Ride for Refuge 2013

It's the same route every year, but a nice one.  The skies were a bit dull and it didn't rain, so that's a bonus, but I think it dulled some of the colour on the trees.

My work is one of the partners of the Ride and that means people can choose to raise money on our behalf.  In fact, we managed over 15k for the shelter where I work.

My daughter and wife turned right where I turned left - and they did a 25km route.  I did the 50km.  Considering I haven't been leisure riding much of late, this was a good distance. I kind of pushed it so I'd get a bit of a work out.

I'll have some better photo's later but for now I defer to the GoPro.

A midway rest area.  Lots of sugar available!

I always admire folks on the tandems and cargo's who do these things.  I don't like them to finish ahead of me (I know, its not technically a race), but they have my utmost respect. Also, noshing on a Sweet n' Salty I got at the rest stop.

Colour's? Meh. Give it a week.

It's me with some of the guests who use the shelter.  They were easily the best rest stop on the length of the Ride.

Back at the start/finish. Now for some homemade chilli!

Perfect weather! Enjoy your ride!

Before the Rain Comes

Riding south to Smithville again today.

This is a nice stretch along Church Road.

Serendipity to the South

I woke up early enough to beat the usual Saturday morning garage-sale-crowd to the roads. I was pretty certain I wanted to bicycle into Smithville but was somewhat less certain about how I would get there.
My memory did not serve me as my best recollection was an endless series of minor highways littered with heavy truck traffic. Not anyone's ideal riding condition.

I took ridge road east through Grimsby mountain. It's a route I know well enough but knew that I would eventually have to turn south.

To my surprise I found a lovely series of quiet roads and a touch of gravel as well! In fact, they led me all the way to Smithville without so much as a single truck passing.

I couldn't get over the number of airplane exhaust trails. Kind of pretty though.

Once in Smithville I passed up the ubiquitous Tim Horton's Donuts in search of something with a bit more of a local flavour.  Whereas Timmy's dominated the coffee crowd on the east side of the town I found Jackie's Bakery & Cafe on the west side.  Tremendous! Just what I had hoped for: a quiet, local spot, with a large hot tea and a fresh raspberry donut. It was difficult to choose which delicious confection from her large selection so I'll just have to go back again!

Jackie even had a map that I could take. Very helpful because I didn't want to take the same route home but hadn't planned far enough ahead to ensure I'd not get lost using another route.

I have a real aversion to large homes. It's  a long story. But to be fair, I do find some from time to time that are thoughtfully designed and beautifully constructed. Actually, it's not all that rare of a thing. And so I decided I should be sharing more photos of such places (And churches as well. I see a lot of really great churches).

Nice new Tudor. Hard to see from here but it's a beautiful spot.

I'm deeply interested in things like simplicity and sustainable living and don't show that enough on my blog. Here is a photo-worthy house I passed on the way home.

Today's ride held many wonderful surprises. I'll be heading south again. Soon.

Backroad Bliss

Mornings in the country are always nice on a day like this; clear, cool, dry, breezy but not windy. I cannot imagine conditions being much better.

Action shot: here I come.

Shaky.

I didn't leave the cottage especially early this morning but no one else was up when I left and that makes it all the more serene.
It feels too long since I have saddled up for a leisure ride but soon as I am on the gravel I wonder why I've left it so long.
These roads are normally very quiet so it was a first for me to pass a road cyclist (looked like he was training) on a paved section and someone out for a run.  The city "lifestyle" is clearly making its way into this farming community.

Trans Canada Trail runs through here. Might have to properly check that out someday.

Ah, yes. This is what I was looking for!

Small Methodist church outside Balderson. I think it's defunct though.

Bridge near Fallbrook. I thought it crossed the Fall River but I'll need to double-check.

I love the city and all its variety but I also love the tranquility of the country.  It's interesting to me that the further I physically bicycle into the middle of nowhere the further my desire is for the city - but when I am back at home I love it too. Which would I choose if I had to? Not sure.
Rounded out my ride with a stop at Balderson Cheese for a coffee. Wonderful way to spend time here at the cottage.

This pic is actually outside Coutts Coffee in Perth. It was a better shot than the Balderson stop.

Photos all courtesy of my friends GoPro. Still don't quite have the knack of it but its a really fun tool to bring along.

My Commute Just Got a Lot Better (Highway #8 Improvements)

I have long said that Highway #8 is a treacherous piece of road for cars and bicycles alike.  And I have done my share of whining over the past 3 or 4 years but I  know how to give credit when it's due.  The city just completed resurfacing this stretch of my commute and I am very pleased with the result.

I still maintain that its the west end of the city (where all the $ is) that gets superior infrastructure but I guess they couldn't ignore us east-enders forever!

Ironically, I was just getting used to the unpaved shoulders (because of the gravel races I do) but I can always find more gravel.

You can see the single-lane for cars, the really wide shoulder and the
small gravel portion that are typical of this new stretch on Highway #8.

Another irony is that a cyclist fitting my description was hit by a car on this very spot about two days ago.  He was hurt badly and remains in the hospital.  I would have guessed that the new surface would somehow have equated to safer overall riding conditions but maybe there is no actual correlation.

Although I don't pretend to know anything about the road conditions or how the cyclist himself was behaving I will say that when I heard it was an 87 year-old person behind the wheel I kind of winced.  There has been a small epidemic of seniors-behind-the-wheel involved in accidents lately.

So, thumbs up to the City of Hamilton for attending to the worst road in Hamilton (sans bike lanes, but thats ok) and including a nice wide shoulder.  But thumbs down to inattentive driving by either auto drivers or cyclists.

"What is Flat?"

  Although I still consider myself primarily a bicycle commuter and not a bicycle racer, recent competitive events have given me some interesting perspective.
  At last month's Hilly Billy Roubaix I found that if we weren't going down we were going up. In other words there were seldom any genuinely level stretches of consequence. No sustained "flat."
  On holiday this past week an old friend loaned me a rather nice 29er and took me on some single-track for a couple of hours. I sorely underestimated what that meant as we proceeded up and down hills of rock that appeared more like sport climbing routes than bicycle trails. Each time he slowed to let me catch up he described the trail ahead: "From here we'll go down to the left where it really flattens out before we jump back up a short climb..." He would say. The downhills were always treacherous. I think instead of removing rocks from the trail the club actually sought out rocks to add. A counter intuitive maneuver in my experience.
  But more to the point, where was the so-called flat trail? How did I miss it again and again? My lesson from these two experiences? Flat is relative. I'll never complain about those few rollers on my commute to work again.

Riding in Dryden, Ontario.

Bicycling Ridge Road on the Niagara Escarpment

Much to the chagrin of my wife, getting up early is becoming standard practice for me.  It often means some time alone to read but this morning I joined the ranks of unnumbered other cyclists who hit the pavé at the crack of dawn. This was a bit of a new experience but quite enjoyable.

I started out climbing the Niagara Escarpment.  As a means of training for the hills of West Virginia I did it twice.

Smiling at the top, so it couldn't have been that bad!

If you do an 8% grade twice does that equal a 16% climb?

My new bike-computer actually has an altimeter but I don't have the sensor hooked up yet.

I turned east at the crossroads and into Grimsby mountain.  It's just beautiful riding up here on the escarpment.

I'm loving this whole "gravel-grinding-thing" so I typically stick to unpaved shoulders. I think other bikes that pass me wonder what the heck I am doing!

Finally the ubiquitous coffee. I am new to the world of coffee consumption and thus far from being a connoisseur.  I passed up two designer coffee shops for McCafé!

Happy cycling to you, today!

Burnstown Gravel Ride

This was an inspiring ride.  I wish I had bothered to take more pictures but when I get in the moment I don't want to interrupt things.

This was my route.  Google says 61.9km and 3 hours 39 minutes.  But after a few wrong turns I ended up with a cool 80.5km ride in 3 hours 31 minutes.

It's backwoods all the way.  Beautiful riding & just what I was looking for.  There are no sustained gravel stretches like this where I live (the Burnstown route is a 5 hour drive north). Below is my folks cottage - ready for liftoff.

These are the kinds of roads I have been looking for.  This is an example of one in good condition.  Most were impassible for cars because of the large ruts but were perfect for my purposes.  In fact, I believe I counted 6 cars on this route, and that's not a whole lot.

I got a lot of looks.  Helmets are an unusual sight around these parts - never mind spandex.
Let's just say "this was good training for the Hilly Billy" and leave it there.

 

Accidental close-up or giant mosquito?  Don't stop for long or you may end up with West-Nile Virus.

Burnstown may be nothing more than a whistle-stop but Neat is a great place for a reward.

I could say so much more but lets keep this simple.  Here's my summary:

• A route so fun that I am considering turning it into a race/tour.
• I will learn to take more photos.
• Seeing as this was half the distance of the Hilly Billy, I must learn about proper nutrition quickly. Otherwise I won't survive the Hilly Billy.
• Most dogs that chase you are just out for a good time. Some aren't though.
• Just because you're the only person on miles of road doesn't mean the locals will give you a wide berth as they pass.
• My wife is awesome.
• Good geometry is worth the time to figure out and a good saddle is worth the money.
• I'll be doing that again.

Yet Another "Day of Rest"

There's no denying I love a snow day.  They really don't happen very often.  Can't get to work by car, bicycle or bus.

It bothers me that I haven't managed to get on my bike in days, and this didn't help.  Makes me feel like a fair-weather cyclist.  However, I plan to get in the home-shop and do some wrenching, and it's certainly a good day for that.

I haven't done any bike-centric posts recently,  but hopefully I'll get back to that as well.

A Weekend Retreat (without a bike)

Whisked away to the (even snowier) north this weekend for a retreat of sorts, and as always, on the lookout for signs of the year-round-cyclist. I can't prevent my thoughts from dwelling on the recurring fantasy of carving through the icing sugar forests whenever I am in an environment like this. 

I am sentenced to live vicariously through other's BLOGS - which although I appreciate very much - I hope only serve to satiate my yearning until I join the ranks of the fat-tire revolution.

An Ottawa dealership maintains that they cannot keep Pugsleys and Mukluks in stock because of the demand but I have yet to see any evidence of that this winter.

I did find this lonely and abandoned fellow outside the dining hall but given the condition of his rear brake lever I chose not to disturb his winter's sleep.

I certainly have no right to complain when I have this as my fall-back plan though.

Good cycling, everyone.

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 :)

Pake build is in a temporary state of ride-ability

My trusted aluminum Diamondback was being cannibalized for the last three weeks to help me finally make one ride-able bicycle.  All that time I have been without any bicycle at all and its been killing me!

Although not in its final form (I am still building the wheels at one heck of a lazy pace) I have finally christened the new Pake.

The last piece was the single crank - but I finished assembly at my folks cottage last weekend and took it on a quick 20km gravel grind to check the geometry.

What a huge difference between steel and aluminum.  I will have more to say on this in a later post. 

There's more work to be done but I like what I have so far.  One interesting note is that I am using a 6-speed twist shifter with a 7-speed hub on a 9 speed derailleur.  The range falls to the lowest denominator - that is - right now I have 6 speeds.  They are a bit on the high side but that will be remedied.

My portable shop.  I used my car's bike carrier for a stand and it worked really well!

Dirty Kanza 2013, here I come!

Escapism and Me

I have begun an interesting book that is challenging me.
In the opening chapter it details escapist tendencies.  It reads like a list of symptoms that one might use to self-diagnose an illness.
It would appear that I have a bent for escapism.

Now, that itself is no shock.  I would rightly admit that to anyone, and have on several occasions.  I think it's just a natural product of being an introvert, and that's nothing to be ashamed about.

I confess to several methods of escapism including, movies, music, reading, cycling and travel.  If one is not available I select another.

However, the author argues that this is not a healthy mindset. 

"The problem with escapism is that it cannot go on forever,"  reminds me a lot of the old adage, "no matter where you go, there you are."

Not sure where this journey will take me.  Not sure if this is a one-time observation/comment or if it will amount to more.  The book itself is about New Urbanism, a subject which fascinates me.  It is a discipline that I feel has strong connections to my love of bicycles and sustainable housing.  But so far (the argument is that if you are not living in the city you are already manifesting escape) I am just feeling a bit ambushed.

Just Noticing Some Ugly Components

I don't think I'm snobbish about parts and components at all.  Indeed, I can't afford what I want without spreading the cost over several months for a single item (Brooks saddle is presently a good example of this).  However, I think I do have an appreciation for quality and it occurred to me as I looked at these photo's of my weekend ride that I have one ugly stem!  Can one even still get threaded stems that could replace this adjustable thing I have?  I hope so.
The pics were never intended to highlight this, but it's the first thing that stood out to me.  Anyone know a good and reliable on-line "old parts" seller who could help me replace this thing?

This boardwalk is just over 1km long.

 

As for the ride itself, pretty decent here on most days but the cold had caused some heaving in this boardwalk over the marsh and made for a pretty bumpy ride.  This would have been better suited to a MTB today.

A book I keep coming back to

Really good book by Ross Chapin called, "Pocket Neighborhoods."  It's all about physical living arrangements at the neighborhood scale.  I notice the absence of any reference to Michael E. Arth's work on New Pedestrianism - it's at least an oversight and I hope not a slight to him.  Otherwise a pretty comprehensive but readable look at community and the way its being revived and, in some cases, re-thought.