Take The Lane

Share your cycling love: become a cycling instructor

Are you a cycle commuter, a touring cyclist, a club rider, an off-road enthusiast or just someone who enjoys the sound of bicycle tires on pavement?

Do you want to share that love of cycling? Do you want to earn some money doing it?

If you think you would enjoy mentoring others into the pleasures of cycling, you should consider taking the courses necessary to become a CAN-BIKE instructor.

CAN-BIKE is the national program for cycling education run by Cycling Canada. It’s offered to anyone (nine years of age and older) who wants to learn how to ride a bicycle, feel comfortable riding in cycling infrastructure and on streets, and refine the cycling skills he or she may already have.

I’ve written about the four levels of CAN-BIKE programs planned by the City of Waterloo for 2018. I haven’t written about Level 5, Instructor Training. This is an adult or young adult advanced program, with 24 hours of instruction and additional online components. This is not a free program: the national examiner who instructs the class will be paid, and there will be insurance and participant costs to be covered by each instructor candidate. But some of that will be subsidized by the sponsoring agency (usually a municipality).

Once you graduate as a certified instructor, you can earn about $25 to $30 an hour for private or group lessons. And there are opportunities for contract or part-time employment with municipalities that want to sponsor CAN-BIKE education programs as a part of their green transportation demand management initiatives or through their recreation budgets.

Instruction is usually done on evenings and weekends.

As well, there is a community of CAN-BIKE instructors who share ideas and support one another in delivering the programs.  

If you have any questions about the instructor program, you can check out the CAN-BIKE website, or drop me an email. As we roll into another winter, it may be time for you to think about taking your cycling enthusiasm to the next level.

You read it here first: new CAN-BIKE classes for 2018

I have in my hands — hot off the presses — a bundle of brochures for the Spring 2018 CAN-BIKE Course Offerings from the City of Waterloo.

At the moment, the City of Waterloo (a Silver Level City under the national Bicycle Friendly Community program) is the only municipality in the Waterloo Region to offer all four levels of the Cycling Canada-sponsored national cycling education program, aka CAN-BIKE.

If you are a knowledgeable cyclist who wants to take your road experience to the next level, book April 19, 21 and 26, 2018 on your calendar for CAN-BIKE Level 4: Advanced Cycling Skills. The class will have in-depth, hands-on experience about riding in complex traffic situations, included the daunting LRT tracks and traffic, as well as class time spent on cycling maintenance, tire repair and cycling theory.

For young people and adults who have no riding experience whatsoever (so "learn-to-ride without falling over" instruction) Level 1 Classes will be held Tuesday, May 1 and Thursday, May 3. These are compact, accessible evening classes. Level 2 Classes, which take you beyond learning to ride to get into cycling fundamentals and perhaps some road riding, will be held Wednesday, May 9 and Thursday, May 17. And the Level 3 Class, which adds layers of understanding and experience on and off your bicycle, is a two-part session: Thursday, May 24 and Saturday, May 26.

These courses will be taught at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex by qualified CAN-BIKE instructors (including yours truly) who have years of experience in helping people of all ages feel comfortable and confident riding bicycles. 

Join the cycling generation.

(If you want a copy of the brochure, send me your email and I'll flip you a PDF. Please note that the City of Waterloo CAN-BIKE website is not yet updated. When I said you are reading this here first, I meant it!)

Amidst all the Lycra, some urbane chic

It was a total surprise to find amidst all the Lycra and adrenalin-fuelled articles of the year-end edition of Canadian Cycling Magazine, a two-page article on Graham Roe and Kerri Krawec and their cultured and chic Berlin Bicycle Cafe adventure in Kitchener's Belmont Village.

Those who wear Lycra and wraparound sunglasses may indeed stop at the cafe to get their latte, Americano or other caffeine hit, or chow down on a sweet potato and black bean quesadilla or the ham and roasted pineapple sandwich, but the clientele seems to me to lean toward the city biking crowd with loose shirts, city cycling shoes and the time to talk, savour and thumb through some of the bicycle books or bicycle magazines left lying about.

The piece is essentially an interview with Roe, but the headline and main photo are about menu-mavin Krawec and her Smoky Barbecue Black Bean Burger. The recipe's in the article. You'll have to buy the magazine to get her secrets.

 

 

 

Low-cut bicycle socks: the thongs of footwear?

I was putting on my shoes when my partner noted, "You forgot your socks." 

I was wearing my low-cut DeFeet Argyle socks, that just peek over the edge of my cycle shoes. Not the same footprint as regular bicycle socks.

You might say that low-cuts are like the thongs of footwear: cheeky, personal, a flash of colour or insouciance, especially if worn with regular shoes and ordinary office wear.

High-cuts? Those are billboards. I like DeFeet's "Do Epic Shit" socks and the Sock Guy "WTF" high-cuts. I just have to watch where I wear them...

Yeah, I want one of these

Practically every time I look at an Xtracycle, I think: "What a great bicycle. How would I store it?"

So the U.S. veteran of cargo bicycles Xtracycle and the Taiwan-based bicycle maker Tern have paired up with a Kickstarter campaign to make a folding Tern/Xtracycle.

The video on the Kickstarter page is very appealing. And it appears that the campaign has exceeded its goal, although of course, the two companies would be happy to have more backers pile on. 

Bicycling for a better Waterloo

It was a happy group of people who gathered in the courtyard at Waterloo City Hall tonight, having ridden up and down King Street in a show of support for the proposed streetscape design to make the core more friendly to cyclists.

Key among the proposals is segregated bicycle lanes. This 2014 graphic from the TriTAG (Tri-Cities Transport Action Group) website makes the good arguments for segregated bike lanes in urban core areas.

I valued the segregated bicycle lanes I rode in Copenhagen, where cycling infrastructure supported cyclists and attracted more people to cycling as an alternative to motoring. The segregated bicycle lanes in Waterloo will be more of a gesture than a significant contribution to cycling infrastructure. But you have to start somewhere, and it's a clear indication of intent by the City to place this gesture in a showcase location, as compared to say, the experiment of the bicycle box and bike lanes that was tucked away on Davenport Road.

What impressed me tonight was the group of cyclists. I showed up at the Waterloo Public Square a bit early to a sparse crowd, but by the time the words of welcome were over, the group had grown to easily 100 riders. As the crowd snaked up the street, more struggled to catch up, and a few joined from side streets. All types of cyclists were there, from the cycle chic to families with bike trailers. It was a pretty striking moment. Thanks to TriTAG and WaterlooBikes for organizing the ride, and for pushing so hard for quality cycling infrastructure in Waterloo Region.

These Chrome Truks could be a gift to yourself

When I opened the box of Chrome Truks, a sample of cycling shoes sent to me last fall, my first reaction was, "Crap, they sent the wrong shoes."

Because they didn't look like cycling shoes. No cleats. No place to attach cleats. I checked the box to make certain I wasn't missing something.

Here's what I got.

A pair of black canvas shoes, with a flattish gum bottom, laced with black and including an extra set of brown laces. They look like, well, shoes.

My bikes have pedals for cleats. Riding with these would just be slip-sliding away. I almost returned them -- what a mistake that would have been, now that I've used them.

At the time, I had been thinking about outfitting the winter bike with a platform/cleat combo so I could wear my winter boots on some days. So suddenly I had a good excuse to buy new pedals (Shimano PD-M324 SPD dual platforms).

I rode the first day with all the imbedded prejudices of a longtime cleated-cycling-shoe rider. And all I could say at the end of the ride was, "Wow. These work."

Nice stiff feel. So little slippage that I stood on the pedals for the Ottawa Street hill. I changed into my office shoes and put thoughts of the Truks away.

So I used these shoes for a couple of weeks, riding in dry and wet conditions and always changing into work shoes at the office. And then one day, circumstances kept me in the Truks for a couple of hours, and soon my shift was done and I had been in the Truks for nine hours -- and they still felt good.

I should have written about these shoes sooner: they would have made a good Christmas gift. Having said that, the delay did give me time to ride them in snow -- as good regarding slippage as any of my sneakers or boots -- and a couple of freakingly cold days (OK, that's when you need a bootie cover).

And here it is spring again, and I am wearing the Truks again, both on the bike and all day at the office, and thinking, Wow, these work. Maybe it's time for a welcome-to-spring cycling gift to yourself.

If you want to see the Truks in action, the Chrome people put this video up on YouTube earlier this year. Nice music.

 

 

 

 

Bambrick a la bicyclette

Yvonne Bambrick, formerly the face of the Toronto Cyclist Union, posing for Momentum magazine.

This is one explanation for the rise in distracted driving.

I've been won over to messenger bags

I used to disdain messenger bags. I was the pastor of panniers, prosletyzing for letting the bicycle and its bags be the beast of burden, while the rider was unencumbered by straps and buckles. I thundered, "Why did God give us racks, if not to load them down?"

And then I picked up a Timbuk2 Laptop Messenger, with TrueFit Cam Buckle, Napoleon Pocket and Crater Laptop Sleeve, at ExpoCycle, the Bicycle Trade Association of Canada event earlier this month in Toronto.

I have sipped the Kool-Aid, and it is good.

The chest strap holds the bag in place. The "memory cam buckle" remembers my fit. The egg-crate-like crate pocket protects my laptop.I am using it to commute, to shop and generally finding it tres handy to have around. Best: I'm not always unstrapping my pannier when I have to lock up the bike and go into some office or store where I can't have a clean line of sight to the bike.

And there yet remains a mystery: what the heck good is the Napoleon pocket? Your suggestions are welcome.

When I was talking to Tim Rehkopf at the Timbuk2 "world headquarters" in San Francisco, he asked if I have the custom bag or the "bondage bag".

Uh, what the heck is the bondage bag, I asked. He sent this link. It has to do with buckles. Of course.

Group ride offers emission-free transportation to Hillside Festival

Full marks to the Guelph bicycle advocacy group GOTBike, which is partnering with the Guelph Police Service and the Hillside Festival to provide a motorless transportation service between Guelph and the festival location at the Guelph Lake Conservation Area.

According to this article in the Guelph Mercury, GOTBike is organizing a group ride from Guelph to the festival site and back all three days of the festival. Of course, you must bring your own bike.

The group ride leaves St. George's Square at 5 p.m. Friday, and at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and returns from the bike racks at Guelph Lake at 11:15 p.m. The after-dark return trip comes with a police escort, for added safety.

What a great opportunity for a "cycle chic" ride.