Leading up to a new Frank Trek

Looks like it's been a couple years since I've posted to this blog. The past few years have been tumultuous at times. I dropped out of distance cycling for a couple years, only to realize that I was getting fat and depressed and decided to hop back in the saddle for daylong rides of 50, 100 or the rare 150km ride. I'm not going to make a pledge to you that I'm restarting the blog, or make a commitment to post once a week --because frankly, I'll end up breaking those commitments and promises. But at the moment, I'm gearing up for something that I think is special. 

Ten years ago, I was fortunate enough to have a little bit of money in the bank, and a little bit of time on my calendar to travel. After consulting with a couple friends from high school, I decided to visit Europe, and to tour France. Not having a tremendous amount of cash, my friends and I brainstormed cheap and immersive ways to see France. Hiking was always mentioned, but to be honest, I absolutely despise walking! Hitchhiking was the next idea. Again, however, too much walking for my likes. Trains, car rentals, or tour groups seemed really expensive for all of us. Eventually, we settled on cycling. It was certainly faster then walking, and after watching a couple Tour de France videos on YouTube, we figured the French countryside would have better attitudes than Canada or the UK for cycle-touring. 

So cycling it was! The experience was so immersive, so thrilling, that I still define this trip as a turning point in my life. I turned away from the idea that I needed a car when I 'grew up,' to embracing --whole hog-- the bicycle as my main mode of transportation. Although I ain't no supermodel now, I lost a lot of weight, but more importantly lost many inches around my waistline. When I got back to Canada, after having my touring bike nicked in Paris, I bought an ungodly looking commuter (a KHS Westwood with an ape-bar) and started biking to school, to the store, to friend's parties, for small day trips. You get the idea. In time, I salvaged a medium sized frame from the garbage at the apartment building I lived in. I had it looked-over for safety reasons, and was told it was probably hit or run over by a car, but the chain- and seat-stays were pried back into place. I breathed new life into it: a new paint job, new drivetrain and groupset, wheels, cables, seat, grips --all the bells and whistles. Despite being a plain old frame with a straight-bar, it was super responsive and fast! Years later, I would buy a road bike --a Giant OCR3-- and a new commuter --a Jamis Coda. I gave the Frankensteinian bike away to a friend in hopes that she would find that special excitement and freedom that I had discovered in France years before. 

I'm not sure if she ever did or not. 

I got into the cycling advocacy racket and learned a lot about municipal and city planning. I still lend a hand every now and then when I have the time energy. I've also been dabbling in bicycle racing, having completed a couple biathlons in the early 2010s and recently, my first criterium (Cat D). 

Great kit! Great crit! Mediocre performance...

It's been 10 years since my foray into cycling started --all from one trip. At the end of the month, having grown as a cyclist and an adult, I plan to revisit many of those same roads in Northern France with one of those high school friends in tow. With our route planned from Sevenoaks, UK to Paris, France, we'll be staying in many of the same towns and suffering over the same hills and trials from 2007. 

I can't wait. 

Will post again about the bike I'm taking, the gear I've settled on and what little tech I'll be bringing along with me.

This might be a flash in the pan for this blog. I might return to years of silence, but I hope you'll join me for this reunion ride, 10 years in the making!

Join me for France Trek +10!

First ride of the Season and the CMWC

Hey All!

With the onset of Spring comes the start of cycling season! After reading about other folks staking their claim to the Waverly, Sambro and even Peggy's Cove Loops, so did I decide to strike out and start my cycling season in earnest! I quickly found out that although my cycle-trainer did keep me in pretty good shape, having my lower wisdom teeth out in late March really slowed down my metabolism just prior to a crucial time to get revved back up for biking. 

Be that as it may, I prepped my bike for a ride today and struck out along the Waverly loop. The roads were actually in great shape for it, and despite a "beyond the wall" coolness from the end of Rocky Lake Rd onwards, the weather and temp were awesome!

The lake at the corner of Rocky Lake and Waverly.

 Despite the great ride, I have a couple nit-picky objections with a few things:

1) Despite the super-suave looking interior of Alderney Landing in Dartmouth... 

The door to actually get in the joint is kind of tucked away behind the building (opposite the train-tracks), and the side door --which was the only access site to the waiting area last summer-- is totally locked! A little confusing, and seedy for people who don't use the ferry very often.

Also, I've never been a fan of the on-boat bike racks they have there, and these new ones are no exception. Last year, I used to tuck my bike in between aisles with me and hold onto it during the harbour crossing, but on several occasions received harsh talkings-to while doing so. I've since given up the fight and stuck my bike in the loose-goosey bike-racks they have on board... but I still don't like it!

2) Something else that really bothers me is that the Historic Properties just North of the Halifax Ferry Terminal have really beef'ed up their any-cycling behaviour and are diligently turning cyclists away from the property. I asked one security guard, since he wouldn't let me in to get a post-ride coffee from TIBS, if he would watch my bike if I left it by the door. He refused, saying "Well I'll get in trouble if it's stolen while I'm looking after it." 

Well yeah, you're damn right you will. The point of me asking you to look after it is to ensure it doesn't get stolen. You are security after all. 

In the end, a construction worker offered to look after it while he was taking his break. I offered to pay for his next coffee when I got back, but he declined. Totally classy move, that! Unlike the official, paid security guy for the property. 

3) Lastly, surprise multi-use trail closure! I actually hadn't heard of this one, but be advised that the trail along Barrington is closed for an undetermined amount of time! It looks like they may be laying some pipe down under/adjacent to the trail. Not sure how long this will take.

In other, intercontinental news: my good friends at Jambi-Jambi have been covering the Cycle-Messenger World Championship in Australia! They've thrown together some great videos and posted a lot of pictures of the event here, here, and here. They also regularly post about their experiences cycle-courier'ing in Sydney. Definitely a blog to bookmark as part of your "state of cycling around the world" reading list!

In any case, put your heads down and power-through, Lovelies!

Church goers crying foul and Sambro Loop safety issues

Well fall is rearing it's ugly head (I'm more of a spring guy). The leaves along many a bike route are starting to show crisp, rusted fringes and bikers are starting to group together for that one last, exceptional cycling trip of the season. Unfortunately, we're seeing a couple complaints in HRM regarding cycling infrastructure and cycling behaviour. 

Let's start with the more ridiculous issue.

Last fall, the city finally created a functional bike lane connecting the South End of the peninsula to the North End. Doing so effectively connected residential neighbourhoods to commercial areas, the universities and the hospitals --the latter two being HRM's largest employment sectors along with the Army/Navy bases. It was great! Current cyclists seemed happy to see a piece of the AT plan of 2005 come to fruition. New riders from the City Streets neighbourhood (such as Cork St., Liverpool St., Edinburgh St., London St., Berlin St., Vienna St.) came out of the woodwork to cycle using this new piece of infrastructure. Everything was going so well until someone noticed parking signs stating "No Parking, Mon-Sat." The ensuing Sunday-bike-lane-blockage was like clockwork. Starting at about 7am , church parishioners would come out, clog the lane and shut things down for new cyclists on possibly the most appealing day for recreational riding.

Thanks to some handy camera-work by @zeptep (photo above), the issue came to light on a local cycling group on Facebook. The Halifax Cycling Coalition then swooped in to rectify the issue with city staff and have the signs replaced. 

Staff looked into issue of parking in Windsor St bike lane. “No Parking Mon-Sat” signs will be removed, will notify @HfxRegPolice @IBIKEHFX
— hfxgov (@hfxgov) September 8, 2014

Unfortunately, we found out blotting out bike lanes is a hobby for a few folks in HRM.

Washmill Lake Dr.

So who is dropping the ball here? The blame would have to go to Halifax Regional Police as well as municipal staff. Despite staff's great work in establishing the broad strokes, HRM has to pay attention to fine detail with such an intense change to Halifax's transportation infrastructure. HRP has to pick-up the ball from there and consistently enforce the law. Plan, promote, enact, enforce; this should probably be an acronym for HRM staffers to keep in mind for future roadwork. P.P.E.E. ... Pee? Well, maybe we can figure out some new letters first.

Is this the end of cycling in HRM? Definitely not. New cyclists are probably a little put off by these events, but established, year-round cyclists will always be there to call attention to these issues and have them fixed. The HCC is also here to help and has proven particularly capable of responding quickly when issues come to their attention. 

Enter the next player in this debacle. 

Despite the ridiculously high amount of public parking on nearby side streets, churches are deploring the move which is steering their parishioners towards actually walking a whopping two to five minutes to get to mass. 

Imagine! Walking! On your hind legs! Like a Cretan! The nerve...

The really confusing portion of the article linked above is that families are taking two to three cars to church every Sunday. Is that not a completely ridiculous concept to anyone else here?!

I hope this story ends here with churches capitulating to the fact that maybe a short walk might be good of their congregation, and older members of the church or people requiring wheelchairs or walkers are differently-abled, not disabled.

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Now let's switch to the complaint going on right now that has a degree of legitimacy. 

The residents of everyone's favourite cycling route, the Sambro Loop, are getting a little frustrated with cyclists not obeying the rules of the road. The creation of the "Make the loop safe" group on Facebook seems at first blush to be a great way to share concerns, offer some solutions, and mobilize residents and cyclists in solving a space issue on the Sambro Loop. After reading a few comments however, you'll quickly see that this is yet another cranky-motorist-ranting page.

Taking pictures of cyclists riding in an unsafe manner is encouraged and really goes to show how biased many members of this group are against cycling. The pictures on the page would be laughable if so many people didn't take them so seriously. Here are some examples:

Cyclist positioned excellently to the right.

Another great example of responsible riding

Maybe hard to see here, but two bikers, single file, staying to the right

This might be a legitimate complaint. Do these guys go single file as soon as they are through the intersection? We don't know.

Believe it or not, every picture above had complaints that the cyclist(s) is not far-right enough, or they are simply at a section of road with a blind crest or a piece of winding road --difficult to see around those corners.

Think about that: someone is mad at you for existing in a certain place at a certain time. A remarkably poor attitude towards cycling, but hear me out for a minute...

Group rides. Probably one of the best ways to spend an hour or two working out with a friend, shoot the shit about your week, make some plans to get together for coffee sometime soon. Definitely helpful in increasing your average pace, and covering a great amount of distance with a reduced amount of effort. These guys riding like this --which is probably the most common riding pattern for groups of six riders or larger worldwide-- although promoting camaraderie and riding efficiency, is not particularly lawful in the strictest sense. Put another way, people that don't cycle don't get why you need to have two columns. On top of this, there are a few stories by motorists that group rides will curse, flip-out or otherwise act like a jag towards passing cars. 

There are a plethora of reasons for cyclists to freak out. Are all these cars passing at times when it's safe to do so? Are they giving the proper metre of distance required by the law, regardless of how many abreast these cyclists are? Could these bikers do better in thinning out when cars are approaching? How does their behaviour reflect cycling in area? How well are motorists promoting equity in road sharing when they come upon a group like this? Are group riders making the rest of us look bad?

The answer to all these questions is: I don't know. A Facebook page bitching about cyclists and showing a few stills of individual cyclists giving massive amounts of space for cars juxtaposed against group rides at a moment when the pack might not even know a car is behind them is not proof that cyclists are behaving particularly poorly. It does not show that this route is significantly unsafe either. It does illustrate that this is one of HRM's most cycled routes, and as more people take up cycling for it's health and social benefits, there are more interactions between the two road users. 

But there is good news to motorists in the area: you're not doing that bad of a job! I usually hit this route once, maybe twice a week and I have to admit that nine out of 10 of you car-folk give me space, slow down on your approach, or wait for oncoming traffic to go by before you pass. Would a bike lane be beneficial to increase the safety of the area? It would likely make riding more comfortable for cyclists, albeit on a road that hasn't seen a motorist-cyclist collision resulting in serious harm or death in the last 10 years --very likely much longer. 

Will it make things better for motorists?

If these two folks serve as an example of "poor cycling," then there's going to always be a section of motorists that will always have a hate-on for bikers and who will bitch at every chance they get when they find a cyclist ahead of them, whether in a bike lane or not.

Either way, I'm not particularly anti-bike lane on the Sambro Loop. I do think there are better places to invest in cycling infra, such as off-road trails or sprucing-up urban bike routes. There is a poorly written, online petition encouraging government to create a bike lane around the Sambro Loop, but I encourage you to write to your councillors or MLAs and encourage them to invest in cycling in HRM and Nova Scotia. 

*  *  *

This was a long one and I have to thank you for reading this far. I'm interested to see what you guys think about this, so leave your comments below.

Happy trails!

Quick Post: North Park and Cunard

So I went to work today through North Park and Cunard. No big deal; had to swerve onto the sidewalk (multi-use path, actually) and ride on the Commons for a bit. On the way back however, I found the end of Agricola St is totally blocked and fenced. 

If you're going southbound on Agricola and want to go through the intersection, I think you have to turn up Sarah St., turn left on Moran and another left back onto Cunard, then take the initial chunk of the new roundabout onto North Park. You essentially have to do this in reverse to get back northbound as N. Park only empties onto Cunard, and only Cunard-West.

The exciting thing about this recent change is that the south portion of the roundabout and N. Park is slowly opening up again. The picture is slowly coming together! The downside --and I figured this out during my jog tonight-- is that the pedestrian lights are being taken down and you can tell motorists don't really know how to behave. Do they stop for pedestrians? Do they just rush through and expect you to stop? 

It is definitely the latter. Pay attention out there, stay visible and stay safe!

The ride that almost wasn't and SWITCH Dartmouth

I swear to God, I probably wasn't meant to go out for a long ride today. After leaving some of my biking gear at work, having to pick it up, setting out later than what I like, and then running across a crowd of folks helping an elderly man who had fallen outside of the Halifax Forum, I thought to myself "Maybe these are all signs that I ought not to be cycling today." Despite this nagging feeling, and considering I was outfitted and off already, I decided to push ahead and tackle the Bedford Loop. 

Anyone familiar with this loop knows it's general difficulty level is pretty low. There are no major category-worthy hills, it's generally quite flat, and traffic along the stretch is courteous. This is probably because one section of the Loop --Waverly Rd. in Dartmouth-- is allegedly the most cycled road in Halifax. What has shaken the cycling community up this summer is that a bridge along the route has been closed for major renovation/replacement. A great idea as the bridge was starting to crumble pretty significantly in some places --especially on the shoulder where bikers tend to be found. The detour consists of turning up Duke St. after getting through Bedford-proper, then connecting to Cobequid Rd. and heading along there until you reconnect with Waverly Rd. Although this increases the degree of difficulty of the overall ride and adds a proper Cat-climb to the route, I think I'll be using this route option quite often from here on out. The route itself is scenic. The road is in great shape with a fair-sized shoulder. Despite taking you out a little farther from Rocky Lake Rd., the overall distance added is less than 10km. 

What I'm trying to say is in case you've been avoiding the Bedford Loop because of the construction and closure of Rocky Lake Rd., I urge you to try the detour! It's totally worth the bit of extra effort. When have we shirked away from something that is a tad harder than normal?

A little treat was waiting for me on my way back through Dartmouth. The Open Street Party known as SWITCH was going on downtown. Although I think I pulled in around the end of the festivities, I have to say that there were still a lot of kiddies and families enjoying the events. I'm not sure people really understood the concept of an Open Street as 90% of pedestrians were still using the sidewalk almost exclusively. 

But what can you do when you're working with nearly 50 years of heavily endorsed and reinforced car culture. 

The street party was great. The businesses in Downtown Dartmouth definitely deserve some major recognition, considering the general fear that most business communities display at anything that reduces traffic flow and on-street parking. Major props to the SWITCH organizing team, particularly Ross Soward --great guy who was also an incredible Halifax Cycling Coalition co-chair. 

"So when is Halifax's next SWITCH Open Street Sunday?" you may ask. According to this article, it's probably not too far away. Without support from local business associations, however, these events become much more difficult to plan and execute. So if you're shopping at any business within the North End Business Association (NEBA) make sure you let them know you're a cyclist and you want an Open Street Party! Writing to your municipal Councillor is also a great way to lend your support. Volunteering with the SWITCH team is definitely another way to lend a much needed hand. Most importantly though, when this event rolls around, don't forget to join in the fun!

Safe riding out there! Summer is almost done. Cram that Bedford loop in!

BeerFest and my unit is too hot over the summer

Well it's been three days since I went to BeerFest, and I've just sufficiently shaken off my hangover enough to start writing on this again.

It was really a great time! Good lot of beers there. Although I did make a list of beers that I was interested to try, a lot of them were either out of stock, or the crowds around the brewing booths were just too ungodly dense to wait it out. 

It didn't help that I left my super-organized list at home by accident and had to rely on a crappy bit of scrap paper with some beer names haphazardly scrawled thereon before rushing to the Fest after work. 

Some beers that I found pretty notable --for better or worse-- were: 

- Pretty much every stout for their thick, easy drinking quality; 

- A new type of beer called a "Sour Beer" which tastes exactly how you'd think it would;

- "Princess Wears Girl Pants" at first for the funny name, but it ended up tasting swell;

- Pump House Blueberry ale was great! Last year I found the blueberry taste was way to sharp, but this year it was balanced out quite a bit better.

Fast-forward to Monday: I drug myself out of bed after a particularly slow night shift and powered out a good 7k run from the North End to the Rotary and back. It was delightful. 

Speaking of work, I might not have put much thought into my schedule for the next six weeks as I'm doing a bunch of on-off-on-on-off-off patterns repeatedly--other nurses will likely get that. It might burn me out a little bit, but the timing couldn't be better as our summer slowdown is still in effect (we close a pretty high proportion of our beds because the heat in the summer coupled with the lack of air-con on our unit makes recovery as a patient pretty miserable, and working there becomes a physical strain --literally). Nevertheless, this schedule pattern might actually allow me to squeeze in bit more cycling over the next couple weeks. So we'll see how things go. 

Sambro-Loop Ride

Hey y'all!

Just getting back and unwinding from a great ride along the Sambro Loop with my good friend @redwards5. I wish I would have known about this loop when I first got into biking as it's easily one of the most Maritime-esque rides you can find within the HRM --without busting your butt out to Peggy's Cove and back. 

It has everything you're looking for! Coastal fishing communities, the smell of the ocean, a very gradual decline for about 25 km to get to Sambro itself, and enough rolling hills to work off the booze you overdid it with last weekend! I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars for difficulty and a 4.5 out of 5 stars for scenery. It's roughly 50 km out and back from the Rotary and back along Purcells Cove Rd. 

Because seriously, after the Herring Cove Bike Lane Debacle I refuse to support that business association. Except Pavia Gallery of course, but they're so far out, I feel like they fall outside of the typical, short-sighted group of neanderthals of the Spryfeild and District Business Commission. 

Let's jump back to over-boozing over the weekends though: This weekend I'm heading to the Halifax Seaport Beerfest to sample some wonderful and worldly beers from Nova Scotia and beyond! Having recently accepted and grown to love Guinness Irish Ale I'm looking for a local Irish Ale to add to my beer-list.  

Granite Brewery is a close contender with their Keefs Irish Ale. You should totally look into Granite Brewery. They have a great bevy of beers to explore. I'm also looking forward to checking out those Cape Breton brewery beers (Big Spruce), along with any blonde beers that tickle my fancy. 

Well... Here's to feeling good all the time!