Renax Lim, BikeLab

^{Photo by Sarene Vismanos Butao, provided by Renax Lim}

“When the doctor told me that I had scarring in my lungs,” Renax recalls, “and said that I couldn’t bike anymore — my world collapsed.” That was a few months ago, Renax says. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, let’s start in a different place first.

IT’S ALWAYS BEEN AN ADVENTURE

Renax Lim is well-known in mountain biking circles, both as a rider and as owner and all-around-go-to-guy of BikeLab, one of the Southern PH’s best bike shops and racing teams. Located in Nazareth, downtown Cagayan de Oro, you’ll find that every serious gravity rider, enduro racer, and/or downhill madman makes their way to BikeLab on a daily basis. Partly because of the bike stock they hold there, but mostly because of the familiar familial vibe that comfortably calls the shop its home. This is largely because of Renax’s overall personal vibe — he’s always smiling, laughing, while at the same time always ready to lead and give advice on things, always ready for what comes next, telling us that, “I rarely make plans, I’ll just take things as they come. Like an adventure, I’ve always been like this,” he tells us, “the adventure is everything.”

And speaking of adventure, after completing an obstacle course with some friends in Manila, they were invited to be a part of the Marlboro Adventure Team ’99, taking part in once-in-a-lifetime activities and experiences, “that was really, really awesome.”

LIFE AS HE KNOWS IT

“Everything I’ve done in my life can be connected to, one way or another, to a bike.” He tells us of his adventures living and working in the States, riding anywhere and everywhere, and of course building CDO’s mountain biking community with his friends, from the ground up. “We’d spend the entire day, sometimes the entire weekend just looking for new trails,” he says, “we’d take our bikes, rent out a whole jeepney to take us up and then ride back down. It was the best. We’d set up races, build features, and just keep scouting and finding new places and new mountains and hills to ride.” Renax shares with us that he’s “happy that the MTB community has grown over the years,” and that they’re lucky to have watched it flourish and been a part of its growth. “There are so many places to bring people to ride now,” he smiles, “we have the local trails in Indahag, Mangima, River Valley, there’s a lot. We won’t run out of places to show people.”

He would have kept on riding back then and maybe even turned pro full-time, but like with everything, life happened, and Renax had to shift perspectives and priorities. “I moved to the States a while back, around 2000 to work,” Renax says, “I did a lot of jobs, I worked in a gasoline station, a car wash, and a convenience store and then at night I’d paint houses. To save for capital, to save for my dreams.” His dreams that, of course, included a dream bike: an Intense M1. “I worked so that I could go home to the Philippines, build up our property to rent out, just live off that and be set. But yeah, I bought that bike,” he laughs, “that was everyone’s dream bike!” Funny thing is that as luck would have it, Renax lived in New York, not exactly known for its gravity riding. “I’d ride to work, wheelie to work, drop everything everywhere, jump over and down everything!”

BIKING IS EVERYTHING

Everything Renax does in life: travel, work, whatever he can think of, he wants biking to be a part of it. “If we go travel, say Taiwan, I’d make sure there’s a bike convention or something when I go,” he says, “it’s what gives me joy.”

So when during a trying, pandemic year, he contracted the virus that shut down the world, his mind when straight to biking. “I didn’t think COVID would hit me hard because I bike a lot, I’m pretty active so I knew I could fight it.” The prognosis from the doctors however, wasn’t good. “They told me that because of the scarring in my lungs, I wouldn’t be able to bike anymore. At least not as much as I used to, as I wanted to.” That news broke his heart.

“It felt cruel and I felt sad about it,” he admits, “but I didn’t accept it. I didn’t give up. I’m stubborn so I fought back.” Renax spent the next month after his COVID battle winning fight after fight, step by step. “At first I’d sit by the window of our shop connected to an oxygen tank,” he tells us, “and then one day I just decided to get up and walk around the shop, to see if I could do it. Around the bikes, surrounded by the things and people I love.” After that, he tells us he’d go downstairs and up the stairs in his shop, stronger and stronger, day by day.

Until he felt strong enough to try and bike again, for that “I got an E-bike, para dali (so that it’s easier).” And so he fought on, getting better and feeling his strength come back — up until miraculously Renax beat the odds and found himself racing again in less than a couple of months. “Like in a lot of things,” he says with a smile, “biking saved me again.”

BIKE LAB

“This was just a tiny, tiny room downstairs,” he points to the first floor, “a place where we’d hang out before and after rides, play video games about bikes, we’d cook, build bikes…”, he continues, laughing at the old days, “and then one day we put our used parts on the shelves and we started to sell them. If I had money, I’d buy stocks, if not, then none. I never imagined that it would reach this far.”

The rest, they say, is history. Thing is, nothing happened by accident for Renax. His is a life of adventure yes, but also of hard work, perseverance, love, and family. He counts himself fortunate, “I wake up everyday to do something I love and it doesn’t feel like work at all. Of course, there are stressful days and hard times, that’s normal, but I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world.” BikeLab is heaven for a mountain biker: it not only has more brands, parts, and accessories than most other places, but the people who work in the shop are all awesome human beings. From the mechanics to the sales crew, everyone is kind and ready to help. Also, there are champion racers who call the shop their office, so it’s definitely the place to be. “We started with nothing,” Renax says, “and we never had the instant money to just automatically make it happen. This is all passion, this is all grind.”

THE DREAM

“My hope, my dream,” Renax ends, “is that the politics in biking here disappears. All the different groups, camps, and whatnot, I hope that we could all just ride together and enjoy each other’s company. Growing the scene more, helping each other progress, and just uplifting the entire community.” Well, that’s a dream we can get behind and support all the way.