cool kids

getting prepared for africycle, im rooting around on the net for inspiration for people who might be hemming and hawing (that's fifty three year old man talk for thinking 'bout it). i came across this . . . .

the commute improves

so i'm at the four week mark of commuting and it's starting to feel good again.

good means i can ask my legs to do something and they usually respond positively!

good means that even when it's blowing fifty km/h, i'm riding through an ice fog and watching ice crystals growing on my gloves (honest!), i'm smiling and can't really stop.

good means that when i signal for a right turn and a guy with two kids in a car watching from their seats,

dives at the corner and chops me, i get over it within forty-eight hours.

yep, all-in-all, it's all good!!!

anyhow i came across this video of a bike i'm not really tempted to ride

but it'd be so cool to try just once.

i think.

here's the bike hunkered in with a good buddy

and here's the link to the video.

if you feel an itch in your brain and your wallet is making its way out of your pocket then you should probably click right here and make a visit to the manufacturer's website!!

little ride (i)

a very long time ago i learned about the quiet beauty of cemeteries.

as a boy in england, my schoolyard chums and i would climb over the stone wall separating our yard from the church of england grounds next door. in the autumn we would slide on the flat stones which, when covered with leaves were not that different from the snow slides that very shortly afterwards became my new playground when i moved to canada.

one of my favourite "little rides" is through a cemetery called "little lake cemetery".

it is a fairly large and quite old place with lovely mature trees

and an exquisite placement next to the otonabee river.

i passed through it recently as i knew that the dogwood would be incredible on an early spring day with the sun shining soft and warm and the sky as clear and as robin's egg blue as they come.

just one more reason why i love to ride on two wheels.

a week of riding

the end of the first week back on my commuter bike has arrived bringing with it a rekindling of my appreciation for what truly happens during the winter. no matter what i did on the trainer, there is little connection to the realities of fighting into a headwind, dealing with cars, trucks, schoolbuses, the piles of sand and salt that spread in some places more than a metre from the side of the road and the simple fact of rolling resistance. which also explains the tidy little muffin top that has emerged tumbling gently

up and over the waist line of my shorts!

i thought i was working hard, but i fooled myself!

not to worry. i'm thrilled - yes i'll use that word in its richest sense - to be back on a bicycle after finishing last season on december 12th with the snow coming down almost as heavily as my mood. the road - literal and metaphoric has opened up once more and my preparations for a season of riding culminating in the africycle ride around lake ontario are gently underway.

my commute each day is very brief - eight km each way - but it's got a couple of good climbs and depending on the lights, the opportunity to push the speed envelope and to really challenge my body to return to where i left it last december in terms of fitness. but what's truly exhilarating is the freedom in knowing that i can leave whenever i want. go wherever i need. stop when i want. it's so simple. it's that magical!