I'm bringing a camera and whatnot, so I'll have a journal and pictures to post. So that's something to look forward too... I won't be updating it online along the way or anything, this is only gonna be 2 weeks or so, nothing huge. 1000km round trip or so... good times.
The map to my tour is just below in the "related link" thing. Might have to detour to paved roads if some of these country roads are too bad... and I cut out most of highway 17 as well.
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( 3 / 172 )I haven't been keeping perfect records, nor do I count small trips around town as part of the total, but I'm only up to 345km so far. It's not just about piling up the distance, I could easily do 33km a day if I was commuting somewhere, but I want to rack up distance doing 40+ rides mostly, and I need to do a few more 100 and my first 200 this month if I want to catch up, I should be closer to 600 than I am at this point in time... been too lazy to ride a lot. I've also been busy on working on a few projects (too many at once, actually) so I haven't spent enough time in the saddle.
My first project that is almost done is an early 1980s Bianchi Randonneur. This is a beautiful bicycle that has seen a lot of miles already, the paint shows the patina of full use. I stripped the frame down and waxed it before cleaning and re-assembling everything else. I have a nicer front rack and a matching silver one for the back, both Jim Blackburns that are similar to what was originally on the bike. I also invested in a brand new wheelset for the bike, since the original wheels were mismatched and likely not original. Just a basic CR-18 but they are far better than what was on there. Stainless spokes, of course. I just need to get the fenders on, fix the brakes and re-wrap the bars. I thought about doing yellow bar tape but I already put yellow housing on the bike and some yellow shifter cable (who knew they even made that stuff!) so I don't want to get too hipster on the poor thing.
I really do need to get another digital camera so I can take pictures again, I do think shiny pictures are the most compelling part of this (and most) blogs so yeah. Updates less than a month apart are also great eh.
I'm planning an 8-day tour up to Elliot Lake via the Bruce Peninsula, so I need to get a camera for that I guess. Well, a digital camera.. I have an SLR but it's big and bulky.
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( 3 / 211 )Well, one of the few local cycling blogs has picked up on the "cycle chic" phenomenon... I don't mind it when it's just people in normal clothes riding their bikes around, that's cool. I do feel that some "cycle chic" is really just a specific kind of pornography tailored for lonely bike dorks... let's take pretty girls in short skirts and put them on sweet vintage bikes. The objectification of women seems to take priority over the popularisation of the noble bicycle, so that is where my objection to this sort of thing stems from, well that and I'm not really a fan of objectifying women for any causes no matter how noble. I also like that cycle chic blogs do sometimes talk about things that matter to the casual cyclist that bike shops and "serious" commuter blogs completely ignore.
Anyone that claims to "need" special clothes for a long ride is simply full of shit. I've ridden 40km in carhatt work pants (much heavier than any summer suit). I've ridden in wool dress slacks quite often, they are great from October-March for any cycling endeavour. I have a pair of shorts with chamois and they are indeed much more comfortable but it's not a lot of discomfort to ride long distances in normal clothes... just drop the pace a few km/h and you'll be fine.
The most beautiful thing about cycling is how accessible it is... normal people everywhere can just hop on a bike and not worry about too much beside tucking in their pant leg if they don't have a chainguard... many of us learned this as children. People love to complicate things but the bicycle has endured nonsense like this for over a hundred years and will continue to survive as the best mode of urban transport there is.
Now, on to Pizza. I had Pepi's pizza the other night and it's some of the best in town... it is a bit sweet though but otherwise delicious. I've been toying around with Chicago-style deep dish pizza and have been getting close to something like I remember... flaky, crispy crusts, mounds of toppings under the sauce. I've made a nice vegan version of this with daya but it does have a bit of a funny taste to it, so unless I'm actually serving vegans, real cheese tempts me too much.
There has also been a growing call for me to have another "vegtoberfest" so I will likely be doing that this summer as well, and this time I will make sure to document the recipes and process that I use. It's pretty easy and anyone that's made meat schnitzel will likely only need some direction when it comes to making the vegan "egg" wash and some familiarity with seitan is helpful.
Two days in a row -- this is a new record for this blog!
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( 3 / 211 )Okay, so many people wouldn't agree with me on this assessment but let me explain myself.
This region is a good size... I can be out in the countryside in a half-hour ride or less. This is great for roadies that like training and for day-trip tourists that want to ride as well. There are a few bike route signs out and about but there isn't any real cohesive map that combines all the trails and bike lanes into something that a normal person could look at and understand... maybe something like a london underground styled map would make sense?
I have some ideas for a route network that uses both trails and on-road infrastructure, minimizing time on busy roads, of course. Many cyclists, especially those that call themselves "vehicular" cyclists love to poo-poo mixed trails and complain loudly of people and their dogs, but I can't ignore the practical value of the trails in our community... they often follow the flattest, quickest ways to major destinations and are mostly free of threats from cars, the most dangerous thing to safe cycling.
Imagine if a region-wide signed bike route network was a reality. Signs like this one would show up every few hundred metres so folks could follow the signs. At trail heads and splits there would be a map and destination list posted. The nice thing about this idea is that it uses a lot of existing infrastructure and doesn't need to acquire land or build new paths (mostly) so over time the busiest section of the system would get upgrades and thus encourage more ridership and increase property values along the trail.
The other thing that makes this Region great for cycling is the beautiful countryside and nice rolling terrain. It's relatively easy riding out in the country. Drivers are a bit more used to sharing the road here as well due to the large number of horse and buggy users too. I've never had any problems in all the time I've spent riding in the countryside.
The snow isn't usually too terrible here, so winter riding can be enjoyable here. I've enjoyed the maintainance on the iron horse trail particularly, but I have found even riding on the busy streets in the winter no worse than the summer, in fact, I seem to get more courtesy in the winter than the summer as well. Having a dedicated bike route network makes winter maintainance much easier as well; give the bike routes priority in snow clearing and we'll see more people walking and biking on them.
The easier we make it for folks to start riding where they feel safe and on trails that can take them places, the more we will see people using the bicycles instead of driving on short trips. I see a lot of year-round cyclists in and around downtown Kitchener... many of these folks aren't really stereotypical "bike dorks" either, they are mostly normal people on old mountain bikes that need to get somewhere. These folks don't need "segregated bike lanes" or "bike boxes" or any of that other crap, they've been making it work with what we have. Surely the bike-chic crowd can see the appeal of a normal person wearing their everyday normal clothes just getting on their bike to go someplace. With a good, safe bike route network folks will be safe in numbers and safe from heavy traffic.
Let's stop painting bike lanes on the busy major roads and spend some money signing and developing the complimentary trail system that is underused in this region. In the last few years two cyclists have been killed in this region by automobile collisions. One other cyclist was killed when he had an encounter with the tracks at the worst rail-bike crossing ever designed. I think this really shows what we need to keep people on bikes and safe: good infrastructure that doesn't pit a person on a 15kg bike against multi-tonne vehicles.
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( 3 / 210 )These muffins remind me a bit of reese's peanut butter cups, so if you're looking for that sort of taste this would be a decent place to start.
Chocolate Muffin Ingredients:
Half a package of silken tofu (226g IIRC)
1/4 cup of oil
1/2-1 cup water/soy milk
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup cocoa
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt (to taste, obviously)
1/4 - 1/2 sugar/sweetener of choice
opt. chocolate chips
Peanut Butter Filling
1/2 cup Natural PB
1/2 cup icing suguar (icing sugar gives the reese's consistency)
1/4-1/2 tsp. salt (this also helps the reese illusion)
Method:
Make an emulsion using an immersion blender of the tofu, oil and water. Blend on high speed until everything is a thick smooth consistency. Mix the flour and other dry ingredients and then swiftly combine with the tofu emulsion.
To make the peanut butter filling, mix the ingredients until a uniform consistency is mixed. Roll it into long strips and slice it up into little bits and mix into the muffin batter. You could also make this ahead of time and freeze. In fact, I would recommend that approach. I will try this and update.
Bake @ 350F for 15-20 minutes, yields 12 plump muffins
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