The Perfect 10 - or - How do I know if I'm in love?

-Saturday April 2nd, 2011

Less than half an hour into our first date, I crashed her into the mud. We went down hard, skin scraping on pavement, leaving a smear of red. The front wheel caught between the shoulder and wet grass, clipped, and threw me to the ground.

I crawled off the highway, dodging cars zooming by at a hundred kilometres an hour. She sure is a temperamental one.

At that moment, I decided that she was a girl but I didn't know what to call her yet. She sure is a lovely sight for sore eyes - black shimmering steel with gorgeous unadorned chrome and a rakish, aggressive profile.

The crash tore a gash in the saddle and scraped the smooth, metallic finish - but this is a woman who would cut off her nose to spite her face. I am fearful and respectful of her resolve. She could easily kill me if I gave her an excuse.

Excuses such as : checking out someone else's wheels, not paying attention when she speaks, cheating (definite no-no), riding while inebriated, and just doing the wrong things (which covers a million possible contingencies).

She's fickle, twitchy, unforgiving, and a little bit "squeeky". But it was easily the most fun I've had in a very long time.

---

Armed with ample protection (3 locks), lubricant (2 kinds! - one smells like bananas, and the other goes on wet and stays wet), hand towel, and hex key set, we set off for the rolling hills of Eglinton Ave. I've always hated Eglinton for the fast traffic and never ending series of neither here nor there hills: not long enough to be serious climbs, and not steep enough for the payoff on the downward slopes. In other words, Eglinton represents everything about Toronto that I hate. Not big enough for true scale or density (ie versus New York or Taipei) and no depth of personality (ie versus San Francisco), just cracked concrete with thousands of unfeeling drivers in cars, going about their daily lives.

But with S - she's made me fall madly in love with Eglinton. There were moments of pure unrestrained aggression - the rip-off-your-clothes, jump-your-bones, and growl-at-the-world rush unleashed by endorphins and other pleasure chemicals. For a moment, I became wolverine, but no matter how hard I pushed, she was unyielding - urging me to go faster, laughing at my puny muscles, always a step ahead of me.

She was only truly happy at maddening speeds - when cars and buses no longer pass us by but instead hold steady beside us as we approach the upper speed limits of the city.

With another hill ahead of us, all I could think was - wow that was fun, let's go again. and again. and again.

-----

We arrived at our destination: MissionFest Toronto, hosted by Global Kingdom Ministries, at the corner of Markham Road and Ellesmere. Neither of us were the worst for wear - I lost some blood and she's got some gouges and scratches. War wounds  - celebration of a new beginning.

I've done this twenty-five kilometre trip before with my old friend - the Fuji Absolute - who is definitely like a guy friend. Dependable, stable, able and willing to go into the trenches, jump into foxholes, dig me out of trouble, and protect my life, even when it puts him directly in harm's way. He's my go-anywhere, do-anything bike.

S is just the opposite. But oh boy did we have a lot of fun.

a boy and his bike

Well hullo there. How ye doing?

nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too. We don't know each other very well yet, but I think we'll be all right.

if you say so. let's ride.

God keep us safe.

Cervélo SuperProdigy 51 cm

circa 2004

steel frame - Thermacrom steel from Columbus

~ 18.5 lbs

Columbus Muscle carbon fibre fork with titanium mesh

Xero Lite XR-3 wheels
Vittoria Rubino Pro 700x23c tires

Shimano Ultegra grouppo - brakes/shifters, front chainring, cranks & derailleur, rear derailleur
9 speed cassette

Easton EA50 aluminum stem
Easton EA70 aluminum handlebars

carbon fibre seat post

San Marco Zoncolan saddle

MagicShine light.

Pedals to come - PowerGrip pedal set with reflectors

It's one of the lightest steel frames out there. Need to take it out for a shakedown right once the pedals arrive.

Component map:

in the snow

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16.3 km

First Ride in Vancouver

After a great two weeks of holiday cheer and endless scrumptious meals, it's time to get back on the saddle.

Today's 30 km trip took me to Oakridge Mall, then to Commercial Drive & E Hastings, and then into downtown.

On the way I raced against a fellow cyclist inside the underground parking lot of the Vancouver Convention Centre (which I won! haha) and soon I found myself biking along the trails of Stanley Park in near darkness. It was a beautiful ride full of powerful memories as I relearned what it means to be in Vancouver.


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Preparations for Yonge street in the cold

The next long ride I'm planning is the classic tourist favourite: Yonge Street from Union Station to Barrie, about 100 km.

In preparation, I thought I'd do a trial run of a busy portion of Yonge Street, from St. Clair to Steeles.


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Around 30 km. 11:30 pm - 1:30 am

This was my first serious ride in the cold - I knew I was in trouble when my water bottle froze solid and I didn't notice until I tried to take a drink! After getting home, I looked up the temperature. It is -6 Celsius, with a northerly wind of 24km/h.

I break 1k

Sometime tomorrow, probably on the way to work, I will have traveled 1000 miles, or 1609 km on my bike.

I bought this bike on August 3rd, so it's fitting that the grand 1000 mile mark comes at exactly our 4 month anniversary. It's a joy on the best of days, and a source of strength and perseverance on the worst of days.

I don't regret choosing this bike at all, shabby and old as it may be. The frame itself is 22 years old. It was made in 1989 in Taiwan, one year after I emigrated to Canada from that same country.

I've grown much stronger on the back of this bike - and there is so much more to learn. If all things go as planned, I will be replacing this bike early next year with a cyclocross or touring bike.

I look forward to the next 10,000 miles.

Friday is Harry Potter night!

I didn't intend to watch the latest Harry Potter on opening night, but I did! The story was great as usual, and the filmmaker took a few liberties with the timeline that fit better with the film medium. It's a much better film transfer than some of the other ones in the series, and it's probably 2nd or 3rd on my ordered list of Harry Potter movies.

Tonight's ride took me to Scarborough Centre, which for better or for worse, got me to the movie theatre! Talk about unintended side effects:


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32.4 km: I chickened out of the return trip because it was 1:30 in the morning and I was already making mistakes coming out of the mall parking lot. So I thought better safe than sorry - and took the last subway home.

I attained a new top speed tonight: 56.1 km/h.

Tonight's practice ride

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9pm - 11pm / 37km

Roads I remember - Part 1

Chuckanut Drive - Outside of Fairhaven, Bellingham, Washington

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/37136090 Courtesy of reuthermonkey

In the summer of 2003 I set out for my first endurance bike ride from Vancouver to Seattle. The route I took was about 250km, and took me down Puget Sound, along the coast, through mountain passes, and into the tulip fields of Skagit County. It was beautiful and immensely satisfying - with a climb up a big hill that lasted over 3 hours (and on the other side was a steep and exhilarating decent that lasted well over an hour). But what I remember most was a stretch of Chuckanut Drive, just outside the peaceful suburb of Fairhaven, a part of Bellingham.

I approached this trip with very little preparation. At the time, I knew nothing about touring on a bicycle. All I had was a helmet and two backpacks - I didn’t bring a sleeping bag or any kind of rain gear - which was truly stupid in the Pacific Northwest. My knowledge of the road was nil, and I had no tools, no spare parts, and no lights. I thought I was going for a ride in the park.

My expectations were quickly shattered when both my tires blew just across the border. I spent hours wandering around a strip mall near the border, wondering if I should just call the whole thing off. I quickly learned very expensive lessons in amateur bike repair - I bought inner tubes at random from the convenience store, hoping it would fit. It was one of those extremely dumb, but very educational moments in my life: I learned how tires were sized in the parking lot, cursing and kicking myself for being so stupid. I eventually hitched a ride with the store clerk who took all my money that afternoon (because I failed to change my inner tubes properly, even after all that trial and error). He took me to a bike shop in Bellingham, where I got the parts I needed.

By the time everything was fixed, it was nightfall - and I had no place to stay and my schedule was shot. I figured that I should take it easy, and got myself a bite at a local bar and discovered what would become my favourite beer: Stille nacht from De Dolle Brouwers (Silent Night from the Crazy Brewers in Esen, Belgium). I’ve been looking for beers from their label ever since but I’ve had no luck. It remains the best beer experience of my life.

Drunk and homeless, I slept on a park bench and woke up in the middle of the night. My journey into the darkness began. With no lights, I relied solely on dim streetlights and whatever windows were still illuminated. Excitement built as I pedaled into the black abyss of the winding path that lay ahead, leading out of the city and into the forest. Within minutes, houses bled away and I was truly alone.

There were forests to my left and right. It was so dark I couldn’t see the cliff right at the edge of the road I pulled along - slightly uphill. I suddenly realised the gravity of the situation - I couldn't see where I was going, and I was cold and desperate for a safe place to stop. A well lit fire station appeared around a bend and it was my haven. It was uninhabited, but well equipped. Through the windows I could see firefighting equipment and some tables, chairs. I took out my only towel, and spread it out under the watchful eye of a security camera in the middle of the small tarmac lot in front of the station. I stayed there, fading in and out of sleep for several hours, until the first light of the morning.

Newly energised, I biked with the sun as it rose. And I was enveloped in beauty. Without knowing it, I stumbled onto a path cutting through the forest along the cliff of the shoreline. To my right was the sound: radiant blue water dotted with islands shimmering in the early light. To my left was dense forest that rose high up into the mountains. I biked through the fragrance of cedar, fir and pine, only to turn another corner and found the view even better than before.

Technically, I had a lot of problems on this road. My inner tubes burst eight times and each time, I had to stop and put my new-found talents of tire and tube repair to the test. This was my proving ground. I removed my front and back wheels, pried my tires off the rims, patched the holes, replaced the tires back onto the rim, reattached the wheels, and reinflated the tires. I had become an expert at replacing tubes and tires - I can do the whole thing in one or two minutes now.

The segment ended quickly, leading me to flat green and yellow farmland that stretched for hours on end until I reached the next town. But this section of Chuckanut Drive will forever live in my mind - as the place where I found peace in riding a bike, where I learned the art of bicycle maintenance, and where I fell in love with riding in the night.

The North American cycling experience

This Nike ad from years ago sums up the North American cycling experience.


NIKE "MAGNET" (90) from weights&pulleys on Vimeo.

I'm fortunate to have experienced a stretch of road similar to the foresty path at around 0:51.

Where are you go - trailer

When I feel sad or lose momentum, I watch this:



The waves in South Africa (1:58) entice me to go and explore.