Monday, April 22, 2019

Bicycle Riding, New Passion

E-bike riding, Sunshine Coast BC
Specialized Turbo Vado, New Passion

It's been a very long time since I've ridden a bike. As a child and teenager, I lived on my bikes. Then I had a pretty terrible accident on the way to school, and never really felt like getting back in the saddle.

Moving to the Sunshine Coast, BC, my wife REALLY enjoys biking around, and has frequently urged me to join her. We have hills here, A LOT of hills, and narrow roads, and well... I did not feel like doing that at all, with memories of my bad crash still haunting me, too.

But then I looked into e-bikes. I do love technology. In fact, my love of technology, and the thought of effortlessly defeating our local steep hills, lead me to getting my e-bike. Never looking back (well, I do have a rearview mirror!), as I quickly discovered it is a lot of fun to explore on a bike.

Above, reaching my destination on an early morning ride. It turns out early morning is a great time to ride, before there is much traffic on the roads. My one gripe is that the Sunshine Coast is very poor, as far as road biking. If there happens to be a bike lane, it is narrow, and generally full of gravel, branches, trash. Most often, there is no special bike lane, and the secondary roads tend to be curvy and narrow-- not ideal. I'm pretty cautious (yes, memories of that accident...), and hope to enjoy this new hobby without incident. The bright green swimming noodle on the back of my bike is an idea stollen from a cyclists in Toronto: it makes me more visible, and encourages cars to keep some distance when passing. I do notice a significant improvement since attaching it.



Morning bicycle route, Sunshine Coast BC
My Early Morning Route from Yesterday

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