Brrrrisk!

It was a chilly 4 degrees this morning. I had become so accustomed to the 28 degree weather, only four days ago, that I hadn't found any gloves. I went rooting around in the mitten box as I was leaving, only to find a barely satisfactory pair.

The leaves on the trees have not started to turn yet, due, no doubt, to all my tomatoes and peppers being harvested on Monday when there was a frost warning. That alone spared the rest of the city from the freezing temperatures.

At least today I was dressed in fall colours even if the scenery did not match. Any fall leaves would have been blown about by the strong gusting winds, so it is a good thing that they are all still firmly attached to the trees.

It's a Beautiful Day

My skirt reminds me of sun-dappled grass.


Fall starts Sunday (at least that is what the weather people say) so I must enjoy while I can!

It Doesn't Feel Like Fall

It was a cool ride to work this morning but I knew I wouldn't need my sweater later. And since it was such a lovely afternoon, I dawdled all the way home attempting to capture myself on camera.

Here I have a lovely shot of my bell and my wrist and the river, oh, and kind of my shadow along the rail.
My camera bag. I am trying to find something small and cute, but that means I would have to go shopping, or sew something, and the weather is too nice to be inside. (I blog while I am cooking supper.) A winter project to be sure.

A slightly better shadow panda.

Wow, does it ever look like I am going fast; the ground is a blur!

According to the forecast, we should still have a few more above normal days. Hooray!

A Chopper Bike

The Geek figured since she fixed the blue bike for N3, and now the road bike for N1, N2 should have a turn. She feels N2 is a chopper kinda guy, so she is going to try one for him.

She was first going to try to combine these two bikes, but the fork on the red one did not have thread that went far enough down.

Which is ok since we weren't necessarily after the penny-farthing look.

So she tried the fork from a Peugeot frame she had kicking around.

With the threads ground down, she can tighten down the headset.

This is more of the look we are going for, but perhaps even a smaller front wheel?

Waiting for the Brake Placement

N1's road bike is ready to go. She just wants him to try it to ensure the brake levers are in the right place before she tapes the handlebars.

Snazzy New Cable Housing

We went to Woodcock Cycle to pick up some new cables and housing for N1's bike. The old cable housing had been white, but we decided red would look spiffy.

As we were leaving, we saw this sweet little bike. The basket and the pedals are cute accessories.

I hope tho' that the pedals are as functional as they are whimsical.

I am not, however, terribly taken with these really fat tires. That belongs on a different style of bike. And I think they would be difficult to ride with. I've never tried really fat tires, so I could be wrong.

Because I Cycle...

...I still have time to row in the morning, even tho' it is late in the season.

Now that school has started, if I want to drive to work, I have to leave at 0745; this morning, I didn't back from rowing until 0745. Eselin and I left at 0805 and arrived on time.

At this time of the year, we are pushing off the dock while it is still dark.
The river is like a silver ribbon and hisses as you cut through it.
I see the faint blush of the water as it is touched by the first rays of the the morning sun.
I feel the first hints of warmth as the light gains strength, like gentle kisses on my skin. The breeze is like a caress.
I smell autumn's bounty, the scent of dill, as hints from the surrounding gardens drift over the water.
I feel the strength in my arms, and my legs, and my back, as the oars in my hands whisper to me the stories of those who have travelled here before.

I feel sorry for those people who are sitting bumper-to-bumper on jammed streets. I wonder if they ever feel alive?

Hellooooo Summer

Last week was absolutely wonderful. The only day without sun was Friday, when we had an inch of rain.
Maybe we have finally beaten our bout with unseasonably low temperatures. We have been sitting below normal, temperature wise, since November.
This coming week looks highly promising as well, which makes everyone happy.

I took this picture as I rode to work yesterday. This is the first time this summer I have seem hot-air balloons.I just hope it lasts a long time. A nice autumn would be great after the chilly summer we just had.

What the Papers Said

This article was in the Monday September 14 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press

Cyclists long for more good news
Traffic plans need work: bike festival attendees
By: Mary Agnes Welch
Fed up with dangerous drivers and piecemeal bike paths, the city's cyclists are hoping an avalanche of new funding will radically improve the city's bike routes.But some of the thousands of cyclists who cruised through Sunday's Ciclovia festival said bike-lane funding needs to become an automatic part of any new roads built or expanded in the city.
Sunday's festival, which shut Broadway down to traffic, was based on a similar event in Bogota, Colombia, where every Sunday as many as two million people bike through 120 km of streets closed to cars.
Winnipeg's event, the first one of its kind in Canada, was organized quickly by city cycling groups, the Downtown BIZ and the city, but it brought dozens of craft kiosks, information booths, kids' activities and entertainers downtown. And it also meant cyclists could ride for the first time from Assiniboine Park to The Forks on a traffic-free route.
The Ciclovia festival came just days after a big, pre-election funding announcement late last week from the federal Tory government. The Conservatives, along with the city and province, earmarked a total of $20 million for bike and walking paths and on-street bike lanes in 37 different Winnipeg locations.
Kevin Nixon, the city's active transportation co-ordinator, was parked in the middle of Broadway Sunday next to maps and schematics of all the paths he'd like to build. He said the infusion of federal and provincial cash means the city will be able to add dozens of bike trails next summer, filling in huge gaps in commuter lanes.
At the top of his agenda is a two-way, on-street bike lane down Assiniboine Avenue that he hopes can get built before the end of the year.
But some found it a little irksome that the city continues to build new roads, including the $55-million extension of Kenaston Boulevard to the Perimeter Highway, without automatically including commuter bike paths as part of the plan. The small steady changes the city has seen so far, like new recreational trails and the new bike lanes on some downtown streets, are helpful but don't go far enough.
"I would like to see some really big changes," said Kati Nagy, a nurse and fine arts student at the University of Manitoba. "They build new roads all the time. Most of the tiny changes to bike paths you don't even notice."
Nagy said the worst part of her commute is the Jubilee underpass, where tight traffic moves so fast that it pretty much kiboshes her ability to cycle to school. Bridges and underpasses are perennial trouble spots for cyclists.
Recreational cyclist Kerry Stevenson said the city needs to create a bike-path system that's as seamless and safe as possible if people are going to leave their cars at home.
"You've got to make it dead easy and people will use it," he said.
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Ciclovia

Winnipeg is the first Canadian city to host Ciclovia.

The north lanes of Broadway, a major downtown street, were closed off for several blocks.

There was a bike polo demonstration which seemed to garner a great deal of interest, much more than evidenced by these two participants.

A sandcastle building opportunity, more for the big kids, it would seem, than small.

The Geek practices her trackstand at a traffic light. I guess some cars should be allowed to go about their business...

On the way from downtown to visit friends in the southeast part of the city, we saw a trail we had never explored before. It was still a little muddy from the inch of rain on Friday, but still usable. While it didn't go anywhere terribly interesting, it still had to be checked.

Such a lovely day for outdoor capers

Good Looks or Less Weight?

As N1 is going to use this bike for the road part of triathlons, we debated whether the fenders should be reinstalled.

In the end we decided the weight it would add would be insignificant, yet the bicycle would look snazzier with the extra chrome than without.

Went to a Garden Party

The Geek and I went down the street tonight to the 60th birthday party of our friend, Dr. S. Since it was a Garden Party theme, casual elegant (whatever that means) and hats and gloves were required; we dressed accordingly. I found it challenging to ride in my picture hat, and one hand held it on my head the whole way.
As we were running late, no pictures were taken of the ride to the event; for this I am truly sorry because the Geek, riding a recumbent bike in a black ensemble with purple opera gloves and a propellor enhanced beanie, was something to see.

She took these pictures of me on the way back. My gloves, by this time, were long abandoned in my pocketbook.

I was happy to see how well Eselin shows up in the dark. When I bought her in May, we were already well into our long summer days and the sun was going down long after I did. I had no reason to use the headlight or taillight. Tonight was the first time.

I was also unaware of the highly reflective strips on the tires.

We had a lovely evening, arriving home well after midnight. This is definitely not normal for a group of morning rowers.