12.07.06 kulturnatib

Bike4U(se)

Alfredo Hermosilla and Arnel Dinopol are very similar in many respects, except that Arnel is shorter by a head and they come from practically opposite municipalities of the island of Cebu. Alfredo, is from Danao and Arnel is from Samboan.

Otherwise, both of them are lanky, dark in the way that many rural boys are, they are both 18 years old, taking the same course of electromechanics at the same school, the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE) Technical Institute and, most importantly for why I talked to them, they belong to the same bicycle club.

Despite bicycles hardly ever factoring in our urban planners couch-interest in how our city is designed and planned to work, there are many bikers here, both individuals and organized into bicycle clubs. And, from anecdotal evidence, their numbers are growing. But, it was the first time I heard about a bicycle club of an unbelievably different sort, the one that Alfredo and Arnel are members of, when their club was mentioned at a press conference recently.

Their bicycle club, it was said, didn't have bicycles. But what they lacked in bikes, I learned, they made up for in enthusiasm, doggedness and, most of all, an original, if somewhat impenetrable name: Faxite Omnis.

This press conference was on the occasion of the turn over of funds that were raised by Jens Funk and Martin Langevoord who, last September, biked from Pakistan to China along the Karakoram Highway in what they called 'Bike for a cause '2006,' and who, in this bike-adventure-cum-fund-raising venture, sold kilometrage of the trip that was about 1,100 kms in length at 60Php or 1Euro per kilometer. They raised a total of 69,000 Php.

The beneficiary of the funds is the Bike4U Foundation. This foundation is organized by local bike enthusiasts, many of whose leading lights and driving force, including Funk, are connected with the CITE. The foundation aims at encouraging the use of the bicycle as commuter transportation, especially among students, and to further the familiarization of and operational skills on the bicycle through seminars on bicycle safety, maintenance, assembly and dismantling. Also, the foundation is trying to encourage the participation of the wider bicycling community through their donations of used bicycle parts, equipment and accessories.

Towards the end of this month, used bikes that have been solicited by Funk from Germany are arriving. They are to be distributed to deserving individuals and groups or communities. For reasons of faster implementation, recipient familiarity and demonstrable need and interest, Alfredo and Arnel's bicycle club will be among the first beneficiaries.

No, we didn't form the club because of those bikes, both of them say. “Our club project, making bicycle stands, was Mr. Bobby Payod, our adviser's idea and he suggested it way before we heard that there was an opportunity for our club to finally become a real bicycle club,” says, Alfredo, veiled anticipation sneaking out from his voice.

Undoubtedly, their club will attract more members, both boys agreed. But, with our adviser, we are now working on a more stringent requirement for getting in, they say. The Bike4U foundation has its own stringent requirements for availing of the donated bicycles, which Funk says will serve as a model of sorts for such a project that has never been done before locally.

Fortunately, the club and the foundation's requirement do not include demonstrating the ability to bicycle the short but very steep climb– seriously so, according to Funk -- to the institute's hilltop campus in San Juan, Talamban.

Still, were this the case, Arnel would qualify. “I have climbed it,” he says shyly. Not only that, he will demonstrate this everyday, when he gets his bike which will be a big help as he will, by then, have moved to a house farther away in Mandaue.