Cha-Ching – So the open house has a good side financially too.
When we do this, we get lots of visitors. We teach those interested how to service their bikes etc. Usually we lose tools too! Last time we lost 18 & 19mm sockets, a 3/8″ drive ratchet handle and numerous combo-spanners. Cost about £30 to replace them all. As we are a charity, it hurt. But it didn’t hurt the Peace House, no, It hurt my wallet when I replaced the tools!
Sorry, of-topic but just had to post this for your pleasure:
Monday
The alarm’s diamond drill-bit
Whines, and cracks go spidering
Across the surface of my dreams.
The fish-head man, the flooded bathroom,
The argument we were about to have,
And the apples with human faces shatter and fall.
I unglue my eyes into waxy morning light.
I cannot yet escape the gravity-well of the duvet,
So I savour the delicious warm lethargy awhile.
But Monday is calling and will not be denied.
My bare feet touch the bedroom carpet
And I’m surprised it’s not covered in pieces of dream.
By ‘Argent’
Just wondering……If the kickstand is an abandoned train station, is there an abandoned line as well, converted into miles and miles of bike/pedestrian trail? We have a few of those around here and they’re great. One can get from Waterloo to Toronto in a couple of hours, marvel at the sanctimoniousness of the local cyclists, overpay for parts or accessories at on of the urban shops, and then pedal home. Rail trails rule!
Wow! a couple of hours is pretty quick, since it’s about 100km by car and the rail trails I know of that go that way go pretty far out of the way. Unless you’ve kept one a secret so Waterloo doesn’t get flooded with Toronto hipsters (which is an unwarranted concern, since they think if you go west of High Park or east of Yonge, you fall off the edge of the earth).
I was going to take issue with the “sanctimonious” comment but it’s spot on (we’re reckless and clueless too).
There’s a rail trail from Cataract/Forks of the Credit to Elora that goes part of the way, and a pair from Cambridge to Paris and Brantford to Hamilton (and thence to the Waterfront Trail), but both routes add lots and lots of miles to an already long trip. Downtown Toronto to the Cataract trailhead and back is a century in itself, give or take.
The actual train goes there, but you probably can’t bring your bike.
There’s a rail trail from Cataract/Forks of the Credit to Elora that goes part of the way, and a pair from Cambridge to Paris and Brantford to Hamilton (and thence to the Waterfront Trail), but both routes add lots and lots of miles to an already long trip. Downtown Toronto to the Cataract trailhead and back is a century in itself, give or take.
The actual train goes there, but you probably can’t bring your bike.
“A gathering of the tribes” describes our local cycling scene pretty well. Many of the organizations and activities welcome all kinds of bikes. Even our Critical Masses reach out to motorists in a friendly way. That which unites us is stronger than than which divides us.
Well it looks like Joe & Yehuda are drinking real beer. A brown ale, porter, or stout for Yehuda. A saison or a witte for Joe. Being in Cleveland they probably won’t get too many takers when they don’t find “beer like substances” such as Bud Light.
klove, how was your meeting? did you successfully lobby to keep ebikes (not meaning bikes with power assist, but rather, those frigging annoying electric scooters that people generally take the pedals off of because nobody would ever bother pedaling one of those, but are still considered bicycles under the law because of the idiotic government of ontario) off of the proposed bike path? i hate those things.
They are better than automobiles. And everyone that I’ve seen riding one has had a beer belly so big that it leads me to conclude that he would otherwise be in an auto.
Not a bad urban vehicle, but their weight makes it impossible to take one of them onto the subway or regional rail cars.
I’ve no real objection to them being on bicycle roads provided that their riders behave themselves.
The CN Leaside project looks good, but I do have a few concerns.
1. Lighting at night is currently planned for intersections only. An electrical conduit is being laid along the path so that proper lights can be installed in the future. However, the budget that the project has to work with now is only $3 million, so some things have to be deferred until later. This is a social safety issue that I’ll continue to pursue with the City to ensure that it is picked up on later.
2. The road is being designed to facilitate snow clearing in the winter using the same type of machinery used to clear snow off the Martin Goodman Trail.
3. The road is only 3.5M wide, with another 2M cleared area on either side.
On the whole, well done. The problem areas can all be corrected in the future.
I too hate the Ebikes, Too low a profile, too slow and ungainly. Get a scooter for Heaven’s sake. (Although they might fit Kevin’s description of an instrument of death). But the worst are those 2-stroke conversions of crappy mountain bikes and cruisers. Noisy, polluting, unregulated, and above all dangerous.
Where is the inverted U bike parking?! Come on Yehuda, get with it! I would think that a bike advocate like Yehuda would have several Us on the sidewalk in front of the Kickstand so that customers don’t have to struggle to lock up to trees or poles or those outdated useless schoolyard racks.
i agree that school racks are the best; those U bikes just don’t provide efficient, effective parking. they were designed by a non-bicycle-riding engineer, no doubt. like MOST things done to/for bicyclists.
The only way to secure a bike is to have two fixed verticles; school yard racks are not designed to lock a bike, merely to keep it upright.
Check out the video on this web page:http://www.bikeparking.com/welleseries/index.html
And yet millions of school children (including me) used those racks without problems for decades. A long cable easily fits through the rack, both wheels and the frame.
I watched the video, and the main thing I noticed was how much space those U things use. A conventional rack could fit three times as many bikes in the same space.
Cable locks are no good here. You can cut them like string with backpack-sized bolt cutters, and most chains with the same big ones they use to cut the chain at the hardware store. I see cut cables lying under bike racks all the time. So the bike racks have to accomodate U locks, or they’re as useless as a cable lock.
Also kid bikes are probably less appealing to the sort of person who carries bolt cutters in their backpack than adult bikes.
Not a problem in my area. The only reason I bother with a lock at all is to prevent “impulse thefts” where somebody jumps on a bike and pedals away. My neighbor across the street leaves his bike leaning against the front wall of his house, even when he’s out of town for a few days, and nobody has bothered it yet.
Fair enough, but I think most cities with a large cycling population also have a significant bike theft problem, and the U lock is now the standard urban bike lock. So the school rack is far from the ideal bike rack – it’s actually the least versatile (even with wheelbenders you can get a u-lock around the chainstay if you need to). The problem is when you google bike rack suppliers you still mostly find stuff like that, so building managers who don’t ride still install them downtown sometimes – and they usually end up holding 2 bikes each, one on each end, and everyone locks to the railings and fences instead.
These are a better design that hold a lot of bikes, and work with U locks or cables or most anything else. I actually don’t like using them unless I have to, because they hold too many bikes, handlebars can get tangled, and sometimes stuff gets damaged:
kim are you talking about those vertical pipe in a frame racks? If so, I have to disagree. I have never found a good place to lock up on those save at the very ends — essetiall outside the rack.
I know you usually know what you are talking about so why do you think they are superior to an inverted u.
Owning a bike shop myself…this is what it’s all about! I must say I do prefer Joe’s beer choice. A nice light-ish maybe wheat beer. Leave it to Yehuda, some sort of liquid meal, Oatmeal Stout perhaps? Figures that Yehuda would be a beer snob! Nice Job, guys!
The only way to secure a bike is to have two fixed verticles; school yard racks are not designed to lock a bike, merely to keep it upright.
Check out the video on this web page:http://www.bikeparking.com/welleseries/index.html
Cheers Boys! Great Job!
Aww the hidden unity is revealed. Keep it a success!
*About to possibly be doing one of these ourselves. *Acquisition!! Woot-woot!!
Yehuda – “Open house is bringing together cyclists off all tribes, and promoting cycling in general.”
Joe – “Open house is bringing in some much-needed income to keep the business afloat.”
Both are good, both are important and neither can exist happily without the other.
Great outcome. Hope it brings some sustained business too. Good they let Yehuda out of the closet
Cha-Ching – So the open house has a good side financially too.
When we do this, we get lots of visitors. We teach those interested how to service their bikes etc. Usually we lose tools too! Last time we lost 18 & 19mm sockets, a 3/8″ drive ratchet handle and numerous combo-spanners. Cost about £30 to replace them all. As we are a charity, it hurt. But it didn’t hurt the Peace House, no, It hurt my wallet when I replaced the tools!
WOO-HOO!
Sorry, of-topic but just had to post this for your pleasure:
Monday
The alarm’s diamond drill-bit
Whines, and cracks go spidering
Across the surface of my dreams.
The fish-head man, the flooded bathroom,
The argument we were about to have,
And the apples with human faces shatter and fall.
I unglue my eyes into waxy morning light.
I cannot yet escape the gravity-well of the duvet,
So I savour the delicious warm lethargy awhile.
But Monday is calling and will not be denied.
My bare feet touch the bedroom carpet
And I’m surprised it’s not covered in pieces of dream.
By ‘Argent’
I wonder if Sprocket is asleep in one corner.
I can see that it’s an “ordinary” day at the Kickstand.
Well played, sir. Boneshakers unite!
Hey, is that Abe Lincoln in the bushes? In shorts?
No, just a guy in period clothes… see the high-wheeler next to him?
I’m guessing one of the Shakers, who build the frames.
And I’m guessing one of the hipsters, seeking peer approval. It’s hard to tell ‘em apart sometimes.
Hipster, actually. Stovepipe is the new flatbrim.
Their soul-less grasp is undless isn’t it.
Their soul-less grasp is undless isn’t it.
Just wondering……If the kickstand is an abandoned train station, is there an abandoned line as well, converted into miles and miles of bike/pedestrian trail? We have a few of those around here and they’re great. One can get from Waterloo to Toronto in a couple of hours, marvel at the sanctimoniousness of the local cyclists, overpay for parts or accessories at on of the urban shops, and then pedal home. Rail trails rule!
Wow! a couple of hours is pretty quick, since it’s about 100km by car and the rail trails I know of that go that way go pretty far out of the way. Unless you’ve kept one a secret so Waterloo doesn’t get flooded with Toronto hipsters (which is an unwarranted concern, since they think if you go west of High Park or east of Yonge, you fall off the edge of the earth).
I was going to take issue with the “sanctimonious” comment but it’s spot on (we’re reckless and clueless too).
Where is this rail trail? Does it have a name? It seems kind of invisible to me.
It’s called Highway 401.
There’s a rail trail from Cataract/Forks of the Credit to Elora that goes part of the way, and a pair from Cambridge to Paris and Brantford to Hamilton (and thence to the Waterfront Trail), but both routes add lots and lots of miles to an already long trip. Downtown Toronto to the Cataract trailhead and back is a century in itself, give or take.
The actual train goes there, but you probably can’t bring your bike.
It’s called Highway 401.
There’s a rail trail from Cataract/Forks of the Credit to Elora that goes part of the way, and a pair from Cambridge to Paris and Brantford to Hamilton (and thence to the Waterfront Trail), but both routes add lots and lots of miles to an already long trip. Downtown Toronto to the Cataract trailhead and back is a century in itself, give or take.
The actual train goes there, but you probably can’t bring your bike.
Oh noes, the comments are doing it again…
If you’re throwing a party, you should at least offer public restrooms…got way too many people off pissing in the bushes.
Bet that means they’re in the employee restrooms. Pity the fool with cleanup duty later…
Urine is good for getting rid of spider mites though!
“A gathering of the tribes” describes our local cycling scene pretty well. Many of the organizations and activities welcome all kinds of bikes. Even our Critical Masses reach out to motorists in a friendly way. That which unites us is stronger than than which divides us.
Ceiling Cat is watching…
Ceiling Cat is watching…
There is still the dangling “free beer” twitter plot…I suspect tomorrow’s strip might not have the protagonists in such a triumphant mood.
Well it looks like Joe & Yehuda are drinking real beer. A brown ale, porter, or stout for Yehuda. A saison or a witte for Joe. Being in Cleveland they probably won’t get too many takers when they don’t find “beer like substances” such as Bud Light.
klove, how was your meeting? did you successfully lobby to keep ebikes (not meaning bikes with power assist, but rather, those frigging annoying electric scooters that people generally take the pedals off of because nobody would ever bother pedaling one of those, but are still considered bicycles under the law because of the idiotic government of ontario) off of the proposed bike path? i hate those things.
I actually saw someone pedalling one of those monstrosities yesterday along Dupont St. It was the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages.
I’ve never seen anyone pedaling one of those, but I saw someone helping one up a steep hill by pushing with his feet.
They are better than automobiles. And everyone that I’ve seen riding one has had a beer belly so big that it leads me to conclude that he would otherwise be in an auto.
Not a bad urban vehicle, but their weight makes it impossible to take one of them onto the subway or regional rail cars.
I’ve no real objection to them being on bicycle roads provided that their riders behave themselves.
The CN Leaside project looks good, but I do have a few concerns.
1. Lighting at night is currently planned for intersections only. An electrical conduit is being laid along the path so that proper lights can be installed in the future. However, the budget that the project has to work with now is only $3 million, so some things have to be deferred until later. This is a social safety issue that I’ll continue to pursue with the City to ensure that it is picked up on later.
2. The road is being designed to facilitate snow clearing in the winter using the same type of machinery used to clear snow off the Martin Goodman Trail.
3. The road is only 3.5M wide, with another 2M cleared area on either side.
On the whole, well done. The problem areas can all be corrected in the future.
I too hate the Ebikes, Too low a profile, too slow and ungainly. Get a scooter for Heaven’s sake. (Although they might fit Kevin’s description of an instrument of death). But the worst are those 2-stroke conversions of crappy mountain bikes and cruisers. Noisy, polluting, unregulated, and above all dangerous.
Hey, I just bought a cap like Yehuda’s! From the business advertised on today’s page (Walz caps)
Cooooool! Hee hee
There’s just never enough “extra” money to buy one of these, but one of these days…
Congrats on the new topper.
Where is the inverted U bike parking?! Come on Yehuda, get with it! I would think that a bike advocate like Yehuda would have several Us on the sidewalk in front of the Kickstand so that customers don’t have to struggle to lock up to trees or poles or those outdated useless schoolyard racks.
Where I live, schoolyard racks would be perfectly adequate, safe and practical. Unfortunately, there aren’t any.
i agree that school racks are the best; those U bikes just don’t provide efficient, effective parking. they were designed by a non-bicycle-riding engineer, no doubt. like MOST things done to/for bicyclists.
The only way to secure a bike is to have two fixed verticles; school yard racks are not designed to lock a bike, merely to keep it upright.
Check out the video on this web page:http://www.bikeparking.com/welleseries/index.html
And yet millions of school children (including me) used those racks without problems for decades. A long cable easily fits through the rack, both wheels and the frame.
I watched the video, and the main thing I noticed was how much space those U things use. A conventional rack could fit three times as many bikes in the same space.
Cable locks are no good here. You can cut them like string with backpack-sized bolt cutters, and most chains with the same big ones they use to cut the chain at the hardware store. I see cut cables lying under bike racks all the time. So the bike racks have to accomodate U locks, or they’re as useless as a cable lock.
Also kid bikes are probably less appealing to the sort of person who carries bolt cutters in their backpack than adult bikes.
Not a problem in my area. The only reason I bother with a lock at all is to prevent “impulse thefts” where somebody jumps on a bike and pedals away. My neighbor across the street leaves his bike leaning against the front wall of his house, even when he’s out of town for a few days, and nobody has bothered it yet.
Fair enough, but I think most cities with a large cycling population also have a significant bike theft problem, and the U lock is now the standard urban bike lock. So the school rack is far from the ideal bike rack – it’s actually the least versatile (even with wheelbenders you can get a u-lock around the chainstay if you need to). The problem is when you google bike rack suppliers you still mostly find stuff like that, so building managers who don’t ride still install them downtown sometimes – and they usually end up holding 2 bikes each, one on each end, and everyone locks to the railings and fences instead.
These are a better design that hold a lot of bikes, and work with U locks or cables or most anything else. I actually don’t like using them unless I have to, because they hold too many bikes, handlebars can get tangled, and sometimes stuff gets damaged:
http://www.cora.com/bikeparking.htm
kim are you talking about those vertical pipe in a frame racks? If so, I have to disagree. I have never found a good place to lock up on those save at the very ends — essetiall outside the rack.
I know you usually know what you are talking about so why do you think they are superior to an inverted u.
funny, “not designed by people who ride bikes” is exactly what i think about those racks you love.
Owning a bike shop myself…this is what it’s all about! I must say I do prefer Joe’s beer choice. A nice light-ish maybe wheat beer. Leave it to Yehuda, some sort of liquid meal, Oatmeal Stout perhaps? Figures that Yehuda would be a beer snob!
Nice Job, guys!
I’m guessing Michelob Ultra for Joe, roadie that he is.
Apple Juice for Joe – roadie that he is!
All of my “roadie” friends drink high gravity beer and I doubt that many panther piss drinking lightweighst could hold our draft.
if only it was always like this at the kickstand
The only way to secure a bike is to have two fixed verticles; school yard racks are not designed to lock a bike, merely to keep it upright.
Check out the video on this web page:http://www.bikeparking.com/welleseries/index.html
I love that someone came to the open house riding a penny-farthing!
This should be worth a case of beer, easy. I might do it on a commute, once, just for the sake of seeing the faces of the car drivers.
Onederful.