What was, and what is

Life for some cyclists recently got better in the fair city of Barrie, ON.










We've suffered with a tired old bike rack at the downtown bus station for years. Time wasn't getting any kinder to the poor thing.

The rack wasn't the only thing suffering the ravages of time. Several abandoned bikes gently decaying into non-bikeness were taking up space. At least a couple of them hadn't moved in over two years: I once locked mine to one of these when I couldn't get close enough to get a lock on the rack!

The folk at the terminal thought the Roads Department had responsibility. Roads thought it belonged to Barrie Transit.

Eventually the city got its act together and installed some post-and-ring racks, of the pattern being installed in a few other Barrie locations. The old one stayed around for a few days to give people a chance to remove their property.

Here are our new racks! Six here, three more at the south end of the building. More capacity than the old rack, and not an eyesore.

I took this when I got of the bus this evening- was running late so most patrons have cycled home. The red Bianchi in the foreground is my commuter for the last couple of years.





I'm actually wondering if the bike vandalism and theft will diminish now that it looks like a well ordered bicycle parking facility, rather than a junk pile. I've ceased to be surprised at what goes on outside the office windows of the downtown Barrie Police office, right under the big lighted "Barrie Police" sign!

Anyway, thank you Barrie!

A beginning

It may seem faint hearted to start a blog called 'Tales of a Four Season Cyclist' at the changeover from spring to summer. Actually I do ride all year round; if energy and interest are still there I'll post about winter riding once the snow flies.

To be honest my winter riding tends to be limited to a portion of my commute, grocery runs and other short but necessary trips. It's the rest of the year that calls me to longer rides.

So far this year I've just done 75k on the Toronto Ride For Heart and a 50k ride with the Toronto Trailblazers (torontotrailblazers.org).

My motivation for starting this blog now is the upcoming Great Waterfront Trail Adventure (waterfronttrail.org/gwta_web/) from Niagara On The Lake to the Quebec border. Armed with a digital camera and wifi enabled netbook I'm hoping to post a few entries during that 8 day, 730km supported ride so friends and family can see what I'm up to.

Right now I'm off to Bikeland, Barrie's best LBS, to pick up a stem for the old (what I call 'new') Raleigh roadbike I'll be taking on the GWTA. I bought this new in 1984; a nice gold Raleigh Carlton, and have never changed the bars. The bike fits me beautifully except the bars have always been on the narrow side at 39cm. I picked up a vintagey 42cm wide bar, but it uses the Italian 26.0mm mounting not the English 25.4mm (what the rational world calls "one inch"). Hence the new stem.

Morgan at Bikeland is my first choice for parts like this. Morgan's of a suitable vintage himself; has a sympathetic understanding of the aesthetics of older bikes as well as a depth of knowledge and experience about all things bikey that I rely on to keep me from making dodgey choices about bike components.