How Was Your Ride Today? - Week of August 31st

Submitted by pinkrobe on

I was running a bit late, and I really wish I could have spent just a little more time riding East into the sun...

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Cleaning: 16ht avenue + deerfoot crossings

Submitted by mikewarren on

Better late then never, I suppose, but just in time for re-sanding the 16th Avenue sidewalk on the north side has been swept (you're technically not allowed to use this at all but it's better than going down the switchbacking pathway if you're eastbound).

Also, the pedestrian overpass over Deerfoot between 16th and 32nd has been pressure-washed.

Why they did this now and not two or three months ago is beyond me.

mike at mike dash warren dot com

Where's the sun?

Submitted by Jaykay65 on

Beautiful sunrise this AM! I was only able to see the first 1/16 or less of the glowing orb before I dismounted my bike at my workplace this morning. I am afraid that I will either have to be late for work or by the end of this week I may be arriving pre-sunrise. Sad! :-(

Stampede Grounds restrictions

Submitted by ride on

Crossing through the Stampede grounds on a ride yesterday with my wife, I was met by a man in a golf court who told me that, due to the World Skills Competition taking place there over the next two weeks, they're asking cyclists and pedestrians to stick to the main paths and not enter into spaces between buildings & tents.

My route was from the east side of the Elbow River, around the south side of the Saddledome, and then across McLeod Trail on the LRT overpass, and the guy had no problem with that trajectory.

This weekend saw me riding

Submitted by scottmeyers on

This weekend saw me riding around with my little cousin and then I hit the country roads for a while. Monday morning rolled around and I had an afternoon of errands ahead of me that required the car so I drove to work. The rest was much appreciated and Today was Awesome! I had a tonne of snap in my legs and the weather just made me want to head right past the office and keep on going... Sadly I sit at my desk and comment... :(

First ride to work in 6 weeks

Submitted by Cword on

and it was great! Although it was also the toughest ride to work I can recall, my lungs and leg both protested this return to racing to work.
I was away on vacation for most of the summer, only occasionally, casually riding the Strida I took along with me.
I thought of Bike Calgary often while visiting various parts of Europe and watching bikes, scooters and ebikes mixing on the wide variety of infrastructure over there.

It's good to be back

mike

Human shield

Submitted by pinkrobe on

I had to use a pedestrian as a sort of human shield today. There's a dual left turn from 12 Ave. SW onto 4 St., and until the sinkhole is fixed I'll take the rightmost of the two lanes. Regardless, I'm approaching the turn and I see the walker entering the crosswalk. I slow down and wait, and what should appear in my peripheral vision but a big-ass blue truck at my shoulder. If the ped wouldn't have been in the crosswalk, I would have been pushed out of the lane for sure. I took the lane, the truck pulling up behind me. I flew down 4 St. like the wind and didn't see that big blue truck again.

Traffic volume was WAY up today. Be careful out there.

City fixed something!

Submitted by jpk on

To my happy surprise, the city fixed some big wheel eating potholes on Odgen road southbound under Deerfoot/50th ave yesterday. Nice to be able to keep closer in to the curb and play nice with the transports turning onto 50th.

More bugs...

Submitted by shockingTemple on

I am noticing more bugs these days...yuck or yummy? :)

The weather is great and there are at least double the number of bikes parked in the racks at the office these days. Great to see!

Didjer heart skip a beat or 2

Submitted by gyrospanner on

Mine would have! Even a yearling moose is pretty big!

My only claim to fame for the ride home was seeing a police car under the Crowchild bridge doing surveillance over in the Lawrey Gardens area ....

I dunno' check tonight's news....

Last day this week

Submitted by pinkrobe on

As we coast toward Autumn and its dark mornings, I relish these days of dry roads and crisp morning air.

Apparently I was really fast this morning, as my wife commented on my speed twice. And then we got on our bikes and rode to work!!! Nyuk nyuk nyuk... In all seriousness, it's time for the 53x17...

I just have to get it off my chest...

Submitted by scottmeyers on

Dear Pedestrian and fellow path way user,

When I ring my bell I am doing it becasue it is required of me. I do not ride with a bell because it looks cool, or makes me faster, or is all of the rage at American Apparel. So when I approach you from behind and I give it a ring, all it means is that I am catching up to you and when I slow down and stay behind you I am not doing it becasue I am checking you out, or becasue I am practicing a track stand, It is becasue that 90 degree corner ahead of us is blind and would pose a danger to you, your kid, any on coming users, and myself if I were to pass you. So when I give you that second little ding, it just means that I am there and don't be startled that I am passing you. More importantly don't give me hell for being courteous and don't call me aggressive when I ask you why ringing my bell is so offensive and a problem... I am doing what the authority says I have to. I am trying to learn from any possible mistake that I may have made. Instead you have made me want to ditch the bell and ride like your hyperactive child possessed. I won't becasue that is not in my nature. I just want to learn and adapt to your unpredictable nature and maybe pass this knowledge on to the other riders out there.

I beg you please divuldge the magical number of rings and the appropriate distance at which to indicate my presence so I do not have to re-live this experience again.

Regards,

The alien in his space ship. (aka guy on a bike)

A quote.

--When I am a motorist I hate pedestrians. When I am a pedestrian I hate motorist. But regardless of my mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists--
-anonyous

BTW Scott

Submitted by Julie Gregg on

I can relate, I had a situation on Monday coming home that I am too embarrassed to share because I ended up being this ranting woman with a bike, one young (19 yr old?) told me to calm down before I had a stroke!! This all out of a dispute over me ringing my bell.......I agree, send your letter to the papers, maybe a few pathway users will read it and get the message.

My situation also escalated

Submitted by scottmeyers on

My situation also escalated it ended up with me yelling only ring your bell once or she will scream at you towards some other riders and her saying something about taking some sort of drug which I can only assume is designed to calm you down. Perkacet or something. I love responses like this. Where the solution is take another pill. In my opinion that is the root of all of this. Use the self checkout lane to buy your drugs to calm you down so you can deal with driving in a car being stuck in a drive-through lane talking to a scratchy voice speaker trying to make your fast food order. It is sad and I am guilty of it too but we are really becoming social neanderthals. We cannot interact with each other constructively with out telling the other party to take more drugs... Maybe if we weren't so dependent on Chemicals for health, synthetically produced food ready in five minutes, the fastest means to get home (a false assumption that it is a car) and instead we talked to the high school kid in the check out, walked up to the coffee counter, and grabbed some extra sleep when weren't feeling well, maybe we could effectively communicate with one another.

I have just been thinking a lot with the events of the week in Toronto and my own personal experiences.

gotcha'

Submitted by Julie Gregg on

your last line: "I have just been thinking a lot with the events of the week in Toronto and my own personal experiences."

me too.

Personally I am a health food nut (sort of) and even make my own yogurt so I have no excuse, no chemicals in my system (and yes tequila is a natural food!). It's all about attitude, my own behavior on Monday is very regrettable and only I can be in charge of my own reactions to others' lack of education or savy. My goal now is to see the face of a friend on everyone that ticks me off, that way I hopefully will handle things differently. Trying to get tolerance by giving tolerance. Or at least prevent my blood pressure from SOARING!

Poetic

Submitted by NW_Tri_and_Bike on

Scott,

I wounder how fan mail you'll get for this. My personal fave is the folks who do a 180 degree swivel towards you as you try to pass and then say all sorts of things...

different kinda' ride

Submitted by Julie Gregg on

so I stayed downtown after work and had a couple of margueritas...then time to head home remembered the 6 cobs of Taber corn I bought at noon and stowed in my back pack, corn is surprisingly heavy....then there was this big wind and debris flying around, strange, I was unusually relaxed .....moral: drink tequila

Booze kills Energy!

Submitted by gyrospanner on

I find that the first one or two after-work drinks take about 10% of my energy away (about 2 or 3 km/h)and then any thing more is precipitous, like another 10% per drink.

It kinda' imposes a certain level of self-discipline on you! Notwithstanding all that, it isn't a coincidence that the shelf I keep my riding gear on in the basement is right beside my beer frij' ......

Cheers X (4 or 6)

The few times [LOL] I've

Submitted by pinkrobe on

The few times [LOL] I've headed home after a pint, the flats are fine, it's the hills that do me in. Going up, it's like a slap in the face - why am I breathing so hard and why do my legs hurt? On the way down, the reduced reaction time means that I have to concentrate - really hard. Definitely a good time to take a slow bike, and remember to aim for lawns, not shrubs.

tailwind

Submitted by ride on

I got out of work just as the Pacific cold front was hitting down. First I got to experience a sand-blasting treatment as the raging torrent of wind in front of the TransCanada PipeLines building tried to knock me off my bike. Then, arriving at Sien Lok Park, I had to pass through a streaming cloud of dust ripping off the Waterfront construction site. I fled down Waterfront Avenue, and easily got the speed up to 40 km/h on my fixed-gear bike. I was enjoying the speed, but extra alert as I got to the foot of McLeod Trail, expecting a motorist to pull out into my path; they under-estimate my speed even when I'm riding slowly).

holey! crosswinds!

Submitted by critninja on

those winds were a real challenge when i rode over to the polo court tonite. i have a front wheel cover amd the wind was having fun trying to toss me into the ditch.

while polo'ing - the winds came up again and almost knocked me off - this time for real! most of the other players were also having a hard time hanging on to their bars. the gusts got so fierce at one point that we were all howling and laughing and merely hanging on.

pretty magical really. i love riding my bike!

when i see an adult on a bicycle, i do not despair for the future of the human race.
- h.g. wells

Front wheel covers

Submitted by Jaykay65 on

I was thinking of all of you with wheel discs and covers as I was being pushed around in the open spaces with no protection along Country Hills Blvd. It was blasting me off track on my ride home last night and I was wondering how you all made out. Hopefully you are all alright.

I was also thinking of anybody who had to ride due south into that wind. I do for about 1.5K but through the subdivision so it was fairly sheltered. Poor Matt from work had to ride from the airport with a southerly heading, straight into that beastly wind last night. The guy was absolutely beat today. Kinda looked like he lost his battle with ma nature and could have used a peleton to help get him home.

Oh well it was good training for him when the northerly winds start to kickup on the morning rides, in about six to eight weeks. :-P

Great Week of riding

Submitted by Jaykay65 on

and it was topped off today.
Went to work a little later than usual, only about 10 mins, but I saw four other cyclists!

You scoff and say "that you see four other cyclists in a block..." Well on my 6KM in the north when I see one cyclist, I am thrilled. Well today to see four was absolutely _________ (fill in blank yourself) amazing!

Y’all have a good weekend!

very quiet saturday pathways

Submitted by critninja on

yesterday, we (me, boy, girliefriend, girliefriends boy, girliefriends friend, my friend, my friends girl) hit the pathways, leaving edworthy with our destination set as the glenbow museum. although the headwind going east was a little tough, the pathways were almost empty and really quiet. the only congested area we encountered was eau claire where there was some kinda bbq ccokoff going on. smelled incredible!

once we arrived at the glenbow, we were disappointed to find that all the exhibits we (the kids, really) wanted to view were closed - :(

so, we turned around, tailwind apushin', back to edworthy for some bbq burgers, vino, and bocce.

wonderful!

this day helped to solidify my theory/practice about long weekends - stay in the city on the long weekends because the city empties out and you can have it all to yourself!

when i see an adult on a bicycle, i do not despair for the future of the human race.
- h.g. wells

Canoe/bike

Submitted by umgray on

So in order to reduce the carbon footprint my wife and I decided not to bring two cars today for the canoe on the Bow (we usually take two and use one as a shuttle) instead we brought the Dahon strapped into the canoe (a fine accessory) and at the end of the trip - I unfolded the bike and rode the path along the bow to the truck in bowness and drove back to pick up my wife and canoe.

Upper body workout canoeing and legs and cardio on the bike ride. Not a bad day at all...no rafters this morning so it was even more enjoyable of a paddle.

kayak/bike

Submitted by ride on

Even lower carbon footprint: two years ago I saw a guy near CAOC pedalling westward on the bikepath towing a wooden kayak on a trailer. His plan was to ride to Bowness, lock the bike to a tree, then paddle down-river to near his home (I think he lives in Sunnyside), then finally take the no. 1 bus to go fetch his bike.

Bike/Canoe

Submitted by umgray on

It is my next DIY project a wheel based trailer for a 16 foot canoe on my dahon. I have seen some rude DIY projects but nothing that really impresses me. The issue is the fact that the wheels need to be also 16" to 20" and that the long extension pole that would attach to the canoe would have to be some form of telescopic quick release so it can become compact. The wheel axels and unit below that the canoe attaches to would also have to be collapsable and compact so that it could fit in the canoe with the bike and not weight over 40 pounds.

Any industrial design students need a school project?

http://www.wicycle.com/canoe_woody_wagon_bicycle_trailer.php
http://www.redbayfarm.com/Bicycle_Canoe_Trailer.html
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sullivan/canoe_bike.html

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