Olympic encounter?

I am blessed to work in the industry that I do.  It puts me into conversations with a wide variety of people from all over the world.  Oftentimes my area of discipline attracts the attention of grad students looking for insights into the practicalities and realities of my field.

Last week I had one such request from a wonderful young woman named Annie Foreman-Mackey.  Through the interview I had noticed she looked particularly strong. Exceptional athlete kind of strong.

I was excited to learn that she cycles for Canada's national team and is attempting to make the leap to the Olympics.

I won't post any photos because she's not aware of this post, so I want to keep things to a minimum to be fair.  But feel free to check her out via Gooogle, or whatever.

You never know who you will serendipitously meet.

James Street North is Gentrifying

Stopped out front of Mixed Media today because I was on James North.  The whole street is really changing.  There are now several bakeries and coffee shops, and a few furniture stores with truly different and interesting items.  James Street is very enjoyable by foot with a coffee in hand!

The white poster up top caught my eye because it mentions bicycles.

I can see that whatever it is is $8 at the door but the poster is certainly wanting!  What the heck is it advertising? Maybe its bicycles made out of ivory.  A frame building class perhaps? Now wouldn't that be something (Illegal!).  We'd have carbon, titanium, steel, aluminum, bamboo and now ivory.

Save the narwhal! Ban ivory bicycles!

Haunted House for Sale

Always looked like something out of the movie "Coraline" to me.  But frankly, I think its a cool looking place too.  32 acres backing onto the Niagara Escarpment, and from there a million dollar view of Lake Ontario.  I'd love to buy this land and build a cabin off the grid but unless the price is lowered by several hundred thousand...

I am quite sure the large home and property are abandoned but I still didn't have the nerve to walk any further up the road.  It just felt like trespassing.  Maybe next time.

Ridge Road is a great ride.  There are lots of homes and properties that tell similar stories and I often stop in front of them and wonder.

If you are interested give Remax agent, Barbara Beers a call :)

Things I Like: Magazines

The reason I like magazines is because you get such a diversity of information.  Plus there are always pictures - nice and glossy.

I like books too, very much in fact.  I have found it difficult to find good books on cycling.  Yes, there are several, but I find that there are also a lot that appear as though they would be good and are not.  I'll do a top 5 and bottom 5 of my personal recommendation on that before too long. But I digress.

Magazines are better around water, like at the beach or in a canoe, or maybe camping.  If books get wet and dirty they can be tough to read, whereas magazines seem more resilient.  Magazines sit open whereas books "snap" shut all the time.

As far as the discipline of cycling goes, I have two examples below.  Nothing groundbreaking here, I'm sure you've all heard of these two.

I like Urban Velo because it has a significant part in each issue dedicated to the regular "joe" answering the question why he/she enjoys cycling in the city.  It is also available online for free.  You don't actually have to subscribe, although I'm sure they'd like you to.

They have very interesting articles even though some diverge into hipster-type stuff that's a little to contemporary of a scene for me.

Pretty sure that Bicycle Times is well established now.  There's usually one or two articles that I'm not interested in but I will devour the rest, every time.

Neither of these has much, if anything, to say about carbon fiber, and none of the issues are ever "buyers guides" (those are so useless in my opinion).

I also enjoy Momentum from time to time but it seems to cater more to women and the chic movement.

Finally, there is a magazine out of Toronto that looks very intriguing but I'm at a loss to find it in my bookmarks right now. 

If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.  Particularly if they are available online.

~ Wilson

Raising them up in the way they should go

I may not get out on epic rides very often, but today's small sojourn with my girl was glorious.
Even the breeze was warm today - decidedly not a normal January day - but most welcome for a Saturday.

First we went a few k's down to Lake Ontario.  Hallelujah brought her Audubon birdbook just in case.

I was wayyy too layered and overdressed for this.

Next we made our way over to 50-Point Conservation Area.  This is always a favourite stop to explore and enjoy the lake.

There's Hallelujah's Peugeot build that I did a couple years ago.  Still LOVE her Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub and still looking for ways to take it back and put on my own bike!  Hallelujah is also pretty keen on her SWOBO handlebars (I'll let her keep those).

When we got back to the bikes the wind had done its work.  No damage or anything but lots of mud to be cleaned out of the brake lever's.

This is as nice a day as one could hope for.  Tomorrow its supposed to be warmer, but with rain.

I hope that I have, or will, instill a permanent love of cycling in my little girl.  She still seems pretty shaky and unsure when we're on busier roads but hopefully that will pass in time, without her losing the respect necessary to show passing cars.

~ Wilson
 

A Brief Photo Essay of My Ride Home

A lot of this...

...creates a lot of this...

I don't know why I continue to think that I am above installing proper fenders.  One day I will learn.

Cheers to clean riding!

Treasures of Old

At my folks house for the holidays.  Going through my old closet full of boxes and I found this.