On Bad Driving

New rule, motorists are not allowed to critique cyclists who run stop signs.

Today I almost got hit by a car, I was on Cosburn between Woodbine and Coxwell heading west, there are no stop signs, lights, or cross-walks on that stretch; however, there are several side roads that intersect Cosburn. A motorist in a tan Sunfire who had a strong resemblance to the fat bald mayor who hates all things that aren't cars or the Toronto Maple Leafs ran a stop and made a right turn right in front of me and then continued west only marginally faster than me. (I caught up with him at the light at Coxwell, that's how I got a good look at today's dangerous driver.)

Oh, another rule, gunning engines, passing a cyclist, cutting him (or her) off that's another show stopper. Motorists don't seem to understand they are operating a very large vehicle, if they cut someone off there is a strong chance they will end up side swiping and not actually cutting off.

You know the thing that really bothers me about all this? I could drive to work, I've got a vehicle, I can afford the diesel, parking is not that expensive. I choose to take transit or ride, for one thing I am causing less traffic, less wear on city roads, etc. More importantly, I am not poisioning the air we all have to breath. Anyway I promise, I will get around to an analytical review of the Space Shuttle eventually, but here is a thought to tide us all over for the time being, it's the Earth as seen from space, actually from the International Space Station. That's about 100km of air, we've fucked it up pretty good already and if we continue with our car driving wasteful ways, that blue stuff won't be able to sustain us for all that much longer.

This is it, we don't have a life boat, we screw up Earth, we are homeless.

I assume we all recognize Earthrise, taken by William Anders on the Apollo VIII mission to the moon, Christmas 1968? I sure don't see any other habbital planets within a few light years of that blue and white marble.

On Random Items

First an update, if you have Googled Clarence Rose or Joachim Grams and come to this blog. Yes, it is a scam, sorry but do not sell your Craigslist item to this piece of work. For additional details, see this post.


I noticed someone Googled 'Aaron Arndt Gears Bike shop' and came to my blog. Yes I know Aaron, he's a great guy. Like me he started in skating, was way better than me. (Frankly comparing him to me... well massive insult to him, sorry Aaron.) I had thought Aaron planned to go into teaching, but I guess the lure of working in a bike shop, well if I didn't have a mortgage I'd likely work in a bike shop as well! But he was a great coach and I know he does fittings at Gears, so if you are thinking of getting a bike fit done by him I sure you will do well. (I plan to get him to fit me on Alex, the TT bike, just as soon as the weather gets ugly.)


The terror attacks in Norway, well since it's so recent I have to say something. I am horrified yet filled with sympathy, and disgusted at these xenophobic gun toting nuts. That's all I can say. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. (No prayers, religion caused this mess, it won't fix it!)


In other news Cadel Evens won the yellow jersey, well done Cadel, a first for the Aussies! And Mark Cavendish finally got his Green Jersey. It was a good tour for the English speaking world! (And at the risk of making a really corny riding pun, the Manx Missile fired and finally hit his target!)


I went for a ride yesterday, up to Lake Simcoe. It was my intent to ride alone but ran into a bunch of people from the BCC and rode with them for a while. It was a proper hammerfeast, though not of my desire, it had been my intent to ride a steady pace, not an unsustainable one. By the time I got back into the city I could hardly scratch out 24 or 25km/h I was in so much pain. In a way it was a great ride, but in other respects, I really need more self discipline. One thought that did occur to me as I rolled past a wind swept Lake Simcoe, this would be a great late season ride. Even if I taper to the point that I cannot ride the full 180km of a Lake Simcoe run, I can always drive out of the city and shorten the ride to 120km or so.


Anyway my appetite is returning and thoughts of that other woman are fading. Time to concentrate on the future again.

On Melancholy

I had an English professor in my undergrad days. His PhD thesis was on the book The Anatomy of Melancholy, Professor McCormack is pretty sure he is the only living person to have read the book in it's original Latin.

Now I am no expert in Melancholy but re-reading my previous post it occurs to me I did not properly summarize my emotional state yesterday. Then again it is rather difficult to put into words what is going on.

On the one hand it has been exceedingly hot lately so my loss of appetite could theoretically be explained by the heat, but I doubt that. Since I've submitted the papers and completed the divorce from Lesley I find myself recalling days of old. That is to say back when she loved me.

I cannot put a precise finger on the day that Lesley stopped caring about me, but one event I recall was when I was undergoing some professional hardship and I remember she went out of town with her girlfriends. I told her to, I did not want my own difficulties to make her life at all worse. But really, shouldn't a spouse always be around in the bad times as well as the good? Not that Lesley was around much in the good times either for the last year or so that we were 'married'.

When I was still married there was a television advert, it was for a soup cracker, the image of a tomato soup with the song 'Lonley, I am so Lonely, I have nobody... etc.' playing on the audio track. I remember cleaning my ride, probably Jordan at the time, and hearing that song and it hit me, I am all alone.

I am in a much better place, yet still I recall ten years of my life, that is almost a third of my time on this planet, poof the thing that mattered more than anything else gone. In a blink of an eye. Well no, it was more drawn out than that. She just stopped loving me, and I didn't see it coming, I suddenly had a lot more time to ride. (Little wonder 2010 will probably go down as my strongest year ever, yes I'm a year older, but I've met someone else who wants me to be around the house more and on the bike less.)

I guess the moral I can draw from this... is nothing. There is, near as I can tell, no moral tale whatsoever in the post. I suppose I should stop wallowing in the past, it is good to remember but one must still live. I must endevour not to lament Lesley and the expense of those who love me.

On Yet More Change

Well it's official kids, Lesley is no longer my estranged wife, 42 years to the day from Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's little walk on the moon, Lesley is now my ex-wife.

I am happier now that it is done. But there is still a knot in my stomach, I think it's the heat but the stress from going to court for the past couple days and everything at work. Well I lost my appetite, I have to force myself to eat breakfast, and then resist the urge to puke it all up on the short ride to the office. Dinner is almost as difficult to eat and while I toss and turn at night, at the office I have trouble keeping my eyes open.

Divorce sucks, if you find someone and marry them, well make damn sure they are right for you before you marry them. And if you are curious what else is out there, after tying the knot, well be honest with that other person, because being lied to sucks too.

On Change

Why do people change things? Change career paths or jobs is rather obvious. But what about activities? When I started this blog I was an inline skater. Go check out those posts from I think November, 2007. Then around May 2008 I discovered the bike. Here's the thing, from a usefulness standpoint the bike makes sense. I can ride from Toronto to Rochester, I can get to work 10 or 30km from home every day, on the other hand, I'll be completely honest, and maybe this is rose coloured glasses, but in general skaters are a friendlier bunch than riders. (Perhaps having the underdog sport makes them nicer? Or maybe it's just been so long that I don't remember the ugly, just the beautiful? - Who knows!)

I still much prefer to ride my bike to just about any recreation, but that said I think I've come to an important realisation. I don't like to ride in large groups. There are rules, accepted behavioral norms, attitudes, all sorts of reasons to stay home and sleep in. I'm told Mountain Bikers are a lot more flexible this way, which is a shame, for me, because I have so little interest in riding off road. (Nothing against the Mountain Biking set, I just prefer speed, distance and stable solid ground.) It's too bad there isn't some form of road biking where the rules are more or less tossed to the wind, except lets be honest here, a lot of the rules actually, annoyingly, are required and make sense. As long as I have to share the road with cars I'm bound by the Ontario Highway Traffic Act and if I ever find myself in a draft I'm bound by the rules of etiquette for the pelaton.

I guess I'm just tired of all the structure, lord knows I'm not having fun in the group any longer and if I'm not having fun doing what is a recreation, (well riding to work is not a recreation, but I'm talking here about group rides) maybe I should re-evaluate what I do for fun?

On Youtube video's, one funny, one very not funny.

Here are a couple video's I've been referred to on Youtube.

The first is funny, it makes fun of frankly a very rigid road riding "culture". I should point out the main character has a white saddle and black bar tape.

Now for something a lot more serious, more on peak oil.

On Long Rides

I know, I promised to explain why I think the Space Shuttle is the worst sort of engineering there is, but that will have to wait for another day. I've been riding.

Just over a week ago Ian Wilcox and I rode out to Klienburg, it was a nice short ride. Thanks to an exceedingly strong wind from the North West by the time we got out to the hills I was pretty tired and had some trouble with the hill climbing. Of course the trip home was blazing fast, but when I got home I was in quite a bit of pain.

Then instead of riding to Rochester this year I tried to ride to my Aunt and Uncle’s cottage. Dawn made me throw in the towel at Orillia (170km) she said I was looking really tired and I’d likely hurt myself if I pushed hard for too much longer. Probably this was a wise call, there was a lot of construction as I went further north.

Then Sunday I rode up to Lake Simcoe and back, I went with a few guys from the BCC who were prepping for the Louisville Ironman. I was the only guy on a road bike, everyone else was on a tri-bike. Frankly, drafting off a tri-bike is a good excuse to ride alone, there is no draft at all. As well, all those fancy Cervelo’s just kept breaking, flats, loose bottle cages, you name it. Unless a person really spends the time with their ride while she’s on the stand, she’s going to fail in all sorts of different ways on the road.

Then again, and this might be very un-Canadian of me, but I hate Cervelo, I think they are a very over-rated brand. People talk about how great the warrantee replacement at Cervelo is. Sure it’s great, everyone with a Cervelo has had to use it, sometimes two or three times. Now I’ll admit I have lots of Specialized bikes, but the only one that has every actually failed on me, was in a horrible crash and Specialized replaced that bike, which was a lot more, to be honest than I was expecting – and one, of several, reasons why a reader will never hear me bad mouth them, they make really nice machines.

I have to admit this year I’m really peeved, I cannot watch the Tour in real time, unless I get a TV cable at my desk at work or pay $30 I’m stuck using the PVR. Anyway its funny to hear the journalists talk about these early stages of the tour as if they matter. Everyone knows, winners, either Schleck or Contador will be found in the mountains in the south, not the wind swept north. Anyway my money is still on Contador, although I really want to know, where is the Manx Missile? I was expecting great things from Cav.