Big oops

Probably the stupidest thing I've done in a long time... the captions in the video say it all... the camera sees what my eyes couldn't at the time.

Ride to work

Bit of a better video, note the cyclist darting from the sidewalk on the left across the crosswalk infront of the turning Hydro One truck at Bathurst. Nimrod.

PSA Attempt 1

Trying to provide some sort of use for having my camera outside of novelty, attempting to use my footage to illustrate the events/dangers to keep an eye out for, and to try and avoid wherever possible.

I don't ride super-cautiously, but I like to think I ride fairly safe and well for the majority of time (it's hard to balance the freedom of cycling with vehicular cycling/road rules in downtown traffic scenarios).

Without any further ado, enjoy:

First couple of videos

Couple of videos...

Riding from work to Cavern Cycles to meet up with a few BikeForum and city riders.



Next, a buzz by a van on Queen St. W - sound is lost on this halfway, not sure why, might repost if I can be bothered.



And next, some comic relief - taken yesterday on Queen St. W at Spadina - Whoops, indeed :D



You can't hear him, but Mark was behind me JUST saying "I'm not going to fit through there" and I was thinking "I should be OK, I've drops on, narrower than his flat bars". Too bad the parked car had his front wheels turned out... Bad judgement on my part is all that happened here.

Format change, now onto bikes!

Lots has happened and it's been a long time since my gardening days of '06.

I no longer have the garden, so I figure I'll use this blog to commentate and rant about my adventures with my new passion: cycling. Here follows an intro to kinda where I'm at.

I've been riding bikes on and off since I was 3, I've always loved riding bikes - but in my teens I slipped in and out of the habit, as with my early twenties.

One day the TTC (Toronto public transport) went on strike one Monday in 2006, which started a spark in my mind (I got a lift that day). On the Wednesday, I rode to work for the first time (prompted by a massive transit delay).

Since then, I've been obsessing more and more, loving riding in new ways and different levels all the more.

I've had a few interesting events, the most significant was probably breaking my wrist on the train tracks at Queens Quay near Lakeshore on Aug 9th, '06. This blew the end of my summer on the bike away and made me more determined to ride once cleared by the Doc. This happened a couple of days after doing a 40mile ride around town (errands/helping move people) and the next Sunday having my bike taken from my back yard, but only the saddle was eventually stolen, they couldn't defeat my lock (and had dragged it only as far as across the street). Doh.

Nov 2nd, I was back on. And rode on/off through winter, until Dec. 7th for a couple of weeks. The next couple of months my life was a bit crazy and I wasn't riding so much, but since April I've been commuting 99% by bike and ride everywhere I can. I've also started attending Critical Mass rides, which have been entertaining/fun and great to meet other cyclists here in the city.

I've recently got a camera/helmet cam and will post videos and pics of stuff.

I ride two bikes right now, mainly the roadbike that was donated to me, an older Centurion LeMans which I love dearly. My other old faithful is my Dyno Victory mountain bike, which has been through thick and thin (and my wrist break crash) with me and I love it dearly. The Dyno is my all-weather no-nonsense bike, but mostly on the back burner unless I'm towing the trailer or it's excessively crap weather (or my roadie is out of action).

Watch this space... assuming I remember to blog! :D