Jimmy's Tricycle

I have mentioned tricycles before. They are the primary means of local transportation for most folks. If a family has money then they buy a motorcycle, more money, a personal tricycle, and then a car of some kind, most often a multi-cab. They are tiny minivans or pickups. The rest walk or pay to ride these. I pay 8 pesos (19 cents) from the apartment to Drydock(2 miles) where the boat is and 10 pesos(25 cents) from there to Danao (3 miles), where the hardware stores are. Otherwise it is a bus for $1 each way to Cebu(20 miles) to the real hardware stores.

A tricycle is a motorcycle with a side car. Most are Honda 155 because that is the largest Honda that is imported to the Philippines. Trinda had a 'discussion' with a neighbor cause she thought Honda didn't make larger, but Trinda said we used to have a 250.

Anyway here is a street full of them. They seem to be mostly the same style in each city area. This is Bogo on the north tip of Cebu island and here they are like a mini 2 seat stagecoach. And they usually put 4 adults plus toddlers inside and 2 or 3 more plus the driver on the bike.

Around Carmen and down to Cebu they are more like a one seat buggy with 2 stools that fold down inside the front for 2 more. So 8 total again.

Jimmy is having a custom tricycle built at a welding shop in Bogo that specializes in tricycles. He will probably be the first foriegner here to own one. Almost all of them (us) buy cars or import big bikes.


These photos are here just to show the quality of this guy's work. Most of the tricycles around Carmen were not ever pretty or stylish, just functional. But these have very nice paint jobs and quality looking workmanship.



A front view of Jimmy's. It is big, open and the driver gets a windshield too. In Carmen they carry a sheet of plastic and tie it up where they can barely see over it in the rain.

Again from the back, open wide and long. It will have wooden slats for the floor and padded cushion seats.

The roof will cover the entire rig instead of 2 separate roofs. Where the hand is will be padded seat at a matching height with the motorcycle. The reasoning for Jimmy to get one is cars cost more, lots of ways, insurance, gas, oil, parking, etc. But he needs to cary boat and building supplies from the near stores. So the floor is long and flat enough to carry a stack of 2x4s or such. It should seat his whole extended family (more than 8) or a couple of couples for an outing.