Google Maps Adds “Bike There”

With the surge of bicycling commuters across North America, Google has finally added a “bike there” option in their next-to-ubiquitous online mapping application. From Google’s description, it’s pretty much everything I’d hope it would be… Optimizing the route for bikes by “taking advantage of bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly streets and avoiding hilly terrain whenever possible.”

While definitely handy for a guy like me who commutes on a regular basis – I can see this as a real boon for those thinking of getting into cycling either as a hobby, or as transportation. Rather than have to struggle through traffic and wonder if there were better ways to get from A to B, Google Maps now takes the guessing out of it.

As with all good things (it seems) this feature is only available in the States right now, but after the recent adoption of Google Street View here in Canada, I’m optimistic that Google Maps by Bicycle won’t be far behind!!

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Goldsprints & Good Times

This past Saturday BowCycle held a “Club Appreciation Night,” honoring their sponsored clubs with free run of a closed store, some killer deals and some Goldsprints mixed in for good measure.

For those unaware (as was I), a Goldsprint is essentially a roller race held in front of a crowd. In our case there were three track (ie. fixed gear) bikes attached to rollers. The rollers were attached to a laptop which then projected our progress over a 300m sprint.

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New Sled

I can’t be unique in ‘thinking/dreaming’ about getting a new bike every time I walk into a bike shop. If you’re a rider, you just can’t help it. I think it’s the smell of the rubber… haha… I don’t know. Maybe it’s something the shops pump into the air – some kind of ‘buy-a-bike’ mind melding gas. You walk in and the bikes sit there, gleaming, in their racks, just calling out to be ridden. And, really, who am I to be so cold hearted that I can’t give at least one of them a good home. Well, today I got the call, ‘Sheldon, good news. You can come pick up your new bike!’

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Pullin’ the plug

Sometimes I like to consider myself I fairly hardcore guy. When the goin’ gets tough, most times I’m able to hunker down, grit my teeth and get through it. I might not get there first, I might not get there smilin’, but I’ll get there.

With that said, there are times (albeit few) when a guy just need to come to terms with the fact that it’s time to throw in the towel. A ride a few weeks ago was one of those times.

It all started innocently enough. An email went out from one of the Deadgoats suggesting a roll through some of the more picturesque roads to the south of Calgary on the cx bikes. The weather was supposed to be grand, and I had missed the last group ride so I was eager to get out.

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The Elephant and the Rider

Sometimes, although it’s rare, I can have trouble sleeping. I recall vividly, summer holidays between grade 5 and grade 6 was the first time I experienced this. It was so strange to me. We were camping at the time, spending all day outside, running around, biking, fishing, hiking. Come night time, I would be tired, ready to go to bed, but then I’d just lay there, and the lay there, listening for grizzly bears outside the tent. Good times, good times… So that was my first memory of having a hard time falling asleep, and since then, I can likely count the other times on two hands. It’s as I said, a rare thing for me. When it does happen now though, it’s normally due to some excitement, or stress in my life surrounding change or uncertainty. My brain will stay active long after my body decides it’s time to fall asleep. Lately, I’ve been wrapped up in a lot, between work, home life, training and riding, helping out here and there with some other side projects and so on. I’ve got lots on my mind, which is how I like it, as the vast majority of it fun to think about, but come 11pm when I want to shut the ol’ noodle off, it hasn’t been happening. So, what now?

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Own the Podium

Canada’s “Own the Podium” has come under a lot of heat lately, in light of some peoples *disappointment* with Canada’s medal performance.

For those unaware of the Own the Podium is a program Canada launched in January 2005 to:

prepare our athletes to become the top winter sporting nation in the world by 2010. To achieve the goals of 2010, the focus of the program was to provide additional resources and high performance programming to Canadian athletes, coaches and support personnel.

- Wikipedia

One of the more notable condemnations of the program came when Olympic speed skater Denny Morrison called out the Own the Podium program specifically when discussing his disappointing 13th place finish. Specifically he mentioned the program not allowing him to train with his American training partner Shani Davis (who finished second) cost him a top spot.

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Sugoi Winter Riding Bootie

Winter riding is still very new to me. I’m loving it though, and slowly amassing all me gear; base and mid-layers, shells, gloves, neck warmers and, yes, booties! I started the winter riding season with just varying combinations of multi-layer socks. That was okay, but not great. My feet would stay warm for a while, but once my shoes got damp, it was bad news… And you know what they say, ‘cold head, cold feet, cold core.’

I then tried cheaping out and getting the neoprene toe covers…

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So I decided to try EPO…

Well, ok, not really. But despite our ethical views against doping both Sheldon and I have wondered over a beer or three just what it might be like.

Would we instantly feel like supermen and fly past our competition, ascending hills as if immune to gravity? Or would it be something more marginal… An increase based on our training volumes, finally beating those riders that tend to always edge us out?

I think I speak for both Sheldon and I when I say that it was always more of a conversational fantasy over beers rather than a curiosity founded in any type of reality. Whenever I actually think about something like that it kind of makes me a little queasy.

I just don’t think I could do it. It just wouldn’t feel natural. And realistically, at this point in my life, there’s absolutely no reason. I race for the sport and fun of it, any results I get are simply a bonus, not something I live and die by.

Well, it turns out that somebody else had similar thoughts, but actually decided to go through with it. The author takes you on an 8 month journey from a clean amateur cyclist training an average of 15-20 hours a week, to a chemically augmented version of himself.

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Itchin’ for spring

Ran across this ad the other day and it definitely got me itchin’ for spring. The open air, the open road, the catchy music. I just wish I could blast full throttle out of the saddle at all times like people in commercials can. A lot of the views actually remind me of some of what we’ve actually got on our doorstep.

Calgary welcomes BikeBike

It’s not every day you get a new bike shop in town – and definitely not every day you wander into said shop and barely recognize any of the bikes sitting on the floor. I think that’s part of what makes BikeBike so unique, it’s bringing something different to not only the bike scene in Calgary, but in all of Alberta.

I had a chance to sit down with Sean Carter, one of the owners of BikeBike and ask him a few questions:

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