There are plenty of challenges to riding a bike in winter, and sometimes they threaten to overwhelm its enjoyableness. But one thing that will always give the season a unique pleasure: Snow. Once you get past the fear of slipping and falling (more on this later), snow offers an experience unlike any other you’ll have …
It didn’t strike like lightning. It was more like a subconscious feeling created by its absence until one day I finally noticed. Hey, I thought. My feet aren’t cold. That was a good day, as have many since then. It seems a small thing, and I didn’t realize it until I realized it, but toasty …
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Riding a bike is only the best thing ever, so of course you want to do it all winter long. But you’re frightened. All that cold, snow and ice is intimidating. But after more than a decade of riding through northern winters, I’ve learned a secret: Those are not the things you should be afraid …
Read more “This is the one thing you should be frightened of while riding your bike in winter”
Damn that Game of Thrones for making the phrase “winter is coming” sound ominous. Winter doesn’t have to be something to dread, particularly if the root of your aversion to winter is the loss of your bicycle. Yes, more people are riding a bike through winter all the time. For good reason: You get all …
Read more “Winter is coming: Here are 5 things to think about to keep riding through the cold”
A new study offers perhaps the most definitive reason yet why society should be doing more to encourage cycling, and serves as another reminder that the health benefits of cycling far outweigh the risks. This British study took a comprehensive look at the health benefits of bicycle commuting, and the results are staggering. Over the …
Read more “Forget all the other reasons you should be riding a bike. This is the one that matters”
On my most memorable ride this year, a 70 km highway ride up the highest paved mountain pass in Canada, I wore a helmet. On my recent mountain bike trip into the Rockies of southern B.C. , I wore a helmet. But in my last video, in which I rolled through the streets of Calgary’s …
Read more “Most of the time I ride a bike, I wear a helmet. But not always. Here’s why.”
Some things about driving a car are difficult. Doing a 180-degree e-brake slide into a parking space, for example. Or that famous kickflip in the James Bond movie The Man With the Golden Gun, which was so difficult nobody even attempted to replicate it for 40 years. Another thing that’s difficult, apparently, is passing a …
Read more “How to pass a bike in a car without killing anyone (or being a dick)”
The bag of chips, inhumanely large, groaned under the strain when I heard the passerby say it: “Now that,” she said, “is the kind of bike you need for Costco.” Mercifully, the bag didn’t explode and send a thousand kilograms of quinoa- and chia-infused tortilla skyward, but instead settled nicely into the saddle bags of …
Read more “Can a cargo bike pass the ultimate test of suburban life: A trip to Costco?”