A Banff bike ride with the extended family

The extended family met up in Banff, and today we rented some bikes to take a spin around the Banff golf course: a lightly travelled paved loop.  We started on the 200 block of Bear Street, which was billed as a woonerff.

In reality, they removed some parking spaces and made some patios and bike parking, but the car through traffic didn’t seem to pay much attention to the fact that they didn’t have the right of way all the time. On the plus side, there were three bike rental companies on this short block.

Here is our group getting staged.

and we’re off, headed to a multi use trail along the Bow river.

Along the river.

Pausing for a group photo on the new pedestrian/bike bridge which is just a little ways from the old crossing.

Passing a horse drawn carriage.

Regrouping after a pause at the foot of Bow Falls.

Between us, we had rented three of these Fiori tandems, which are made by Norco.

The golf course loop is a peaceful ride through beautiful scenery.

lunch break by the river

and we’re off again.

My nephew always wants to be in the lead.

Unfortunately, Dad’s stance on his tandem didn’t afford him a great view of scenery.

Mom was my stoker for most of the ride.

Just before the end, I switched stokers to younger daughter, and there was a noticeable uptick in speed.

Pausing at the top of the climb by Bow Falls.

And back across the river.

Banff seems to be trying to promote cycling, There are certainly a few really nice pieces of infrastructure such as the bridge, as well as the path between Banff and Canmore. In the town itself, most of the bike routes had wayfinding signage and sharrows. The main safety enhancement is that the speed limit in town has been lowered to 30 kph, and by the way the traffic was moving, it seemed to be enforced.