Vancouver By Bike

Vancouver By Bike, a set on Flickr.

Still recovering from an awesome weekend that included a [really] quick trip out to Vancouver to see Gerhard and some friends on the west coast. We had such a good time -- maybe because we knew we didn't have a long time -- so I submit to you our adventures by bike in Vancouver in photo-essay form. The weather was supposed to be rainy, but ended up sunny, so when Myrosha offered up cruisers and himself as a tour-guide extraordinaire, we were helpless to resist.

The night before we had an amazing dinner up in Squamish. A couple of little tykes have been added to the group so they provided the night's entertainment while we all talked about how old we're getting. Oh Time, you devil, you.

Anyway, nothing fixes up my soul better than a drive through Sea to Sky country ... besides maybe a day on bikes so I was pretty pumped by the time I red-eyed home Sunday night. Hope you enjoy the photos, and if you're in Vancouver, make sure you do the same.

For My Fellow Writers and Editors

This is my new favourite entry in the lolcat-meme continuum.

To Catch A Bike Thief: Episode 1 Now Online!

My old rowing-friend Ingo has gone all the way to Vancouver, where he's swapped boats for bikes (it happens to the best of us.) Another happenstance we have in common is bike theft. I admit, I don't know any of Ingo's [many] bike theft stories, but I do have one of my own.

It was a Raleigh Tarantula. Purple. Grip shifts. I used to ride it to the beach for a day of swimming and frisbee. I rode it to my summer-job picking berries at Hi-Berry Farm. I rode it to music camp, racing along the rail trail with friends pretending we'd be the next Olympic mouintain bikers.

One day shortly after beginning my second year at U of T, I'd just spent a boat-load of money on new gears, rings and the like so it would be all the more fit to carry me to and from rowing practice. I lived in a high rise at the time, and bringing the bike up was sort of a nuisance, so one night I left it locked to the rack downstairs at Yonge and Bloor. My roommate (and mutual rowing friend of Ingo and mine), Ross, said someone would steal that bike in two seconds flat. I didn't believe him but the next morning the joke was on me. Even as I approached the empty bike rack, I refused to believe my eyes. I thought maybe I'd brought it up afterall ... or this wasn't the right rack. But eventually, as all of us who have lost a bike know, that heavy, sick feeling settled into my gut telling me I'd never see that beauty again. And also now getting to rowing practice was going to cost $20 in cabs.

If you know that shitty feeling, check out Ingo's new web-series, "To Catch A Bike Thief" in which he and his merry men (and women) chase down those lowly criminal-types who prey on the two-wheeled joy machines to find the answers to burning questions like:

- Why did you steal my bike?
- What are you going to do with it now that you've stolen it?
- How could I have prevented this whole thing?

And if you like what you see, help these guys out on their mission by visiting their indiegogo site and dropping a donation in the hat: http://www.indiegogo.com/To-Catch-a-Bike-Thief. The very first episode has dropped and you can watch it there as well, free of charge.

"Live Your Moksha" 7 Week Challenge

I just spent a few days in California and while I had a good time surfing, relaxing and spending time with G, even the palm trees and sunny weather couldn't penetrate my cloudy attitude.

That just won't do -- life's too short to get stuck in "broody Kristen" mode.

So perhaps as an answer to my new-found awareness, the universe plopped this in my lap. And I'm looking for some moral support. I'm calling it "Spring Cleaning" but for the soul. The yoga studio hosting the challenge is calling it "Living Your Moksha."

It's seven weeks long, and focused on "yoga off the mat" — one week for each of the seven pillars. In their intro they say, "Yoga is not just something you do, but something you are. It’s in the way we talk to people, wait in long line ups, how we eat, even how we argue." I'm hoping to add a bit of that yogi peace to my day-to-day — because goodness knows I am not talking, waiting, eating or arguing with any kind of grace or eloquence lately. And hey, they're even promising some magic.

We get our challenges delivered to our inboxes and then it's up to us to put our minds to completing them. Stuff like:

• Be Healthy Challenge: No processed foods/toxins in the home


• Live Green Challenge: 7 days of vegetarian/vegan eating


• Be Peace Challenge: 1 hour of silence daily

I am really hoping I can convince one of you out there to join me in this — it starts May 1 and it's only $10 to sign up, plus whatever costs you need to cover for yoga classes (though that's not the focus of the challenge). Some Moksha studios are apparently even offering a discount. If you want to know more about the challenge, check out their website, or the facebook community.

Hope you'll think about joining me!

Namaste, Bitches.

A Close Friend Turns Ten

It's 2012, and that means my old friend, Road Bike, is now a healthy ten years old. If I had my way, I'd never get a new one -- but that's not how aluminium works.

So I started mucking around on the Trek site and have now wasted a couple glorious hours in the Project One area specifically. I've been there before trying to see just how boss a price tag I could rack up on a bicycle (I think I broke $20,000 one day ... probably even easier to do now) but never with the intention of shopping.

Til now!

Here's what I came up with for a first draft -- Waaay more bike than I need for my purposes, but just enough to get me through another ten years. Suggestions welcome! Or if you'd like to customize one of these beauties for yourself, go to http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/collections/custom_project_one.

Drivetrain Gruppo: SRAM Force Compact PG-1070
Wheels: Race X Lite Clincher (tires: Bontrager R3, white)
Stem: Race X Lite
Headset: Cane Creek IS2 Carbon
Handlebar: Race X Lite Blade Isozone
... and most important: it's PURPLE (to match my mountainbike, of course).

Believe in Yourselves, Kids!

This came up [again] in my day-to-day. Such a welcome little message of hope on the virtues of learning to ride a bike, as well as a shout out to rock and roll. It's the kind of video I don't mind watching again, and again.

Thanks, kid.

Rides of Hope: How one man is using mountain biking in the wilds of Israel to connect with young inmates

This story was both inspiring and heart-breaking — I got choked up within the first four minutes. I am so glad I stumbled upon it, though it's been out there in the world waiting for me since April 2010. It's a story about a man in Israel, who is a computer programmer by way of profession, but who also happens to enjoy mountain biking, and how he is making a difference, one Tuesday afternoon at a time.

He walks by the state prison one day, and thinks there must be something he can do to help the kids there who have lost their way. So with the help of a warden he organizes mountain bike rides for ten of the young inmates at a time. It didn't start off so well — he admits, "I’m used to algorithms and data structures and super motivated students, and nothing in my background prepared me to deal with a raging, violent adolescent in the middle of nowhere.”

But together, they learned their way around each other. "When a kid like this gets into a fit, the best thing you can possibly do is stay as close as possible. It's difficult, because what you really want to do is go away — but that's what he's had all his life; people walking away from him."

He links the act of mountain biking to the act of falling in love with ourselves, leadership, and empathy. His name is Shimon Schocken, and these are his Rides of Hope.