rant: an ugly standard

I know that it's branding\advertising\marketing\blah\blah but I can't stand the fact that 99% of bicycle manufacturers emblazen their name in the most horrid fonts across the centre of the frame of their bicycles. ROTTEN FONTS. It can ruin a perfectly lovely design. Have we learned nothing from modern typography? There are so many possibilities! Ugh.

Sure, I love to be able to check out a bike and quickly see who made it. But can't we get some artistry involved here? And isn't that what headbadges are for, too? And finally, is it just me?

night rider

I'd forgotten what a thrill it is to ride at night. Saturday, 8:45pm-ish, Pender Street-- so it's the "business district" area of downtown and weekends are its off-time. With wide open streets and not too many parked OR moving cars to deal with, I made it home in no time flat.

It was like flying.

first spring ride

In honour of it being the spring equinox right about ... um ... NOW, I'm going to record my first spring ride.

Okay, okay. It was actually yesterday. which was techincally still winter. But it was Friday and gorgeously sunny and since we'd already moved the clocks forward last weekend I was able to ride my bike to work. Headed home, and then ... kept going. All the way around Stanley Park. So little traffic on the cycle path (except one poor pedestrian who was walking on it just after a blind corner; I think I scared him even though I ride fairly slow).

Then, on the way to the video store, I found out that they'd extended the bike lane from the park up along a side street as far as the next north-south bike route, Cardero. Hooray for connectors!

first winter ride

Wimp. I admit it. That's me. I've never ridden in the "winter" before, despite the fact that I live in the mildest climate in Canada. My stumbling block is the copius rain, the by-product of that mildest climate, because I (a) have no interest in wearing that fugly rain gear meant for cycling, (b) store my bicycle inside my carpeted apartment, which equals MESS, and (c) do not have the right bicycle, skill, or urban environment for riding with an umbrella (e.g. as in somewhere like Copenhagen). That and the dark.

Luckily, we've had almost a week now of clear, dry, sunny weather (Olympics-participants are very, very happy) so on Saturday I rode. With boots and mitts. Brilliant! Love it! Must do more! Rain, rain, please stay away, come again another ... month.

on a quest

I'm on a quest to find a rain poncho that I can wear cycling and not feel like a total frump. So far I've got a $1 "disposable" poncho (clear plastic) and $5 "several use" poncho (dark green plastic), both by Coghlans, from an outdoors store. (Actually: from the outdoors department at Capital Iron in Victoria. I would go to Capital Iron just to walk up the staircase. I love that staircase.) I found -- but did not buy -- a $75 marimekko poncho at The Bay.

Is there anything between $5 and $75?

front gears + chain guard

This is the first time I've seen a chain guard on a bicycle with multiple gears on the front:

De Vinci Classic

In the photo you can see where it's attached to the frame at the back, but not where it is at the front. I'm curious.

Chain guards are still in the minority here in North America (I hear that they're more standard in Europe) and apparently extremely hard to find if you want to put one on a bike that didn't come with one. I thought that one reason was the prevalence of 21-speed bikes. This changes things for me: it IS possible.

It's one of the mandatory features at the top of my wishlist for my next bike: step-through and a chain guard.

Edit: Here's another: Torker T-510 Stepthru.

step thru

My parents are in the market for bikes and my dad was recently lamenting how the step-through models are almost always referred to as "Women's" bikes. I agree with him. There's nothing inately "womanly" about a step-through-style bicycle: it's the colour, shape, and decals that would bring out a preference by men or women. Sure, it's easier to ride in a skirt on one -- a frustration I currently have with my "non-women's" (?) bicycle -- but that's merely one reason, not all of them.

Trek and Giant are examples.

Norco is a bit confused: they have both "W" and "ST" models. I can't tell the difference. (In fact, of the 2 models I just linked to, the ST could possibly be considered more feminine due to the colour.)

But then I found a beacon of hope: Gary Fisher. Simple City Step-thru!

A minor victory. Luckily, my dad isn't the kind of guy who'll let the name of a product influence whether he buys it. Function rules.