Thursday, September 23, 2010

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

wheels and tweed

Last weekend Noreen and I joined the Winnipeg Tweed Ride. A delightful celebration that combines the simple joy of a bike ride and the high society fascination with the bicycle as leisure and fashion during the late 19th/early 20th century. Lots of fun! See the pictures by following the link. We rode the streets of Winnipeg during the Winnipeg Ciclovia festival.

Monday, September 6, 2010

bike paths, a book, and an applejack

On Sunday Noreen and loaded up the bikes and went to Winnipeg for an afternoon of meandering along the bicycle routes of Wellington Crescent and Westminster Avenue. The paths consist of blocked off streets that take us through the neighbourhoods of River Heights and Woseley. We start and end at Assiniboine Park. It's a purely delightful ride through two of Winnipeg's finest old developments with many beautiful historic houses and apartments and stately looking tree lined streets with huge old elms that actually canopy right over the street. We've done this "Sunday ride" several times and we've now worked out an easy 20km route that travels completely on blocked off streets (no car traffic) and includes a stop at a used bookstore/cafe (applejacks and yerba mate), often with buskers providing live music. This Sunday we topped it off with a walk across the river footbridge at Assiniboine Park, over to "Sargent Sundae" for a pumpkin pie flavoured ice cream cone. This was a good reminder that a great day of cycling may not involve large distance, high cadence, or speed. Good company, a slow meandering path and a good coffee is also a good day of cycling. Thanks for sharing it with me love.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

9 Cycling Movies You Can't Miss

According to Bicycling magazine this is the list:


Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
Breaking Away
Triplets of Belleville
American Flyers
The Bicycle Thief Trailer
A Sunday in Hell
Stars & Water carriers
2 Seconds (Canadian eh!)
Key Exchange

I would definitely add:

The Flying Scotsman (get it for $5 right now at LW in the Steinbach mall)
Bicycle Dreams

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

conflicted

A friend called me up a week ago and offered me his motorcycle to use while he's away on vacation.  So, I've been driving to work and cruising around on a Yamaha 1100 VStar Classic.  And I'm like'n it.  I had bikes years ago including a 250 Suzuki, a 400 Honda and a 650SR Kawaski.  They were all fun in their own way, but this is a really great ride.  I love the torque of that big twin, the weight distribution and handling of such a big bike.  I could really get used to this.

Problem is, I know having a machine like this would seriously cut into my road bike training.  And there are so many other good reasons not to get involved with motorcycles like expense, safety, carbon footprint, maintenance, storage, insurance, etc.  All those "rational" things a sensible middle aged guy should consider.  Good thing I have to return the bike tonight because I'm getting attached in a hurry.  But, Gary did mention that it is for sale....

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Why the wheelmen?

A term from the late 19th century when the bicycle had it's popular beginnings and was stirring a revolution in public transportation. Male enthusiasts where referred to as wheelmen (and, yes, female where referred to as wheelwomen).

Welcome!

When I'm not riding my bicycle, I'm thinking about it.  So, I figured maybe I'd have something interesting to say about it once in a while.  Thanks for visiting and let's see where this ride takes us!