ASME HPVC East starts tomorrow (Friday) at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI. Alas, this year I am not able to join the team.
Most of the team shipped out tonight with the bike. Here are a couple of photos since the last post.
Danielle relacing a wheel while discussing drivetrain with Victor, who is not working on his thesis.
Victor and Alfie working on the bike.
Ooooh, pretty taillights!
Drivetrain is in, aside from chain management around the seat.
Cam shows up for the last push, as the team starts thinking about packing.
At the time of this writing, I am hoping that the team is most of the way to Big Rapids. The bike is still not quite complete, but on the bright side, it has actually been painted before the meet. Good luck this weekend folks!
Earth Day seemed to be a good occasion to check on the progress of the sakura in High Park.
There are buds now, but they are still behind where they were last year on April 2. Of course last spring was anomalously early. I’d say the blooms are about two weeks away, which would be typical timing.
The City has already put up some portapotties in anticipation of the crowds. I predict a need for more trash cans.
These sakura on the northeast corner of Harbord and Huron usually bloom about a week before the ones in High Park. You can see that they still have a ways to go.
You can get frequent updates on the sakura situation at this website.
Thanks Reverend Vicki! She blessed my new bike, getting it off to a good start.
Thanks also to Tino for organizing this, as well as Geoffrey for tightening my headset afterwards. I also see from Tino’s photos that Hamish was helping people wheel their bikes up the ramp.
Henry Mejia was killed by a drunk driver on Saturday, April 13, 2013. The driver came off the 401 at the Kennedy southbound ramp, blew through a red light, hitting Henry, who was thrown 40 m, and then crashed into several motor vehicles until he came to a stop.
Today, about fifteen of us rode from Bloor and Spadina to the crash site and back.
The only reason Geoffrey is smiling is that he doesn’t have to haul a ghost bike 20 km to the crash site. A friend of the deceased already put one up within a few days after the crash.
Hamish talks to the media.
One of the things that made this memorial ride extraordinary was that a brother and nephew of the deceased showed up to ride with us. They were riding department store bikes and were determined to go the distance. The nephew had a duffle bag of water bottles slung over his shoulder. I suggested that he put it on my front rack so that he would have an easier time with the ride. At Bloor and Sherbourne, a cousin also joined us.
Just as we get started, the wind picked up, and snow started to fly.
Once past the viaduct, we turned left on Broadview, and then cut east along the Cosburn Ave. bike lane. I was reminded of another memorial ride in this area a few years ago. Then we turned left on Woodbine and up the hill on O’Connor. The brother’s bike was sounding particularly poorly, so we bought a can of oil at a gas station, oiled the chains on the three supercycles, and Derek spent a moment being bicycle repairman, as befits his role as a cycling hero.
Then north on Victoria Park, which put us in heavy traffic.
After a few blocks of unpleasant cycling, we reached the west end of the multiple use trail on the Gatineau hydro corridor, which was new territory for me.
Here is a signalized crossing. Pharmacy Rd, if I recall correctly.
Note that the pedestrian and bike crossings are clearly distinct. There are also fancy bike racks across the street.
I was particularly pleased to see separate push buttons positioned appropriately for both pedestrians and cyclists. This is the deceased’s brother and nephew, waiting for the light.
Here is a yield crossing at a smaller street.
It being rather cold and windy, there were not any pedestrians on the trail, and only the occasional runner.
The bike trail carried us all the way to Kennedy, and then it was due north again in heavy traffic.
There was a crowd of family and friends at the ghost bike site when we arrived.
The cousin ties a MADD ribbon to the bike.
The young nephew who rode with us.
Mr. Mejia’s father made a short statement. Here, he is standing with the brother who rode to the right.
Tino is decorating the ghost bike.
This sign shows how far this intersection is from being a “complete street”.
On the ride back into a stiff headwind, here we are once again taking our lives into our own hands by the simple act of crossing the street where we are unceremoniously dumped into heavy traffic at the west end of the bike corridor.
Rest in peace, Henry Mejia. Deepest condolences to friends and family, and thanks for allowing us to be a small part of a remembrance to him today. Special thanks to the relatives who rode with us.
The team is using the same construction technique as last year, with a shell laid up over a male form, outside finished, and then the foam inside removed. Here Danielle is demonstrating that there is plenty of room in the shell. The door and window openings were used to remove the foam.
Here is a pile of removed foam.
The team is now working on bonding in drivetrain components.
Outside the shop, the canoe team was busy sanding.
Meanwhile, this weekend, ASME HPVC West is happening in the Bay Area. Rose Hulman and Missouri S&T look strong as usual. Cal Poly SLO has a leaning trike design. Rose Hulman has posted some pictures here.
There was a cryptic posting to Facebook last week about an opportunity to ride with Clara Hughes at the lakefront for a promotional video project. Since they were looking for a range of cyclists, I signed up my daughter and I on the Family Tandem. The event was “rain or shine”, and the forecast for rain pretty much came true.
Riding down the hill towards the lake, I realized that my daughter was not wearing her raincoat. It wasn’t raining yet, and we were going to be late, so I made a deal with her that if it started raining, we would stop, and she would put on my rain jacket. I had rain pants and gloves for her as well. We just forgot her jacket at the last minute.
Here she is wearing my jacket.
Once we arrived at Marilyn Bell Park, we saw a camera crew and a small crowd of cyclists huddled under some trees. It was raining in earnest now.
By the time that Clara arrived and we were ready to shoot, there were about 50 cyclists. The drill was to ride back and forth by the lake, past the camera. Here we are setting up for the first pass. Clara is in the teal jacket. The camera crew is just visible over Joey’s (the fellow with the bucket panniers) right shoulder.
On one of the passes, we were told to ride out some distance (say about 5 minutes) while a helicopter took some aerial shots. We turned around just before the Ontario Place parking lot and headed back. Here the peloton is getting ready to do another pass.
Clara was very friendly, and apologetic that we had to ride back and forth again and again. She even lent her rain jacket to a kid before the start of shooting. (he is just behind Clara in the photo). After the slightly longer ride back and forth to Ontario Place, my daughter was cold and miserable, and I was feeling guilty about dragging her out on such a rainy and cold afternoon, so we headed back home. I guess at some point we’ll find out if any of the shots we were in are used. Although it should have been nice to talk to Ms. Hughes, it was thrilling enough to be able to just ride with her, even if it was for about a kilometer or so all told. I see that Wayne posted a picture with her on facebook.
One side note about riding in the rain. Once I handed over the rain jacket, I was wearing a thin, long sleeve wool jersey over a thin wool Icebreaker T-shirt. It wasn’t raining very heavily until the very end, and I didn’t feel all that wet on top. The wool did a good job of shedding a surprising about of water and keeping me warm in any case. My pants were the Levi’s commuters. They soaked through after about half an hour in the rain, which was similar to what I’ve experienced with the Outlier Climbers or Dungarees.
UPDATE (April 26) This is part of Clara’s Big Ride, just announced by Bell.
The Toronto footage appears at 2:20, and if you look closely, you’ll see a red kidback tandem with the stokid wearing a bright yellow and black jacket
ASME East is in three weeks. The HPVDT has been busy with the shell of the new bike since the last post on March 17.
Here, the inner layup has been done, and the team is putting on the foam that will fill the reinforcing ribs.
Watch out, Calvin has a knife! After the foam was fitted, they applied resin and vacuum bagged the whole thing.
Here is the result after some sanding of the foam.
Here, the second layup over the foam has been done, and they are smoothing the surface of the shell. Next, they’ll cut out the window and door, and then they will be ready to start bonding in the interior components.
