Phil-Bike Expo 2014: Let's Bring Back the Good Old Bicycling Days

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Visiting the Phil-Bike Expo 2014 brings back memories when I still had plenty of time to ride a bicycle. With my new line of work as online media, I would be out most often attending press conferences, media previews and launches and would often just sit down infront of the computer and forever type away until the end of the day. Well, I had my reasons why I stayed away from biking, but this expo made me want to dust off my mountain bike and start riding again.

The event was held at the World Trade Center (WTC) last November 15 and 16, 2014 with lots of fun activities, promos and discounts, raffles and performances for the entire family to enjoy! Many folks from all demographics visited the WTC for a feast of two-wheeled wonders.
 
I had my first bicycle, with training wheels, when I was still at a very young age of 3 and still could not forget about it ever since I saw my back and white vintage photo together with the bicycle. I don't remember my experience with the bike but the photo was evidence that I do adore riding a bicycle during those times. The more memorable moments in the past was when we had an accident while riding a bicycle with a side car. We were all so eager to try it out when our father gave it to us as a gift that my brothers and I (all five of us) rode it immediately on the neighborhood streets. However, due to the heavy load, the bicycle flipped over.

But that didn't stopped us from continuing to love biking especially when our parents gave each one of us our very own bicycles. Wow! We were roaming around the streets of our neighborhood like we were a bike gang. The fun part was there were so huge open spaces back then, and wide field where we can safely ride away without fearing being struck by a vehicle.

You won't see us doing the same things like yesteryears. All open spaces in our streets are either a subdivision already or now containing several house and establishments. The streets are now filled with so many vehicles that you don't have any more room to ride your bike safely. How I long to have a bike lane implemented in all streets. Though there are some efforts from both national and local government, they are simply not enough to declare a bike-friendly country for the Philippines.

Thus, I was grateful that organizers thought of putting up an expo dedicated to the bicycle industry. We should bring back the time when there were still enough places to comfortably ride a bike and breath an air less of the air pollution.
 

 

I was fortunate to chance upon a BMX exhibition happening during my visit side from an earlier program featuring talks from different experts related to the biking business and expertise, and the numerous exhibitors including your friendly neighborhood pambansang blogger who also had a booth there. But since I have nothing to sell as online media, I just decided to give away instant prizes from our sponsors in exchange of just selfies from the expo visitors.

Many local and foreign brands were there as exhibitors who all showcased their esteemed bicycles and other related accessories and products.

Most notable among them are the strong and durable bamboo bikes from Bambikes, and the nifty foldable bicycles from Nyfti. We should support all locally made efforts to boost the Philippine economy especially when the ASEAN integration is quite near. Though we also get the opportunities to collaborate with other countries and could provide us with the technology and expertise they could share to our local manufacturers and distributors.

 

Below are some more photos from our coverage at the Phil-Bike Expo 2014, the first, largest premier bicycle show and bike gear bazaar to ever be held on Philippine soil.

We were lucky to be visited at our booth by comedian Jun Sabayton, the Pambansang Bigote ng Pilipinas meets the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas!

I didn't know he was a bike enthusiasts too. Now that's an interesting trivia for all of you biking folks out there. You have a celebrity within your midst who also appreciate the beauty of bicycles as a great sport, hobby, or fitness/exercise.

Thank you Phil-Bike Expo for an opportunity to be a part of such a remarkable initiative.