Bicycle enthusiasts unveil innovative, energy-saving, smooth-riding bike design
How far can your passion take you? PJ Tolentino, a design engineer of a Laguna-based firm, quit his job last month to dedicate his time designing and manufacturing bicycles.
His noble vision is to make the Philippines known globally in the field of bicycle designs. ‘Rurok’ and reaching for the top
Thus, he led a five-man team of bicycle enthusiasts and set up their own firm, Rurok Industries.
The team is composed of Tolentino, the husband-and-wife tandem of Wilmor and Isa Halamani, Julien Gabriel Cleto and Chino Mendoza.
The group all had inputs on the design of their first bicycles prototype, aside from managing various functions of the company including its operations, marketing, testing performance, and multimedia works.
‘Team Rurok’ was among around 200 exhibitors who introduced their unique invention to the public at the culmination of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) yesterday at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
“Rurok Bikes ang ipinangalan namin as in pinakamataas, peak. Noong kinuha namin ‘yung pangalan, gusto namin may local flavor. Medyo neutral at may callback sa mga bundok,” Tolentino said.
No more wasted energy
Tolentino and his team crafted a bike frame designed to eliminate the wasted energy of a bicycle rider.
Their first and flagship prototype was called Rurok Cordillera, inspired by the challenging mountain range of the Cordillera Administrative Region in Central Luzon.
The 30-year-old inventor said that a rider exerts wasted energy or effort when pedaling through bumps and humps so they created a bike suspension to remove the squat effect when pedalling.
“It is a performance bike, ito ang core concept ng design. Ibig sabihin, dadalhin mo ang bike sa very rough terrain, sa bundok, off road.”
“We designed and equipped the bike with a front and rear suspension. Ang challenge kasi sa mga existing suspension designs ay efficiency. So, parang sa kotse, kapag nagpress ka ng accelerator may squat effect or napapaatras ang kotse. Tuwing nagpe-pedal ka and when you accelerate, you exert force sa chains, sa rear tire in contact with the ground meron din,” Tolentino pointed out.
“You have all these forces going into the rear suspension pero there is a certain position na nadiscover namin na maca-cancel out silang lahat, so the suspension is really about the balance of all the forces,” he added.
Tolentino said that squatting occurs when the rear of the bicycle drops to give way for its acceleration. The anti-squat suspension allows the bike to absorb the bumps and humps, allowing more control on steering the bicycle.
“Another thing, when you are coasting or diretso lang ang takbo mo, the forces are all balanced. But when you hit a bump or hump, mag-iiba ang position ng suspension, ang geometrical balance ng rider, so ang energy is all out of balance. Our design was made so that even if the suspension is moving all the forces are equal and the ride is smooth,”he added. An uphill battle It was not, however, an easy jour- ney for the Rurok inventors and engineers.
Since they started conceptualizing in 2010, they encountered various problems, including the source of funds for the production of the very first prototypes and application of patent of the invention.
Dr. Carlos Primo David, executive director of DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technologies (PCIEERD), said the invention has a pending application for a US and Philippine patents.
‘Beyond compare’
“These bicycles are unique and of high quality, sobrang kakaiba and not even comparable sa US bikes. Sobrang nationalistic ng mga ‘to dahil gusto nilang makilala ang Pilipinas in terms of bike design,” David said in a separate interview.
Government grant The PCIEERD, one of the three sectoral councils of DOST and mandated to allocate funds for research and development projects, has provided a 15-million grant to Team Rurok for the production of more bike designs, David said.
“Most of the funding is to manufacture the bike and it’s not even 1/5 of their original salary,” he added.
Driven by passion Asked why he chose to quit his job to focus on designing and manufacturing bike designs, Tolentino said it was his passion that drove him to do so.
“Nakita ko na I need to put in more effort into the development of the product para makapagrelease kami, with the bike industry very fast ang development so mahuhuli kami in terms of keeping up with the technology,” he said.
“Medyo patriotic ang dating pero parang gusto namin mapakita na kaya natin makapagsabayan with the global industry.”