vic.gedris.org

(I haven't posted anything here in almost a year! need to catch up soon. You can always check the photo gallery to see what I've been up to. I also post on the I Bike T.O. website.)

Did anyone else have an awesome bike commute this morning? I sure did!

I don't often look forward to biking 20km to work in the rain, but today was amazing. It was 11 degrees outside, and a light rain when I left my west-end home at about 8:40am (yeah, I was running late!). I was dressed a bit lighter than I usually would in January: underwear, MEC Rad Pants, long sleeve light "Powerdry" t-shirt, rain jacket, wool socks, Shimano cycling sandals, and rain booties.

It was actually colder in my garage than it was outside. As soon as I got into the alley, I knew I'd be shedding layers soon. Riding along Annette St., I was opening up my cuffs and unzipping the top of my jacket for more air. By the time I was around Dundas St. and Royal York, I had the pit zips open.

The headwind was very light, barely noticeable. I was flying along. I think I ride faster when I'm in a really good mood too. Warm January days do that to me.

Burnhamthorpe Rd., somewhere in eastern Mississauga. Really cookin' now, and even my feet were feeling hot! I stripped off one of my booties and shoved it in my pannier's rain cover. A few intersections later, at another red light, the other booty came off and now I was riding in a stylish combination of wool socks and sandals.

I hiked up my Rad Pants to let my ankles and calves breathe more. At the next red light, Dixie and Burnhamthorpe, I completed my transformation into a summer cyclist by taking off my jacket and rolling up my sleeves.

The final 4.5km to work were the best. Starting with the downhill from Dixie Rd., I was grinning like a madman as I pushed my way towards the centre of Mississauga. The people cooped up in their cars probably thought I was nuts. I think they're nuts. The rain was picking up a bit now too, but I didn't care. I was having too much fun to be annoyed by it.

Hell yeah. Bikes rule. Can't wait for the ride home!

(Ask me about riding when it's 11 degrees and raining in the summer and you might get a totally different opinion from me!)

Cross-posted to I Bike T.O.

Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones. There aren't many better ways to end a day at work than taking the "Long Way" home on your bike!

The Long Way Home is something I try to do often, but not often enough. I commute almost every day by bike, and almost always enjoy it, but sometimes it's nice to see something else besides the same stretch of Bloor St. I often shake it up a bit by riding various sections of Rathburn Rd., Burhamthorpe Rd., or when I'm feeling more ambitious I'll ride all the way down to the lake and then head east.

That's what I did today. I just took off straight down Hurontario St. to Port Credit, and then took the slow, meandering Waterfront Trail route back to Etobicoke. Of course I stopped at many places along the way to take some photos and just enjoy the spring evening.

The long evenings, warmer weather, and awesome sunsets make Spring an amazing time of year to "take the long way home". I'll have to do this as often as possible. How about you?

A bunch of photos from my ride are posted here.

Repeating a short weekend bike tour I did in June, Jen and I took off east of Toronto for the weekend. With our bikes loaded with camping gear, we hopped a Friday evening GO Train to Oshawa and then rode to Darlington Provincial Park.

We camped at the park Friday and Saturday night. On Saturday we did a day trip to Port Hope, about 50km away, and then rode back to Toronto on Sunday. I had a great time doing this little tour again, and Jen seemed to enjoy it too!

We were thinking that next summer, preferably in June when we have the most daylight, it would be fun to get a whole bunch of cyclists to do this trip together. The Saturday ride loop can be shortened or lengthened to accomodate different riding preferences, and when riding back to Toronto on Sunday people can bail out at the Pickering GO station, or a TTC station once we get back to the city. I will probably start planning this next spring!

Plenty of photos and ramblings about this trip can be found, starting here.

I was in Vancouver for a couple of weeks recently. The last Friday of my visit was also the last Friday of the month, which is the monthly Critical Mass bike ride. Vancouver's rides are quite large: there were easily several hundred people attending this ride, which apparently wasn't even close to being as huge as June's ride which attracted thousands of riders.

Anyway, Jen and I met up at this ride, then followed the crowds through the streets of Vancouver. The highlight of the ride was when the mass crossed the Granville Bridge which is normally pretty hostile to cyclists.

Plenty of cyclists having fun....and tons of interesting and silly bikes along the way too. Recumbents, tall-bikes, choppers, tandems, folders, etc. Neat neat neat. Go see the photos to get an idea of what it was like.

I will have plenty of photos and stories to tell about the rest of my trip out there, especially the week-long tour, coming soon.

My August Long Weekend started off with a bang: I worked late on Friday and spent all day Saturday just puttering around at home and cleaning. Very exciting. But it got much better on Sunday and Monday when I rode my bike to Hamilton visit my parents.

I've done this ride quite a few times since moving to Toronto last year. I've taken three different bikes, and even combined my trips with the GO train when I was feeling a bit lazy. You'd think I might get bored of doing this ride....nope! It's always fun. I enjoy riding along Lakeshore Rd., and stopping at various scenic and tasty places along the way. This time I changed my routes a little bit too, just for some variety and to explore some new places I haven't ridden through before.

On the way to Hamilton, I decided to go the "long" way across the Beach Strip and then back across the east-end of Hamilton. The Burlington-Hamilton Beach Strip is a great place to ride, with some excellent scenery too. I'll have to take this route more often. Riding through the industrial north-east end of Hamilton isn't very appealing though.

On the way back to Toronto, I explored the Chedoke Rail Trail in West Hamilton. I also decided to cut away from Lakeshore for a little bit through Bronte and Oakville, and treated myself to some slower and more scenic trails right along the lake.

It was a perfect weekend for cycling. Great weather, a fun route, and of course it's always nice to visit my family in Hamilton too.

More details about my rides are in my photo galleries for Sunday and Monday.

Kensington Market's Pedestrian Sundays (note: website rarely seems to work for me) are an event where several streets in Toronto's Kensington Market are opened up to pedestrians. Automobile traffic is blocked off, and people are free to roam the streets. Not only is it a chance for people to enjoy all the extra space without the (slowly) moving and parked cars, but it's an opportunity do other fun stuff in the streets: play music, skateboard, dance, and even something as wild as walking down the middle of the street.

I forgot about this week's PS Kensington event. I just happened to stumble across it after shopping at the Urbane Cyclist and going for some pho on Spadina Ave. I was glad I found it, as I had never been to a PS Kensington event before.

As I wandered through the market, I stopped to watch a punk band play some "oldies" for a while, followed by an electric sitar and didjeridoo duo that really rocked. I watched kids skateboaring. People were learning to tango in the street. Cargo was being moved through the market on bicycles and carts. Kids were running around playing. Stilt-walkers towered above us.

Another interesting feature was the More Parks, Less Parking! petition. Basically, this was a car that was completely painted white, where people could sign their names asking for more appropriate use of public space. The car / petition was delivered to City Hall on Monday.

I had a great time there. Bumped into a few people I knew, and spent way more time downtown than I had originally planned. I'll have to rmember to check out more of these events in the future.

I had my camera with me, so of course I took a ton of photos.

I was up in Ottawa for about a week recently. I went there to attend the Ottawa Linux Symposium, do some work at the Ottawa office, hang out with my brother's family, and catch up with some of my Ottawa friends.

Of course, no Linux Symposium is complete without the annual Hacker Bike Ride. This ride has been happening for several years on the Sunday after the Symposium. Basically, a whole bunch of Linux geeks gather up some bicycles and take a ride around the city. It's an excellent social event, and the locals love to show off Ottawa's fantastic cycling and scenery to all the visitors from out of town.

This year's ride started from the usual Col By Dr. meeting place, and went straight up Sussex Dr. towards the Ottawa River. We followed Sussex Dr. past the Prime Minister's and Governor General's residences, and further east along the Rockliffe parkway. We looped back down the Aviation Parkway and along Hemlock to the Rideau River. Then we followed the Rideau River multi-use trail all the way up to Vincent Massey Park (near Hog's Back and Carleton University) for the annual "Linux in the Wild" BBQ hosted by the Ottawa Canada Linux Users Group.

After hanging out in the park for a while, eating lots of BBQ food, etc., the hacker Bike Ride continued over Hog's Back Falls to the Rideau Canal, and back downtown to where we started.

The evening continued with more bike geek goodness. Of course, it was the usual weekly HPVOoO gathering at the Vietnam Noodle House, followed by some bike swapping and a gelato run on Elgin St. There was a huge turnout, especially with a few of the OLS people that came by as well.

It's always fun to spend a day riding my bike around Ottawa. I'm also very happy with the Bike Friday folding bike I bought earlier this year. I love being able to take it with me whenever I travel.

Here are my photos from Sunday.

Another fun Critical Mass ride through the streets of Downtown Toronto. Perfect weather, hundreds of cyclists, and a route that seemed to go forever into the long evening....fun! Of course, I took many, many pictures.

This past weekend I decided to get away from the city and go on a short 3-day bike tour to Darlington Provincial Park, just east of Oshawa. On Friday after work I rode down to the Port Credit GO train station to catch a train to Oshawa. From there, I rode to Darlington Provincial Park, about 13km away. On Saturday I did a day trip by heading east along the Waterfront trail past Bond Head and out to Port Hope. And on Sunday I rode all the way back from Darlington to Etobicoke, mostly along the Waterfront Trail.

It was a fantastic weekend. Getting a head-start on the GO Train to get out of the city on Friday Night is a great way to start the weekend. I think I'll have to use this method more often.

Riding along the Waterfront Trail east of Oshawa is spectacular too. The trail is a mix of on-road and off-road riding that sort of zig-zags all over the place, so it's not the best place to ride with a loaded touring bike. However, it's great for doing a day ride through the countryside. The roads are mostly empty, the views of the fields and Lake Ontario are excellent.... For me it was a much needed perfect weekend getaway. I will definitely have to do it again.

Of course, I have plenty of photos and more commentary about this weekend. You can see more of it by starting here.

I spent a week up in Ottawa recently. Jen and I went up there to attend Jodi and Henk's wedding, in addition to visiting my brother's family, camping, and me going to work at our office up there. We really packed in alot of fun stuff that week! More about all that later...

I just wanted to share some photos of the HPVOoO gathering on Sunday night while we were there. Our timing for being in Ottawa was excellent: This was the weekend that Dustin "The Purple Pirate" and Farah "The Smiling Yogi" were in town after finishing their cross-Canada 5000 For Health! bike tour from Vancouver to Ottawa. They were riding a most unusual Micwic back-to-back recumbent tandem bike.

So in addition to the usual great food and fun times with the HPVOoO crew, we got to test-ride this awesome bike after dinner. It was great to hang out with the HPVOoO folks again, and to meet Dustin and Farah. What a fantastic night. Makes me miss living in Ottawa even more.

I took plenty of photos, of course, and they are posted
over here.