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Tricycle

Discussion in 'News from The Philippines' started by Anon220806, Sep 5, 2020.

  1. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    Enough about food and diets. Today my wife’s sister posted her husbands newly acquired tricycle on their Facebook. She is a primary school teacher doing pretty well and he used to be a security guard as far as I gather. Lately he has been a house husband. However this looks like a new venture (nice alloys :D ) . I have no idea how much these things cost or what money there is to be made but hopefully it will prove to be a good investment. Solidly built, solid suspension...

    D24CBE95-654D-4B09-AC72-8CACD12D666F.jpeg
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  2. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    Looks like it actually has suspension on that wheel, looks like a shock absorber attached to the body above the axle, I've been in plenty that felt like they had zero suspension though.

    Looks like an actual Honda rather than a Chinese copy that's really good.

    One of Ana's disasters many years ago was wanting to buy a trike that someone was offering her for £400 I sent the money after a long argument but because of the argument she ended up going and blowing the money in the casino the day before I arrived for my Christmas holiday, no trike, that was 2008.

    Ownership of a trike is considered a status symbol and is a question on the ESC grant application for a child going into grade 7, they ask if your family has a Motorcycle/Pedicab as part of gauging if you need the grant, James got the grant 2 years ago but I had to apply for Janna just last week and I am not sure if we will get it because I had to be honest about my income.
  3. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    I see. You have made it when you own a trike?
  4. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I think that might actually be realistic :D

    This is my daughter's application form before we filled it in last week, my gut feeling was that the circled questions were trying to gauge social status and resources.

    The ESC is worth 13,000 PHP a year and you only have to qualify once to get it for four years, it pays out for children in private schools I think as a way to reduce the burden on the public school system.

    13,000 is about a third of my daughter's fees for a year.

    upload_2020-9-5_22-58-40.png
  5. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    Presumably you declare your existence Oss? Tempting not to... but I suppose the fees at those rates are very affordable to us in the west.
  6. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I registered them for school this year and had to do various things where I provided my details.

    On the following page there is a section offering the name and details of a person who is helping the child through school, the problem I have is that I have no idea what Ana put on James's application 2 years ago so we could end up losing the grant for both of them just because we tried to apply for Janna, so I declared myself as that person and put down the amount I send them 25,001-50,000 per month.

    Ana is unemployed in Korea and it was her leading this application she provided her employment documents if I had sent a P60 she would probably be in trouble for the previous application, sometimes it is best to simply keep one's mouth shut or not be greedy and just not apply.

    I was not going to apply for Janna as we were so close to the deadline and I could not safely provide everything they needed, but Janna's teacher contacted Ana in Korea and tried to push this through, I think the schools want the certainty of this money as they get paid it direct by the government.

    But in truth we are not rich, we don't have any of the status symbols they ask about, we rent and I'm living on less than £300 a month after bills, that's for food and discretionary spending, but I am paid very highly my combined monthly pension contributions are more than 6 times that 300 quid and I am saving additional cash over and above that and sending about 800 a month to the kids when you add in the rent and bills and then school.

    The fees are about 600 quid for each child plus extras like another 200 quid for books, then there are school trips and school uniform to buy at least this year we don't have those extras.

    It all adds up and it is not easy to have to support a family in another country.
  7. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I would like to own a car over there, but where we live there have been 2 occasions where the living room has been 18 inches deep in water, combination of overspill of the dams up in the direction of Marakina and seasonal high tide, the street outside is another foot or so below the entrance to the house so you would have a flooded car and it would happen when I was not there, they would not be bright enough not to try to start it after the water receded so chances of a hydrolocked destroyed engine would be very high.

    The thing is also that second hand cars over there are ridiculously expensive, I can't see me ever spending 1000 pounds on a 25 year old Toyota Corolla or probably more like 2000 pounds.

    edit: here's an example
    upload_2020-9-6_17-0-5.png
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  8. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    Yes I heard that old cars are very expensive over there. Why is that?
  9. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    Having a Tricycle can be a massive boon to a family, one of our neighbours does school service for the kids every day he charges 2000 a month for that, the kids are annoyed here because he's gone to find another child who is making them all late and they can get expelled if they are late 3 times in a certain period.

    [​IMG]
  10. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    You mean you don’t have a tricycle?
  11. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    I suppose it is a set of wheels. My sister in law will no doubt get the benefit of its use in addition to any commercial use.
  12. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    If it moves it's a car :D and cars cost a lot of money to buy so surely they must get a a lot of money back when they sell it, after all it is a car and cars are expensive :D

    People don't replace cars the same way as happens over here so there is no market pressure to force them to become cheap and so many people will simply never own a car.
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2020
  13. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    No, we don't have a tricycle, a motorbike, a car, we own no land, and we rent a 2 bedroom house :D
  14. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    You know (alam mo) I had not realised that our driver's trike was a Honda, but it actually is and the TMX range is a trike oriented business motorcycle a product of Honda Philippines and I find that cool.

    My first bike had that engine it's a 4 stroke 125cc engine and it hasn't changed in 50 years, I am pretty sure it has a carburettor, saying that this one has the drive on the left hand side and I am pretty sure from memory that my CB125S had a chain drive on the right.

    hahaha :D I just checked the CB125S and I am woefully wrong the chain was always on the left, goes to show what 45 years does to your brain :D

    This is the exact colour scheme of my first bike, I love bikes and I especially love the Honda 125.

    I bought one identical to this at the start of June 1976 the best summer in recent history although that's maybe in question now after the lockdown summer we have just had :D

    [​IMG]
  15. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    This bike, same heritage, look at the front wheel it has a shoe brake, no disc brakes :D

    It's the same standard Honda 125 design front and rear brake shoes and 12 horse power probably from the engine, body seems updated, I respect that kind of engineering that never had to change, you get about 100 mile to the gallon from that machine when it is on its own but probably a lot less with a Cab and all the extra weight.
  16. Jim
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    Jim Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    When I got here 3.5 years ago I bought a second hand car, 220,000 pesos, Mitsubishi pajero. Turned out it needed a load of work doing to it. If I buy again it will be a later reg car or even a new one.
    Or buy a tuk tuk.
  17. DJB
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    DJB Active Member

    Trikes, my God I hate these things with a passion.
    Lights = Optional extra
    Indicators = Optional extra
    Brake lights = Optional extra
    License = Whats one of those?
    Registration = Na nada

    I had to laugh the other week in Tupi the PnP were pulling over Trikes and issuing fines for not wearing masks and face shields.
    Forget about the no lights, no speedo, no brakes... lol its more fun in the Philippines.
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