Yehuda Moon got it right...
What have cyclists ever done for cars? Here's what. (notes)
In fact, contrary to popular belief, Cyclists are not getting a free ride. ...and the cost of owning a car isn't quite as small as you might think. Here's what might happen if cyclists did own the road. There is no war on cars, but perhaps there should be. 10 Best Bike Advocacy Videos of 2015
In 2001 I dove in with both feet into the recumbent cycling community by provoking Ian Sims of Greenspeed to design and build a new model, a convertible solo/tandem recumbent tadpole trike. I have the first production unit of the GTV. It had an adventure when it got stolen.
Recumbents are aerodynamically superior to UCI designs, with a history starting about a century ago when fairings were banned in 1914, then recumbents banned by UCI in 1934. Things really took off in 1974 with the formation of the IHPVA. Here's a graph of the progression of top speed record (measured over 200 meters).
I've started throwing together a reference page on bicycle lighting with strong emphasis on hub dyamos and homebrew lights.
| In 2021 I started a tradition of doing a ride past the base of the four local ski hills in the Outaouais: Cascades, Edelweiss, Vorlage, Fortune just after they all close for the season. |
| I have done many short trips of two days up to 350 km including up to the CAMMAC music centre (route, delete Presqu'ile, via Cumberland/Masson ferry) in the Laurentians in Quebec north of Montreal every year since 1986. More recently, we've done the trip on our trike train ("caterpillar"). That complete trike train has spent 2015-2018 in India. In 2021, I did the trip with our canoe. |
I've also done the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour about a half dozen times, mostly self-supported. Carole has also independently done this tour several times.
I did a trip from Victoria to Montreal in July-August 1991 with my bestest buddy Andrew Van Iterson. It was a fundraiser for USC Canada for their "Seeds for Survival" project in Ethiopia, raising $7500 in conjunction with visits to many Unitarian congregations en route. I have photos which have not yet been scanned from that trip and I will add text to it when I do finally scan them. So far, there are two photos from that trip. The first is in Victoria at Mile 0 of the Trans-Canada Highway. Here is another memorable moment when we crossed the Manitoba-Ontario border (photo)
| In 1993, I did a one year trip abroad to Australia with my bicycle, stopping in Hawaii, the Cook Islands, New Zealand and Fiji and covered about 6500km. The photo at left was taken in Evandale, Tasmania, the home of the National Penny Farthing Championships. |
In 1998, Carole and I spent our Honeymoon cycling in Cuba for a month, covering about 1000km from Havana to Santiago de Cuba.
Since at least April 2000 in Canberra, there's been a Hacker Bike Ride...
In August 2001 I was in Amsterdam several times and really appreciated their bicycle infrastructure, in particular, the bicycle parking at Centraal Station, Amsterdam's main inter-city train station. There are photos here and here.
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| In April 2002, Carole and I did a 6-day trip by tandem trike from London to Bristol, UK, of about 400km by back roads. We were able to take in the British Human Power Club meet at Milton Keynes on 2002-04-06. We were also able to take in the museum at Bletchley Park. |
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| I had an opportunity to ride Harry Musson's penny farthing in Ottawa's Harvest Noir fancy pop-up picnic |
In 2018 while posted to India, the family did a 3-day 200km bicycle trip from Jaipur (Rajasthan) to Alwar (just south of Delhi), visiting as many baolis(stepwells) as we could, adding three to the atlas. Photos are coming...
| I finally managed to try OCTranspo's Rack and Roll at the Crichton Community Council's 2nd annual Bike Rodeo. |
| We bought a 20' tandem fibreglass kayak that I went to pick up in Westboro. It stuck out more than 4' past each end of the trike. I got lots of space on the road. |
I'm currently dreaming in Technicolour(TM) about a bicycle trip to connect all the Child Haven International homes in Bangladesh, Tibet, Nepal and India for sometime around 2028. Company for parts or all the trip would be most welcome.
We're members of Warm Showers, a network of touring cyclists, through which we have had the pleasure of hosting some very interesting people such as
visited 6 states (46.1%)
Create your own visited map of Canada
visited 12 states by bicycle (3.55%)
Create your own visited map of The World or try another Douwe Osinga project
(1990)
Faithful old Miyata long-distance
touring bike started life as a 1000LT and became an Alumicross after
the frame cracked while in Australia and was replaced under warranty.
It has probably covered 50 or 60,000 km. It still has red stains from
Australian outback dust...
(1997-11-11)
Bike Stop winter
special including Sachs/SRAM Super 7-speed hub overhaul (Sutherland's service manual)
2000-05-28: Carole's True North, SN: TN 228 It was stolen from our garage June 16th,
2009. It was retrieved in bad shape, 2011-05-11.
2009-05-31
2011-05-11
2012-05-11
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| (2001-10-03) Greenspeed GTVs6 convertible tandem recumbent suitcase tricycle that is able to carry a canoe. I'm contemplating also adding a "lamb". I recently overhauled the Rohloff and Schlumpf hubs. Here's a map of trikers. RCN #30 Autumn 1995 Greenspeed history RCN #30 Autumn 1995 Greenspeed GTR 20/20 RCN #69 Spring 2002 Greenspeed GTO RCN #71 Autumn 2002 Greenspeed GTT RCN #77 Summer 2003 Greenspeed GTT(/GTV) (including a photo of overhead racks with pipe) |
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| (2003-03-15) organ trailer which has hauled 3/4 ton. |
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(2003-09-15) Watson brothers' Goldmember chopper (1, 2, 3, 4). It had an adventure when it got stolen.
(2003) Chariot child's trailer (more pics)
(2005) Little Tikes child trailer
(2005-05) Banana bike Front fork and wheel swapped and bike painted up by Mark at Re-Cycles
(2005-10-14) Burley Koosah
(2006-05-31) Mike Watson's BMX tadpole "Hammerhead" trike (first) (head on) (many good shots here)
(2006-05-31)
Mike Watson's Tallbike II another
(my tallbike page)
(2006-05-31) Russian folding bike from
"nepMb" (Perm)
in the Ural mountains with tyre size 533x37
(24" x 1 1/2"), folded, ready to ride nameplate
Linear
recumbent: 2007-07: I am in the process of restoring Mark's old recumbent.
RCN #24 Fall 1994 Linear LWB review
| I have taken delivery of a Greenspeed Lamb, a two wheel recumbent trailer for kids with pedals. I picked it up when I went to Melbourne in late October 2007, after the 20th anniversary of the World Solar Challenge. |
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We
are now a 2 Xtracycle family.
I'm in the process of
doing some work
on
Dad's old CCM (thought to be from around 1933)
I've
acquired a second Linear, this one silver, from Ray Thomas. He and the
previous owner of the gold Linear, Mark Rehder, had corresponded years
earlier, so when it came time for Ray to find a new home for his due to
replacing it with a foldable SWB Bike Sat-R-Day, he contacted Mark who
in turn informed Ray of the gold one's new home.
Q-bike pics
Mike Watson "Wheelie Chopper"
2011-05-02: Annabelle's WeeHoo iGo recumbent trailer-bike. Annabelle
loves it and frequently yells "WeeeeeeeeeeeHoooooooooo" while in it.
| 2012-07-20: I finally got around to hacking a rack support for Nico's "Lamb" trailer-trike to attach Annabelle's WeeHoo to make the bare caterpillar. This was done in time for our annual trip to the CAMMAC music centre on Lake MacDonald north of Hawkesbury in the Laurentians. I had to do a bit of welding to get there. Here was our route. |
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2011-11-08:
1950s Gym-Dandy Surrey.
2018-03: Indian bicycle rickshaw
2018-03: Avon Indian bicycle
2018-05: B.S. british mini-penny-farthing
2018-06-08: FreeStyle Tallbike (parts acquired 2016-05) (crashed)
(my tallbike page)
2012-01: *Considering purchase* Berkut Velomobile
There seem to be quite a few people interested in HPVs in Ottawa...
The Conservation Co-op in which Carole and I lived for more than 7 years has an awesome bicycle parking garage with a capacity for about 110 bicycles in lieu of indoor car parking. It is well-lit, accessible from street level and is secure. It is accessible enough that I can drive the tandem trike directly in, with the canoe in place.
Security: The Abus WBA100 concrete anchor looks like a good way to attach bikes to concrete surfaces.
Not owning a car has provoked me to be a bit more creative about how to carry cargo and I've taken some delight in documenting how I carry a wide variety of cargo on various human powered vehicles. Our two primary cargo workhorses are XtraCycle FreeRadical conversions.
Chronological bike photos , more
