:City Cycling Blog

28.04.2008: i'm not dead. i just got fed up with toronto and moved to copenhagen instead, one of the best cities in the world for cyclists. so obviously this blog is completely unnecessary now. sorry.

20.12.2007: this is the reason i haven't been riding my bike. i don't have one of these

22.11.2007: i had to see if it was possible. i had to know if cycling in weather like this was viable. didn't i? but it's not, it's just stupid. it took me twice as long and all i have to show for it is a spare TTC token and a wet ass.

arriving at my destination i was greeted with "you're a fucking mental case", and dirty look from the caretaker as he watched me drip sludge all over his lobby. if these places would provide adequate bike storage it wouldn't be a problem.

but cycling when it's snowing is not cool. the roads covered in slush, spraying out from underneath every car's wheels. deteriorating brakes, slipping wheels. freezing ears, snow in eyes. calf muscles aching. it's just dangerous, and not even in a fun way.

cold i can handle, but not this.

21.11.2007: it's been a long time. does mean the roads have been safer? no not really.

halfway through october i came into possesion of a monthly TTC travel pass, so that cut down on my road adventures somewhat. then i went back home for a while. now i'm back and it's cold and dark. but i'm determined to not let that put me off cycling.

cycling in the dark is now unavoidable, but i'm refusing to cycle on main roads when i do. they're too poorly lit and way too dangerous. i have trouble seeing the cyclists with the most expensive and impressive arrays of bike lights, nevermind the kamikaze cyclists with no lights. what is wrong with you? so these roads are out of the question. and if there's no alternative i'm going to have to ride the sidewalk. come fine me officer, at least i'll still alive.

and if you're going to point out the number of accidents due to people cycling on the sidewalk, don't bother. if i'm in accident from cycling on the sidewalk at least it's my fault. not the fault of some idiot driver. that i can handle.

15.10.2007: i know you're not supposed to aggravate drivers, but sometimes they're too rude to ignore. like this one guy down on bloor, west of spadina. you know the stretch, where it's really narrow and there's cars consistently parked down both sides, their doors ready to open in your face.

you don't want to cycle within a doors width of the parked cars, and if you try to be nice and leave room for the cars coming up behind you there's always some asshole who will drive way too close. close like i wish i had spikes on the sides of my pedals. it may seem unreasonable to take up the whole lane, but that section of road moves so slowly the cars have nowhere to go anyway. if they overtake they're just queuing at the red light sooner.

so when someone starts honking at us to get out of the way, and forces past us only to be stopped at the lights infront, i couldn't help but feel a little angry. what's a suitable response? in the future, when then stakes are raised, i'll probably snap off his wingmirror as i pass. or bounce a molotov off his windscreen. set fire to his tyres. but all i did was tap on his window and give him my stiffest finger as i zipped passed. not really enough to warrant him blaring his horn again (misuse under the ontario highway act?) for a good few seconds, but nevermind.

i'm sorry for further worsening our city's cyclists' reputation, and further escalating the ever growing tension between drivers and riders, but sometimes it's too satisfying to not fight back.

12.10.2007: toronto cycling tip of the day: cars don't indicate when turning right. if you need to know which way a car is going you have to look at their place in the road and the angle of their tyres. my favourite method is knocking on their window and asking them. my secret favourite method is using my helmet to knock on their window and asking them.

07.10.2007: this saturday at bike pirates was quite a different experience. i still spent many minutes staring at my bike hoping it would magically fix itself. there were still times i wanted someone to just mend it. and times when i really needed help but everyone was busy. the difference was how everything slowly came together, rather than fall apart.

i started with the easy problems and replaced my completely broken pedal. both of the pedals which came with the bike have been scrapped now because they fell apart. is my cycling style to blame? i don't know, but i doubt it.

then i thought i should probably fix up my back wheel, which was the main reason i was there. but after a bit of fiddling i discovered it was getting too hard and moved on to my back brakes instead, taking them apart and deciding to replace the whole lot. or at least i did until someone said it was completely unnecessary.

back to the wheel. i loosened the cones up and everything just fell out. previously caged bearings bouncing around the floor and splinters of broken metal cage sticking into my thumb. the clues suggest my big mistake was putting the bearing cages in the wrong way round. whoops. so i found some cones with dust caps that matched my old ones (there were two left, lucky) and found myself a new axle (my old was was mashed) and got to putting it back together. only there weren't any quarter inch bearings. almost disaster, but luckily i found two bearing cages that fit perfectly (very lucky). an hour later it was spinning beautifully.

back to the brakes. i got them all tightened up and even managed to get the squeak out of the front brakes. it didn't last, but whilst they were silent it was magic.

i left feeling very happy. and also stuffed from the burritos. brilliant.

05.10.2007: this morning just a stain on the tarmac. and a small tuft of fur.

04.10.2007: i got pointed at by two small kids during my cycle this morning. the first said nothing, just pointed and smiled, so i wiggled my fingers at him - some childish approximation of a wave. it's hard to convey a reciprocal smile when you've got a filter wrapped around your face. but look at me, i'm a cyclist and i'm cool. the cars are not, they are cold and hard and will never wave back at you. they are ugly and bad for you. i am nice and friendly.

the second kid, up on eglinton, "mommy mommy look at that!". "it's a mask", she told him. and i hope she tells him why i need to wear it. it's not just so i look more threatening, which obviously fails completely when it comes to children.

and the dead racoon from yesterday was still in the middle of the road. now a little flatter.

02.10.2007: that was my first experience of actually almost being door'd. i've felt like it was close before, but everytime i've been far enough away or the driver had seen me and all was cool. this guy, he just throws his door wide open and out into the traffic. it swings all the way across my path. only, halfway down the road i'd seen his rear-lights switch off and i knew someone was in there, by the time i'd reached him i was clear of him and his reckless behaviour. i knew he hadn't looked, i could see it floating amongst the shock and guilt in his eyes as he looked up to see me sail by, about a meter from the edge of his door. the bastard.

i wanted to stop and give him what for, but amongst all the rain i really couldn't be bothered.

01.10.2007: recently my back brake has been getting progressively worse, with the cable getting so loose the lever almost touches the handle bars when i brake hard enough, so on saturday i put aside an hour to go over to bike pirates and fix it up. if you know bike pirates you don't need me telling you how cool it is, but if you don't know them you should definately go check it out. it's a volunteer-run self-help bike repair shop that focuses on educating people in the way of bike mechanics. they have all the tools and spare parts you could possibly need and are incredibly friendly. and cool. did i mention they were cool?

after brief instructions i got my bike set up and went to work changing my cable. it was remarkably easy until i had to stretch the cable tight. we didn't have cable stretchers but a woman was willing to lend me a hand, and doing the hard painful part of pulling the cable whilst i twatted around with the wrenches trying to tighten the bolts. then someone told me something on my backwheel need tightening, and luckily there was a guy who was about to show someone else how to do it. in hindsight this is where i should have said "if i ain't broke don't fix it", but who was i to say whether it needed fixing?

i took my wheel off and took it out the back and started the process of taking it apart. locknuts, spacers, cones. the gear cogs were tricky to get off, but soon i had all the ball bearings out - my entire back wheel in pieces laid out across the paving slab. i was cleaning up the various bits when someone said my cones were worn and needed replacing. in hindsight i should have thought of what happens when you have too many cooks, and whether this person even knew what the problem was with my bike.

to make things difficult the thread on my axle was trashed on one side and there was no chance of removing the cone. so, the only thing for it was to replace the whole lot, which was not a problem since they had brand new ones in. i greased it all up and started putting it back together, only the dust caps didn't fit to my hub, and then the old dust caps didn't fit with the cones, and then the new cones didn't seem to fit with the bearings. going through this process, trying to get the wheel aligned and get the cones at the right tightness, this must have taken me two hours. and in the end the only thing for it was to find my old cones and put it all back together exactly how it was before, only i couldn't even do that.

by this time they were closed and i just needed to get out of there. i'd wasted my whole day and not done any of the things i needed to get done. i'd pulled apart my wheel for no decent reason and i was getting increasingly frustrated that i couldn't reassemble it. my bike in pieces, grease and dirt everywhere, my belly empty, i was about to burst into tears and walk home. as pathetic as that would have been. i felt completely destroyed.

of course, someone saw my utter desperation and came to my aid. it was almost seven when we finally got it looking like a bike. i didn't even get the guy's name, but he was a fucking star. also the dude who joined me in taking back wheels apart. and the guy who couldn't believe someone had told me i needed new cones, and wanted to know who it was so he could have words (but i'm not one to grass).

in total i spent over five hours there and had six different people 'helping' me at various times. and now my bike isn't safe to ride. there's all kinds of weird noises coming from the hub and.. oh i don't know. the whole thing is just fucked. and all i wanted to do was change my brake cable.

on the positive side, which i've struggled very hard to see, i learnt a lot about my bike and met some great people. even the person who told me to change my cones i'd buy a beer if i saw him out. it was just a bit of bad luck, that totally ruined my afternoon and evening. and my ride to work this morning.

so, see you there next weekend?

29.09.2007: i swear that as the days get shorter, drivers' tempers follow. on the whole it was a good ride, and potentially the last big one of the season (with the unpredictable weather october brings i'm not holding my breathe for a continuation in big turnouts), but it seemed like asshole driver 'participation' was at an all time high.

crossing over to the danforth we had a few extremely aggressive drivers, one of them actually rammed a cyclist (there were conflicted reports of whether his wheel was buckled or not). another driver got out his car and almost started a fight. a little while later we were down in the financial district being followed by some particularly nasty bastards. one guy kept suddenly jumping his SUV forwards at the cyclists at the back of the mass, threatening to ram and engulf us under his obscenely large vehicle. there are many methods to cause a serious accident, he happened to chose that one. i totally lost my cool with that guy (i say 'guy', with the height of the vehicle i couldn't even see who was driving) and started shouting obscenities at him. what the fuck are you supposed to do? nearer the end of the ride someone on a motorbike did the same. that's at least three times in one night (potentially more, keeping up with news from the whole mass is tricky). i'm tempted to suggest next time it happens a few hardcore people stop infront of the car to block it outright whilst everyone else gets out of the way. it'd probably only make things worse though. those dickheads are too unpredictable. we could always go australian on them and throw a bike through their windshield, yo.

so yes, excluding those few events, and i believe no one was seriously injured, it was a brilliant ride and not too cold at all. the subway went down at some point, so when we were up at yonge and bloor we had one huge audience ("the subways are all closed and there's cyclists blocking the road, it's anarchy", or not). and i got to shout "cult" at the scientologists, hurray.

we ended in kensington again, this time cycling round and round the round.. thing, getting extremely dizzy. we then retreated to ronnie's and enjoyed some cool beers while ranting about maths and the state. at least i was, but nevermind.

27.09.2007: lol, i think that's all the comment they deserve..

26.09.2007: where i work i'm up on the fifth floor. and although i bought a cheap bike so i didn't have to worry about bike theft, i still don't like leaving it out on the street all day, so to keep it safe i bring it up into the office. this wouldn't be a problem, only there's also numerous language schools in my building, complete with teeming armies of young foreign students - kids who don't understand elevator ethics.

usually i'll just wait in the lobby until everyone has crammed into a lift and then wait for the next one, but some mornings it's just too busy. i'll move my bike infront of the first lift doors (there are three elevators) to make sure i get in first when it arrives. when it does, i'll drag my bike to back and stand behind it, using it as some kind of primitive defense barrier as the kids pile in, chatting frantically in languages that don't even seem compatible. i'd hate to think how much chain oil has been rubbed off onto various jeans and leggings as people squash up against my bike. i try to warn people but i'm just ignored.

and then this morning one guy gets his backpack hooked around my handlebars and starts dragging my bike out the lift. there were four other people in the lift when his strap sets off my bike horn, honking somewhere around the 100db level. the frail woman in the corner looked particularly uninmpressed. what was i to do except apologised profusely?

25.09.2007: the woman who was driving way to close to me, the one who was trying to push me off the road, she didn't particularly have it in for me because i'm a cyclist, she was just too busy chatting on her mobile phone.

then there's the guy in the big black SUV, he's twenty metres from the traffic lights when they flip to orange, and he decides to accelerate through them. those thirty seconds he shaved off his journey make all the difference.

23.09.2007: it's been a very busy weekend. it's tiring being socially concsious in this stupid city. people don't care enough to get their butts out of their houses and out of their cars, so if there's an event, you need to be there showing your support. but that's not the main reason i go, i'm at them all because they're a hell of a good time.

also it's been a gorgeous weekend. the weather has been perfect. from the combination of the warming sun and cool breeze, to the pink and blue slice of sky as the sun set over our saturday evening parade..

did anyone tell you it was international car free day? did you do anything for it? or more importantly not drive? let me know. we were all out along queens west, enjoying our legally rented parking spaces, with tents, busking, boot throwing, painting, and even hair cutting. the parking meter party is a genius idea. and don't all the people walking by say it should be like this every day? yes it should, why don't you do something about it?

as with all the other fun and cheekily subversive events in this city, this was organised (spearheaded?) by streets are for people. they'd procured a car from someone (who was more than happy to part with it, it came complete with divorce papers) and they covered every inch of it in paint. these days, this is what passes for a petition. everyone who wanted their streets free from cars signed it, doodled on it, and left their own personal messages. i couldn't resist scrawling "throw brick here" on the window, with a big "X", despite it not being in keeping with the vibe. and, much to the amusement of the now magazine photographer, i wrote "all drivers are murderers" across the rear fender (isn't that what they call them in this country). also julie can't draw bicycles.

come six o'clock (probably more like seven, but who was counting?) we started our march from trinity bellwoods park to city hall. it was phenomenal, and not just because i was over-exicted at being asked if i'd be on official corking duty. it was executed beautifully. we had a strong crowd and the drumming group were on form, filling the road with their brutal rhythmic assualt. with a noise like that there is no stopping you. the sun set and the sky popped, raining us with colours, the buildings framing our sliver of rainbow sky. our banners waved in silver blues and yellows, red and black. the graffitied cream car in front, being pushed the whole way. you can't do cooler than that. honk honk honk.

we danced on the steps of city hall. shouting and hooting. mj standing on the cenotaph with his trademark horn, doing a quick speech, and i have an urge to shout "mj for major". he looked and sounded the part, plus it looks good written down. and there's your unmissable party.


we were up early the next morning to cycle our butts to hyde park for the bells-on-bloor ride. we got there in plenty of time to help out and feel genuinely useful. be proper scene. bells-on-bloor has been born out of takethetooker and a wish to have a more family-orientated less-radical campaign. i think less radical means getting permission and having police involvement, or something. in any other country this would be rubbish, but having a mass of police cyclists accompany us was slick. it made corking easier, a tactic which they'd agreed upon in advance and were more than happy to assist with. try getting that kind of service in new york. and it quickly shut up the more aggressive drivers when a police officer cycled up to lend us his authority. tell me i'm breaking the law now, mother fucker.

the organisers were aiming for a one thousand strong crowd, which was an obscene and unattainable goal, but to their credit they pulled in a lot of people. shoot for the moon. it was easily bigger than any of the critical masses i've been on, and some of them have been gigantic. it was a fantastic turn out and it lifted my spirits even higher. and all along bloor people came out of their shops and cafes to ring their bells along with us. it was ding ding ding all the way. i rang my bell so hard i split the skin on my thumb. and i'm sure we went home a little further along the road to tinnitus.

after the ride we tried to join the toronto smog hike, organised by the david suzuki foundation and the toronto environmental alliance, two reasonably big players. so what we'd pictured was two lanes of yonge blocked off and filled with smiling families, they'd have banners and ticker tape and all flavours of the wonderful. but no. there was just a few people walking silently along the sidewalk. we knew it was happening and that didn't help us find them. it was like nothing was going on. which is pretty much what was going on. shamed.

we cycled up passed eglinton and retired for pizza. a weekend well spent. now i'm thoroughly exhausted. brint on critical mass..

20.09.2007: it's amazing what a different view you get of the city when you cycle through it down a new road and at a different angle. i cycled down university avenue, starting somewhere around eglinton (whatever it's called up there) and ending at queen st west. i had the pleasure of doing this during rush hour and i didn't even notice when i crossed bloor. the bus infront of me had driven too close to the dust piles accumulating at the edge of the road due to construction work and the ROM was completely obscured. from there down to queen was solid non-moving traffic. why do drivers do it to themselves? i spent the whole time balancing my bike between cars and curb so as not to hit them. bike lane anyone?

queen st west was the worst. i've never cycled against (yes, "against") a more aggressive group of drivers. mentalists the lot of them. the way to save this city is to skip the congestion charge and jump straight to an outright car ban downtown. that many cars is completely unjustified. any number of cars is completely unjustified. and they all need to learn manners and patience.

at my destination i suddenly realised i didn't have the keys to my bike lock. actually i had no keys, i'd left my wallet at home. after a minute of weighing up my options i figured i'd have some faith and i asked the beggar at the end of the street if he'd keep an eye on my bike. in a more sane moment i might ridicule this slightly stupid behaviour too, but five minutes later my bike was still there. i gave him some dinner money and apologised for treating him like a parking meter, he didn't seem to mind at all.

19.09.2007: the great thing about smog is the brilliant early morning jesus rays you get beaming through the trees. it's like cycling through a fantasy novel. but actually more like don quixote, with huge giants charging around everywhere trying to kill you with their bull bars and wing mirrors.

the reason i haven't posted for a long time is not because the roads suddenly got much safer, drivers started being friendly to cyclists and vice versa (well that is never going to happen), and the city suddenly rolled out all its bike-friendly plans and then some. it's because i wasn't actually cycling. disappointing huh? sorry.

so i get back on my bike after only a week and i'm having to deal with variable weather already. monday tricked me by being too cold, so the last two days i've been sweating all the way to work. and then some idiot in a toronto service van decides to drive three blocks up mt.pleasent road with his all his indicators flashing. at the lights i shouted at him, asking him if he was turning turning, but he couldn't hear me over his big fucking noisey engine. i'm sure driving with your hazard warning lights on is fine in some situations, but not when you're just driving up the road with all the other stupid cars.

anyway. i'll see you on the streets. this weekend is a busy one, with car free day and bells on bloor.

i was going to link to what appears to be the official car free day website, but they have links to autoshare on their homepage. talk about missing the point, imbeciles. they also link to car heaven, which encourages people to trade in their old cars for new 'environmentally friendly' ones. pricks.

16.09.2007: the other day, during a rather frantic bike ride, i had a few crazy ideas. against my better judgement i'm going to make them 'public'.

the least of the crazy ideas is making tinted car windows illegal. all of a sudden this actually seems quite sensible. how many times have you been cycling along parked cars and not been able to see through the tinted windows to check if there's anyone in the car and, more importantly, if they're about to get out without looking? i'm sure there's a very good reason why some cars have tinted windows, but i'm sure it's not as important as reducing the number of people being door'd.

the second idea is completely crazy, and everyone is going to disagree with this one, and think it'll cause more accidents that it'd safe. i probably agree with you. but anyway, i was wondering what would happen if cyclists cycled on the other side of the road. the cars on the right and the bikes on the left. my original thought was that you'd be much more visible to the parked cars, so anyone about to open their door would be able to clearly see you before they killed you. but yes, ridiculous. and for so many reason i wont even bother going into them.

although, i'm sure i remembered being taught to walk on the other side of the road when walking along country lanes. perhaps i was just young and stupid and heard wrong. probably.

anyway, let's ban tinted windows. it's only drivers who'll disagree, and we've already got them on the run..

06.09.2007: whilst cycling to work i'm generally a law abiding cyclist, at least until i get up to eglinton where i need to turn left. most mornings i'll be stopped at the red light and the cross the road with the pedestrians. i'm not sure if this dodges the 'not cycling on the crosswalk' law, but i cycle beside it, and only if the cars are going nowhere (if they take me down they'll take a pedestrian down with them too, so don't tell me this is dangerous). actually, this morning i couldn't do that because there was a car over halway into the crosswalk, but nevermind.

ever since school started there's been a crossing lady helping people cross here, and i've been worried she's going to tell me off. and honestly, she'd be perfectly justified in doing so. this morning she walks up to me and says "you really need your masks today ey? it's dirty out". we had a minor nice chat (hard with a pollution mask), and i was going to suggest she should get one too, provided it wouldn't scare the kids, when the lights changed. as i cycled off she told me to take care, i thought that was really nice.


also i finally got to use my horn. which is a ridiculous statement in itself - the dichotomy of having an exciting new 'toy' (it does look like a toy) but not wanting to be in a situation where you can justify using it. it was tearing me up inside, but now i've let the rage out (my apologies for being so stupidly overdramatic). it was on my least favourite stretch of morning tarmac. this is a street leading up to mt.pleasant road and every morning it's backed up with stationary traffic all the way past the cemetery. the reason i hate it so much is because often cars don't leave enough space for a bike to get past, and i have to use the sidewalk. this morning, without indicating, a big white van (yes, white-van-man) decides to shift his van across the lane and completely block me. this is fine, i think, and i jump up onto the grass. only he follows me, taking his van up the kerb and onto the sidewalk.

what i should have done was stop behind him (because with the power of hindsight i know he's about to try and drive into me) and dismount, then walk along the sidewalk with my bike. only he'd still have been driving into me. i guess i could have dived out of the way or something. sigh

something funny though, i cycled over a loose part of the road (or something, i don't know) and bits of gravel and tarmac bounced everywhere. and when i unpacked my bag later, one of the tarmac crumbs had managed to somehow get in there mixed up with my sandwiches. weird.

05.09.2007: the problem with having a horn is that the times you need to use it are the times you most need your hands on the handlebars. like when a $150,000 car roars past so fast you don't have time to dig in your spurs and ruin its paint work. fuck that guy. i hope he writes his car off in a minor accident where nothing is hurt but his wallet. and pride.

now there's an idea, bicycle spurs!

i saw a funny scene on monday though. two cops on bikes cycling up the wrong side of queen, they stop at the lights and then cross over yonge on the pedestrian crossing (crosswalk) before cycling up the road. those who know the ontario highway traffic will know this is illegal and gets you a fine of $110. also an extra $8.75 if you are "unable to keep both hands on handlebars" ($53.75 in scarborough).

it's nice to know that the police think these laws are stupid too.

04.09.2007: the second cyclist death here in toronto in nine days, this time someone killed by a stolen truck. patrick was one of 14 traffic related fatalities in ontario this weekend. you'd wonder what the fuck was going wrong if only it wasn't so obvious.

04.09.2007: which means i have to deal with all the extra back lane traffic every morning. the school buses are my least favourite, but even they're not too bad. it's still the normal traffic that still gives me grief.

since the passenger had been hanging his head out of the window as he'd passed, staring at the two underage girls on rollerskates, you'd think he might have mentioned to the driver there was a cyclist he was about to run over. you'd have thought the driver would at least have indicated before turning into the gas station..

and this would have been the perfect time to use my new horn, but i was too busy working out if i was at all to blame, because if i'm using that horn i need to be sure i'm not being an asshole first. next time i probably wont care. but it is a mighty loud horn.

31.08.2007: so the days are getting shorter and they'll soon be getting colder too, i guess critical mass has a limited annual life span in this country. i'm told it carries on all year but with greatly diminished numbers. figures. perhaps sliding around on the ice, covered in snow and dodging cars in the dark isn't everyones idea of fun. sounds like a wicked night out to me.

but for now we're still in summer and the numbers are still good, still in the multiple hundreds. we can still take a whole block. and a good portion of the danforth too. both lanes.

i do have a criticism though, and it probably wont make me very popular, but nevermind that. obviously the bike scene has its natural leaders, and kudos to them because they do a lot of good work and it wouldn't be the same without them, but the beauty of critical mass is it doesn't require leaders. and my complaint is that a couple of people suddenly decided we were too big a mass for that time of night and we were going to disperse. since when have people made decisions like that for the whole group? it was bullshit, and completely undermined the whole principle of critical mass being a non-hierarchical autonomous group. i would have spoken up, but would only have been successful at making an ass of myself.

i'm not even saying i disagreed with the decision, i just didn't like how it was made.

but despite my moaning it was a good ending. carpark roof frisbee and fire breathing. up there on top of kensington it felt like we'd conquered something. some false sense of success. well actually, apparently we'd saved someone's life tonight, which is pretty good going. but i have no idea what that was about. i clapped anyway.

29.08.2007: "there's not too much the driver could really do."

this story is terrible in every possible way.

i feel i should write something nice, but that disgusting article has made me way too angry.

20.08.2007: i was going to take a week off from my bike. my right wrist has been hurting for a while now, a nasty strain injury, and last weekend (sigh, yes when my girlfriend went away) it started getting much worse. it was painful even when i wasn't using it. it got so bad that it hurt even when i only had my hand resting on the brake, ready for that taxi that was about pull out infront of me. (incidentally, is it usual for the back brake to be on the right? my bike in england is the other way around).

then i realised, wait, maybe that was the problem. so i've lowered my brake lever to make a better angle with my arm and this morning my wrist wasn't hurting at all. i still thought i'd take the subway though, and be sensible, but i just couldn't resist my bike. or stand to pay the 2.75 fare.

i just hope i haven't done myself any more than temporary damage.


cycling up sherborne yesterday an expensive silver car decided to pull all the way into the bike lane before turning right, whilst i was in it. i managed to avoid scraping his car, but i'm not sure why. on a road with no cycle path (and given that he'd indicated earlier, which he hadn't) i'd have waited behind him. but what does the law say on this? i know cars are allowed to cross the dotted line, but can he really cut me up like that? actually he wasn't cutting me up, he was ramming me, but technicalities aside.

basically, what the fuck is the point of a cycle path if cars are allowed to enter it? it makes no sense.

further up the road a car travelling in the oppposite direction was waiting to turn left, when he saw me coming he quickly accelerated into his turn (with an impressive rev and squeal, and although my memory says there was thick black smoke i doubt there actually was) and drove off at a stupid speed. he was nowhere near hitting me, i was only on the pedestrian crossing as he passed infront of me, but it demonstrates the aggression that some people drive with. and the disregard they have for cyclists, he'd have never have done that if i was in a car.

even further up the road a car was parked in the cycle lane as five cops on bikes cycled past. i wanted to shout over at them, "are you going to let them stay there?", but i didn't need the hassle.

19.08.2007: i never knew charlie, i came to the toronto bike scene too late, but his blog broke my heart. it also made me wonder what the fuck am i doing wasting my summer sitting in an office.

his memorial ride was on friday. it was a friendly ride, not unlike a mid-month critical mass, starting at jet fuel on parliment. it was a big crowd, a testament to what a friendly guy he must have been, but a slightly different crowd. not particularly a critical mass crowd, so it took a while to get the mass functioning. at the first few sets of lights the group was split up and it only just managed to stick together. twice i was left corking in the middle of the road with the cyclists behind me stopped for the cars. whoops.

there was the usual spate of aggresive drivers, but it was suitably calmer than the normal critical mass. people were handing out flyers to explain why we were doing what we were doing, and no one could complain at that. apart from the taxi drivers.

we finished at dundas square. i think more due to us being stuck in a traffic jam (how ironic) than any kind of planning. words were said and water bottles raised. there was talk of continuing or heading to a bar, but the crowd began to thin and i left before i became a hanger on.

later in the evening a cyclist stopped me at a junction after recognising me from the ride. he thanked me for coming out. there was mutual appreciation all round. have you ever noticed how cars isolate you but bicycles bring people together? and it's not just when one of us gets killed. the bike scene is huge, friendly and accommodating. cyclists are awesome.

anyway..

16.08.2007: last night i'd given myself a mission. i was up yonge street, a few streets above the 407, and had to get home to below bloor. really it's not that far, but after midnight it seemed quite the expedition. people tried to coerce me into taking a taxi, but i way too stubborn for that kind of decadent and wasteful behaviour. anyway, in the middle of the night the traffic is quite reasonable, the only thing that gave me any trouble was a garbage truck moving slowly down the street, randomly indicating in all kinds of crazy directions (they can do more than two?).

but as i was passing mt.pleasant cemetery i suddenly had a fantastic idea, why don't i take the belt line trail down through the moore park ravine?

but then standing there on moore avenue, looking down into the all consuming darkness, it eating away at the path so completely that only the first few meters were visible, it didn't seem like such a good idea. at night the friendless of the woods dissolves into things much scarier. scarier than a tired taxi driver? bullshit. i figured if i wasn't going to cycle it in the dark now i never would, so down into the darkness i went, with my pathetic white led headlight creating a small patch of useless grey ahead of me.

it was quite the experience, and a very interesting 20 minutes. passing under the bridges was particularly spooky, as were the shadows cast by the fallen trees at the side of the path. the darkness and quiteness were quite beautiful, but not so much so that i wanted to stick around to try and enjoy them. i don't think i'll do it again. not anytime soon.


i'd been cycling along moore avenue the morning before. during rush hour it's always backed up with traffic trying to get onto mt.pleasant road. as i passed the van at the front of the queue (this time on the road, but the cars rarely leave enough room for a bike so i often use the sidewalk) a guy in the passenger seat suddenly shouted something obscenely loud out of his window. i have no idea what the words were, or if they were intended for me, but it scared the shit out of me. and his spit that landed on my arm wasn't too pleasent either.

13.08.2007: here in toronto we have critical mass easy. i remember the first time i took part in a critical mass, it was in brighton (england) and it was cold. we lasted quite a long time cycling along the sea front really slowly, the idea seemed to be to inconvenience the traffic as much as possible. one driver got so annoyed he nearly ran me down trying to get passed. it was fun, but where we went wrong was taking the major roundabout. that's when the police got involved and one person ended up getting arrested. i can't remember the exact details but it was a needless arrest. and the police ended up causing more traffic congestion than we did.

i've been to two critical masses here in toronto, both were huge and we had zero trouble with the police. even the security guards in the eaton centre couldn't be bothered to interfere, they know we're not really causing trouble and will be out of their way shortly.

anyway, a while ago a watched a few videos from various critical masses all over the world and it was fascinating. the budapest mass looked as much fun as ours, or more, it was quite amazing. but then i saw some videos from the new york critical mass. they're the ones who have it hard. with constant harrasment from the police, arrests and brutality. there's only 300 miles between us but situation couldn't be more different. what goes wrong when you cross over into new york state?

this video from glass bead collective is from the march 2007 critical mass. they use footage from many different cameras and videos to provide a complete and nicely stylised documentation of the police harrasment and ridiculous arrests. the behaviour of the new york police department is obscene and dangerous (pulling people off their bikes?). that was the best video i found, the worst is from a new york critical mass in 2004 where a huge pack of cops completely maul a guy. if only shouting "let him go" was as effective as throwing rocks..

anyway, respect to the new york cyclists for keeping it up when faced with such obscene oppression.

13.08.2007: he was halfway into my lane before he looked over and saw me taking up the other half. this is one of those intersections where the cars who want to turn right have to cut across the cycle lane to get into the "turning right" lane. they're nasty because cyclists get sandwiched between lanes of traffic and cars don't seem to notice the cycle lane between them and the lane they want.

but you'd think taxis would know the roads and not try and cut across the lanes at the last minute. you'd also think taxis would indicate. and do all those other things cars are legally supposed to be doing. but no.

i swear taxi drivers are the worst in the city.

09.08.2007: if you're into that sort of thing, i suppose.

i was cycling along a busy road when a car doing a three point turn nearly hit me when it suddenly reversed at me and forced me onto the sidewalk. now, as fas as i remember the rules, back many years when i learnt to drive (i've driven only once since i acquired my license, that rather expensive and glorified ID card that isn't even valid in this country), if there's anyone coming towards you, including pedestrians, you have to wait for them to pass. of course i shouldn't have presumed he'd seen me, but he had stopped in the middle of the road so it seemed a reasonable assumption at the time.

so i guess that makes it my fault.

downtown julie witnessed a car reverse into a cyclist and crush their front wheel. she said the car looked like it was trying to park, but she didn't see what the cyclist was doing, she only looked around when she heard the crunch.

02.08.2007: i might be making this up. so deploy some caution whilst interpreting my version of events.

i was cycling along bloor (as all good cycling misadventures start) and was carefully watching a black car that was parked half up the sidewalk. it was indicated left, as if to pull out, but wasn't moving or going anywhere. i hate this situation because as a cyclist you have no idea what to do. the safest option is to stop behind them, but then what if they're not actually going anywhere? have they seen you or not? they didn't seem to be waiting for anything in particular, and didn't seem to be about to move, so i slowed down and went wide.

they must have seen me, they started pulling away just as i was passing them. i thought i should have just hopped onto the sidewalk, it's what i'll do next time. i looked around again and noticed the driver and passenger were both eating icecreams. they're as bad as the guy who drives while talking on his mobile and smoking a cigarette. i've seen that guy three times, and once he was a woman. i cursed them under my breathe and left it at that.

they roared past, overtaking me in the next lane. then i heard someone shouting something. it sure sounded like it came from a car, and the passenger had stuck his head out of the window. did they just shout at me? i couldn't believe it. so when i caught them up at the next lights i stuck my head in their window, "sorry, what was that?". dead polite like. they were just a couple of young and rich pretty boys, driving around in their posh fucking car with their nice slacks, they didn't really deserve my politeness. they both shook their heads (gently, so as not to ruin their expensive haircuts), "we didn't say anything to you". as a way of explanation i told them i thought they'd asked me something, i made eye contact with both of them, "i thought it might have been important". i almost laughed. "sorry then".

so what was that all about? had they dissed me and then wimped out when confronted? or did i just imagine the whole thing? either way i would have loved to have heard them call me a prick as i cycled off.

01.08.2007: the guy in the cruiser convertible thinks he's so cool he doesn't have to look whilst pulling out. that or he's too busy staring at the woman in the mini skirt to see the cyclist he's about to run over. almost run over. and then a women walks out infront of me and nearly gets hit. this is on one of those nasty junctions where the cycle lane is sandwiched between two lanes of traffic (i.e. on the left of the cars turning right). think bike missus, just because the lane is half a metre wide it doesn't mean you can walk into without looking. rather, without getting hit by a bicycle.

and i'm back to my old route to work, back to dealing with mt.pleasent road. they just did some roadworks on it south of eglinton, tearing up a few patches of road, mostly on the south travelling side. thing is, they've filled the holes back up with tarmac really badly and there's a significant drop when you cycle over them. it scared the shit out of me. what's worse is if your wheel gets caught going along the side ridge. i was okay cos my tyres are reasonably large, but it was enough to make me skid a little. but hey, it's alright for the cars so it's not a problem.

they've also re-gritted part of the path up through the don valley, which makes it really difficult for cyclists. gr.

yes, i complain a lot.

26.07.2007: there's not really much to be said about that. no, not really.

25.07.2007: i don't like dupont. it's busy and it's a nightmare to cross. i always manage catch the rush hour traffic and there's no way for me to avoid it, i need to cross it or ride along twice a day. every day i change my route to find a better way over or around it, but nothing helps.

so yesterday i'm waiting to cross it at howland avenue. this big SUV of a car is waiting beside me, as impatient as they come, and he's slowly edging forward. he's obviously turning right as he can't go straight on, but he's not indicating. this really winds me up, because as a cyclist i don't know where to position myself. do i go to his left or his right? if there's a line of cars it's even worse, but more on this another time. yesterday i was tired and decided to just hang back, let the asshole do his legal but dangerous right turn on a red light.

his light is still red when two kids cycle out infront of him and he pulls out. for a second i thought she was a goner, there was a clang and a scrape but she remained upright. the guy swung out into the middle of the road. "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FUCKING MIND?". "ARE YOU BLIND?". "WATCH THE FUCKING LIGHT ASSHOLE". the youth explode with great vengeance, etc. i felt proud.

but then i looked up and their light was red too, i realised where they'd come from and cringed. this is what all you drivers are talking about isn't it? i hate to admit it, but the only law the driver was breaking was not indicating, he's lawfully (but stupidly) allowed to do that right turn as long as no one is on the crossing. the kids however (and i say kids, they must have been 18 or something) were breaking several. they were either cycling on the pavement or the wrong side of the road and crossed on an orange light/flashing red hand. they were going fast too, and i would have forgiven the driver for saying "i didn't see them, they came out of nowhere" had there actually been an accident. almost have forgiven him at least.

i felt so torn. but i can't side with a cyclist if they're going to cycle badly.

and this is a great example of how cycling on the pavement causes accidents. well, no. if there was an accident it wouldn't have been because they were on the pavement, but because they hadn't stopped when their light said so and when a car was very obviously about to pull out infront of them. it would have been exactly the same had they been on a cycle path.

23.07.2007: last week i saw a woman on the left side of a car (yes, between the two lanes) turn right infront of the car. the car hadn't started moving, but the light had just gone green, and she must have been crazy in the head.

see, i don't just pick on the cars.

sometime during the weekend a cyclist dropped into the bike lane right infront of me causing me to use my squealy front brake. i didn't mind too much because i wasn't going so fast i couldn't stop. i was just going to ignore it, but then my bike hit a bump and it dinged my bell really loud. the guy turned around and gave me the dirtiest look, a bent cigarette hanging from his bottom limp. oh, whatever. what was i gonna do? apologise on behalf of my bell?

and as for me being bad, i cut a pedestrian up this morning. it was one of those crossing without lights and i was paying too much attention to the cars (that weren't giving me any space) and not enough to the pedestrian. it was completely my own fault and makes me a total hypocrite, i know. i was nowhere near hitting him, but close enough for that awkward "who goes first" moment. the guy accepted my profuse apology and didn't seem to mind that much, it was only a big deal for me because i hadn't seen him.

but anyway, none of this justifies the commenters on blogto, those idiots calling all cyclists dickheads. honestly, sometimes i wonder where all that pent up aggresion comes from..

21.07.2007: so i checked out the ontario highway traffic act - bicycle violation list. i thought it might answer my questions about what i'm not allowed to do on my bike, but it mostly just annoyed me.

no cycling on the pavement is almost fair. almost. sometimes (i.e. eglinton and yonge) there just isn't any room for a bike, and being pushed into the curb by cars and lorries is no fun. other times it just makes sense to use part of the pavement or pedestrian crossing (i.e. on a left turn) to get where you're going. stopping and getting off the bike is potentially dangerous (on the road), and i don't see how it could reduce the risk of an accident. the law seems to make sense in terms of safety, with 30% of bike accidents involving a cyclist having ridden on the pavement. however, despite it being the primary cause of accidents, it's still much safer than riding on the road, where the other 70% happen. you're over twice as likely to be in an accident cycling on the road. so what, the law is trying to kill us off? and also, it's bad logic to say that riding on the pavement causes accidents, or was even related to those accidents, as there's too many factors to take into consideration - it's not a concrete correlation.

if a car doesn't see you, a car doesn't see you.

the law also seems to ignore that at some point every cyclist has to move from the pavement to the road, unlike a car. you just can't give them the same rules.

i also don't like it because it's a law that forces you to do what they've decided is the safest behaviour based on observed statistics (correctly or not), rather than basing it on the actual situation at hand. and as a cyclist i'm mostly only hurting myself if i cycle badly and cause an accident. of course 'mostly' is rarely sufficient ("i mostly don't kill people").

the majority of the other violations make sense. but some of them i just find confusing. like the stuff about crossovers. what does "pass stopped streetcar at crossover" mean? also, what do "fail to turn out to right when overtaken" and "fail to turn out to left to avoid collision with bicycle" mean? and how do you improperly pass a streetcar? and if you can be fined for "drive wrong way - one way traffic", how come there are signs that appear to allow cyclists to turn into streets when cars can't? surely that would be a one way street. and why the fuck aren't cyclists allowed down one way streets anyway? your answer is obvious, but i disagree with it.

i guess i'm one of those bike nazis. one of them people who feel morally superior because they cycle. yup.

anyway, that document raises more questions than it answers. and i still don't know how i'm supposed to do a left turn.

19.07.2007: i've been thinking a lot about this blog, which i pretty much created on a whim, and what i'm actually trying to achieve with it. its whole justification seems a little sketchy, so i thought i'd flesh out my thinking behind it and point out some of its more obvious flaws.

so where did the thought come from to begin with? this will sound corny, but the idea came to me in the gap between a big silver car accelerating towards me and the moment the driver saw me and braked. i thought shit, this happens to me all the time. every day i go home with a story about how some idiot nearly killed me (does cycling make you more dramatic as well as healthier?). i thought maybe i should record every one of my dangerous incidents, i thought maybe it would be cathartic. or it would be some kind of testament to how badly driver attitudes need to change, bicycle awareness needs to improve and the roads need to be fixed up. i thought that sounded reasonable enough.

but then i realised there's a few problems. firstly, this isn't exactly going to encourage other people to cycle. highlighting the dangers of cycling and the frequency at which they occur will only put potential cyclists off. and secondly, i get angry and obnoxious. i like the idea of rogue cyclists. i hate cars and drivers. nearly being run over makes me confrontational and i like swearing. so secondly, i can only have a negative impact on the bicycle movement's image. that's either wishful thinking that i'm a badass, or me being overly paranoid i'm a nuisance. or likely somewhere between the two.

hey, i'm not a badass at all. it's not like a have a skull and crossbones on the back of my bike, it's only a tooker flag.

anyway, thoughts and suggestions will be welcomed..

18.07.2007: last night we were cycling along bloor. it was sometime around ten so it was dark, but we're not those people who cycle the roads at night without lights (which is illegal, but more importantly stupid). as per usual the traffic leading up to spadina was stationary, and there was a surprising amount of space to cycle between it and the parked cars. enough for me to not worry about being door'd at least. but we were taking it slowly, and were still far away from the crossing (undertaking towards a crossing = bad idea)

so then a woman in a large car (but not a van, i don't fuck with them - stay well back) decides to suddenly pull out of her lane and into ours. without looking? julie managed to slide by just infront of her, at which point the driver slammed on her brakes (is that too dramatic? it's not like she was going well fast). it was too late for me to brake so i slipped past narrowly missing her wing mirror. i was too tired to stop and give her hassle for being so reckless, so she got the finger instead.

earlier that evening i'd almost seen two accidents. in the sense that one accident i almost saw, and i saw an almost accident. on mt.pleasant a driver had managed to go straight into the back of a white van, trashing the front of their car. no one seemed hurt but the traffic around it was crazy. then down on sherborne by alan gardens a taxi had to suddenly brake and swerve to avoid the car infront, and the car behind the taxi did too. is it that hard to pay attention? both of these where right on the other side of a junction. and what disturbed me is that the taxi had swerved quite severely into the bike lane. if i had managed to get over the lights he could easily have hit me.

and i normally complain about having to stop at all the lights going down that road.

a little further down another taxi had parked up in the cycling lane. "nice parking" i shouted at him as i passed, but he was too busy counting his money.

13.07.2007: i'd never chased after a car before. but then, i'd never had a car overtake me so dangerously close either. she was barely inches from my handlebars. i could have kicked the passenger door with no effort. i should have done.

but i had to know, does she drive so close to all cyclists, or is it just me she has it in for? y'see, it's hard not to take these things personally.

and i would have caught up with that hulking SUV too, but just as i was pulling up to her window the lights changed and she roared off.

12.07.2007: out of all the bad driving habits, the one that annoys me the most (in frequency not magnitude) is when people try to predict/preempt traffic light changes. you see cars at the front, waiting for the green light, edging forwards. it makes me so angry. when i see a driver watching the lights for the road their crossing i want to knock on their window and point out they're supposed to be following their own lights, not waiting for the other road's orange.

it's even worse when the idiot is turning right, and has decided he can drive off quicker than the cyclist, cutting them up or hitting them, which is exactly what happened to me this morning up on mt.pleasant road. the driver wouldn't have stopped either, if it wasn't for the other cyclist who'd come up behind and was travelling much faster than i was. he had to brake to avoid hitting the car. i probably wouldn't haven't bothered.

for the remainder of my ride up mt.pleasant i was paying so much attention to the traffic i missed my turning (how can you miss eglinton?). i cycled a whole block further north, where, stretching a good foot and a half into the road, there was a freshly killed racoon. his otherwise intact body ending at his neck, his head squashed flat into the tarmac. at least it was a quick death, i thought.

so can we get some clarity on the law? are drivers allowed to start pulling away before the green light? or is it one of those vague grey areas that gets ignored until enough people are killed?

11.07.2007: last night we're cycling along bloor and keeping our safe distance from the parked cars, like you do, because it's dark and dangerous because you can't see if anyone's inside them, and this guy in his too fast car is getting impatient at us because he can't get past us.

this is the small section of wellesley between bay and yonge, there really is no rush.

he beeps his horn at us before deciding to speed past, half on the other side of the road. the car coming at more reasonable speed in the other direction has to brake and blares his own horn in response. it all could have ended horribly, and for what? as we cycled slowly up to his car, waiting at the red light, i was tempted to tap his window and tell him to have some consideration. that or tell him what a prick he is. but since i'd told one person to fuck off already that night, road rage was the last thing i wanted to embrace. there's no need to give cyclists a bad name right? er, or something.

10.07.2007: to the guy who just nearly ran me over, and justified it by claiming i was cycling on the sidewalk (it's called a pavement, asshole), what i should have shouted at you was "and that means you don't have look before turning?", rather than the less than eloquent "fuck off".

there's a law in this province (and i think most of canada) that allows drivers to turn right at a red light if no one is on the crossing and no traffic is coming. i'm sure it's more complicated than that, but that's about the gist of it. that's why he nearly hit me whilst i was crossing the road infront of him.

i'd just got on my bike, figuring i'd ride across the road rather than walk, plus we were taking the next left, meaning i'd have to cross the road three times instead of once if i were to not go across the crossing. but all this justification is pointless anyway, because the he simply didn't look, it makes no difference whether i was on my bike (with lights) or not.

i do feel bad for reducing myself to a crappy "fuck off" though. i have so much rage built up at these inconsiderate and careless drivers, it's about all that i could form in my head. most people who nearly hit me are quite apologetic, which doesn't relinquish them from blame, but does stop me shouting at them with as much violence as i can muster. this guy though, he was a proper cyclist hater, he's the guy who drives at 60+ through a residential area and blames his accident on the kid who steps into the road without looking. he's proper scum, and for that he took the brunt of all the other near misses i've had. it's just a shame i'm the one who ends up looking like the asshole.

09.07.2007: you have the green light, and all is well until the car next to you turns right or the car coming at you turns left, cutting across your lane and heading right into your side. you should have seen this woman's face. her eyebrows raised right up and her mouth pulled open, all teeth clenched and showing, like pulling an "oh no! i didn't see you!" face will make me feel better. her admission of guilt only reduces road rage.

sure she stopped in time, this time.

05.07.2007: i'm quite confident in saying the one thing every cyclists fears the most is being door'd. if you've got your wits about you, you're eyes in all the places they need be, and you're brakes are working, you can avoid the worst of the drivers. you can just stop and let the assholes do whatever crazy driving they want. you don't have to wedge yourself between cars or cycle around the bad side of a bus. you don't have to try and beat that person turning infront of you. but whatever you do, the jerk who opens their door without looking is going to right fuck you up.

like the woman who stops her car right on the other side of the junction, coming down spadina road, and she decides to open her door into the oncoming traffic. she's only just stopped, the lights are still green, and she's opening it whilst looking down into her purse. crunch? next time she'll get more than my rude words.

i get honked at a lot by cars who can't get passed because i'm taking up too much of the lane. what i'm really doing is leaving a door sized gap between me and the parked cars. you drivers need to realise this. being within a meter of those stationary cars and on a bike and you may as well cycle with your eyes shut.

30.06.2007: yesterday was a fantastic day. sure all days are fantastic, but this one really hit the spot. it pressed all the right buttons, it taught me a few lessons and demonstrated this city isn't so lame after all. toronto has a few tricks up its sleeve yet.

but first 'your ghost'. over dinner. dark, like it brings the thunder. it's been a while. and it would ruin your night, if only it wasn't so good you couldn't help but smile.

but critical mass. yesterday was the last friday of the month, and the day i've been waiting for ever since i bought my bike. i've been looking forward to it like all the horrible children look forward to christmas. and i was totally blown away. we really didn't know what to expect. you may have heard me rant about toronto and its apathetic/pathetic nature. people here just don't do exciting rebellious, it's mostly a dead scene. and this is why i was so blown away. the turnout was incredible. one guy gave an estimate of 800 people. i don't believe his figure, but it demonstrates the ballpark we're talking about. even with people cycling densely across two or more lanes we stretched longer than a whole block. we could take two sets of lights at a time. we could kick your ass.

so consider my faith restored. consider me one happy 'rogue cyclist'. laughing at all the angry drivers and the pedestrians standing with their mouths wide open, like they never realised bicycles existed in toronto. they do now mother fucker, and we're coming for you. an army without leaders, a cavalcade with no direction but onwards. we did every major road downtown at random. and in a moment of pure genius we actually cycled through the eaton centre. we are joy on wheels.

we are the most fun you can have on a friday night. we are shouting "happy friday" at you, and one of you is shouting "fuck you all" back (standing on top of his car, middle finger raised). love on two wheels. or four, for those with trailers. major props to the guy with the soundsystem, playing a perfect selection of funk, dub and reggae. sister nancy. and props to the film maker dude whose quadruple welded bike has him cycling two meters in the air.

three hours later we're cycling back up yonge, still going strong, although numbers well diminished. we'd only met one police car, and he'd started corking the roads for us (like we can't do traffic control ourselves). it's too amazing. my heart explodes, goes boom. my wheels whir and grind. we are the perfect collaboration.

15.06.2007: i well gashed up my arm:

and as per usual it's my left arm. i must hate my left arm. it must really hate me.

and if you're the kind of person who worries when i write about fucking myself up, you really need not, it's nowhere near as bad as it looks in the photo. tis but a scratch, etc. all i did was fall off my bike. actually, it was more like i fell over on my bike. i wasn't even moving. i was trying to get over a branch and the back wheel just span and slipped. i would have been okay had the branch not been connected to a rather large tree. but y'know, shit happens.

12.06.2007: i'm getting used to cycling again. i've learnt the ruts and bumps of my dirt trail, so i can now ride it confidently at speed. and i'm more comfortable on the roads, i've learnt how to cycle side by side with these monsterous cars. and i've no qualms about taking up a whole lane either, with all these parked cars i'm all you can fit into one lane anyway. my 'take the tooker' flag helps too. i'm super visible. and my new bell, ding ding ding.

07.06.2007: i've never cycled like that before in my life, down yonge street from eglinton to bloor. i'm amazed that i survived. it's one long evil stretch of asshole traffic, cursing and spewing. in the space of ten minutes i was cut up twice by cars turning right. and it's funny, because being a bike you go at a much faster average speed than the other traffic. maybe that's why they hate us cyclists so much.

but now i'm all set. i have my bike for $85, my helmet (that's not a legal requirement) for $35, my lock for $23 and my pollution mask (being knocked off my bike is a statistic, but being exposed to pollution is guaranteed) for $35. please note that while i'm legally allowed to not wear a helmet, i am required to have a bell. it's ridiculous. all i need now is to know if i'm allowed to jump red lights where there isn't a right turn or crossing, or if i need to jump up the curb for them.

anyway, call me critical mass ready, and let's go.

01.06.2007: i'm off into the sticks. out into mississauga. i take the 32b bus from yonge and eglinton and it's full so that no one can even breathe, apparently it makes the journey more bareable, and about an hour later i'm the only person left on the bus as it snakes around desolate streets, what i'd call a wasteland, in the sense that it's been completed wasted. i lower my face to the crack in the window, trying to find the breeze that's warm and clammy.

mine is the last stop, and stepping from the bus you're confronted with endless highway. when you look away from it the void consumes you, disappears off into the heat haze. out here is all road and strip mall. it's another world, one you never need or want to see. there are so many power cables they obscure the sky, blocking out the sun. i'm barely even over-exaggerating.

but i'm the strange guy you see walking along the side of the road as you speed by, listening to fucking bon jovi because you're a prick with no taste. i'm the guy who should have a cowboy hat and his thumb out. i'm the guy who should have a gas mask and a bottle of water, singing to himself to pass the hours it takes to get to my destination.

and soon enough i reach the suburb, it comes out of nowhere, and feels fake like cheap ice cream. and who named these streets? i personally would hate to live on either indian summer terrace or tranquil drive? it'd make me cringe every time i left the house, my beautiful big perfect house, with my two kids and my huge car. they come as standard round here.

i'm here to pick up my new bike, courtesy of a guy with a cool name and craigslist. it's blue and has lots of gears. it need a bit of tweaking but i think it's a bargain. and once i have it it's only 10km back to the nearest subway station, kipling, to ride home. whoosh. the whole journey only took nearly four and a half hours, and people say they need cars? bullshit.

anyway, now it's friday, the new saturday since thursday is the new friday. and whatever it is, it's my new favourite day.