There are bicycle lanes in Halifax. They’re amazing. They are also the ONE place a cyclist feels safe on the road. On some of our streets I have two options; Ride in the road and risk some asshole trying to overtake me, when there is clearly not enough room, and running me off the road; Try to ride next to the sidewalk on the green strip as to not be in the way of pedestrians but not in danger of being smashed into parked cars by idiotic drivers.
So where do I go? I have been hit by too many cars, yelled at by too many pedestrians. I’m sorry, but for all of the cities around the world that I have lived in, none have been so un-accommodating to cyclists. It’s pathetic, and I will start riding fully on the sidewalk if I have to, because I will not put my life in danger when there are so many people on the road willing to run me down so they can make the next light.
The next light is going to be red when you get there anyway buddy. It’s seven seconds to red from when the numbers hit zero for pedestrians. Simple math. I’m not keeping you from making your light, but you might be keeping me from making it home alive. —Tired of Being Run Over
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2012.
wear your foam hat and keep the bike on the road. if you feel like a car isnt going to give you enough room while you pass parked cars, then take the full lane. the drivers will get red with rage, but its your right! Bill 93. report all road ragers to the police. they will file a report and charge them with reckless drving or assault if they yell at you.
thats my MO untill we get bike lanes….
There are bike lanes(for the life of me I don’t know why) in the Halifax Logistics Park up behind Dartmouth Crossing. And once you get off of Wright, there isn’t really a whole lot of vehicular traffic. So, last week I saw my first cyclist up there. Wanna guess where the cunt was? Yep – on the sidewalk.
put your big boy pants on and stay on the road
so, what you gonna do o.p.? make more rules that won’t be followed. let nature take it’s course and let the chips and bodies fall where they may. i would love to see more roadkill, it would decrease the population more every day.and the gene pool might even make a slight comeback too.
Based on my experience, I must infer that OB doesn’t know how to cycle in traffic.
I commute by bicycle everyday (10k to/from work) during “rush hour” and my route includes some of the busiest stretches of the peninsula. I’ve been doing this for the past three years, including the winter season. I do my best to follow the rules and use common sense.
Guess how many times I’ve been hit, OB? Zero.
Guess how many times I’ve been yelled at? Twice. Once by a guy in a delivery truck and once by a cabbie (both idiots).
The point is, motorists and pedestrians in Halifax are very accommodating provided that you follow the rules of the road. My only complaint about motorists is that they’re sometimes too accommodating, perhaps because they feel the need to exercise excess caution due to previous experiences with idiot cyclists.
I get that cycling is important. It helps with fitness, reduces road congestion. But that doesn’t mean cycling doesn’t come with its own responsibilities. A little adherence to those responsibilities might reduce the amount of conflict you experience on the roads.
well put canned. too bad BLOWME beat you to the punch with the more eloquent and intelligent response.
seriously though I hope our newly crowned mayor sees the benefit of bike lanes and has them installed all over our fine city.
and if you want to ride on the sidewalk that bad,make sure you use kid size tires so the cops can’t ticket you.
For once I agree with canned (and of course, breadlady!).
Keep your bike off the sidewalk. If you’re that shitty at riding here’s a tip: don’t ride a bike.
Sidewalk’s for walking, not for you, under any circumstances, to be riding your bike on.
the beauty of a bike is, you can always dismount and walk with it
What everyone else said…
Honestly, it’s good to know what you are and aren’t allowed to do on a bicycle while in traffic. Being a more aggressive rider around cars is good too, as opposed to being timid around them and not knowing where to go or when. When people are nervous on a bike OR in a car, they muck up the whole traffic flow and get in everyone’s way. Canned said it best. Although I haven’t been biking for 3 years, the 1.5 has left me unscathed aside from the cab that ran me onto the sidewalk that time. Still got scars from that one.
Canned, how’s biking during the winter in Hali? I’ve always put the 2-wheeler away for the winter and walked, this will be my first year biking in the snow in Halifax.
Biking in winter is fine around here, make an effort to dress warm and dry, use fenders front and back. the occasional snowstorm is a drag but the streets are normally cleared enough for biking by the next day. We get more slush than snow around here. Been doing it for a long time, no probs, just jealous of the folks in the warm cars sucking back coffee.
Yeah I’d say biking in the winter is not much different from any other season (in Halifax). My only advice is the same I would give to a motorist: it’s winter, so drive (or ride) like it’s winter. That means slow down a bit. And take caution for motorists who don’t heed this advice.
Try to find a warm and dry place to store your bike during the day and in the evening.
Plus everything Cranky said.
10,000KM per year on my bike within HRM. Living right downtown, I do my fair share of riding on the peninsula.
Never ridden on the sidewalk, never been hit by a car, never been yelled at by a pedestrian, and can’t honestly remember being yelled at by any drivers.
Think it’s time you take a look in the mirror.
Not that it isn’t possible, but 10K while living on the peninsula seems a but much, unless you’re a messenger I guess. I max out at around 8k per year on average and I bike onto the peninsula. In any case, good for you on the mileage.
Whoa, you guys must have legs of steel! I’m topping out at 2500KM, but I live on the peninsula close to work. How do you manage 10 000KM? Friggen right on, and thanks for the advice guys.
Hmm, I just guestimated my yearly commuting mileage to be around 2600km which I don’t include in my total cycling per year (yes, I guess I’m a bit of a fred) so around 8-10,000 isn’t impossible for a recreation cyclist/racertype who is also a bicycle commuter.
Yup, commuter and racing cyclist. Commute in 15K and extend my ride home to 50-60K in the evening. I usually do that 3 days a week. Weekend rides are usually 80-120K. So it adds up quickly.
You live “right downtown” and have a 15km commute and extend it 60km? That doesn’t make sense. What do you do, laps of the commons? ha ha.
10k, now 15k. I’m not saying your a liar, but 50-60k a week, and 80-100k on the weekends. Do the math, you don’t add up.Maybe you should invest in an App to help you keep track of the mileage. I currently have a few cycling titles on MapMyRide, and my rides fall somewhat short of your 10k, or 15k. I’m not saying MapMyRide is prestigious in any way, but that are several thousand cyclists on it in HRM. None of which have your track history. Hopefully I’ll see you on it one day with the mileage listed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHtCNhABlLw
The “15k” is his/her commute, the 10k is total for the year. My commute in/out combined is about 16km which gives me about 4000km total. Add to that 6000 (for a less than stellar year) of weekend and after work rides and you get 10k/year pretty easily.
I just take exception with the living and riding on the peninsula = 15k commuting.
I know people who have in excess of 13,000km and are not stravassholes or on Mapmyride.
Yeah not to nit pick but a 15k commute while living downtown does not add up. You’d have to be commuting to Dartmouth or some other outlying suburb. And if that were the case, why would one be willing to pay the grossly inflated rent that comes with living downtown? Avid cyclist but stupid with personal finance perhaps.
Hope mph isn’t the type who commutes in his/her “racing” gear.
Wait, what? Lets take the average from 50-60k and call it 55k. That distance 3 times a week is 165k, worked into a year totalling 8580k. Then theres the 80-120k once a week, lets take the average of 100k and work that into a year totalling 5200k. The average total is 13780k, so how did you come up with 10k? Also, when cycling, underestimating your distance isn’t a common practice. An App suggestion is pretty logical for people who take cycling seriously. It also provides the raw facts is all I meant. I know you’ll check Cranky, so here it is; the minimum distance listed total is 11960k, roughly 2000k over what was stated, once again when cycling, people usually don’t underestimate the distance travelled.
I, uh, wasn’t going to check.
Also, I assumed that the person was doing more than just one 80-120km ride per week, so wasn’t really concerned about their mileage claim. I just assumed they were mentioning it as anecdotal info. Now turn off your computer and go pound it around The Basin.
http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.ca/
There. Thats better.
Well put, lol.
Holy shit, I went from stating my mileage and weekly routine to now having to justify my living arrangement?
I live downtown and commute to Lakeside, my job position changes regularly and sometimes I’m out there for months at a time and sometimes I work downtown. My girlfriend also works downtown. We both enjoy living downtown and pay a reasonable amount for the unit we’re currently living in. I honestly don’t even commute that much, most of my mileage comes from training and racing.
I commute in on SMB and go around the Sambro Loop on my way home, when I’m working out of Lakeside.
Again, my work position changes, and I don’t commute exactly 3 days a week and ride 100KM a weekend, 52 weeks a year. I do take days off, and I sometimes ride in excess of 100KM on the weekends. Therefore your mathematical estimate of 13,780KM is high.
I track 95% of my mileage on my Garmin GPS, I have 308.5 hours and 7174.5KM so far this year. I will easily get another 2500KM over Nov and Dec as they are my high mileage months typically. So that would put me around ~9500KM for the year. Is that specific enough for you?
I don’t use MapMyRide, because it’s a terrible service for simply uploading rides and tracking mileage as it’s plastered with ads.
En Garde! Defend yourself, MPH!
http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/ss232/D…
no need to justify yourself mph and that looks like fun, keptin. *no horses were injured during this event*
HA ha! You’ve been LTWWB’d!
MPH, no one said you needed to justify your living arrangement. You felt the need to for some reason? And based on your original post, I simply did the math, (I like math and was bored at work). My so called mathematical estimate was based on the numbers you provided, I then took the average distances and added them together. If 13,780KM is high, you should add up the maximum distance you posted, its higher than 13,780KM. If you buy the MapMyRide app you can use it for alot more then calculating distance, its only$2.99, and no adds. The free one has adds, how much does a GPS cost? I got an App for that too, and it was free. No ad’s as well.
I’m sorry, I did the math again. You have an average speed of just over 23mph, what professional race do you compete in? That was mean, I’m sorry again mph. Seriously though, that is a good timing compared to alot of people.
“Canned” stated that I was stupid with my personal finances because I live downtown and work off of the peninsula. Hence the living arrangement justification.
If you re-read both of my posts you’ll see that I stated I ride 10,000KM per year, 3,780KM LESS then the 13,780KM that you indicated. You’ll also notice that all of my milage has been posted in kilometers, NOT miles as you’re assuming in your average speed calculation. The correct average speed is 23.25KPH, well within the grasps of a mediocre racing cyclist.
Where the hell did you get 23MPH from? My posts indicate KM and your posts indicate KM.
Reading comprehension must not be a strong suit of yours.
And math isn’t yours. You posted your distance travelled, and yearly total. None of it added up. You take the weekly distance that you posted, and multiply it by the number of weeks in a year. Simple math prevails. Your probably lost at this point. I am truly sorry for the one typo of mph, I’m sure we both knew it was supposed to be kph. You seem to be mad, so I’m fine with you throwing dirt because you can’t find a rock. Also, dividing 7174.5 by 308.5 has nothing to do with MPH or KPH. Once again, simple math and in that case, common sense prevails.
I posted that my yearly distance was 10,000KM. My weekly distance was an estimate, not an absolute, my weeks vary.
“Also, dividing 7174.5 by 308.5 has nothing to do with MPH or KPH”
LOL WUT?
Distance over time is equal to speed.
7174.5 kilometeres traveled over 308.5 hours taken is equal to 23.25 kilometers per hour.
7174.5 kilometeres traveled over 308.5 hours taken is equal to 23.25 kilometers per hour = slow as fuck.
Tourists average better than that.
Exactly. Slow as fuck. Not professional race worthy as ST5 seems to think. Or even the equation for speed as ST5 seems to think. I’d like to know how they equate speed.
One thing I’ve left out of this master equation is that my 308.5 hours also include time that was spent on the stationary trainer, which doesn’t accumulate milage. So your entire equation-based-retarded-argument doesn’t even make sense.
Imagine how much time we would have saved if you would have just taken my 10,000KM and deemed it possible, as “Cranky” did.
Also imagine how much time you would have saved if you would have assumed that the guy hammering out 10,000KM a year probably knows a bit more about cycling and milage then you do?
Want a mind blowing fact? As you think 23KPH is fast. One of my races I did this year was 82KM and it only took 2 hours and 9 minutes to complete. Can you solve for speed? Yeah that’s 38KPH, on a fucking bicycle.
I can’t believe I’m responding to your stupidity. Now look, even I’m calling you stupid. As I said, I’m sorry for the typo. Dividing 7174.5 by 308.5 equals 23.25. Now set aside the simple fact that MPH got typed in one time instead of KPH, and we’re left with 23.25. Its obvious that we’re using KPH, thats been established. What fucking country are you in? Keep throwing that dirt around. Your name is also conveniently mph, you are stupid.
38kph, I’m so proud of you now. What hill was it? Or was it on your stationary trainer that you just conveniently thought of. How your story has changed, and how defensive you are about it. A comment I recently read apply’s to this, “Wanna drag”. And you can call me sonic, ST5 just looks stupid. Stupid.
http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/origin…
Stupid, what a surprise. Just plain stupid.
And seriously, why the hell would you bring Batman into this. You at least could have had him riding a bike, or stationary trainer, or had a 10,000kph sign behind him, even a 10,000mph sign would have sufficed. I clicked dislike for your lack of effort. Stupid.
trainer? ok, now you’re just fucking with us, you can’t be serious.
Fuck I hate cycle-snobbery. Just enjoy riding, don’t make it a bragging contest about annual mileage and speed. I’ve been riding just about daily for three years and I honestly have no sense of what is fast on a bicycle. Pretty sure I’m slow as fuck but I don’t care. How fast is 9.344994 km over 24.24 minutes anyway? Test your formula-memorization skills (not math)!
That’s awesome, I’m happy for you Canned, I love seeing people on their bikes. More importantly I love seeing people outside doing something they love rather then sitting at home on their computers. Keep at it.
Yeah I did get defensive, I simply stopped in, noticed a bitch and decided to drop a comment about my personal experiences as a cyclist with a lot of time spent on the road. Then I start getting fact checked harder then Romney at a debate. I should have left it at that and foregone the follow up comment.
Should I have posted my milage? Probably not as it seems to be too tough for some to grasp, but I felt it really drove the point home in my comment.
Has my story changed? Not really, I’ll still get close to 10,000KM on the road this year, but I’ve seemingly had to divulge more and more personal information about my cycling and training, in order to try and prove myself against the peanut gallery. So my story hasn’t changed, more so it’s being discussed in higher detail.
I appreciated the general knowledge, MPH. Stop in anytime, I’ll not question your math.
Also… wanna joust? I don’t know if I can get the Black Bullet (my bike) up to 38km/h, but I’ll try. You’ll have to supply your own lance tho, tournament rules.
There’s snobs in everything, but cyclesnobs tend to be a special breed. Even though I said you were slow as fuck, I know from personal experience that during commuting average speeds are lower than training or recreational rides, so I was only fucking with ya. Just enjoy the ride, and never talk about your distance, speed, or TT time over a 40km in LTWWB ever again.
BTW, your finish time in a race isn’t something I’d dwell on. We both know you only have to stay on the wheel in front of you and let the strong riders pull you around for that 82km. You DID take some pulls, right? And I don’t mean for a couple minutes once near the end of the race….
Well put Cranky, I was just messing with him as well. It worked, and it was a blast, and I guess you could say I got paid to do it. MPH don’t post inaccurate information and you will not get inaccurate opinions. Also to mimic Cranky, enjoy the ride and don’t brag about it. I’m not trolling you with this, but don’t talk out of your ass. This part is a troll though…. stationary trainer….. I’m still giggling about that last minute attempt to cover your tracks.
Ha, good one. I just shook my head at the mention of trainer miles. Hey buddy, get a rear wheel sensor for your garmin and then you can ‘track’ your trainer mileage/speed.
I don’t track trainer mileage. I track trainer hours, because I’m more concerned about my working volume by hours not by mileage.
My log only totals hours, and mileage. Hours include ALL of my riding, trainer and road. Mileage includes ALL my road mileage, it doesn’t include any trainer mileage.
I’m laughing again, well put. That part went over my head. Using a GPS on a stationary trainer, thats funny. And his first post said all 10,000km were on a bicycle in HRM, A BICYCLE!!
I JUST stated that I do not tack mileage on my trainer, I only track the hours that I spend on the trainer.
The 7200KM I have accumulated this year have been strictly on the road. Of my 308 hours I’d say ~260 of them were likely spent on the road accumulating 7200KM. Leaving about 40-50 hours that were spent on the trainer. What aren’t you understanding?
I use my GPS on my trainer, with the GPS function turned off to time my work outs, intervals and most importantly as a heart rate monitor to gauge efforts.
Stop right there. You have been challenged twice now without a response. I challenged you to a bicycle drag race, and you got challenged to bicycle jousting. Not replying is admitting defeat. Your original post said 10,000km on a bike in HRM, not a fucking stationary trainer. So like I said, don’t talk out of your ass, and don’t conveniently change the story. I havn’t once felt the need to list any accomplishments of my own, nor will I ever regardless of any comments that I don’t like. You want to brag, there will always be someone to check the facts, a fact checker we’ll call them. Then to get so defensive and insulting takes away the little bit of credibility you actually have. So, here it is, “Wanna drag?”
Ok, yes, I would like to “drag”. WTF does that even mean?
Joust, drag, whatever. I’m in it to win it.
You might want to drop down a category then, 82km is probably too far for you. Moving up a cat is obviously out of the question.
You really are stupid, never heard of a drag race? This situation indicates a race between two cyclists. Hence the term, “wanna drag?” For someone who commented that reading comprehension must not be a strong point of mine, you sure are slow. Ha, get it, slow on your bike or stationary trainer, or whatever it is you ride, and slow as in stupid. My offer is serious, now that you actually understand a well used phrase, the question remains, “wanna drag?” Also, rhyming “in it” and “win it” just looks stupid, kind of like using a GPS on a stationary trainer.
Yes, I would like to drag.
Yeah, why not just look at a clock before and after your ‘session’?
That was awesome, this bitch has passed alot of my morning. By bitch I mean this mph character, and not the OB. I think we’ve really gotten off topic on this one. MPH, I’ll let you worry about the logistics of my challenge as I highly doubt your serious. I predict your excuse will be that you meant it was a race on a stationary trainer, and your GPS will be the judge. But I am glad you finally got the concept of drag racing, it has been mentioned quite alot.
If he counts km’s travelled and hours cycled, plus hours on the trainer, as part of his Log, isn’t he going slower than slow as fuck when actually on a bicycle?
Cranky you have made this alot more entertaining, another excellent point. MPH you have already lost, and your stupid. I just like saying that because it gets you so worked up, I am starting to believe it though. And now that drag has been properly explained should we go over jousting. No wait, that had picture references for you, I’m sure you get it.
I’m an actual cyclist but don’t hang out with them, they’re either too earthy hippy types or too bitchy from being malnourished and riding too much. Like I said some time ago, just enjoy the ride, we’re just fucking with you. Now get out there and ride, its a nice day.
You claim to bike 10,000km in HRM, I give an average total of 13,780km. You say its to high of an estimate even though it was based on the information you provided. Now you have a link stating 12,833km, what the hell? Do you even know what you bike? You also said you use a GPS, now a cycling profile appears? Anyone, and I mean anyone can post a link to another cyclists page. Your story just keeps getting weirder. And if you logged 308.5 hours, then why does the link say 594 hours? You don’t check out, your story doesn’t check out. You continuosly contradict yourself, then add more facts and links that really don’t fit into your original story. You also said November and December are your high volume months, according to the chart you provided, that is not accurate. So once again, do you even know what you actually cycle? You now have lost all credibility, nothing you said in your posts matches that profile you posted, LIAR!!!!
http://www.thewritingbuddha.com/storage/13…
Actually READ my posts. I stated I’ve done 7200KM and 308HR SO FAR THIS YEAR. That would be as of 01/01/2012.
Now go look at what I posted. It’s from November of last year until today.
You are so friggin thick headed.
What more proof would you like?
Cranky – Definitely file me under bitchy and malnourished.
OH NO! You know my name!
ha ha, you guys are too much. And thanks, PG.
12,000+KM is pretty impressive no matter what the timeframe, if that is actually you.
You guys have fun and play nice.
LOL – Painey’s got her war face on.
http://philipedwards.files.wordpress.com/2…
Lol, I’m not surprised that our paths have crossed.
And who you are? I suppose I’ll never know!
Maybe we’ll go for a ride sometime ;D
After discovering that I’m dealing with actual cyclists, I’ve withdrawn my entry in the Jousting event. I don’t really feel like taking a 12 foot lance in the chest, especially from someone who cycles +/- 100 000km/year
Go for a ride? We have, you ranked higher than me in an event, but I got you with best two out of three. We don’t need to drag, I already won… twice. Not those races, just got higher than you and thats all that counts now. I’m usually not petty, but you just really piss me off with your bullshit contradictions and bragging.
Did we break you?
Hierarchy of cyclist douchebag (most to least douchebag’ish) by classification of bicycle user.
Racer who keeps regular tabs on annual mileage/hours, racer who wears racing gear during commutes, people who go to cycling/spinning cafes, regular racer, tourists, recreational users (including quasi-commuter university students), touring cyclists, legitimate commuters. Double dipping for those who fit into more than one category. Of course, I’m biased.
I discovered how much I dislike cycling as a sport just by sampling the sport/racing culture that exists in some of our fine city’s bike shops. I’ll definitely never go back to that one on Quinpool (there’s two, one run by hipsters, the other by sport enthusiasts).
Yup, you got me. I’m just an internet troll that likes to cycle a bit. Hopefully this Hartlin character’s rep doesn’t get tarnished.
Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
Haha, broken with a vain attempt at humour to cover it up. Go back to Cyclesmith, you belong there.