's impossible to travel from our house without passing the hall. The old brgy. hall has been torn down and a new one is being built. There is a temporary health center just across the road from the hall.

Camanjac
Turning south at the Magatas Brgy. hall, my first destination is Camanjac. It's a 2.1 km ride with a slight upgrade. Of the six Brgy. halls I will visit this morning, three are actually located in Dumaguete - Camanjac, Motong and Pulantubig.

Motong
Heading east at Camanjac, I rode the 2.7 km to Motong. There are two different routes I can take. To me, turning right at Boni Catarata to Motong Rd. seems the most direct route, but according to Google Maps, turning later at Larena Dr. to Motong Rd. is 200 meters shorter. This seems counter intuitive to me so I went the (so called) longer route via Boni Catarata.

Pulantubig
This Brgy. hall is located about 1 kilometer from the hall in Motong.
The name Pulantubig translates to "red water". According to one source, there is a large red rock within the barangay, with water running over it; the rock making the water turn red. Where exactly this is located is unknown to me.

Boloc-boloc
Arriving at this barangay hall, I'm back in Sibulan. A distance of 2.2 km from Pulantubig.

Tubtubon
From Boloc-boloc, the ride is 1 km to the Tubtubon Brgy. hall. After Magatas Brgy. hall, this is the Brgy. hall I most frequently pass while bike riding. From here, I'll ride 1.6 km to my house in Magatas.The ride this morning was quite enjoyable. I can see making this a regular run.