About a month ago I went to get my bike fit done at Bike2Body in Westboro. My visit was not particularly timely since I’ve had this bike for almost a decade, and I finally got an answer to what is wrong with my position. It turns out that my bike is too small for me.

Mary the physiotherapist filmed me biking and corrected my position as much as possible given the bike size. We also ordered a longer handlebar stem which should help matters once it is installed. I already noticed improvements as my average speed has increased by 5km/h and this is not even with the optimal position!

One of the reasons why I finally got the bike fit done is that I have to decide how to get all three kids on the bike. As you might know I have been thinking about this for a while and I have narrowed my choices down somewhat. After some experiments and experience of owning a city bike I have come to accept the fact that I live in the suburbs. There is not much point in going anywhere without the car but if I insist on biking I better make it fast and call it exercise. This excludes things like upright positions, regular clothes and no helmets. As sad as I am to concede, I will not be getting a bakefiet.

This leaves us with long-tails. I have originally dismissed long-tails due to crossbars and logistics of getting three wiggly boys on the bike without knocking it over. I have since accepted crossbars as a fact of cycling life (see paragraph above) and found a kickstand that will turn a long-tail bike into a jungle gym. With this in mind, two obvious options are open to me; I can turn my trusty old bike into a long-tail by installing a Xtracycle bike trunk or I can buy a heavy duty cargo bike, called Big Dummy, that uses the Xtracycle specs so all the equipment (kickstand, child seat, etc…) that I would get for the Xtracycle can be used here. As usual, I present my conflicting thoughts in a table format:

So there. Which, if any, will I pick? I don’t know!

Starting today our whole family can bike together. Happy!

About a month ago I saw a blue Peug mixte at the used rack of my local bike shop and bought it. I would not call it an impulse purchase since I have been interested in this kind of bike for a while now. About a year ago I test drove a Kona Roundabout (a modern reincarnation of this Peug) after falling in love with its geometry. I could not justify buying another Kona then so I returned it back to the store but kept my eye out on the bike racks in both Ottawa and Croatia looking for similar bikes.

When I saw this blue cutie at the price point 10% of what the Kona would have cost me, I decided to not to dilly dally and get it right away. It was cheap enough that, even if I end up getting rid of it without getting any use out of it, it would not be a big deal. Chris was in England so I was neither able to test ride it nor could he talk me out of the purchase. The tune up was included in the price and I was glad to see that the bike is rideable when I picked it up. It is in fair shape and it is evident that it has been well used despite the fact that all standard factory equipment is still on it. And what equipment it is; a pump (people keep asking me what it is), simplex down tube shifters, fenders and rear rack, front and back lights powered by the dynamo hub, funky brake levers, checkered decals…).

When I finally got to ride it, it turned out to be too small for me. It is a road bike, a style of bike that I have never ridden but have been getting interested in trying. Now that I tried I was done with the bike. My plan was to ride it a bit more here and there and then flip it. I was talking to Chris about it and we though it might be fun for him to try riding it.

It fit Chris perfectly! He has looked up more information about it and we think it is an ’83. He will probably be able to ride it for a little while without making any upgrades. It is now his bike and he is happy with it.

The most anticipated (for me anyway) event of the Ontario summer has occurred – the office of the chief coroner has released the cycling deaths report.

The report had a particular privilege of being misinterpreted by the press – please give a hand to the Ottawa Citizen for giving the Ottawa Sun a run for their money in poor journalism. In fact, the report does not recommend mandatory helmets for adults, it recommends mandatory helmets given that further study can prove such law will not be detrimental to cycling participation levels. Since no such study could prove this, the report merely states that it is a good idea to wear a helmet – a reasonable and well documented assertion. I sincerely hope that some silly-billy does not pass general mandatory helmet law in Ontario based on this report.

But enough about helmets and bad journalism, the report is quite interesting otherwise. The most significant recommendation is to develop provincial cycling plan that includes “complete streets” approach. Ottawa has had a cycling plan for years but it does not do enough to make cycling more palatable in my neighbourhood. This is an important recommendation and I hope it will be implemented soon.

Things that were interesting about the report itself include the fact that overwhelming number of accident deaths were of men and particularly of men aged 45 and above. There was no suggestion as to why this is the case.

The report also divides cycling into recreational, sport and commuting. I would have liked to get a better breakdown on where the accidents happened, the speed of the bike as well as the type of bicycle used. Apart from confirming that there is an increase in the number of commuting cyclists, I am not sure what the commission learned from type of cycling data.

In any case, this report was very reasonable and I hope there will be positive change as a result of it. Less frothing about the helmets and more infrastructure and education. I can only hope.