Take the Lane

Penny-farthing is too beautiful to ride

Some bicycles are too beautiful to ride.

In the case of the penny-farthing bicycle, they can also be too difficult to ride.

You get both in this penny-farthing by Czech artist/designer Zdenek Mesicek, whose bicycle work is featured on the MB&F M.A.D. Gallery website.

The raven in me just sees the shiny parts and I want to possess them...

Riding on bubble wrap sounds like a million tires popping

OK, this YouTube video is just too off beat. It's a bike that rides on bubble wrap. Really.

Forget cigarette packs in the spokes... this makes a cool noise, sort of like a million small tubes popping. Not too sure who cleans up the bubble wrap. Maybe you re-load it and ride again.

Are there bike-cams in all our futures?

Is the bike-cam the way of the future?

Check the Record website as writer Terry Pender talks about Kareem Shehata, who has posted a number of videos on YouTube about his cycling experiences in Waterloo Region. 

He has a growing collection on YouTube of bad motorists. Shehata anticipates that some of the videos will be useful should charges be necessary. Here are a few.

The busiest booth at one cycle show in Toronto seemed to be the helmet-cam booth: although the cameras are used by other than cyclists -- climbers, kayakers, etc -- and by people just wanting to record their rides, rather than record the bad habits of motorists.

I think the bike cams I have seen are perhaps a little less obtrusive than the won Shehata is wearing. Perhaps by wearing such an obvious one, he is influencing behaviour of motorists around him.

Maybe, rather than wearing a bike cam, we should wear jerseys or signs that say, "Video surveillance in effect." Maybe the threat of the video-monitored bike bubble would be enough.

Cyclist is victim of hit-and-run

Quite a story on the Record website of a minivan driver who hit and left a 60-year-old cyclist on the side of University Avenue East early Thursday morning.

Hard to believe than anyone would knock down a cyclist and keep driving, but having left a passenger side mirror at the scene, the motorist shouldn't be that hard to find.

Married cycle-tourists killed by pickup truck north of Superior

The sad details are coming in of two members of the Tour du Canada who were struck and killed by a pickup truck on the Trans-Canada Highway east of Thunder Bay on Tuesday. Here's a link to a Canadian Press story.

Sounds like the two, part of a group of 25 cyclists, were overtaken by the pickup, which did not leave them enough room to pass. No word on charges yet.

 

 

Bicycle saddle fetish

Personally, I have used my bike saddles to the point that no one would want to put them on display, but if you did have a "retired" bicycle seat that you were wondering what to do with, this would be an option.

Cyclists having a rough time in Hamilton area

I can't explain why this affected me so -- perhaps it's the similarities to the incident last month here in Waterloo Region where both motorist and cyclists were charged -- but this story from the Hamilton Spectator, about two women who were "launched intoa ditch" after being overtaken by a pickup truck on the weekend, really got to me.

The motorist has been charged with careless driving. No charges against the cyclists.

This is the third case of cyclists being knocked off or driven off the road in the Hamnilton area this month. Here's the story about the other cases. In both those cases, the motorists were charged with careless driving.

Related articles

Charges will stir up cycling community

Region's cycling community rode as one

I showed up about 90 minutes early at the Together We Travel Ride For Angels event today (Saturday), but even then, the parking lot at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo was buzzing.

Shelter tents were going up, the logistics of registration was being worked out and route marshals were trying to figure out exactly what the route was.

Together We Travel is the first in what could become an annual cycling activism event. It resulted from last year's memorial ride for Barrie Conrod, killed by an overtaking driver while he and his partner Heather Caron were out on a sunny Sunday afternoon ride on a rural Waterloo Region road. That ride drew hundreds of riders -- many who knew Barrie and Heather, many who just wanted to come out to fly the flag for safe cycling on regional roads.

This year's ride is both a continuation of the strong feelings generated by the memorial ride, and a bit of a test -- is the local cycling community willing to support a "share the road" style bicycle ride to raise awareness of cycling safety and to demonstrate how significant the local cycling community is?

My point of contact with all this was one of the organizers, my friend Vy Waller. But there are a lot of people involved, including Heather Caron, Scott Nevin of the Waterloo Cycling Club and lots of others I only know by a nod and a handshake. And (full disclosure) I was a "volunteer" at this event, helping erect the tents and tying the red armbands on riders (sorry to all those who got the armband on the right arm, instead of the left).

(Filling out the waivers at the registration desk)

If I come off sounding like a cheerleader for it, you can attribute that to my overt enthusiasm for any cycling event that puts bikes on the road.

And this one did. Hard to do a head count. Certainly, more than 200. The organizers think as many as 400. (Sunday update: organizers say there were more than 300 attending.)

There were a lot of white shirts.

And it was pretty impressive, from my position near the back of the pack, to see a long line of cyclists filling a whole lane in various roads in Waterloo with recumbents, tandems, kiddie trailers, mountain bikes, even a bike with training wheels, and ridden by children, teens, parents, singles, seniors and bike club members.

The Waterloo Region Police were on board, helping stop traffic at key intersections -- to the chagrin of some motorists, held up for a few minutes as the parade passed by, who must have wondered if all the cyclists in Waterloo Region were out Saturday night.

Thanks to the generosity of the Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival and Waterloo's Open Streets event, the ride was able to finish at the Waterloo Public Square, parking our bikes in the middle of Willis Way and using the jazz festival stage for the short speechifying at the ride's end.

Nevin asked the riders to "get the word out there to share the road." And Caron, holding back tears, said, "Our hope for the ride is to raise awarness of cycling safety, and to lead to changes."

Sadly, it will probably take more than one ride to do this. Hope to see you out there next year.

Related articles

The streets will be filled with white riders

For all those who died on a ride

The streets will be filled with white riders

If you have a bicycle, a bicycle helmet, a white shirt and the time Saturday to help raise awareness about bicycling in our community, please come out to the Together We Travel Ride for Angels event in Waterloo.

Details: Registration at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 20 at the parking lot for the Centre of International Governance Innovation, on Father David Bauer Drive in Waterloo. It's a roughly three-kilometre ride around the Waterloo core: an urban ride with police assistance. Should be completed by 6 p.m.

Must-haves: helmet, white shirt or T-shirt, signed waiver (at the registration desk)

This event has grown out of last year's memorial bicycle ride for Barrie Conrod, killed last year in Waterloo Region as he was out for a sunny Sunday ride with his spouse and riding partner, Heather Caron.

Together We Travel could become an annual event, to bring attention to the hazards cyclists face while sharing the road with motor vehicles, and showing motorists that the cycling community is greater than many of them may believe.

There are a couple of information sites you can visit, here at Indiegogo, where organizers are raising funds to pay for some of the costs associated with the ride; and here on Facebook, where there are details of the event. And here's the Record story from earlier this week about the ride.

The weather should be perfect. Hope to see you there.

 

Cycle of Opera

Another reason to be irritated by the circumstances that keep me working afternoons and evenings is tonight's free performance of the Bicycle Opera Project at Waterloo Public Square, from 8 p.m.

Wheel up and enjoy.