Well, it’s been about three months since I bought my MEC Hold Steady so it’s time for a review.
My route is a combination of pathway and roads, flats and hills, and at this time of year means riding on some roads covered in winter gravel. It also means that on my rides I’m alternatively being buffeted by insane winds, bashed by ice pellets, soaked with rain or scorched by the sun.
When I bought a Kona Dew Plus late last year as a cheapy backup commuting bike, I didn’t plan on making any changes to it.
Then, something strange happened – the Kona started to become my daily ride. The cheapest, ugliest bike I’ve ever bought became my (almost) favourite bike.
It’s the perfect commuter bike — it’s inexpensive (I paid about $400 new), has front and rear disc brakes, 700mm road wheels and being painted a rather metallic minty green, it’s hardly a theft magnet.
Teaching kids how to ride a bike is easy, but how many parents teach their kids how to ride safely?
There are plenty of websites that provide good safety information for parents to pass along, but none of them are as creepy as the one produced by the Highway Safety Division of Virginia in 1972.
Thanks to Comics With Problems, you can view the comic that features Danny and the Demoncycle – a quaint story about a little boy who wreaks havoc on his neigbourhood with his unsafe cycling.
I’ve been looking around for a while for a good pair of cycling knickers (quit laughing…) but the ones I’ve found are either:
However, I came across a great post on easily hacking some existing pants and making your own pair.
Capturing good photos or video while riding your bike can be a bit tricky, not to mention potentially hazardous to your health.
However, fastening a small camera to your bike can be as easy as attaching it to a small tripod that’s strapped to your handlebars.
The small Gorillapod is a quick and easy way of wrapping your camera to just about anything, whether it’s a backpack strap, handlebars or your buddy’s helmet. While the Gorillapod is an extremely versatile tripod overall, for cycling pics it works best on smooth pathways in dry weather. In rough terrain or wet weather, it tends to slip and bounce around too much.
Another tripod option is the UCO Ultrapod. This is an extremely lightweight tripod, with an included velcro strap that makes it easy to quickly lash it to your bike. The ball and socket swivel makes it easy to adjust the angle once it’s attached to your bike, although the Gorillapod is easier to adjust while on the move.
Lastly, if you’ve got a few spare parts kicking around in your bike-bits-box, the folks over at Photojojo have a cheap but functional solution for building your own bike mount.
A few weeks ago, the permanent new pathway section by Heritage Park was put in place.
Early in the construction of the new buildings at Heritage Park, the old pathway was torn up and a number of temporary pathway sections were put in and taken out as construction progressed.
The old pathway was good. It cut across the old tram tracks, and was relatively smooth and straight as it took you from the reservoir to the Eagle Ridge residential area.
Early on, I expressed a couple of concerns to Heritage Park that the new pathway section they’d put in place was going to cause some potential safety issues on the pathway, as it was right between the new buildings and the new parking lots. After parking, all the people were being fed onto the pathway system without any notification they were on a section of the city pathway, and not a Heritage Park pathway. I was told that was just a temporary solution. I asked to see an electronic copy of the proposed final pathway, as that section is a key piece of the commuter route from the S.W. but was never sent anything.
So, now the new pathway is in place. Instead of a relatively straight section, there are now 8 bollards, 5 sharp turns and 6 intersections with other roads, pathway intersects and crosswalks. Two bollards are placed right in the middle of the arc of a curve. One of the sharp turns has a nicely landscaped “pit” at the arc — if you don’t notice the sudden turn, you’re going to end up in the pit. Bollards also spread large groups of pedestrians and runners out across the entire pathway, as they split and flow around the obstruction.
This new pathway is probably one of the most dangerous and poorly planned sections of pathway infrastructure I’ve seen in the city, and I’m amazed that the Parks & Rec department even approved it.
As a regular cycle commuter and a long time family season’s pass holder at Heritage Park, I’m also quite disappointed that the park’s executive team only considered what was ideal for the park, and not for the thousands of other people who use the city pathway on a regular basis.
Here’s a short video of that section.
Where do old toothbrushes go when they die at our house? Down to my workshop and into my bike-cleaning arsenal. However, there’s a new “special brush” in my collection now.
While toothbrushes are great for scrubbing the smaller, fiddly areas on a bike, even the “hard” brushes aren’t really up to scrubbing off months of grease and road gunk.
As I stood and stared at my road-schlop-encrusted mountain bike this weekend, I started to mentally prepare myself for the task. I had my bottles of environmentally-friendly degreaser to my left, my shop-grade paper towels to my right and my legions of splayed old toothbrushes behind me.
Yay! There’s finally a local source for Boeshield T9 — a metal lubricant and protector developed by Boeing for airplane parts.
While I don’t really have room in the driveway for an airplane, I do have a number of bikes. T9 works extremely well as a long lasting and multi-weather lubricant for bike chains.
According to the Boeshield folks, “Road cyclists can get about 300+ miles (500Km) per application. In wet weather riding reapply after half that distance. For off road riding reapply after one quarter that distance, more frequently if conditions require. For best performance, ‘apply tonight, ride tomorrow’. ”
Lee Valley now carries the Boeshield T9 in both a bottle and aerosol can. The bottles are great, as they don’t take up much room in your pack, and a little goes a long way.
I’m looking forward to trying this lubricant in the winter, as Boeing states the T9 lubricant excels in damp environments.
For more info, visit the Boeshield Canada site, or Lee Valley Tools’ site.
Riding to work, originally uploaded by elliottzone.
There are some days when it feels like my ride will never end…
Slogging through the snow can be challenging at times, especially when it’s -25C outside, dark, windy and just plain ol’ not fun.
But, I just remind myself the alternates are to pay $26 / day to park my truck downtown, or take Calgary Transit. Transit is terrible in Calgary, so it’s always a last resort…
One snowflake by itself is a thing of beauty. When they all gang up on you, however, I’m always reminded that “there’s strength in numbers”.
Darn snowflakes…
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