Take the Lane

A chain-less bicycle?

An Associated Press writer did a little piece on Trek's new belt-driven bicycles, which you can see here. It's a bit breathless in its depiction of the product as putting an end to pant-leg munching chains. There are other belt-drive bikes, and the addition of a chain-guard pretty much solves that problem for any conventional bike (and isn't there a "belt guard" on the Trek in this video?

But credit goes to Trek for putting a new coat of paint on an old idea and getting some new butts on bicycles.

Team Bruyneel to add a member

Johan Bruyneel, director sportif for Astana, has announced that his personal team is adding another member in 2009. His partner Eva is expecting child number two, a sibling for young Victoria. You can read more at Bruyneel's blog.

I had to laugh that Bruyneel's blog entry referenced the baby's arrival in the context of racing: the due date is around the Tour de Flanders. All cycling, all the time...

Critical Mass in the snow

Yeah, you can ride your bike in this stuff. Oh, it's messy at times and you can't bomb down a hill like a maniac, but cycling in the winter is not cold, it's cool.

According to my friends at the Facebook page for Critical Mass Waterloo, there is a Critical Mass ride this Friday beginning at the usual place (Waterloo Park bandshell) at 4:45 p.m. It will end up in Victoria Park in Kitchener.

The Big Three automakers are pleading for billions of dollars. How about coming out to plead for a share of the road?

How about a working bicycle?

Ever try to do your farmers' market shopping with your regular bike, and once the panniers are loaded with Northern Spy apples and gruyere cheeses, tried to wobble your way home? Sure, it's easy to pack the heavy stuff low in the panniers when you're doing a camping trip, but when you're doing the groceries, it's all heavy stuff.

Personally, I liked using a Cannondale Bugger for hauling, but there is another option out there. A U.S. company has something called Xtracycle, which is a bicycle extender. It essentially turns your bike into something as long as a tandem, but the rear section becomes a low-centre-of-gravity cargo area. Haul your kids, your groceries or your surfboard. There's a Canadian distributor, but there is more information about the Xtracycle at the parent site.

Cabbie charged after cyclist loses leg

There have been charges laid in the confrontation last Friday in Toronto between a cabbie and a cyclist. The cabbie apparently told police that he had been the victim of an attempted robbery, according to a Canadian Press story today.

What the police found was a 36-year-old cyclist who had been crushed against a hydro pole. Doctors tried to save his leg but it had to be amputated. The victim remains in hospital in serious condition, police said. 

Once the victim had recovered enough to talk, Toronto police felt ready to lay charges. “Based on the conversations we’ve had with witnesses, the cab driver and the victim himself, investigators decided to charge the cab driver,’’ Const. Mig Roberts said today. “There’s no evidence to support any robbery, or else the (cyclist) would have been charged.’’

Sultan Ahmed, 38, of Maple, Ont., is charged with aggravated assault, criminal negligence causing bodily harm, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, failing to stop at the scene of an accident causing bodily harm, attempting to obstruct justice and assault with a weapon.

You, too, can be an amazing winter cyclist

Just before the snow hit the other day, I was thinking what great weather it was for fair-weather cyclists to segue into winter cycling.

The roads were bare and dry -- none of that salty crap to coat your derailleurs -- and there were no snow banks to make the roads narrower and more frightening for some first-time winter riders.

And then the snows came.

But they won't last, and you shouldn't store your bike for the season. Winter riding can be fun and invigorating, and a talking point for your friends and co-workers who will think you are even more of an amazing person than they already think you are.

Anica Butler of the Baltimore Sun has done a nice piece on winter cycling, complete with a list of tips.

You can read the whole story here.

How cyclists can become litterbugs

There was an interesting Associated Press story this week that looked at how citizen behaviour -- specifically that of cyclists -- could be influenced by their surroundings.

You can read the whole story here, but briefly, researchers in Washington tested the "broken window theory" on a group of cyclists, by stuffing flyers in the handlebars of locked bikes in a tidy back alley.

They counted how many threw the flyers away and how many carried them away. 

When the alley was messed up with graffiti and garbage, the percentage of flyer-dumpers jumped.

Yeah, it's a small group study, but was interesting in how people, even supposed eco-friendly people like cyclists, will respond to their environment. 

Another chance to fix the Highway Traffic Act

Because Ontario is revising the Highway Traffic Act to accommodate its new, tough approach to young drivers, and to codify the so-called experiment with power-assist bicycles, we have a small window of opportunity to make some repairs to this antiquated regulation.

You can see the whole proposal here, but allow me to expound on a few things.

First, the cut-and-paste function of computers is the enemy of regulatory progress. Some Ministry of Transportation monk can just cut and paste all the stupid bits that, if they were actually read, would be rewritten to reflect reality, or at least make some kind of sense.

One of the bits I'm referring to is the section on lights on bicycles. That ridiculous reference to reflective tape on the front forks and rear of the bike is still in there. Who uses that? What bike comes equipped with it? Regular Take The Lane contributor Anthony Humphreys points out that Ontario is the only jurisdiction in the country to still have this on the books. If you want to make cyclists more visible at night, these bits of tape aren't the answer, and have been overtaken by better products. I guess I should be grateful that the regs don't require every cyclist to be proceeded by a man swinging a lantern. Oh, and for reasons unutterably incomprehensible, the requirement to have a light fore and aft is dropped for unicycles.

Another goofy bit is the former section 104 (2.1) that said that no person shall ride a bike without a helmet. This is amended in a subsequent and separate regulation to the act. But in the revised act, while thise section is repealed, it is replaced with exactly the same incorrect wording. Cut and paste. Don't read. Oh, and the section is also amended to make the Transportation Minister, not the Legislative Assembly, the supreme authority on the helmets section. (I liked how the "executive summary" of the revisions noted only that there was a "consequential amendment" was made to the section, w/o telling you what the consequence was.) Basically, if the minister wants everyone to wear helmets, he doesn't have to put it to a vote of the Leg, he just passes the order. So, if this how the Liberals plan to govern?

What isn't in the revisions is some kind of provision to force motorists to give at least a metre space around a bicycle while passing. The new Ontario driver's handbook tells drivers to "allow at least one metre between your car and the cyclist. If the lane is too narrow to share, change lanes to pass the cyclist." But there is nothing in the regs to give that any force.

If you are the least bit concerned about cycling safety in Ontario, send your concerns to Transport Minister James Bradley at his riding office. Or contact your MPP and give her/him an earful.

Moron of the Week, #20

I saw you last night on the QEW somewhere around Grimsby (hey, it was dark).

You were carrying an urban commuter bike, complete with rear panniers, on a trailer-hitch-mounted bicycle rack.

Good so far. Why would I include you with the morons? Cuz you were carrying that urban commuter bike on the back of a green Hummer H2.

The stereotype of the worst of the gas-guzzlers, toting around one of the most efficient people movers on the planet. Was this to be ironic? Perhaps the bike was a visible manifestation of a carbon-offset. Perhaps the Hummer owner just likes to keep his trophies with him. 

This motorist clearly qualified as the moron of the week.

A cross-border view of cycle cross

Michael Barry, Canadian pro road cyclist, author and Toronto-boy at heart, wrote this week about his late- season affection for cycle cross for the New York Times News Service. The subject was the Toronto International Cycle-cross Races at Centennial Park in Toronto last weekend.

I always enjoy seeing these New York Times articles written about Canadian events by Canadians. It's educational, I'm sure, for our American cousins to have their world view filtered through another set of experiences.

You can see his full article here.