Well, this promises to be an action-packed report! A couple of days ago, Nani of the TDSB’s bike repair course announced to members of his Yahoo! bike group that he was going to do a pre-dawn ride out to the Leslie Spit (or whatever they call it now) in order to watch the sun rise. Ok, my wrist has healed enough that I can type with it at times and I figured that I’d give this ride a shot.

Woke up a bit later than usual for a 5:30 am departure for the 6 am meet up. Had to refill the tires with air, dust off the bike and so on since I had not touched it since the accident. Upon stepping outside of the building, after dragging the bike down the stairs since it turned out that I could not LIFT the bike up over my shoulder, my Jetlites‘ Starfire basically went pffftttt. The battery had finally given up the ghost after sitting around for almost two months but I didn’t think it would last much longer anyways. It was down to about an hr’s worth of run-time before the accident and a replacement has been long overdue. I’m just lucky that it had lasted this long. I guess there will be a future post about what its replacement will be.

Luckily, SL had earlier lent me one of those silly “turtle” LED lights that are basically an LED bulb and watch battery encased in two bits of translucent plastic made to look like a turtle on a flexi-string. This allowed me to satisfy the requirements of the law in having a front light but did nothing to allow me to see anything. *ugh*

Riding down to the entrance of the Spit was fine if a bit worrisome since it was pretty dark in spots. Wrist was fine with just a few twinges and the realization that I still do not have a full range of movement. Nani was waiting with a much larger group of people than I had expected; in total, there were seven of us. I had expected maybe two or three. By 6 am the sun had already started to light up the eastern sky through a low cloud bank and we had a slight breeze. Temp was almost perfect for riding .

It’s pretty amazing that one could almost feel like they’re riding on a country lane yet there’s a downtown core just two kms to your rear. Trees everywhere, rough asphalt road, heaps of logs, water on every side, etc. It’s great! I really need to ride down on the Spit when there is a full moon out. Of course, the biggest hazard of riding in the “dark” on this ride is that I kept”popping” snails. I was NOT happy about that. There’s something “off-putting” that I’m killing something just because of an activity I am enjoying. I definitely need lights! And that moonlit ride? I’ll do it when the weather is too cold for snails to be on the road.

After waiting for the sun to be up and about, I did not look at the sunrise since it’s something that I see almost every time I ride, which would be hundreds of times in the past few years we all headed to the Beach area of Toronto for breakfast. Stopped at this Queen St. East diner called Mars Beach Diner and I ordered their “Galaxy” special. It was pretty good…hash browns, 1 egg, 2 sausages, 2 bacon, toast, and something called a griddle cake which turned disappointingly enough to be a large pancake. It’s a decent-sized breakfast but on occasion I’ve been known to eat fried calf livers and a couple of plates of rice for breakfast or, more commonly, four large eggs and a few plates of rice. So, the Galaxy special sort of hit the spot. Big breakfasts usually keep me going for most of the day.

One of the guys later paid for everyone’s breakfasts which was an incredibly generous gesture! Wow! I’ve done so for family and relatives but never for acquaintances…hrmmm…must earn more money. hehehe

It was a short ride back home and to multiple errands. Something also came up which was very worrisome and this was gross hematuria. I did not put much thought to the first occurrence but by nightfall it was very worrisome. Thank goodness for the Internet! It looks like my case of gross hematuria is the result of stupidity and complacency. I had not drunk any water before the ride, drank very little water during the ride and this was a roughish ride of 30 kms after almost two months of no exercise. Basically, I was asking for trouble. Everything’s cleared up now but I am going to take it easy until tomorrow. I can’t do any sort of pre-dawn or evening rides anyways without a proper lighting system.

So…it looks like we’re back on the road!

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For those of you who are curious, I am still off the bike. My wrist has healed enough that I can type with the right hand to some extent. Right now, I am not too sure if the current ache/pain is the result of the injury or of not using my wrist enough.

There is still no way that I can put any significant pressure on the wrist which means that cycling is going to have to be dropped for the next little while. I was having high hopes for this coming weekend but really not too sure.

On another note, I may be looking into getting a stationary trainer so I can put in some mileage during the winter months. It’s always a shock to the system when you first go out and cycle after several months of sitting around. It would also help to allow me to get up and going faster after the snows melt.

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Well, two weeks has gone by since falling off the bike. Who’da thunk it that two weeks can just zip on by while stuck with one arm down?! Ok, arm-wise, it’s healing; swelling is still evident despite S’ prediction that it would take a week to go down, fingers can work pretty easily, wrist rotation is still only about 50% and forget about putting any sort of pressure on it. I’m able to type with my left hand and a finger from the other.

At this rate, won’t be back on the bike for at least another week. *sigh*

Be prepared for a lot more book reviews! hehehe

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So much for being productive this week. It looks like I will be out of commission for a while. Riding back from a ride early this morning, I had stopped by this feral cat colony on Lake Shore Blvd. and had noticed that they seemed out of food. I wasn’t too sure since the bowl was so far in underneath.

I decided to go home and bring back something to help me drag the bowl out. To that end, I took out my Manfrotto monopod and placed its strap on my right handlebar and headed back to the colony. Yep, disaster struck!

Within a meter, the monopod’s end swung into the spokes and I went down hard. Landed on my right wrist and knee. The monopod was scratched a bit and it had ripped out a spoke. Grrrrrr…

After being helped up by a passing security guard, I staggered back into the apartment to clean out my knee that promises a matching set of scars to the left one’s, had a bit of breakfast since the hospital wait is usually long, downed some ibuprofin (I can open a childproof cap onehanded it seems.) put together a little bag of stuff such as cellphone, wallet, book and ice to go down to the hospital.

Usually, when you can’t move your right hand/wrist it’s a good idea to have x-rays done. Is that an understatement or what?

What I learned at St. Michael’s? First, all intake of this nature is at the Emergency entrance. No such thing as non-emergencies it seems. Second, I’m on file for some reason even though I don’t recall ever being a patient there. They didn’t even ask for my health card.

One of the more worrisome parts of this visit, aside from having a crippling injury, was catching something deadly at the hospital. This worry was amplified by the numerous c.difficile warning signs all over the place. Feel like I need another shower.

The wait was not so bad. I highly recommend a fiction book to anyone who faces the prospect of a wait in the gloomy confines St. Mikes or any other hospital for that matter.

I finally progressed to a cheerful orderly who inspected me and happily prescribed a tetanus shot for the ugly scratches on my knee. This, despite my reassurances that I had used a liberal amount of alcohol on it. Geeze, if I had known I was getting that shot I would have left the cleaning and bandaging to them. I believe in making some people work for it.

The reading after that was marred a bit by the looming prospect of an unfriendly needle.

X-rays were done shortly thereafter and a couple of docs had a quick look at them and then me. We all concluded that it’s not a break (I had a look at the x-rays too) and to leave everything alone for a bit.

The tetanus shot still happened, though. The orderly warned me that the needle went into the muscle and hurt. I’d had something similar done a couple of decades ago and it really bruised the butt muscle then! This time around, she went for the shoulder and I hardly felt it! She’d said that many people dreaded this shot but it was nothing like what I remembered. Nothing.

So, for those of you expecting anything involving typing over the next couple of days from me, I may be a bit slower than usual but that’s balanced out by the fact that I won’t be riding for a while. Guess this is just another Yin-Yang balance thing.

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I was out watching “WALL*E” (great movie, not as good as “The Incredibles” but better than “Cars”) last night with a friend of mine and they asked what other interesting biking things were happening and it turns out that that same morning I had witnessed a hit-and-run. Here goes:

I was cycling back early yesterday morning when I noticed a white commercial van moving to the right into a parking space except that he was scraping along the left front corner of the parked sports car right behind him. I thought that he might stop once he heard the sound of squealing metal but he just kept going. I felt like yelling no no no and what are you doing?! He just kept going and I thought that he might rip off one or both fenders.

Eventually he stopped, got out and took a look at the damage. We had a short exchange that ended when he said that he would stay and wait for the other driver. I was only a tad suspicious but this same white van had been sitting on this stretch of street most mornings for as long as I’d been riding there waiting for someone to come out and go to work. Still, I had a good look at the license plate number and about half a block further on I decided to write it down.

I then turned and saw the van making a u-turn and speeding off! I thought, no way, he’s not that stupid! So, I rode back to see if he had left a business card so that the other driver could contact him. Nope, nothing. I then called the cops and gave them all of the info.

I have to go back later today to leave my contact info for the driver of the parked car since others have suggested that that might be useful. Unbelievable, the damage might be a thousand or two but now the van’s driver may be charged with hit-and-run or leaving the scene of an accident.

So, to conclude, a lot more interesting things happen when you’re on a bike. I am considering a skateboard too, though.?

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I tallied up my total mileage for June a couple of days ago and am pretty disappointed. Usually, June represents the first month of the year where my mileage just ramps up as the weather improves and I start riding all over. I don’t commute. So, my total for June is only just over 800 kms which is far short of what the total has been for the past couple of years.

The primary factor, other than sheer laziness, is probably the weather. June has been pretty wet and cold. Actually, it’s not that I don’t like getting wet, it’s that everything else on the bike is too. *ugh* I’m seriously considering riding through showers with a more stripped down batch of stuff. I’d also have to put on new fenders to avoid dirt up my back.

The bright side is that the “drought” that Ontario has had over the past couple of years at least is now broken. I remember cycling up the Niagara Escarpment last year to find that the fields up there were all parched-looking and hearing how the peach crop was a bit light in weight due to lack of water. Mmmm…this year should be different. I am seriously considering a fruit run this weekend.

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Yesterday night was the last of nine classes for the bike repair course held by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and I have to say that it went by a lot quicker than I had expected. This is a testament to the fun that we (I am assuming here!) all had in learning the basic skills needed to fix our bikes. The course is not something that will allow you to go really deep into the intricacies of your bike but it will give you the basics needed to potentially identify problems, fix most of the ones you are likely to encounter and allow you to understand the lingo of the bike shop’s mechanic.

Narayana (Nani) Reddy proved to be an excellent teacher and certainly knew his stuff. I’m very surprised at the number of people who decided to skip classes here and there. It’s just not worth it if you’re paying that amount of cash and not doing it. As for myself, I’m tempted to take the course all over again if I were to get a new bike but more than likely I will probably look into taking the more advanced Park Tools’ courses offered by local bike shops. We will see.

In the end, am really glad to have taken this course, learnt quite a lot and met quite a few nice people.

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I had posted a new thread in the IBikeTO website about my interest in a Critical Manners’ ride and gotten a swift response. One of which was that we should ride together through reds for safety and which is what Critical Mass does. I’m thinking…for safety? What is this? Schooling behaviour? I’ve ridden over 21,000 kms in the last five years and only once had a close call when a taxi driver did not look to his left when he was making a right turn.

Another response was that following the traffic laws won’t get us any smiles. I don’t know but I’ve always felt that polite behaviour with a smile usually paves the way. In any case, if the poster had bothered to read the SFGate article, the Critical Manners’ riders certainly got their share of smiles.

I really don’t want to hear from drivers about how cyclists weave in and out of traffic and basically ignore traffic laws. That makes the rest of us look bad and fosters ill-feelings. I don’t like it when I see it and I am sometimes scared to stop at reds because I don’t know if the bicyclist(s) coming up behind me are going to rear-end me since they think I am going to go through.

Being safe on the roads as far as I am concerned is making sure that you are as visible as possible (I want to set up even more of a “cocoon of light” with Dinotte or other lights soon), act in a predictable manner, signal all of your intentions and treat everyone else out there as a threat.

Oh, before I forget, on BikeForums.net I’ve gotten a couple of good responses so it all balances out. It’s a Yin-Yang thing.

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I was on Bikeforums.net earlier this morning (yeah yeah, I have to write that TCM article) and I was responding to a thread on the protest ride that occurred on the Gardiner Expressway last night and the topic of Critical Mass came up. Now, I participated in only one CM in my entire life and that was last year. Frankly, I was turned off by it. From my viewpoint, CM seems to be more of a seize-the-road, in-your-face, laws-be-d–ned, sort of thing and I did not like that. Yes, I believe that bikes belong on the road, we are part of traffic and since we are part of traffic then we obey the traffic laws.

To my mind, it doesn’t help the image of cyclists when a whole bunch of us take up two whole lanes of Bloor St. and proceed to blow through every red light and stop sign that we come across. That’s NOT what being part of traffic is all about. Sure, you’re showing that you’re out there but you’re also showing disrespect. You’re showing disrespect for not only the law but you’re also showing disrespect for other users of the road. If CM riders gripe about not getting enough respect then why are they paying back in kind?

So, I did a quick Google search and came across something called “Critical Manners”, which is basically Critical Mass but a lot nicer. Manners’ riders are vehicular riders, we share the road and we obey all traffic rules. It’s not about wimping out to cars; we’re vehicles and we will act like vehicles so back off. It’s all about sharing the road on an equitable basis.

I think that this Critical Manners’ idea is a lot more emblematic of what Canadian society is all about and it’s a lot more inclusive. I’ve been reading a bit about TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) which greatly involves the idea of balance and harmony and Critical Manners seems to be something that may smooth out a lot of the antagonism and belligerence I hear around cycling. Right now, I am trying to gauge how much interest there is in this idea. I’ve included a link to one of the first rides in San Francisco and they started out very small but it seems to be a growing movement.

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I had a quick look at this blog’s stats and quite a few people drop by in order to look at the Brooks B17 post that I did up over a year ago so I am going to do write a short update. Also, the saddle has generated quite a bit of interest from participants on the Toronto Outdoor Club’s rides that I’ve recently been on and in my bike repair classes.

The saddle looks almost brand-new and feels as hard as the day that I bought it. I have put over 6000 km on it in a year and a half and have applied Proofide on it once only. It’s been ridden wet a few times but that does not seem to affect it at all. The saddle should have broken in a long time ago but I can’t tell if it has or not. Like I said, it still feels as hard as the day that I bought it.

How does it feel, though, as something to ride on? Pretty good! Maybe it’s my butt or maybe it’s the padded shorts but I do not feel any discomfort with this saddle aside from the usual bruising that I think is normal after a hundred klicks or so. So, if it keeps up this way then I think it is a very worthwhile purchase.

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