Bicycle Tourism: Pros and Cons

PROBLEM ONE: How to get there...

Lets say you decide to go overseas and whilst there travel via bicycle. Do you:

OPTION A) Ship your bicycle air freight back and forth. A good route if your bicycle is one of a kind / super expensive. ie. A prototype recumbent.

OPTION B) Buy a new bicycle when you get there and sell it on craigslist before you leave.

I'd argue option B is the better solution. Saves on unnecessary costs and you get most of your money back when you sell your bicycle (assuming its still in reasonably brand new condition and you cleaned it / fixed anything broken before selling it).

But there is also...

OPTION C) Rent a bicycle (ie. BIXI in Toronto). Depending on the cost of renting a bicycle this might be the cheapest route, but only if its a short time period. Longer time periods you are better off just buying a bicycle and selling it before you leave.

PROBLEM TWO: Where to stay...

When you get there, where do you stay? Hotel, motel, hostel, park bench, friend's couch, camping? Well if you are a cyclist camping might sound like the best option, but then you have to carry all your camping gear and that can be pretty heavy if you don't know how to pack light. (Seriously, why are you bringing so many books with you???)

I think one of the best options is Bed and Breakfast places. Cheaper than hotels, great service and if you're lucky they might even have some tools you can borrow for any small repairs. Of course not all bed and breakfast places are "normal". Check out this Toronto B&B that is on a ship. Sounds like a fun thing to do, but better call ahead and see if they have room on the ship to store your bicycle. (I imagine some fancy hotels would be upset to have a dirty muddy bicycle on their carpets...)

If you went the camping route depending on the time of year you may also need a heat source. I found this out the hard way in October 2010 when I went camping with my ex-girlfriend and we used candles as our heat source. Its not like we can carry a furnace with us, but I am sure there is small portable heaters out there that would provide more heat than mere candles. (I feel silly writing this during the height of a Toronto heat wave.)

PROBLEM THREE: Cleaning and maintenance...

I recommend taking a list of bicycle mechanics with you so you know where to find them. Google Maps or an app on your smartphone would be helpful. The real problem in bicycle mechanics with a WAITING LIST... they stick your bicycle in the back and call you 2 weeks later when its fixed. Its not like walking into a Yorkville salon and getting your nails done at the last minute. A lot of bicycle mechanics are busy busy busy!

So the SMART thing to do is to carry basic tools with you and only go to the bicycle mechanic when its obviously a repair you can't fix yourself.

PROBLEM FOUR: Food... mmm... food...

OPTION A) Carry food with you from supermarkets. Lots of it...

OPTION B) Only carry necessities (ie. Poweraid) and emergency food  / snacks. Stop for food when opportunity / need arises.

OPTION C) Carry nothing but water (and dine out).

This really comes down to personal choice. When in Rome its presumed you will stop and try the pizza... Option B seems like the obvious smart choice, but some people might prefer options A or C if they are treveling in the deep woods or in a city with lots of great restaurants you want to try.

How To Fix Your Derailleurs

Please help me I'm so stressed over this. I just bought a new Supercycle bike from Canadian Tire. They did not adjust the derailleurs at the store so I decided to try it but I wound up loosen the cable too much and it came out of the derailleur all together. I am planning a cycling trip to Toronto on the weekend and I don't want to rent a BIXI bike for the entire weekend because that would cost a small fortune. Is there anyway I can fix this myself in a hurry? PLEASE HELP ME. - Andrew in Whitby, Ontario

Not to worry Andrew, help is available but it won't be easy. Derailleurs are basically the most complicated things to fix on a modern bicycle.

#1. First check to see if you have a bent derailleur tab. (You probably don't because your bike is brand new, but lets follow procedure here in case other people have problems.) If it is please see this other post on "Fixing a Bent Derailleur Tab".

#2. Get yourself a copy of Barnett's Manual (the books aren't cheap so a PDF will suffice) and read chapters 33 and 34.

I cannot possibly fully explain all the intricacies of fixing derailleurs in one blog post. Barnett takes TWO chapters to do it, one for front derailleurs and another for rear derailleurs. If you view the PDF it is pages 591 to 649.

Failing that check out this website: sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html which is reasonably helpful, but has really shoddy graphics and skips over a lot of parts (It should be sufficient to help fix Andrew's problem however). That site does however get the point across that derailleurs are basically the most complicated things to fix on a modern bicycle.

Maybe someday I will do a detailed post on how to fix derailleurs, but if I am anything like Barnett such a post would take me a week to write and be 50+ pages long.

Good luck Andrew!

Toronto City Council votes to scrap Jarvis bike lanes

CANADA - Yesterday in a 28-9 vote Toronto city councilors voted to spend more than $400,000 to erase bike lanes on Jarvis St. downtown as well as Birchmount Rd. and Pharmacy Ave.

This isn't going to change the habits of cyclists however, who use those routes on the way to work. Myself included, I take Jarvis several times a week so the stupidity of spending thousands of dollars to REMOVE a bicycle lane is just silliness and a complete waste of taxpayers money.

It will also mean mapmakers will have to redesign their maps of Toronto's bicycle lanes and paths.

Toronto city councilors also agreed to physically separate 14 kilometres of bike lanes on downtown streets — two of them north-south, two east-west — at an unknown cost - and in an unspecified way. It is unknown exactly how cyclists are supposed to get into these new cycling lanes from intersections... and furthermore, what if situations arise where cyclists refuse to use these protected cycling lanes because its better (perhaps even safer) to be using the normal road?

Cycling advocates got one concession — the two-kilometre Jarvis lanes won’t be removed until AFTER new separated cycling lanes on Sherbourne St. are separated from other traffic, expected by December 2012.

In which case what is the cost of building these new separated cycling lanes on Sherbourne? One city councilor estimated the cost at $200,000 but I think he is full of ****. If it costs $400,000 just to remove bicycle lanes just made of PAINT, how can it cost less to create new separated bicycle lanes made of CEMENT?

Rob Ford's gravy train apparently goes to the Land of Stupid Wastefulness.

Bicycles as Mechanical Genius

Sometimes bicycle mechanics display their talents in ways that are unforeseen and really a testament to both their skills as mechanical geniuses... and as artists.

BIXI wants to grow, but is it profitable?

CANADA - Toronto's BIXI program has been active for over one month now (it started May 3rd) and according to the Toronto Cyclists Union the cycle-sharing program should triple the number of bikes and expand the current service area beyond the downtown core.

But is there the profits to support such an expansion?

In the first week BIXI was active there was 700 trips. By week 4 there was 28,000 / week.

Most of the demand comes from the edges of the service area, along Jarvis, Spadina and Bloor, thus furthering the logic that BIXI should expand in those regions.

Meanwhile in Montreal the BIXI program owes $37 million to the city and is currently running a $5 million annual deficit. Not that long ago Montreal was running a profit, but has since flip flopped into deficit (possibly due to over expansion into regions of the city where most people don't use bicycles).

So Toronto needs to learn the lessons taught by Montreal. Expand SLOWLY, and only into regions where demand can be shown.

It should be noted that May was very rainy and renting bicycles very much depends on the weather conditions, so those numbers are expecting to rise dramatically during the summer and autumn, before dropping off suddenly in winter.

So far Toronto BIXI has served up 73,000 rides in its first six weeks of service, with only 1,000 bikes on Toronto streets.

Successful bike-sharing programs often have a lot more bicycles than a mere 1,000. ie. The Paris Vélib “freedom bike” program got 1.8 million rides in its first month in 2007, with about 10,000 bikes. But that in PARIS, a city known as a mecca for artists and tourists. Its to be expected to have much higher usage.

Paris hit the 100-million ride mark earlier this month (June 2011), after nearly four years in operation. Paris now has an average of 100,000 rentals per day, with 20,000 bikes.

Montreal's BIXI program currently has almost 30,000 subscribers and 18,000 rides per day on a fleet of 5,000 bikes.

BIXI Toronto so far has 2,240 subscribers and has had 7,000 one-day users, but that isn't enough to support expansion. 6,000 subscribers are needed just to break even.

So Toronto needs to wait a bit longer before they start expanding rapidly. A little bit of expansion in the desired areas would be okay, assuming it drives up usage. If it doesn't BIXI should wait until they reach above the 6,000 mark.

Other bike-sharing programs around the world:

Hangzhou, China
50,000 bikes
2,050 stations
Started in 2009
Plans to have 175,000 bikes by 2020

Paris, France
20,000 bikes
1,800 stations
Between 80,000 to 120,000 rentals per day
Started in 2007

Toronto, Canada
1,000 bikes
80 stations
2240 subscribers, 7000 one-day users
Started in May 2011

Montreal, Canada
5,050 bikes
405 stations
30,000 members
18,000 rides per day on average
Started in 2009

How to find a bicycle mechanic in back-water towns

Dear Bicycle Mechanic!

I am writing a cyclists guide to Route 66 in the states for a publishing company in Switzerland. I wondered if you would have any information on how best to find a mechanic in back-water towns on North America. Is there a data-base? A secret HQ?

Any advice you would have would be very much appreciated.

Thank you
Be well
Jessica Mijnssen

Hey Jessica!

I recommend Google Maps.

You just choose your city / town and then appropriate keywords... ie. Denver bike shop, Denver bicycle shop, Denver bicycles, Denver cycling, Denver bicycle mechanic, Denver bike mechanic, etc.

And be sure to double check when trying "bike" that you're not getting motorcycle mechanics.

I then recommend that you compile a list of bicycle shops along Route 66 and make that "database" as it were available online. I would be happy to publish your results along with any links to your book.

:)

Dear Bicycle Mechanic!

Thank you so much for your help. I have, indeed, been led astray by "Bike shops" that lead me to motorized vehicles.

I'll be in touch!

Be well
Jessica

The Battle for Bike Lanes in Toronto

CANADA - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford seems to have a love / hate relationship with cyclists in Toronto.

Believe me, the feeling is mutual.

Unlike Stephen Harper who sits comfortably in his PM office looking out his Ottawa windows at the peasants below now that he has his dreaded majority government and can do whatever he wants, Rob Ford cannot do whatever he pleases... he has to get everything past Toronto City Council first.

As part of his agenda Rob Ford wants to do the following...

#1. A Separated Bike Lane Network in Toronto's downtown core.

Note: Its confusing what this might actually be. One idea is that it will be separate bi-directional bike lanes (a two-way bike facility on one side of the street). One proposal is to convert the existing bicycle lanes on Bloor St. East, from Sherbourne Street to Broadview Avenue, into separated bike lanes in 2011 (1.6 km at a cost of approximately $50,000). This trial would then determine whether it could be used in other places across Toronto.

#2. Development of 100 km of off-street bike trails.

Note: 30 km of new trails already began construction in 2010 and will open in the summer of 2011.

#3. A Bikeway Trails Plan to continue developing bike trails in the future.

#4. Fixing gaps in the Bikeway Network. Ford wants on-street connections to be completed, provided they don't interfere too much with the flow of traffic.

#5. Bike Lanes to be Removed, at a cost of $210,000.

Note: Local councilors apparently want some bike lanes removed. They are: Pharmacy Avenue, between Denton Avenue and Alvinson Road, at a cost of approximately $120,000; and Birchmount Avenue, between Kingston Road and St. Clair Avenue East, at a cost of approximately $90,000.

#6. Modify Existing Bike Lanes.

Note: They want to modify the Dupont Street at the Lansdowne Avenue intersection in order to improve traffic flow and capacity at the intersection (cost: approximately $8,000).

#7. New Bike Lanes

A city report recommends new bike lanes at Dawes Road, from Danforth Avenue to Victoria Park Avenue, as part of the Dawes Road Revitalization Project.

So where is the money for all these new separated bike lanes (or scrapping of old lanes) going to come from?

Well Rob Ford has apparently hired scores of Toronto accountants to try and get the numbers to work.

Honestly, he'd be better off hiring IT staff or artists, not for their technical skills, but simply for their imaginative problem solving abilities. Not to diss the accountants, but sometimes certain jobs require thinking outside the box.

Maybe then we could find the necessary cash for such things and stop idiot drivers from parking in bicycle lanes. They're not parking spots!

In other news, want to suggest a new location for a bicycle stand / ring post? Go to toronto.ca/cycling/postandring/.

Also the Toronto Union Station Bicycle Station has now moved to the East side of York Street, just north of 25 York St. at Bremner Blvd. Staff hours are Monday - Friday: 8 AM - 4 PM. The Station will be unstaffed during the lunch hour.

Oh and by the way, the weather is wonderful outside people... get out of your stuffy apartments, your sunrooms, your offices, your basements, or wherever you happen to be and go cycling. There may not be that many beautiful days outside this summer so enjoy them while you can.