Take the Lane

Major Taylor

If you read Todd Balf's article on Major Taylor in the June 2006 issue of Bicycling magazine, then you might be interested to know that Balf has taken his research book-length.

Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era and the Fight to be the World's Fastest Human Being, is engrossing and disturbing.

Balf does a good job of portraying the era of the late 1800s and early 1900s: racial tensions on the rise in North America as the children of freed slaves became adults and expected to get more than the white world was offering; rampant corruption in sports, including competitive cycling; and a society eager to believe that a person could still reign supreme over any form of technology (the time of John Henry, Paul Bunyan and other larger-than-life characters).

Marshall Taylor, who came to be known as Major Taylor, was one of the real larger-than-life characters. A smooth track cyclist with a powerful kick, he virtually owned the track. He was three-time world track champion, and when he embraced his faith and refused to race on Sundays (world championship races were on Sundays), he'd arrange to race the title-holder later and generally beat him. Taylor rode in matches around the world, including in Montreal, and wowed the crowds at every appearance. Yet he confronted racism at every turn, from those who did not want him racing with whites, to those who did not want him living in their neighbourhood.

Balf spends a bit too much time setting up the rivalry between Taylor and California-born white track cyclist and crooked cycling promoter Floyd McFarland. The final race is a bit of a letdown. But the story of Taylor, the obstacles he faced, and the legacy he left in Major Taylor cycling clubs and associations around the U.S., makes a good read.

Cyclists can be lobbyists

Critical Mass events notwithstanding, cycling tends to be a solitary pursuit, which may explain why it is so difficult for cyclists to catch the attention of the power-brokers. We just aren't organized.

The fledgling Toronto Cyclists Union aims to show that cyclists can be lobbyists, through a local advocacy workshop on Sunday, April 13, at Toronto City Hall.

It is hugely Toronto-centric: participants are going to be shown how to lobby the elected reps for their particular Toronto ward, and there will be Toronto council members there to question. But, there are some general sessions on public speaking and making media contacts that could be useful to fledgling bicycle advocates from outside Toronto. Any advice about navigating the murky waters of municipal politics might be helpful.

It is free, and you may have nothing else to do on a Sunday in April. Assuming there is less snow there than around here, you could spend the rest of the day riding around the waterfront or up the Humber.

For more info, try www.bikeunion.to

Need safe bicycle storage? Get a bike cage

Are you discouraged from riding your bicycle to work because there is nowhere safe to leave it?

I've heard this as a reason for not cycle commuting, and it is a pretty valid one. If your only option for bicycle security is the street-side post-and-ring, then you are pretty much restricted to riding your beater to work.

If you plan on having any fun on the way to work or back home, you probably want someplace safer to leave your bike for eight hours.
I have had the advantage over the years of working at places that didn't give me a second glance when I brought my bike into the building (heck, I even rode it straight out of the elevator in a couple of places), but such behaviour is generally frowned upon in most workplaces (including our new building).

Some workplaces in the region have some pretty snazzy dedicated bicycle storage (one of the RIM buildings had a bike room, complete with wall-mounted racks).

But you don't have to have a dedicated bike room. A bike cage can work. Here's a photo of ours, modelled after the one at Grand River Hospital.

The total cost was about $2,000. It was built on a spot in the parking garage considered unsuitable for a parking space. There is always such space in parking garages. Have a look around yours.

Talk to the people in HR. Make the pitch about healthier employees. If there are enough cycle-minded riders, offer to pitch in $50 a person to help with the cost (a Kryptonite lock will cost you way more).

Another major Ontario bicycle tour

If you have the time and money, 2008 could be The Big Year for cycle touring in Ontario.

While the Cycle Ontario Alliance is pushing its Ontario Bicycling Route (to compete with the 4,300-kilometre Route Verte in Quebec) and the Waterfront Regeneration Trust is promoting its 680-km Waterfront Trial ride in July, the Ontario Greenbelt Foundation is taking the first steps toward a four-day cycle touring adventure through parts of the Greenbelt in September.

There's not much about the Tour de Greenbelt on the Greenbelt website yet, but there are a few things that can be said.

It'll be four days: Sept. 20 and 21, and Sept. 27 and 28. Two end-to-end rides (from Aurora to Sutton and from Burlington to Ball's Falls) and two looped rides (Rouge Valley, and the Niagara area, tied in to the Grape and Wine Festival and the last weekend of the Niagara bicycle train from Toronto).

The idea is to ride for a day, using some of the sections identified by the COA for the Ontario Bicycling Route, and along the way, learn something about First Nations areas, the landscape and heritage sites. Riders will be encouraged to take part in the evening activities, and ride the next day at the next site.

Mountain Equipment Co-Op has signed on as the title sponsor. Other sponsors are also being sought for different aspects of the event.

A few of the details -- such as where to sleep, where the food is coming from and how to get to the next day's start -- have yet to be worked out. Details, details. For sure, it's a work in progress, and a daunting task it must seem. First outings are always tough, and this one will likely have some finessing done before it's through, but we've got fantastic potential for cycle touring in this province, and I'm glad to see another agency take a swing at this idea.

For info, contact Margaret Hastings-James, at 416-960-0001, ext. 306 or e-mail mhastingsjames@tourdegreenbelt.ca.

Analyzing cycling accidents

There's a great article in last week's San Francisco Chronicle.
Briefly, The Chronicle analyzed 2,000 cycling collisions that led to death or severe injury in the SF area from 1997 to 2006, and found that in 60 per cent of the cases, the cyclist was blamed for the collision. In 26 per cent of the cases, the motorist was blamed.
The article notes that there may be a "blame the victim" bias on the part of police, esp. since the victim is often not in a state to speak for him/herself. But still, the 60-26 ratio is a bit startling.
And the major reasons for these deadly or near-deadly encounters? Most often, not obeying traffic laws. The Lance Armstrong wannabes were specifically mentioned, and that struck a chord, as I saw just such a rider on the weekend in London. Fully kitted, helmeted, riding a shiny red bike, he blew through a stop sign with barely a look to left or right, while a motor vehicle was doing "the right thing" by coming to a full stop. No wonder motorists get ticked off. If the so-called "real" cyclists can't be trusted to play by the rules, can any of us be trusted?
Impetus for the article, in part, was the death of two cyclists this month in a single accident. Kristy Gough and Matt Peterson were amateur racers on a training ride when a Santa Clara County deputy sheriff on patrol crossed the double line and hit them, and a third cyclist who survived, head-on. No charges as yet.
You can read the article at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/22/MNU3VOB22.DTL&hw=bicycle&sn=004&sc=542

Ontario Bike Plan

I know you are probably more focused on family and Oh Henry eggs this weekend, but if you can set aside one hour, it would be worth your while to thumb through the Cycle Ontario Alliance's Ontario Bike Plan.

Have a look at (http://tbn.ca/obpfull).

This is the COA's big presentation to the provincial government to get on board with some serious bicycle thinking and planning. It was unveiled at the T.O. Bike Show and is now available online.

The 32-page report offers the usual short course in why cycling is good for our health, the environment, traffic reduction, road longevity and tourism potential, and lays out a mission statement and a series of goals to implement such a statement, with government agencies and non-government organizations identified as to their potential involvement and pledged support.

It's colourful, easy to read and might even filter through the background noise that provincial decision-makers have to live with every day.

Of course, it will help if you read it, and then cut and paste the relevant parts into an e-mail and send it to your MPP, your council member, or your fave municipal planner.

You know how they love it when they get mail...

Sure, it's easy to see cyclists

Go to this site, take the test, smack yourself on the back of the head.

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

Pothole dodging as Olympic event

Peter Marks of London is getting training this winter in pothole dodging, and I was wondering about making it an Olympic event. At least a demonstration sport.

The deep dodge. The wide dodge. The dodge slalom.

It has potential.

Kill two cyclists, get two years ... stuck in the house!

A Simcoe motorist who killed two cyclists in 2005 faced 14 years in jail after a jury convicted him of two counts of dangerous driving causing death, but instead, he got two years of house arrest.
Today's sentence, reported by the Hamilton Spectator, didn't go over very well with the family members of one of the dead cyclists. Junior Bell, 28, and Fitzroy Bell, 25, sons of 54-year-old William Bell, said that the driver should have gone to jail for killing their dad.
But George Morris is getting two years less a day of house arrest. It's virtually a wrist slap.
He'll also have to do 240 hours of community service work over the next three years. Since the two people he killed -- Bell and Desmond McNeil, 39, -- were migrant farm workers, the judge apparently thought it was just that Morris be ordered to speak to migrant workers in Haldimand-Norfolk about the dangers presented by speeders and aggressive drivers.
Since Morris was driving at excessive speed, on the shoulder, when he hit the two (three actually, but Fred Smith, also 39, survived with a broken neck and back), you might wonder if it would have been more appropriate for Morris to lecture driving school students and driver's licence applicants about the dangers of speeding and aggressive driving.
But that's just me. 

Those darned winter cyclists

Oh man. Just when the winter cycling noise was dying down, along comes this column in The Record today (at http://news.therecord.com/Opinions/article/323934) and I just have to shake my head.
Is any cyclist unnerved by the fact that the author is a bus driver? Sure wouldn't want her coming up on my left shoulder...