Dave on his gas touring bike in Tucson, AZ. |
He ordered a 3000 watt electric touring bike, and the love affair with electric vehicles began. This essay will be mostly in photos, as that is what I do.
Dave enjoying his pool in AZ. Sta. Catalina mountains in back. |
When he got the first electric motorcycle, he was CEO of his own corporation, Digital Web Group, Inc., a company selling online retail niché market products. One of which he himself designed out of his love for music and riding this motorcycles, the "DWG Waterproof Motorcycle speaker kit". If he got caught in the rain, he could still listen to his tunes! The amplifier of course was protected from the elements.
Dave Dewbre, CEO and Diana Limjoco, CFO Digital Webgroup, Inc. |
Dave's partner at the time, shareholder/CFO of their company, was a FilAm woman, Diana J. Limjoco. The company was being run completely online from their main Stores, Virtual office to bookkeeping systems, except for the shipping department, they found they could run the business even while on trade shows or side trips.
In 2005 she suggested they head over to the Philippines to visit her parents, then in their late 80's. So they did. The long and short of it is that he fell in love with the Philippines and wound up living in Subic Freeport, high up in the pristine hills of the Kalayaan Housing area. He would divide his time between Subic and Tucson, enjoying his electric bikes in both places.
Dave with 7 month old daughter, Alysha. |
He expanded his company to include web page development with local talent while simply enjoying and learning all about the ins and outs of these electric motorbikes.
Dave began helping his supplier improve the bikes, making his own adjustments and fixes for his own use. He wound up knowing more about the bike than the supplier and later went to the factory in China to work with the engineers to add his ideas for safety and performance.
Then-Mayor Edward Hagedorn in the new ET2 etrike with sidecar. Dave Dewbre driving. |
Mayor Edward Hagedorn driving the eT2 eletric tricycle. |
eT3 etrike prototype. |
Dave relocated to Puerto Princesa in 2009 and mid-2010 he opened up a test electric vehicle sales and repair shop called the GreenTech Eco Center and was given the job of maintaining the City's collection of etrikes, an electric jeepney by PHUV, plus two other electric open buses. In that time he learned all the intricacies of electric vehicle sales, repair and back end customer support. Not long after, Mayor Hagedorn had seen the fancy electric trikes from PHUV plying the streets of Taguig, and fell in love with their look. Dave, being the gung ho chap that he is, and wanting to know everything about this industry, flew to China and had a prototype made mainly to test the motors. The e-vehicles the Mayor bought from other manufacturers could not take the wear and tear but mainly the steep slopes in the outskirts of Puerto Princesa City.
Mayor Hagedorn's face shows how much fun he is having in this electric trike. |
He had safety features like the vehicle would not move forward if the hand brake was on. He learned this when kids got in the eT3 at night and turned the handle while playing. He would leave the engine on, which you couldn't hear, so he could eat his dinner while at his favorite restaurant Kina Buch and enjoy the blue LED lights that rimmed it. With the handbrake kill switch not allowing the trike to move forward, the unit was much safer.
3000-watt electric motorcycle with two eT3 electric trikes lit up at night! |
The eT4 electric tricycle |
This project was never completed for many reasons. One is that the Mayor's term was coming to an end, and the corruption in BOC with them charging more than 400% the value of parts coming in to make more units. LTO's arbitrary charges for registering the units, which he found out when he went to register 20 electric motorcycles with them and each registration was a different cost, even though they were consecutive models. All this was very disgusting and discouraging to Dave. How can you turn a profit when all these undocumented expenses were being extorted?
He closed his test shop, bought a farm lot in Luzviminda, and concentrated his efforts in building a life and home there. He put his skills to work installing solar electricity so he could tolerate the many blackouts PALECO has almost every day. He also loves to go out on native bancas, and he has one banca whose fishing lights are totally solar.