the 'wall'

Wednesday this week was one of those days that reminds me where all those glittering tourism photos of Vancouver come from. Since it was no night to be heading straight home from work to do chores inside, I detoured (and I mean really detoured) around the Stanley Park seawall for the first time in a few months.



I'm constantly recommending to people who have never ridden it to go on a weeknight. Avoid Saturday and Sunday afternoons at all cost, I tell them, because you will spend so much time trying to maneuvre around clumps of tourists and wandering pedestrians that you won't get the full impact of the route.

That night: full impact. The other cyclists out -- from racers to BMXers -- seemed to agree.



The tide was low and it smelled like seaweed. Mmmmmm. Olfactory sunshine. Memories of childhood summers on the sea.



I love the shadow that this empty bike rack cast.

(Don't worry. It won't be empty for much longer.)



Still cool enough for legwarmers and wool coat, though.



Oh oh oh! I'm getting so excited for the upcoming months. It's finally here.

purple flowers and sparkly blue paint

Spotted this lovely flower-bedecked bicycle outside of Finch's Tea House downtown yesterday, after picking up scrumptious baguettes with Melanie and eating them while wandering around in the glorious (and long-awaited) sunshine.



In other news, this month is my 2-years-of-bicycling-(again) anniversary. In March 2009 I bought a bicycle after a number of years of not riding and promptly fell in love with this beautiful mode of movement. I simultaneously feel like it was just yesterday and like I can no longer remember life without bicycles in it. Here's hoping for many, many more.

pay it forward

I sat at the window of a coffee shop on Broadway, one hand wrapped around a warming cup of brew and the other flipping through the copy of Momentum magazine that I'd picked up* minutes earlier at The Bike Doctor a few doors down.

Suddenly I heard a rapping on the window in front of me. I looked up.

Is that yours? motioned the woman on the other side of the glass, silently pointing at my bicycle locked just a few feet away. I nodded to the affirmative. She responded with the international symbol for "hold on a moment" and went around to the front door.

She'd been in a nearby shop asking for a comfortable bike that wouldn't hurt her back and had been told that she needed a mountain bike. She knew enough to tell him no, that's not what she needed, but not much more. We chatted for a few minutes about my bike, upright bikes, the difference between cruisers and city bikes, and what nearby shops had staff that would be more helpful than mountain-bike-guy. She thanked me and we parted ways.

A few minutes later, my coffee cup empty and magazine thoroughly flipped, I headed outside, noticing that she'd gotten a coffee and was sitting at one of the outside tables. So I did the first thing that came to mind.

I gave her the copy of Momentum.

Conveniently, it had articles this month on "lifestyle" cycling and tips on how to buy a bicycle. Perfect timing. Pay it forward.

Do you subscribe to Momentum (North Americans) or any other cycling magazines? Have you ever passed on your copies to others?

(* Yes, I do have a subscription. But it hadn't arrived, I was worried it had expired, and I was getting impatient. It all worked out in the end.)

a new friend

I've made no secret of it that I've been searching for a new bike for over a year, in particular a step-through. Nothing seemed to quite fit the requirements.

Until now.



After having owned her for 3 rainy weeks that felt like an eternity of moist, oppressive grey, this past weekend finally offered enough of a reprieve for some serious bonding. (--and on Sunday, some serious sunshine.)

She's a Globe Daily 3 and her name is Greta.

i can't live without holt renfrew's windows

Holt Renfrew wowed us with a bicycle in their holiday window display in December. Now they've gone and topped their own work with this fantastic "I can't live without..." series featuring not one but five colourful, practical beauties.



It's also notable that umbrellas and storm clouds feature positively alongside flowers and fashion. Yes, those all go together: we won't have the flowers without the rain, so we might as well embrace how many pretty colours umbrellas can come in.

The multi-window display features a variety of quotes from recognizable people, Holt Renfrew employees, and designers about the things they supposedly can't live without, paired with quirky object collections visualizing these "needs".

Many are fashion-centric, but others are cute.



Some are lovely.



Some make you smile. Doesn't that lemon pyramid look just about ready to come toppling down?



And some...



...some you just totally understand.

alternative transportation: roller blades

The other morning I caught up to a rollerblader on Hornby. While waiting at a light, I asked him how it was using the lanes. "Pretty good," he replied. "The counters are..." and he shrugged. Given the thickness and distance -- about a foot, maybe? -- between the two parallel cables that track lane usage, I can see how it might be hard to step/glide over them. But he seemed to manage. He was a slower than me in general, but that made him fairly easy to pass. A block later, he caught up to me at the lights anyway (which I often do with cyclists who are faster than me).

I remember that when roller blades first became popular, they didn't seem to fit on either sidewalks or the street. If the bladers can contain their sideways strokes to the width of a bike lane or narrow them when being passed, separated lanes seem ripe for sharing. Considering that the lanes aren't exactly overflowing yet (but it's only March-- the best is yet to come) I'm all for a variety of alternate non-motorized transportation methods making use of them (yes, including skateboards).

Maybe we'll have to call them the people-powered lanes.

panda practice

Is it cheating if you're stationary? These side ones are hard.