My Year on Bikes 2022

Another year gone by, another 8000 km or so. A record distance over the year, just a bit beyond what I did the past two years, despite the fact that I did fewer long rides. Cyclemeter says I’m a bit over 8500 km, whereas veloviewer gives a slightly smaller total.

January:

I took advantage of a cold snap to ride the clear ice on Grenadier Pond in the course of testing out some pants. I could hear the ice sing.

Local bike advocate Janet Joy Wilson took a new job in the Big Apple, so she invited a few of us along for a group ride to mark the occasion.

Late January was unusually cold, and so I ventured out to Toronto Island to ride on the ice in the canals, with a bit of crunchy snow on top.

February:

Lots of local protests in support of the freedom convoy in Ottawa disrupted traffic in the downtown area on weekends. Didn’t affect biking so much.

March:

TCBC organized a ride to show support for extending the Bloor bike lanes all the way into Mississauga. The group was small because the ride had been postponed due to weather at the last minute, but some cyclists showed up anyway. So we went ahead and rode out from Runnymede and were met with a group coming the other direction at the bridge over Etobicoke Creek.

The official ride on March 20 happened with a much larger group including Midori and I on the tandem.

April:

I made a quick trip out to Portland for a wedding, and also checked out two cargo bike shops that I missed during my last visit, one of which was Splendid Cycles.

Cycle Toronto organized a ride to celebrate the success of the bike lanes on Shaw St. We were joined by long time supporter Councillor Mike Layton.

May:

Bike for Mike 2002 had rainy weather, but nevertheless I had a good time, and it was for a good cause.

May the fourth was the perfect day for a Star Wars themed ride.

I explored a bit of the Uxbridge to Lindsay rail trail. Didn’t make it as far as Neverland.

The Ride of Silence was back in person for the first time in three years but I was not able to attend.

The first ghost bike ride of the year was for Joshua Okoeguale, a 16 year old who was killed in Oshawa.

The annual bike month group commute was back this year.

HPVDT had a chance to test their tandem bike at a wind tunnel at Western University.

June:

The annual fund raising bike ride on the Gardiner and DVP was rebranded the Ride for Brain Health. I was doing ride support with TBN as per usual, but I also met up with colleagues from my department at the beginning.

A quick trip to Hamilton to see a promotion of the Keddy Access Trail.

July:

I had a streak of continuous days of bike riding that stretched back to Boxing Day 2020, but somehow I forgot to ride on July 1, so my streak ended at 517 days.

A quick trip to Woodstock NY to go to a concert by Nexus percussion. Got in some riding by the Ashokan Reservoir. Got to see the stage where 4′ 33″ was premiered.

Got a Switch e-bike conversion. Initial impressions were positive.

A ghost bike ride in Hamilton for Brian Woods, who was killed riding to his work at Limeridge Mall.

Doing a little exploring by bike of an unimproved section of the Etobicoke Creek Trail.

Another Burlington to Niagara ride with TBN.

Mike Layton decides not to run for re-election. The cycling community in Toronto has lost one of its strongest advocates.

August:

A number of years ago, I was on an organized ride from Seattle to Vancouver, but due to a flat tire and other issues, I ended up completing the ride but leaving a gap of about 100 km. I went back this year to fill in that gap. It was punishingly hot, but there was ice cream at the end.

Some nice gravel riding on the left coast.

A ride to promote safety on Parkside Drive, and to protest police ticketing of cyclists in High Park.

A TBN ride to Lake Simcoe.

September:

Testing our tandem speedbike at Downsview.

The World Human Powered Speed Challenge was back this year after two years of cancellations. Unfortunately our tandem crashed and we did not set any records.

Cycle Toronto organized fund raising rides in different areas of the city. I rode with the Scarborough group.

October:

A night time march down Yonge St to promote road safety.

A gravel ride between Belwood and Luther Marsh.

A ride with TBN during peak fall colours.

Third ghost bike ride of the year, this time near Streetsville.

Pre Halloween ride with the Neon Riders.

Hallowe’en Bike Parade.

November:

Checking out another section of the G2G trail.

The annual ride to remember Road Traffic Victims. It was cold and windy.

A TBN ride from Hamilton to home.

Dammit, we couldn’t get through one year without a ghost bike installed in Toronto. RIP Kartik Saini.

December:

Another ride down Yonge St with Santa.

A pair of pogies arrived from a small company in Ukraine, naturally in the colours of Ukrainian Flag.

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I’ll also note in passing that an updated map of all ghost bike locations in the GTA has been posted. Thanks to Ingrid Buday for her work on this.

For some year end coverage of some of the upgrades to bike infra and associated public consultations for future projects, visit Rob Z’s blog.

Also see this year end summary from David Shellnut, the Biking Lawyer.

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Wishing you all a safe year for 2023, with plenty of tailwinds!

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One more TBN ride for the year

With the weather forecast for today being very promising, Terry Walsh organized a Program X ride. Keeping in mind that there was a strong wind out of the southwest, he planned a route starting from the West Harbour GO station in Hamilton to Clarkson GO, so that most of the ride would be with a tailwind.

I boarded at Mimico.

Here we are at West Harbour GO.

Terry leads us up Bay St.

The section through the centre of downtown has a protected bidirectional lane.

Starting up the escarpment on the rail trail.

Nice weather. Going up the escarpment it became apparent that most of the group would be at an Urban Roller pace, so I rode ahead.

The route back west on the mountain was along Limeridge. It used to be a continuous street, but after the Linc was built, they cut Limeridge up into sections. Here is the interruption at Upper Gage, with bike and pedestrian through traffic allowed.

Paying my respects at the Brian Woods ghost bike at Upper Wentworth.

One issue with Limeridge for cyclists is that you have to cross some pretty nasty interchanges. Here you see that Jimmy and Carol are crossing with a green light at the crosswalk, but there is no protection or signage on the high speed on ramp in the foreground.

All good.

I took a one block detour to take a picture of the house where I grew up. That tree in the front yard was a sapling when we bought the house. It is roughly the same age as my youngest brother (i.e. a little over 50 years old)

On the Keddy.

On Hunter St. Jimmy commented that the route should be called Tour de Hamilton.

Once we hit York Blvd, I took advantage of the strong tailwind, and went off the front. Just a few more pictures from the rest of the ride.

The route back avoided Lakeshore Drive, and took me through parts of Burlington and Oakville that I had never seen. Here is a trail in Burlington.

Just past Brant St is the start of the Centennial Trail.

This is what passes for a multiuser trail along Rebecca. Oakville, you can do better.

After crossing Winston Churchill, the route takes me on the Nine Creek Trail.

This branch off to the south leaves to a bunch of ramps for jump bikes, similar to the Sunnyside bike park.

It was nice to be on a peaceful trail after the short bit of nasty busy traffic on Winston Churchill.

The official route ended at Clarkson GO, after about 70 km, but I decided I might as well ride all the way home. Here I am almost there.

102 km for the day. I didn’t think that I’d be able to get in another long ride this season. I could count this one as my birthday ride.

Thanks to Terry for organizing, and planning a very interesting route. Thanks also to Jimmy and Carol for company. I hope everyone else had a good time.

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Ghost bike ride for Brian Woods

Brian Woods was riding his bike on his way to work when he was hit and killed by a driver, early on the morning of July 5, 2022. Today was a ghost bike ride and installation in his memory. Since this was the first one that ARC did in Hamilton, the logistics were a bit different than usual. Here, the van is loaded up and we are ready to hit the road.

Unloading the bikes just around the corner from the start.

The starting point was Southam Park, at the top end of the Keddy Access Trail. Here, Mark Anderson (board member of Cycle Hamilton) is addressing the crowd.

I liked these shirts. Apparently one of these fellows is a mayoral candidate.

I was asked as a cyclist how seeing a ghost bike would make me feel. I said that a ghost bike is not to remind cyclists to be careful, it is to remind drivers to be careful; when you are in a two ton metal box travelling at speed, a moment’s inattention can result in death or serious injury to a pedestrian or cyclist. BTW it has been a bad first half the year for Hamilton, with Brian’s death being the 12th fatality for a vulnerable road user.

Here I am outlining the route for the ride, and letting people know that there will be bike Marshalls at the beginning and the end of the group of cyclists. In addition, Tracy Woods-Wilkinson very kindly offered to drive behind us to block traffic from trying to overtake.

photo: Albert Koehl

And off we go.

photo: Albert Koehl

On Inverness, passing Tracy’s truck.

On Upper Wellington, about to turn left onto Limeridge Rd.

On Limeridge

Now approaching the cut de sac just short of Upper Wentworth.

Now crossing Upper Wentworth. There was no marked crosswalk on the on ramp, so much corking had to be done to get the group all the way across. Drivers were generally patient with us when they saw such a large group of cyclists.

Unloading and installing the ghost bike.

A representative of the family thanks the riders for coming.

A moment of silence for Brian.

Decorating the ghost bike and the pole.

In addition to the approximately 60 riders, there were almost an equal number of friends and family present at the installation site.

Now riding back as a group with some of the cyclists.

Here is a video showing a few segments of the ride.

Thanks to everyone who rode with us. Thanks also to Tracy for driving behind us with her truck, both on the way to and from the installation site. Thanks to Mark for representing Hamilton, and to Karl and Daniel for extra marshalling. It was also nice to see several of the usual suspects from Toronto as well. Ironically, this was the most well attended ghost bike ride since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

Deepest condolences to Brian’s family and friends. I hope that they can take some small degree of comfort from the community support that was shown at the ride today.

A go fund me page has been set up for the family.

The City of Hamilton has been making some noises about making street design changes to improve safety. Council voted to consider a complete streets design manual. In somewhat of a more concrete step, they also recently voted to change Main St from one way to two way traffic. When this actually happens, that will be one down, King St. to go.

Updates:

CHCH coverage is here.

Spectator story: Memorial ride honours 52-year-old cyclist killed on Upper Wentworth

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Promoting the Keddy Access Trail

This past week I noticed this tweet mentioned a Bike Month event promoting the Keddy Access Trail.

Join members of the #Cycling Advisory Committee and City of #HamOnt in celebrating the Keddy Trail.

Doughnuts will be available, which you can promptly burn off by riding, rolling or running up the hill! pic.twitter.com/jYPuC7qWCm

— Chris Ritsma (@emptybikelane) June 10, 2022

I had visited the trail twice before, but I thought it would be nice to join in and show my support as a Toronto cyclist.

These two cheery volunteers from Smart Commute Hamilton were dispensing refreshments at the access point off of the east end of St. Joseph’s Drive.

I had a nice conversation with Chris (in the Hawaiian shirt) from the Hamilton Cycling Committee.

When I remarked that I had seen a lot of improvement in bike infrastructure in Hamilton, and the fact that their downtown was relatively compact compared to TO, he countered with the fact that when a bike lane gets installed in Toronto, many cyclists are immediately seen using it, which is not necessarily the case in Hamilton. We both agreed that the pace of installation in both cities is slower that we would like. He also mentioned that the HSR Mountain Climber program was pretty popular. A cyclist at a specially marked stop close to the bottom of the escarpment can rack their bike and then ride the bus for free to the first stop after the mountain access.

To his right is Councillor Danko whose ward is the West Mountain. Here’s another picture of Councillor Danko at the refreshment table.

When I mentioned that bike lanes on the mountain were comparatively sparse, he replied that he hoped that bike lanes would be installed on Upper Wellington from the mountain brow to Rymal Rd. He said it was a natural north-south route since it did not link with the Linc. Even better if that would be accompanied with some degree of protection for the bike lanes on the Jolley Cut which is the mountain access connected to Upper Wellington. Note that the Jolley Cut bike lanes are also connected to the Keddy.

I was happy to see that the donuts being provided were an independent shop called Grandad’s Donuts. I was told that they use recipes similar to the original Tim Horton’s, and I could see that their donuts were much bigger than the current offering at TH. Very yummy as well.

I biked up to the end of the W5th access to see if the state of the trail had changed. Regrettably I saw that the end is just connected to a sidewalk.

I saw that the bike lane markings at this point had faded away during the past few years. This is what it looked like back in Dec 2020.

Smooth sailing down the mountain.

On the way back down, I stopped by the booth again, and there were a few more people gathered. Here is a picture of several of the members of the cycling committee.

I had met Cora of Hamilton Trike (2nd from the left) on a trike ride around the harbour a few years back. She had a crank forward bike that people were trying out from Phoenix Bike Wrx who took over bike production from Rans.

This fellow rode up on a bike designed by Kris, the owner of Cafe Domestique in Dundas.

Riding down to the bottom of the trail, I was very happy to see that it was connected to the Hunter St bike lanes that were not there two years ago.

This is an interesting implementation that I’ve not seen in TO: a bi directional lane buffered by parked cars.

At any rate, it was nice to check out the Keddy access trail once again, and to meet some of the local cycle activists.

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Bike for Mike 2022

Today was the 12th annual Bike for Mike ride. The theme this year was Music and Motion, and funds were being collected to support The Daily School Route, and Hamilton Music Collective. Here I am, getting set to do the 50K route.

Not sure why I’m smiling, since we are about to bike through this big yellow blob of rain. Also note the temperature.

Event organizer Mark Chamberlain tells us that we will start dry and end dry (except for beer). He says that this year’s event is all about youth mental health, and the positive effects of both exercise and music on the brain. And he sends us on our way.

The lead group takes off right away.

Skirting the harbour on the Waterfront Trail.

Under the high level bridge and the QEW on our way to Princess Point.

Aberdeen and Longwood.

First rest stop at the top of the escarpment climb, at Brewer’s Blackbird.

On Sulphur Springs Rd. I’m going for 50K.

At the scenic view near the top of Sydenham Rd, AKA Clara’s Climb.

The ride down is a bit of a white knuckle ride. There were plans to have bike lanes installed along this stretch, but these plans were cancelled, in favour of bike infrastructure along Old Ancaster Rd and Ogilvie Dr. This latter place is an important connector between central Dundas and the Hamilton Brantford Railtrail.

Sorry I didn’t take a picture of the second rest stop in a parking lot beside Cafe Domestique.

Catching up to some 25 km riders in Westdale. Good to see some family biking.

Bayfront Park was the turnaround point for the 5 km route. There was a barbershop quartet bravely singing in the rain while seated in a quadricycle.

All done.

This is a Cherry Pie Sour from Collective Arts Brewing. Most people were seated inside.

Lunch was tacos from Jonny Blonde. Very yummy.

Had a nice chat with these fine folks from Hamilton Music Collective. They are doing important work bringing music into schools, with a focus on underserved neighbourhoods.

Yes, the weather could have been better, but I was dressed for success, and I will also note that I was the only rider on the 50 km route that had fenders.

A big thanks to all the volunteers. It was probably more difficulty keeping warm while you were standing around rather than riding.

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Riding from Hamilton to Caledonia with some gravel

Today I decided to do an abbreviated version of a 100K route that I found on RidewithGPS that went from Hamilton to Caledonia. I started taking pictures at the north end of the Chippewa rail trail, on the northeast corner of Dartnall and Stone Church. (I rode this trail once before)

The signage gets fancier once you cross into Haldimand County.

The rail trail ends at Haldimand Road 66, although according to this sign a walking trail continues to the south. The route turns you to the left at this point.

A few kilometres on road brings you to this road, looking east from a traffic circle. At this point, you will have your back to a huge very unsubtle sign marking a new subdivision called “Avalon”. The road is gated closed, but you need to ride on.

Just a kilometre or so on there is the entrance to the Gypsum Mine Trail: yet another arrow straight rail trail.

The strava route turns you south on Stoney Creek Road, but I found myself continuing on the rail trail to see where it goes.

The trail ends at Haldimand Road 9, and you can turn right towards the river. There is a nice wide shoulder.

As you approach the Grand River, you pass through the village of York. The road dead ends at Front St. Turn right, and then just about 500 m there is a turn off to the Rotary Riverfront Trail. It is not well marked approaching while riding west. This picture was taken looking back east at the turnoff.

Great to see this family biking the other direction.

After passing a paved section through the hamlet of Sims Locks, you are directed onto the main road, but there is a trail that parallels this busy street.

A bit of a steep slope takes you down to the trail.

The route continues on River St, and then more trail. The trail ends at Seneca St, and then you take some side streets through Caledonia.

You are directed north out of town on Argyle St, and then turn left onto a Service Road that is gravel. It turns out that this stretch is where the city stores some road construction materials, and it is probably not good to pass through during working hours. Here is the road passing under the HWY 6 bypass.

When you reach the end at Mines Rd, you might have to lift your bike over a fence.

Going a short distance south on Mines Rd, you are then directed onto a very rough path just past the railway tracks You can see it to the left on the photo below. Note the huge potholes filled with water.

It had rained quite heavily the previous day, and there were a lot of boggy bits. I should have taken this abandoned jeep as a warning.

Here is one of the more ridable sections.

I managed to make it to a gravel extension of Harrison Road, and then there is an ATV track marked as providing access to some hydro towers.

I had to walk up this bit. (also visible in the photo above)

At the top, in the middle of nowhere.

Once I reached Onondaga Townline Rd, I bailed on the continuation of the ATV track. There was quite a bit of sticky mud that I had to clear from my fenders. I eventually rejoined the route on Mulligan Rd.

The remainder of the loop joins onto the Hamilton-Brantford Rail Trail. You can read about my previous ride on this section here.

The bike was credibly dirty at the end of the ride.

I do admit that close fender clearance is not ideal for muddy conditions, and I am also reminded that having the fender stays running inside the fenders is not ideal. But at least the fenders kept most of the mud off my clothes.

Strava says that this was “harder than your usual effort”. A good day nonetheless.

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the Keddy Access Trail is now open

About a month ago I previewed the Keddy Access trail in Hamilton before it was officially open. At that point in time, there was still work to be done at the top end of the trail. This past Friday, Cycle Hamilton announced that the trail was officially open. This morning I took a few pictures of the top end of the trail to update my previous post.

Here is the end of the spur on West 5th. It is unfortunate that the trail ends in a sidewalk. From this point north, W 5th is a high speed arterial with two lanes of car traffic in both directions, and needless to say, it is not bike friendly, even though Google Maps seems to think otherwise. I do understand that there are plans to extend some kind of trail or bike lane as far as Brantdale, which means at least you can take back streets as far north south as Fennell.

The sign directing pedestrians to the left will make sense a little further along the trail.

A few hundred meters along the pedestrians are separated from bike traffic.

For parts of the West 5th spur, the road surface has not been improved. My guess is that since this part is elevated, they couldn’t pave over the expansion joints. However, you can see that a little further on, the surface has been repaved.

The crossing that allows the trail to access Southam Park.

A brand new ramp gives access to the park.

Looking back from the top of the ramp.

From the top of the ramp, you can go north south on this paved pathway, or go east west to join onto Claremont Drive.

The paved path leads to Inverness Ave.

During the few minutes that I spent biking around and taking these pictures, I saw at least three other cyclists checking things out, this on a rather cold windy morning. I’d say that this trail is going to be a huge success. The only disappointment is the lack of safe bike infrastructure to connect the top end to Hamilton Mountain. The difference in bike infrastructure downtown and on the mountain is pretty stark, and I imagine this has to do with the preferences of the local councillors. We have similar issues in Toronto, with the Brimley bike lanes just being in the process of being removed this past week.

CBC coverage. ‘I think he would have been thrilled’: Family grateful Jay Keddy’s name lives on in trail

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Previewing the Keddy Access Trail

Back in December 2015, schoolteacher Jay Keddy was killed while cycling up the Claremont Access by being struck from behind. Fast forward several years, and the City of Hamilton decided to put a bi directional protected bike lane along this busy route up the mountain, and that they would name it after Mr. Keddy. I had heard that the bike lane would be opened late this fall and so I took the opportunity while I was in town to take a look at the state of construction.

This website is the best overview of the project that I have found. I will be referring to the connection numbers that are indicated here.

Here is the view from Southam Park, which is practically at the top of the trail. Still a busy construction site, but if you look carefully, you can see a cyclist who has ridden up the trail to this point, where the trail is still gated off.

The upbound lanes where closed due to construction, so I was able to ride down around the construction to the same point. This was the view down the mountain. This was going to be fun.

A few minutes later, approaching downtown.

Back in the day, I would occasionally ride from the west mountain down to Hamilton Collegiate Institute for Grade 13, and it was not much fun. The thing that I remember more than all the high speed car traffic was all the road debris that fortunately did not cause any flat tires.

Here is the connection to Hunter Street (connection #1). It is gated off as well, but clearly you can get past the gate rather easily. You can also see a preview of the bike lane parkings that might be used on the trail?

Coming back up the trail, here is the connection to St. Joseph’s Drive (connection #3).

This new MUP trail is complete, but it is gated off at the end. This is the view from this entrance back up towards the access.

Here is one of the connections to the road leading up the Jolley Cut (connection #4).

Connection #5 is a way for cyclists to cross the offramp leading to West 5th Ave. The first photo in this post shows the state of construction. The signal lights have already been installed.

image source

The stretch of bike lane that goes along the West 5th ramp is also still under construction.

Here is where it will end and connected onto West 5th.

Very much looking forward to seeing this spectacular piece of bike infrastructure complete. One hopes that this will spur the installation of more bike lanes on Hamilton Mountain, which are very sparse in comparison to the downtown areas.

Nov 30 update: the W5th spur is still under construction, but the main section up to Southam Park is now open. Word is that there will not be a formal opening ceremony until it is possible post COVID.

The Keddy Access Trail is “soft-launched”, gate is open! pic.twitter.com/ok05n8PepJ

— Keddy Access Trail (@KeddyTrail) November 29, 2020

Today I walked up the @KeddyTrail for the first time. 5 years ago today we lost my dad Jay Keddy here. I miss him so much and although it does not bring him back I am so glad this trail is now here for everyone’s safe transportation. pic.twitter.com/jOwWRyRiAU

— Katharina Keddy (@katkeddy) December 2, 2020

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Exploring a bit of Dundas Valley

A couple of weeks ago, someone named Yann posted an interesting looking loop around the Dundas Valley, and what interested me was that he climbed the escarpment going west from Chedoke along the Bruce trail. I’ve climbed going east from downtown towards Albion Falls as part of the Hambur Loop, but this was new ground. I put together a short ride that featured that climb, and looped back along the Hamilton-Brantford Rail Trail for the section between Ancaster and Hamilton (which was the only section of the trail that I had not done).

ridewithGPS link

I started in West Hamilton in the Fortino’s parking lot. Technically the rail trail is routed through this parking lot, and here is where it exits on the east side.

A quick ride to the east for several kilometers brings you to a point where you are skirting the north edge of Chedoke Golf Course. Turn south on Beddoe Dr, and there will be a bit of climb ahead of you (this is the small steep bit that you can see on the altitude profile on the map).

At the top of the hill there is a parking lot, along with stairs leading up the rest of the way. There is also a trail entrance leading west.

A very nice multi use trail.

At the top, you can connect to Scenic Drive on the left. However, if you want to continue to Ancaster, take the left most gravel trail.

Nice and smooth.

The bridge over the 403.

A little disappointed that the west end of the bridge has stairs.

After a bit of riding on Filman Rd, you cross Mohawk here, and the trail continues a bit off to the left.

On the other side of Mohawk, you turn right onto Hiawatha which leads you to the Ancaster Radial Trail. It is straight shot to Wilson Ave, and then I went down Jerseyville Rd until I reached Ancaster Lions Outdoor Pool. Turning right into the parking lot.

Just on the other side of the building is the trailhead for the Spring Valley Trail.

Lots of nice gravel. A bit muddy in spots, and with all the fallen leaves making it a bit slippery, I might have been a bit more comfortable on a mountain bike. At points I wished that I was not running slick tires. However, if I had bypassed the trails, I would have missed out on scenery like this.

From Spring Valley I joined the Headwaters Trail, and then at one point, turned off onto Gravel Pit Road. Here is Gravel Pit Rd intersects the Hamilton Brantford Railtrail.

After the somewhat technical trail riding, the railtrail felt like a superhighway.

About 7 km from the end of the trail, there is a visitor centre. There are bathrooms here if you need them.

The rest of the ride into Hamilton was uneventful. I did detour a bit out of my way to take this picture of the intersection of Rifle Range and Whitney Ave. This was the site of Prince Phillip School, where I did kindergarden to about Grade 6. At the time of its closing, there was some unhappiness about having a school closed in this working class neighbourhood.

One of the only artifacts that I’ve kept from my time at this school was a camel that I made from asbestos modeling clay. Things were a bit different back in the day.

If you finish your ride in this vicinity, I will note that there are two brew pubs nearby. One is Fairweather, and other is Grain and Grit. Alas I had to drive back to Toronto, so I elected to take some beer to go. I’ll hit the other place next time.

If you wanted to do a similar ride without some of the trail riding, you can continue along Jerseyville Rd out of Ancaster, and eventually you will reach a point where the road intersects the rail trail. Then you can come back east along the rail trail, and the whole 39 km loop would then be doable on pretty much any road bike.

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Riding around the bay with 3RH

Before we moved back to a big city, we lived in semi rural Michigan for about eight years. During that time, a great deal of my recreational bike riding was on recumbents. So I was interested when I found a FB page for the Recreational Recumbent Riders of Hamilton (3RH). Today they had an around the bay ride, and I decided to join them.

We met at Bayfront Park. Here are Cora and Rob, both on ICE trikes. I dragged my Aiolos Speedlite out of the garage for the occasion. You can see that I misplaced my kickstand for the bike.

John took this group picture at the start.

The plan was to go clockwise around the bay. I did the HamBur loop a couple of years ago, and that version went up the mountain. Today’s ride will cut back through downtown. Here we go.

Just past Dundurn Castle.

At the high level bridge.

Crossing the 403 onramp was not fun. Not even any paint indicating where to cross.

Nice buffered bike lane on Plains Rd.

Nice view of the Skyway bridge.

Approaching the high level bridge.

The multiuse path along the beach spit is always a great ride.

Do I look happy?

Rest break. We are joined by Donna on her orange Catrike.

She said this was an attachment so her dog could tow her trike.

A look at Rob’s homebrew electric drive with a brushless motor. He says that it is much more efficient than a hub motor.

A flock of birders waiting to see if they can get a glimpse of a brown booby.

Crossing QEW Niagara.

Meeting a recumbent rider that was not part of our group. I liked his leather tool sling.

Rob’s turn signals

Bike lane along Britannia.

Now turning onto Cannon St. The eastern portion of Cannon had bike lanes on both sides.

Short picture break at Tim Horton Stadium (that I will always think of as Ivor Wynne)

Just a few blocks past the stadium is where we transition to a bi direction bike lane on the south side of Cannon.

This protection along Cannon was new since the last time I rode along here. Note that the concrete curbs are more solid than the precast ones that are now common in Toronto.

One last group picture close to the starting point.

Thanks to Cora for organizing today’s ride. It was a nice easy pace, and it was also a no drop ride.

Cora is also a trike and ‘bent dealer, and from the looks of her FB page, she has a very wide selection of trikes available.

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