April Rides

April was still pretty cool, with a few warmer days...



Finnegan has taken over my mom's old Bike E as his get-around-the-city bike. It's in pretty good shape. She didn't ride it a lot.



And The Girl has taken over Finnegan's Linus.



Put away the Big Fat Dummy and got out the Yuba for Spring/Summer/Autum hauling. Still lots of ice on the river well into the month.



Still wearing winter helmet.



Spotted my first beaver amidst the ice in this gully by the art gallery.



Close up shot of said beaver.



New buildings still going up at Riverlanding. Starting on a third on that site.



Noticeably longer days. A few day with little wind.



Riding home from evening dance classes and it's still light out!



Summer helmet, summer gloves.

 

Still jacket weather, but Finnegan's at least transitioned to a summer helmet.

 Pretty sunset behind the Bessborough Hotel one night riding home form dance class with The Girl.



Got home before the rain.



Well, those bike lanes brought $12000 downtown from us - two kids braces! Too bad they voted to tear them out before 30 June the other day... I guess downtown don't want our money no more.



Lovely warm day just before Amanda's birthday - we rode out to meet my folks at Güd Eats for a late lunch.



Lunch at Güd Eats



Riding home from Güd Eats into the wind was a bit chillier.



Along the river.





While looking for her New Bike, Amanda rode the Jake 24 over to Doug's to see what they might give us for credit towards her new bike... it wasn't very much... so we're trying to sell it. Almost everyone that contacts us seems to be under the impression that it's a smoking' deal on a full-sized adult cross bike. Perhaps we should post THIS picture with it.



We did get out for ONE ride that was just for the fun of it.





Just a loop around the Meewassin Trail - up to the Circle Drive bridge and back down the other side.

This was partly a chance to try out the new (to them) bikes the kids will be riding this summer.



Finnegan tried out his new mountain bike (my old Surly 1x1)



The Girl tried out her new gravel adventure bike (Amanda's old Soma Double Cross).

She's at an awkward age/size - any kids bike she sits on is WAY too small - but this adult (Extra Small) cross bike is looking just a touch on the large side! Hopefully she'll grow some more through the summer.



The other reason for the ride was to check and see if the crocuses were out.



They were, but it felt like we were a little late - most were looking rather dried out and forlorn. It has been a very dry spring.



Continuing on, under the Rail bridge.



... and back across the Traffic Bridge.

And that was April. Hopefully we'll do some more FUN riding in May!

One Year

One year ago I bought a Bryton Rider 330 bike computer and signed up for Strava. I thought it would be fun to keep track of the kilometres I ride throughout a year and have a record of where I went. Also, I thought it was incredibly handy to have just ONE computer that could be put on all of my bikes instead of having a half dozen, each with different wheel sizes programmed into them - on and rechargeable - and all the data isn't lost when the battery dies. I'm really happy with it.

So, how did that year go...?



I rode about 3500km in the last year. Which is, I think, a pretty average year. When I've tried keeping track in previous years - tallying the odometers of all my other bike computers - I got about the same. for a year when I was MOSTLY just commuting and not doing a lot of fun rides or "training". I think the most I did in a year was about 8000Km. I'd like to do better this next year. Go for more longer rides through the summer. Get that up over 4000Km/year.



No surprise, there was less riding through December - January - February - March... But strangely there was also a week in July where I did less riding than any of those winter months...? Week of rain where I didn't HAVE to go anywhere, so I barely left the house?



Presented as mostly totals... I started off doing a lot of riding in May... slacked off through June (I was also on vacation for two weeks and while we did some mountain biking we mostly just walked around Calgary and Canmore). September I did a LOT of riding. This was because Finnegan was doing a Wellness class and he had to log a LOT of hours doing physical activity through the month and so we went for a lot of long rides. Rides dropped off to only commutes through November and December... not sure why I did so much more riding in January...? One of the coldest Februaries on record accounts for it being the lowest of the low, and slowly starting to put down some Klicks through March and April - though that was still mostly commuting - only one or two fun rides in there each month.



The Yuba is still my get-around bike for the greater part of the year. I did more distance on the Fargo because I've been using it for a few more commute trips around town, and it's the bike I do longer rides on out of town - those add up quickly! The Big Fat Dummy was the ONLY bike I rode through the winter. The Mikado seems to have sat completely unused this past year. I was using it for short trips around town when I didn't need to haul stuff in the Yuba, but I've mostly been using the Fargo or the Bowery for those trips these days...

That is all for now.