last ride of the year

Crossing the bridge at Bruce Park on my last bike ride of the year. Was a gorgeous morning. Very hard to make myself keep pedalling and go to work.

Looking right...

and left. *sigh*

june theme song

Not the greatest video but hard to find Roots Roundup on the web. Definitely brings back some memories but more currently, spending a lot on time on my trusty Trek and loving it. Except for going over my handlebars today. Wasn't hurt, other than some minor scrapes, but dignity seriously wounded.

June has been a busy and actually fairly eventful month, which is why this is the only post. Name change became official so have been spending a great deal of time getting all my ID updated. Got accepted to the MLIS program at Western, so generally getting my ducks in a row. Which includes fixing stuff in the house, meeting with our financial dude, applying for scholarships, etc.

Did take a break for the annual sister's weekend at Crooked Mountain. Every year we always say that we hope we see something. Something does not include: cows, crows, seagulls, Canada geese, squirrels or gophers. Last year we saw a fox kit who kindly posed for us until Ali got a dozen or so fantastic shots. This year we saw a ruby throated hummingbird and a great grey owl. Neither were particularly interested in having their picture taken but she still got 'em.

Also keeping on top of World Cup though not finding the time to watch many games. Really sorry I missed the Brazil-Chile game today. But knew who had won when people started driving through the Village, honking horns and waving green flags. And then the same again with Columbia.

And LASTLY, since it has been raining tons and keeping me indoors, I've become completely sucked into these books and spending all my last scraps of time on the sofa, totally absorbed.

Next month.... probably more of the same and then my nephews arrive! Yay!

bike week - friday

Ode to My Favorite Bike Shop

Ahhhh... Good ol' Natural Cycle. Bike shop co-op and sustainable transportation advocates. Inventors of the PrairyBike 'cause in Winnipeg, there are no mountains. Bike are made from the ground up using recycled frames and custom-made with whatever parts your little heart desires. Generally they are a 4-season, single-speed commuter, but my co-worker had one built with gears.

Natural Cycle is donating two cool rides as prizes for Bike to Work Day: a PrairyBike or a Batvas Old Dutch. I got a new bike last spring after 18 years of bombing around on my Trek mountain bike, so I don't really need to win a new one, but I am smitten with the Old Dutch. Hopefully someone else's name gets pulled and I'm spared the guilt of having three bikes when others have none.

bike week - thursday

My Commute

To get to work, I have three routes to choose from.

Option A: Straight down Portage (10 min.)
Option B: Westminster to Assiniboine, Assiniboine to Fort, left on Fort (20 min.)
Option C: Westminster to the river trail, river trail to Bannatyne, Bannatyne to my office (30 min.)

And then up three flights of stairs to get to the secure bike lock-up, which I totally appreciate even though the stairs are killer.

So guess which option I choose? (Unless I'm late for work, or the floods in Illinois raise the water level here so that the trail is under a foot of water.)

bike week - wednesday

A saint in the saddle?

A funny article and lively debate in the comments section about who the biggest jerks are: bikers or drivers? I know what I think the answer is... (ha!ha!)

bike week - tuesday

Top 10 Songs About Bikes (in no particular order)

10. Bicycle Race by Queen
9. Motorcrash by the Sugarcubes
8. Bike by Roots Roundup
7. Riding on my Bike by Madness
6. Why Don't We Do it in the Road by the Beatles
5. Broken Bicycles by Tom Waits
4. My Bike by Ghoti Hook
3. Acoustic Motorbike by Luka Bloom
2. Bike by Pink Floyd
1. Daisy Bell

Other suggestions?

bike week - monday

Ride a bike, save the world
[from the David Suzuki Foundation website]

May 30, 2008 - "Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H.G. Wells

Science has had a tremendous impact on the planet in an incredibly short time. In just the past few hundred of our 150,000 years on Earth, we have invented everything from steam engines, cars, and airplanes to sophisticated weapons and supercomputers. And the pace at which we keep inventing more complex and fascinating machines is increasing. Some of our inventions have been a great boon, some have been harmful, and some, such as cars, have turned out to be a mixed blessing.

But one invention is so efficient, beneficial, and simple that it may be the best thing we’ve ever made. People across the land will celebrate that invention as we ride into June, Bike Month. The "modern" version of the bicycle with pedals and cranks was invented by French carriage-maker Ernest Michaux in 1861. It’s come a long way since then, but whether it’s a high-tech racing bike or a one-gear street cruiser, the bike is still a marvel of ingenuity. In fact, it may well be the most efficient form of transportation yet invented.

The best part of the bike is that you, the rider, are the engine. The fuel is what you eat and drink. Putting the human engine together with the gears, wheels, and frame of a bike gives you a mode of transportation that uses less energy even than walking. As for our most popular method of getting around, the automobile, there’s no comparison. According to the WorldWatch Institute, a bicycle needs 35 calories per passenger mile, while a car uses 1,860. Buses and trains are somewhere in between.

During Bike Month, it’s worth thinking about the potential this amazing invention offers. With oil prices climbing and environmental damage from car emissions increasing, bikes are becoming a more attractive form of urban transportation every day. Cleaner air, reduced congestion, safer streets, and lower noise levels are just a few of the benefits. As more people get out of their cars and onto their bikes, they’ll also become fitter, leading to lower health-care spending. The money that could be saved nationally on things like health care - not to mention the infrastructure required to keep so many cars on the road - reaches into the billions, but the money an individual can save on fuel, insurance, and maintenance costs alone is also substantial. And because biking is a lot of fun, it will probably increase what the people of Bhutan call "gross national happiness"!

But we still have a ways to go. Canadians and Americans use bikes for fewer than one in a hundred trips - although in Vancouver where I live, it’s a bit higher, at about 2.3 per cent. Compare that to the 20 to 35 per cent of trips taken by bike in the European Union and 50 per cent in China. (Unfortunately, the trend is reversing in China as the country embraces car culture.)

Shifting from car dependence will take action at the individual level, with more people simply deciding to get on their bikes, but governments must also do more to make it easier for people to ride bikes. And they can. In just three years, from 1998 to 2001, Mayor Enrique Peñalosa of Bogotá, Colombia, turned his city of 6.5 million from a gridlocked parking lot into a city where public spaces live up to their name. He did this by restricting car use, increasing gas taxes, and building hundreds of kilometres of bike and pedestrian paths, as well as investing in buses.

Making our streets safer for cyclists by giving them space to ride is an essential first step. The investment required is far less than that required for infrastructure for cars. Tax breaks for cyclists also help. Last year in Ontario, Premier Dalton McGuinty removed the provincial sales tax on bike helmets and bikes costing less than $1,000. Bikes are also exempt from PST in B.C., and the province’s $100 carbon-tax rebate could be put toward buying a bike or tuning up your old bike.

Employers can also help out by offering secure bike parking and showers for those who work up a sweat on the way to work.

Of course, cycling isn’t a panacea. In parts of Canada, the weather isn’t always conducive to cycling. And not everyone has the strength to ride up the hills in some of our cities. But if more of us choose bikes whenever possible, using public transport or at least energy-efficient vehicles when we can’t ride, we’d all be much better off.

So, get on your bike in June, and maybe you’ll like it enough to make it your preferred method of transportation year-round.

bike week - sunday

Friday, June 20th is the first Bike to Work Day in Winnipeg. Have already signed up because a) I bike to work, and b) they are offering some mean prizes.

So in honor of the big event, I'll be doing a bike themed post every day this week.