Cycle Fun Montreal

snowbike

2012-01-29T19:24:00.002-06:00

white snow bike

Spectacular pro-car/cheap gas and anti bike lane editorial in Gazette newspaper

2012-01-28T08:09:00.004-06:00

The Montreal Gazette published on friday an radical extremist pro-car and cheap gas op-ed editorial that the author felt was a reasonable push-back against forces conspiring against his car-first-and-only road user agenda.

The writer's rant included attacks on red-light cameras and bike lanes stealing "his" roads.

It looks a lot like the Montreal Gazette newspaper's new owner's right-wing agenda continues in it's support of everything oil powered and economic-activity generating, and to hell with the little people on sidewalks trying to safely cross at intersections and red lights and bicycles daring to use the same roadway as this writer in his SUV.

Read the entire op-ed article here. You can make your own conclusions, but we conclude by asking the question: "Is there anything good inside of you, sir?" Because this is one question the writer did not answer to our satisfaction.

The Bixi program, and street-narrowing, parking-revenue-robbing bicycle lanes that benefit only a small percentage of the population, the result of which - congestion - is used as an argument to restrict passenger-car traffic and as an excuse to start levying tolls. More money!

I guess he doesn't want people riding bikes to be able to do so safely, while he barrels past in his exhaust-spewing SUV. Perhaps one day he might consider that people on bikes means fewer cars blocking "his roads" for his clearly extremely important motor-vehicle trips.

New National Cycling Plan... for France

2012-01-26T17:16:00.003-06:00

We have a new national cycling plan. Unfortunately the country that released the plan was France. The good news is that another nation has taken a leadership role in making cycling safer and more accessible to the population.

"les avantages du vélo", "en termes de santé, de réduction des pollutions atmosphériques et de réduction du bruit, de budget des ménages, de développement économique".

"the benefits of cycling," "in terms of health, reducing air pollution and noise reduction of household budgets, economic development."

In other words, if or when our economies collapse, our climate collapses, or our oil becomes more valuable than gold, we can still have personal mobility and our health because we are planning ahead and fully (well, one day) integrating cycling into the transportation system.

Read more here at le Monde.

winter training, Mont Royal, and the famous 256 step staircase

2012-01-26T16:56:00.004-06:00

Mont Royal offers many possibilities for winter cross-training, but one of the best is laps on the staircase between Olmstead Road (above the Peel street entrance) and the Mont Royal Chalet/Kondiaronk Belvedere.

We were there last night and saw ten times as many people on these stairs as we saw on the whole rest of our trip through the park (a x-c club was training there). We caught their fever and did three laps. Next time: ten laps! Our up time was 1:53, which did include a ten-breath recovery pause in the middle. Our style was run two steps quick, run two steps slow, walk two steps, walk one step, until it is evident that is is pause time, take the ten breath recovery pause, and then go up as quickly (which last night wasn't quick at all) to the top.

Doing a few laps here every week will turn your heart and lungs into world class cycling assets, and your legs will be ready for hills (this is a very good thing). Not recommended for anyone with a weak heart!

Visiting beautiful Mont Royal in winter will improve your mental health too.

Just remember that when you go down the stairs, always go down one step at a time. Always!

winter bike storage, a.k.a. the bedroom problem

2012-01-22T11:38:00.002-06:00

Winter bike storage, also known as the bedroom problem.

We really need a basement or a garage.

cycling, on ice, old school

2012-01-13T18:47:00.003-06:00

Les velocipedes à patins

Outdoor lake and river skating season is beginning. A good source of outdoor conditions for the various winter sports we enjoy (skating, xc-skiing, snowshoeing) is the Guy Thibaudeau ski report in la Presse. Recommended.

bike... umbrella?

2012-01-08T17:45:00.002-06:00

one handed cyclist staying dry

This is not a recommended cycling accessory. But for those adept at one-handed cycling (and braking) this is one way to beat the weather.

Better late than never dept: the winter training program

2012-01-06T20:35:00.003-06:00

We hope to:

Get stronger legs
drop some pounds
Get stronger legs

Well, two out of three are attainable... losing weight is nearly impossible with all the delicious foods that Montreal has to offer the hungry cyclist.

bike montréal doodle

2012-01-04T17:49:00.001-06:00

1000s of bikes abandoned outside for winter and probably forever

2011-12-29T08:49:00.002-06:00

Will any of these bikes ever roll again?

Probably not.

Midnight bike shop has stripped a few parts off this bike

But seriously, who would want a used chain?

Most of these bikes stayed outside last winter and are now slowly losing their parts.

Look at that rusty chain! And that fender bolt... just like the one we are missing and which shops never seem to have a replacement for.

Please! Give your bike the reward of an indoor home for the winter months.

Solving the snowy seat problem

2011-12-29T08:29:00.004-06:00

The last thing in the world you want to set your buns down upon is a frozen ice and snow-encrusted bike seat.

If you have to ride an icy-coated seat you are in for some bad news when this ice melts, because then you will have wet crotch. A wet crotch is especially unwelcome in winter.

Snowy icy bike seat is bad news

Disposable grocery bag to the rescue.

Many cycles are adorned with disposable grocery bags acting as snow condoms to release snow with a quick shake.

The PA bag is especially popular in the Mile-End part of town.

Bored? "Best Of" Cycle Fun Montréal to the rescue

2011-12-24T17:12:00.002-06:00

CFM's Roadside award
Click here collis.

If you are going to enter a race, this is the one!
Click here eh.

Pictures mountain biking at East hereford Quebec. Paradise found.
Click here mon ami.

Our favorite all time quebec destination for a bike ride
click here to ride a fantastic bike ride.

Funny road signs and other roadside attractions
click here and then go ride your bike.

It's winter and snowshoeing is fantastic fun. The sentier Les Caps de Charlevoix starting at St-Tite-des-Caps is a very primo destination just a few miles east of Mont Ste-Anne.
Click here and dress properly, this is winter outside in Quebec.

If you are planning a Quebec vacation next summer, we recommend the south side of the St-Laurence river, where the river goes maritime with tides and beautiful scenery and a wonderful time is guaranteed.
Click here and relax, summer will be back soon.

news: pigs can fly: Velo-Québec realizes mountain biking exists

2011-12-15T19:38:00.004-06:00

In a shocking move completely at odds from Vélo-Québec's traditional role in Québec bike community, the organization announces that recreational mountain biking exists.

Here is the press release (english then french version):

Vélo Québec Embraces Recreational Mountain Biking
>> par Vélo Québec

Montreal, Thursday, December 15, 2011 – In January, Vélo Québec will add recreational mountain biking to the different activities for which the organization is already known, as the result of a strategic alliance with the Association pour le développement des sentiers de vélo de montagne au Québec (ADSVMQ).

“We are delighted with the agreement reached with ADSVMQ. This initiative is completely in line with our objectives, including the expansion of the Route verte and the promotion of active transportation,” said Suzanne Lareau, CEO of Vélo Québec. “According to Bicycling in Quebec in 2010, 700,000 adult Quebecers enjoy mountain biking. With the development of trails of various difficulty levels, this number will undoubtedly continue to rise.”

ADSVMQ was created in 2004 with the mission of defending and promoting the interests of recreational mountain biking. According to David Lauzon, President of ADSVMQ, “the integration of recreational mountain biking into Vélo Québec’s activities is a way of marrying complementary expertise. This alliance will make it possible to benefit from the dynamism of Vélo Québec and promote accessibility to this outdoor activity. In addition to encouraging physical fitness, it will also help establish an original tourism product. We therefore ask our supporters and all mountain biking enthusiasts to become Vélo Québec members. This membership is essential for endorsing this new step in the development of recreational mountain biking”.

Vélo Québec s’engage dans le développement du vélo de montagne récréatif
par Vélo Québec

Montréal, jeudi 15 décembre 2011 – Dès janvier, Vélo Québec ajoutera la pratique récréative du vélo de montagne aux différentes activités pour lesquelles l’organisation est déjà reconnue, résultat d’une alliance stratégique avec l’Association pour le développement des sentiers de vélo de montagne au Québec (ADSVMQ).

« Nous sommes ravis de l’entente conclue avec l’ADSVMQ. Cette initiative est tout à fait en lien avec nos réalisations, qu’il s’agisse du développement de la Route verte ou de nos actions de promotion de la mobilité active,mentionne Suzanne Lareau, présidente-directrice générale de Vélo Québec. Selon L’état du vélo au Québec en 2010, 700 000 Québécois d’âge adulte s’adonnent au vélo de montagne. Avec le développement des sentiers destinés à la pratique, de niveaux de difficulté variés, il n’y a pas de doute que ce nombre continuera d’augmenter ».

L’ADSVMQ a été créée en 2004 et s’est donné comme mission de défendre et de promouvoir les intérêts de la pratique récréative du vélo de montagne.Pour David Lauzon, président de l’ADSVMQ, « l’intégration du vélo de montagne aux activités de Vélo Québec est une façon de joindre des expertises complémentaires. Cette alliance permettra de bénéficier du dynamisme de Vélo Québec et favorisera l’accessibilité à cette activité de plein air. En plus d’encourager l’activité physique, elle permettra également de mettre en place un produit touristique original. À compter d’aujourd’hui, nous invitons nos sympathisants et tous les adeptes de vélo de montagne à devenir membres de Vélo Québec. Cette adhésion devient essentielle pour soutenir cette nouvelle étape dans le développement de la pratique récréative du vélo de montagne ».

À propos de Vélo Québec
Depuis près de 45 ans, Vélo Québec, un organisme sans but lucratif, fait figure d'incontournable dans le paysage cycliste québécois. Que ce soit à des fins de loisir ou de tourisme, ou comme moyen de transport propre et actif, l’organisme encourage sans relâche l'utilisation de la bicyclette afin d'améliorer l'environnement, la santé et le bien-être des citoyens.

A little late to the party (by 25 years!) but better late than never and, before you accuse us of being cynical, we want to say that this is great news for mountain bike trail development in Québec.

Woohoo!

snow? SNOW? NOOOOOO!!!!!!

2011-11-22T16:22:00.001-06:00

First snow of the season creates a mood of it's the end of the world, but it isn't. Almost... but not quite.

november daylight ride

2011-11-19T17:19:00.007-06:00

Truly a great road for cycling

This ride is the result of two years of exploration.

It is a perfect 70 km ride.

A few really nice stone walls on this ride

Today's ride finished at sunset, perfection attained.

Wool on the legs today

Yes, we need some new handlebar tape. It is winter project #17.

Looking north over Franklin Centre and across the St-Laurence towards Rigaud mountain in the very far distance

Since we repeated last week's ride, here we are again.

The bridge on Montée Covey Hill - last week

The bridge on Montée Covey Hill - this week

Last week we could cross, but not today.

With the road blocked and the stream free-flowing and burbling happily, it was a great spot to stop and relax. Plus, from here, the ride back to Howick is all downhill, so we had a happy feeling inside.

Moo.

Every ride should have a few of these signs.

This ride goes up gently but steadily from Howick up Covey Hill to Franklin Centre. This is a scenic ride, so the slower uphill half of the ride is still very enjoyable. The route zig-zags up the slopes of Covey Hill, from farmland to forest and apple orchards and stone fences and generally nice asphalt, translation: this is a great bike ride.

From Franklin Centre back to Howick is downhill. 35 wonderful kilometres, which is an excellent situation for a cyclist to find herself in.

This is the first time we did this ride exactly this way, and we like it a lot and declare this ride to be a keeper and destined to become a classic. At less then 80 km (50 miles) we can recommend it to everyone, as it is the easy way up covey hill.

We will post a map as soon as out lightning-struck main PC is returns home after some repairs.

Howick > Franklin Centre/Covey Hill annual autumn epic ride

2011-11-13T18:56:00.005-06:00

The Pin Rigide is the Pitch Pine en anglais.

In November the maple forest have a beautiful carpet of leaves

Today's new backroad exploration discovers that the road isn't a road and is a Ski-Doo trail.

Near perfect Tamarack/Larch (Mélèze) coniferous tree in autumn gold color.

l
The renovated part of Franklin Centre

Early in the ride we saw this sign, which helped us to survive a few challenges later in the day.

This can't be good, no sir not at all.

The road... it's gone!

We couldn't ride across, but we could walk across.

And what a relief to find this out!

That was the good news.

The bad news is that the sun has just set. The car is still 25 km away.

Oops.

Starting the ride at 2 pm in November has its risks.

But we had brought our lights, knew the best way home, and got down to business.

Our average speed for the next hour was 30 km/h, much faster than usual!

Finishing the ride after sunset: that light is from Montreal 40 km away

Sometimes a ride goes epic for reasons better not discussed, but today's ride went epic because 1) a back road turned into a dirt road turned into a ski-doo trail, so we had to walk a kilometre or two. Then a bridge turned out to have just collapsed into the creek underneath. We got across on foot but then the sunset occurred. There was still 25 km to go before the ride was finished. Oh boy, ain't November fun!

On the plus side, the temperatures were abnormally warm, as high as +14, which is great but also kind of scary since it is November.

Indoor winter cycling - why not in the big O?

2011-11-13T10:44:00.001-06:00

Perhaps the stade Olympique stadium could be used as a venue for indoor winter cycling? Just asking...

Urban river ride - north to new Autoroute 25 bridge

2011-11-12T18:31:00.008-06:00

Historic mini-house on Gouin blvd

No bike lanes on pont Pie-IX, Mont Royal in background

Repairs ongoing on Pont Viau

Arriving in Laval and looking back at Montreal island's strange glow

Parc nature de l'ile de la visitation, one of Montreal's best parks

St-Vincent-de-Paul prison restrains a different 1% than the one in the news these days.

Winter is coming, and it's going to feel like you are inside a prison for a few months, so get out now for a late autumn bike ride, maybe to explore your city like we did today?

Young tamarack (mélèze) changing color

Tamarack (Larch) needles change colour in autumn, unlike all other local conifer trees.

Pont Viau bridge & bike path renovations nearing completion

The Pont Viau bridge is at the northern terminus of Berri/Lajeunesse streets and links directly to these streets and their new bike lanes. This is a terrific new addition for bike commuters from Laval and the northern part of the city.

New north-end Berri/Lajeunesse bike lanes are now open for riding

Crossing the new A25 bridge, an excellent addition to bike-able bridges of Montreal

Riding over to this bridge make a nice 40km loop ride along the scenic Riviere des Prairies.

You can see this bike ride is here on Bikely maps.

Velo-Quebec releases Réseau vélo métropolitain pour 2031

2011-11-12T08:01:00.003-06:00

Wonder what biking in Montreal will look like in 2031, a mere 20 years from now? Want to know what is the vision for the future and where improvements to the bike path network will have to be made to improve bicycle safety and accessibility?

Velo Quebec has just issued a visionary document "Le réseau vélo métropolitain 2031" that will answer all your questions and feed your desire for action on the bicycle accessibility and cycling safety dossier.

The complete document is here in pdf format.

Very interesting and a recommended read for anyone who does urban cycling for fun, exercise or transportation.

******************

Is this document perfect? In Cycle Fun Montreal's opinion it misses some important details. For example on page 16 it shows a picture of the intersection of Villeneuve and Cote-Ste-Catherine bike path, which has its intersection modified with a narrower roadway at the intersection, effectively removing the road area that would be occupied by bikes.

This means that cars waiting for the green light effectively block bicycles from progressing to cross on the walk signal. This intersection was rebuilt at the same time as the Cote-Ste-Catherine bike path, is part of that bike path's connection to the bike path network on the plateau, and was redesigned contrary to and ignoring of the fact that bicycles and cars have to share the road at this intersection. Velo Quebec should be doing a better job in critiquing these poorly re-designed intersections where the roadway is narrowed to slow car speeds but in fact remove the five feet of roadway needed for bikes to travel on the side of the roads as required by law.

The exact same situation exists at the intersection of Laurier avenue and Cote-Ste-Catherine, with the added pissoff of the walk signal is not being part of the traffic light cycle and therefore bikes have a very difficult time to cross across the roadway at the T-intersection when all cars are turning across the direction of bikes. Bikes need to cross straight across Cote-Ste-Catherine to reach the bike path on the far side. The button that activated the walk cycle is located 25 feet from where bicycles stop and wait for the green light. A very good example of an intersection redesign for pedestrian safety that completely ignores bike safety and the fact this intersection is an important entry point to access the Cote-Ste-Catherine bike path.

The purposeful ignoring of bike safety at redesigned intersections by City of Montreal road planners has to stop.

Mercier Bridge 100% closed to bikes?

2011-11-05T20:23:00.004-06:00

Why is this man a candidate for cyclist of the year?

The under-reconstruction Pont mercier bridge is definitely closed to bicycling on its uber-dubious crumbling sidewalk. This sidewalk, which has its land access points sealed off, also has major restrictions on passing through the bridge's deck and structure reconstruction project, plus the complete roadway itself is missing for 100 feet as the reconstruction of the north-side access bridge is rebuilt. In other words, for cyclists it's "Access Denied."

And yet we spotted this guy riding his bike mid-span on the Pont Mercier bridge high above the mighty (262,000 cu ft/s) Saint Laurence river.

How he managed to cross the formidable construction zone obstacles and access blockages will remain a pretty major mystery, but we admire his talents in achieving a river crossing which no sane person would have even attempted.

We salute you sir!

Route Verte's online maps are MUCH improved

2011-11-05T09:55:00.002-06:00

Until now the online maps at RouteVerte.com have been pretty pathetic: a small map window and not much detail. And by pathetic we mean useless.

So it is good news that the maps are now big and detailed.

Check it out at
Routeverte.com (english) - click on "The Green Network" for the maps
Routeverte.com (français) et clicker sur << cartes et itineraires>>.

Another map resource for cyclists exploring outside Montreal is Transport Quebec's Quebec511 road maps, check the box on the right sidebar to add bicycle-friendliness information for useful cyclist speciic safety info about the roads. Transport Quebec has much useful info for cyclists and a special page telling us what their map tool for bicycle-friendliness means.

And if you are traveling on Quebec's roads and highways, be sure to check in advance for road construction sites and possible detours at the main Quebec 511 website. (click here for Quebec511 en français)

+3 C is NOT cold

2011-11-02T16:18:00.007-06:00

Every autumn we have to tune our cycling fashion sense towards surviving the cooler temperatures.

Some people conflate being cold with being outside in the cold, but the two are not the same thing at all.

It is easy to stay warm in the plus-side of the celsius temperature scale. Some experimentation may be required, so try out all your gear to determine your best gear for cool temperatures.

When you are cycling you are generating heat (that's if you are doing it right) and keeping the core warm is no problem after the first 10-15 minutes . The problem with the core it releasing the sweat you generate using your amazing cardiovascular system.

The problem is keeping the extremities warm, but modern fabric technology to the rescue!

The enemy of riders is wind. In the winter this is amplified because wind is very good at removing thermal energy from things, things being in this case you on your bike.

For your hands and feet, full wind coverage is essential.

Your feet are your friends, and you want to have happy feet. Overboots or booties are great for the feet. We notice a real lack of insulated booties on the market. Most booties are just nylon or neoprene. I'd like to see some fleece insulation inside booties. And lots of it! This is a market opportunity for entrepreneurial people.

A strange invention for biking is the three-finger mitt. The "lobster claw" style is very functional and the liner glove can be adapted from regular bike gloves for warm temperatures to thin or thick fleece gloves as temperatures drop.

Neck and head is a lot of exposed skin to keep covered. We use layers of varying cold-defeating ability and mix and math as temperatures change from cool mornings to warmer afternoons.

Here are a few links to cold weather riding

icebike.org is an excellent starting point to learn all about cold weather clothing.

google cold weather riding bikes

google staying warm winter cycling

google frozen nuts bicycle

*********************************

Here is our setup for a comfy ride. (this post goes on, and on, and on much too long)

Head

light or heavy tuque that fits under helmet
fleece (polaire) headband (buy five at L'Aubainerie)
in case of really cold: add balaclava and/or hood
We've never tried a winter helmet. Maybe this year...

Neck
mere cool temperatures means one of those cheap headbands you bought from L'Aubainerie
A bit cooler and we add the velcro-closed "bandit" style triangular fleece neck scarfs.
The previous two items are combined for the mildly cold zone.
When it actually COLD, the next layer is the elastic neck gaitor/tube, available at any ski shop.
The full neck tube serves the important cold-weather function of keeping ALL skin covered and avoiding the dreaded winter wind.

The core chest/back starts with vest and arm warmers, then increases to wearing a cycling jacket. Inner layers can be super light up to super warm depending on your energy output level and outside temperatures.

Legs

This is easy: winter tights! We love tights, and in winter get some heavyweight cycling tights or even cross-country ski tights. Add synthetic long johns as a base layer as temperatures drop. It's all about layers and adaptability for cold temperature comfort.

For severe cold go the co=op (mec) and buy a full set of winter underwear from thin to thick and inner mid and outer layers, and wear some or all of them. Remove layers as you warm up and avoid getting anything sweaty. Cycling's challenge is to ventilate sweat while keeping protected from the wind. This is why many cycling outfits have a mesh back or underarm zips.

Cotton: not

As a cyclist you may already have a love affair with sophisticated synthetic fabrics. In winter this really matters: avoid cotton, totally and absolutely. Cotton absorbs moisture. In winter this means that your body will have to keep itself (i.e. you) warm, plus keeping all the moisture in absorbed in your cotton clothing warm too. And that takes calories, lots of calories. Calories you need to power the pedals!

One way that we keep comfortable in cold temperatures is to avoid wet or snowy conditions. This is a personal choice. We base it partly on having to share the road with cars, and reduced visibility conditions make cars much more dangerous than usual to cyclists. So if you have to ride in severe conditions, be visible and extra safe,

we meet a wrong-way-on-the-one-way rider

2011-10-18T16:18:00.003-06:00

We met a ride going the wrong way on a one-way street, because he was also on our side of the street.

We asked him if he knew he was on the wrong side of the street. According to him, there is no wrong side of the street.

the secret to happiness is fresh asphalt

2011-10-15T18:58:00.006-06:00

Our pursuit of happiness was successful.

Which is better? The scenery or the asphalt?

Wow do we ever have a big butt.

Admit it: you love fresh asphalt.

Add beautiful country scenery and you will be happy forever.

Or at least until the ride is finished (although effects can linger).

**********************

The location of asphalt this good should not be a secret, it is chemin Premier Concession between Rt 138 and Montée Rockburn/Dewitville. And Montée Rockburn/Dewittville is pretty good itself too (plus it descends slightly going north).

A bike ride map using these roads is here on Bikely.

Cycling as cultural tourism?

2011-10-12T18:23:00.004-06:00

150 years is a long time for a bridge, and yes it has been renovated.

Cyclist assessing some cultural significance

Cycling takes you to many places, some of which are significant in the cultural heritage department.

One example is the popular scenic attraction of covered bridges. Covered bridges are a real attraction on bike rides and usually a great place to take a rest stop to enjoy examining some pre-digital-era design artifacts.

New roof and lots of structural repairs means that this cultural treasure will be around for many years to come.

It took a lot of effort to get this bridge listed as a cultural heritage site and then getting it repaired and renovated. But it happened and we now celebrate the 150 year birthday... with a party!

Here's a bad translation by Monsieur Google:

Commemorating the 150th Anniversary

Culture> History and Heritage

The year 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the bridge Percy, this unique work which spans the river Châteauguay between Hinchinbrooke and Elgin, in the Haut-Saint-Laurent.

Listed as a Historical monument by the Government of Canada in 1984 and by Quebec in 1987, this bridge has been completely restored at a cost of $ 900 000 in 2009. It is the oldest existing covered bridge in Canada and the only remaining example of a McCullum arch design in the world.

Still functional and representing one of the main tourist attractions in the Huntingdon area, the Powerscourt covered bridge will be an important event to celebrate as part of its 150th anniversary. Thus, a day of remembrance will be held on site Saturday, October 15. retired judge of the Superior Court of Quebec, John Gomery, will act as master of ceremonies.

The program for this celebration will include a historical parade, tours of the bridge, traditional music, thematic kiosks, and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque in the presence of Pierre Duchesne, Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, and many dignitaries.

The commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the bridge Percy is a project to promote cultural tourism of regional scope that deserves a resounding echo. (cycle fun montreal doesn't understand this sentence either)

Luc De Tremmerie, coordinator of the cultural development of the Haut Saint-Laurent and member of the coordinating committee of the festival. (Thanks Luc!)

The public is invited to this event at noon, Oct. 15. The event is also for day trippers mainly from the South Shore, Greater Montreal, the United States and Ontario. The beginning of the official ceremony is planned for 14 h.

Repair work done in 2009 on the old covered bridge was to raise the road structure by a height of six inches, to replace the structure below, change pieces of wood and repair the approaches. This bridge, originally built in 1861, was finally covered with a tin roof.

We love the Powerscourt covered bridge.

Here's a nice ride that crosses the bridge - and lots of fresh asphalt too!

The Bikely map link is here.

Rt 138 Howick to Ormstown now has paved road shoulders

2011-10-12T17:10:00.004-06:00

This excellent Chateauguay Valley ride has just received two big improvements for cyclists - merci Transports Québec!

The red circles are the improvements, for a map of the ride on the recently resurrected bikely bike-ride-map web site, click here.

Real-time improvement in cycling safety

A repaving project on the Rt 138 betwen Ormstown and Howick in southwest Quebec has added paved shoulders to what was previously quite a serious death ride.

Why is this important?

Because a certain paradise for cycling road (called variously montée Bryson/Brysonville side road and further south Le Rocher/the Rock to St-Antoine-Abbé) required cyclists to ride one kilometer of Rt 138 "on the white line" between Brysonville side road and the Allan's Corners bridge across the Chateauguay river to the quiet River Road on the non-highway side of the river.

Getting paved shoulders here is a victory for cycling safety.

*****************

A Chateauguay River bridge crossing is improved just for cyclists

Spot the improved part

In other news, the obsolete and closed (pont barré) Pont Turcot bridge that crosses the Chateauguay river at Georgetown church beside Howick Quebec has just been refitted for cyclists.

This is really excellent news for road cyclists. The Chateauguay river and the Chateauguay Valley are an excellent destination for road cycling. There were a few safety issues with crossing the river and short sections of Rt 138 to reach the quiet side roads heading south to the US border (first/premier concession road).

That's not a fence, just a slow-down entryway gate on to a great old bridge.

The Chateauguay river at Howick (Georgetown)

autumn colours & perfect roads ride

2011-10-11T15:53:00.006-06:00

Southwest Quebec's nicest "easy 80K" ride?

Ormstown to Huntingdon along the Chateauguay river, then a bit of country and forest riding and then ride along US border to Powerscourt (covered bridge) and then more along the border on fresh new asphalt to Dewittville side road which we ride downhill to Dewittville and then follow the chateauguay river back to Ormstown.

Here is a bit of the ride's scenery:

Broken tree.

It was a mammoth oak tree, and the huge fallen part is only one branch.

It is a big tree!

Heading downhill north to Dewittville, this side road is one of our favorites.

It is a road to ZOOM down, give'er on every little slope and you will receive a real boost to your average speed and maximum fun levels.

La Presse likes it too.

Premier Concession (first concession) road had a dozen miles of fresh smooth asphalt.

Perfectly smooth roads are perfect for cycling.

Riding on pavement this smooth can cause feelings like "this is the best thing in the world and I am doing it." or "Nothing else in life matters, it is enough to be alive and riding my bike in the beautiful countryside." or "Wow. Wow. Wowowowowowow wow."

Pont Percy covered bridge across the Cheateauguay river.

This is the oldest covered bridge in Quebec, built in 1861. There is a 150 year celebration on October 15.

Everything was perfect for today's ride.

Perfect road, scenery, legs, weather, and no bugs: autumn is the best time to ride.

************************

Summary: this is a very good bike ride.

Ride map is here on bikely.

Trois Rivieres to St-Stanislas (eastern Mauricie)

2011-10-09T18:02:00.001-06:00

Catholic church in St-Stanislas

Cannon in St-Stalislas

We had a scenic rest stop a this farm.

Because this tiny wire gave us a flat.

click to zoom and see the wire that continued our rear-wheel jinx

Someone has jinxed my rear wheel.

Tiny hole where the wire passed through the tire tread.

We inspected the inside of the tire and removed this wire. Problem solved, we put in our replacement tube and the ride continued.

We found the map for this 80km ride at the Velo Shawinigan web site, where you will find lots of good Mauricie rides.

Urban ride to... Montreal Botanical Gardens / Jardins Botanique

2011-09-05T08:11:00.004-06:00

The "three sisters" aboriginal agricultural technique

We were looking for a Beech tree, here is the one we found although to be honest we were hoping for a much bigger example.

The chalet in the First Nations Garden

Poison Ivy: leaves of three: leave it be.

Leaves of four: Eat some more!

Lots of magnificent gardens and awesome plants.

A nice urban destination that is anything but urban is to visit the Montreal Botanical Gardens.

The bike ride to and there is your responsibility to figure out, but we have some advice: get your Access Montreal card and you can get free access to the outdoor gardens. The Access Montreal card also permits you to buy a year's pass for a very reasonable $21, which gives you access to everything except the autumn chinese lantern exhibition. This includes the greenhouses and their special activities and the insectarium.

Howick > Covey Hill > Franklin 70 km ride

2011-09-05T07:58:00.004-06:00

Not too far away is the top of Covey Hill, which is easily visible from Mont Royal.

Closed-for-years bridge beside Georgetown Church near Howick is getting renovated for cyclists.

Georgetown church near Howick is beside Rt 138 is a good starting point for bike rides.

Ride south, ride west up Covey Hill, then ride home.

A nice 70 km ride through the beautiful Chateauguay Valley

A nice middle distance ride through the central Chateauguay valley including a climb up Covey hill.

We took a coworker who raced up the big Covey Hill climb and had fried legs later. Pacing IS important.

This ride is nice because the return half of the ride is downhill or with the wind (usually).

Bikely map website seems to be better so here is the ride map on bikely.

Gazette letters-to-the-editor: anti-bike rage

2011-09-05T07:09:00.004-06:00

Click and read: there's actually a couple of letters on our side, believe it or not!

many angry letter writers (is there another kind?) filling the Gazette newspaper's letter section again today.

We will summarize: Cyclists needs to wear helmets/don't need to wear helmets, cyclists need to get off the sidewalks (this one is correct), cyclists need to get off the roads and onto bike paths only, and cyclists need to have a bicycle license, and cops need to enforce bike traffic laws.

Lastly, the foaming at the mouth furor seems to have removed the wrath directed towards jaywalkers from the letters section.

We encourage all the bike haters to get on a bike and see what it is like to ride among Montreal's crazy drivers and chaotic traffic. Because we are sure their perspective would change from a few hours spent on a bike seat.

As for people riding on busy sidewalks, get the hell off the sidewalk you maroons! What part of "side walk" do you not understand?

My dad's bike... in 1935

2011-09-04T16:29:00.002-06:00

In 1935 my dad rode this bike.

Looking through old family pictures we discovered a picture of my dad's bike in 1935, when my dad was about eight years old.

He moved on to cars, trucks, farm tractors and motorcycles a couple of years later.

Strange bike repairs

2011-09-04T16:17:00.001-06:00

Never-before-seen headset bearing adjustment method.

This is one way to adjust a headset. It isn't the best way to adjust a headset. But for one or two people on our planet, this is the way they are going to do it.

It definitely looks like a good way to damage the family jewels.

4 Years after the city consults the mountain bike community, there is still no off-road bike trail anywhere in Montreal

2011-08-18T16:06:00.003-06:00

We demand the city stop delaying and start building off-road mountain bike trails in Montreal

In 2007 the city started consultations on creating an actual mountain bike trail in Parc Mont Royal. Problematically, the mountain bikers wanted access to the same Bois St-Jean-Baptiste as was coveted by the planners for the Ceinture Mont Royal trail. As well, Les Amis de la Montagne is 100% against any mountain bike trails, today or ever.

Read more about mountain biking on Mont Royal at our report from 2007 here.

Absolutely zero progress has been made on the mountain bike trail issue. And we are very disappointed and fed up.

10 climb tour of Mont Royal

2011-08-17T18:04:00.003-06:00

Ten excellent climbs in 30 km of urban uphill.

We took our coworker on a ten climb tour of Mont Royal, and to our surprise it was total mission accomplished!

The route:

Cote de Vesinet from Cote-Ste-Catherine (easy or hard way, it's your knees)
Vincent d'Indy up to Salle Claude Champagne (right to the Salle's front door)
Université de Montreal - main entrance (Chemin de la Rampe)
Saint Joseph Oratory (new road at west side)
Westmount: Ave de Clark & Aberdeen switchbacks to summit
Westmount: Mount Pleasant switchbacks & Belvedere to summit
Université de Montreal Queen Mary entrance to Polytechnique climb
Pagnuelo from Cote Ste-Catherine to ave Mont Royal (misidentified on map)
Mont Royal cemetery Mont Murray direct from main entrance (turn right 3 times)
Camellien Houde legendary 1.8 km climb

We encourage you to try this ride, it is one of Montreal's very best bike rides. Explore your city, it's really quite the nice place in the non-winter seasons.

Happy 23rd birthday to our Bertrand bike

2011-08-16T15:53:00.005-06:00

The Bertrand bike has been very, very good to us.

You only have to buy one really good road bike (and then stop listening to bike advertising and marketing BS), and ride happily ever after.

This approach to life assumes the standard 3-bike collection: a road bike, mountain bike, city bike. This is the minimum: a touring bike, a rain bike, a cargo bike, a unicycle, a Bixi, etc can all add to the fun and utility to be had from cycling.

*************
Bike history
No bike wheel lasts forever, and here are the original specs, and the parts we have changed on the Bert.

original bike
the bike began as a full campy chorus on a custom measured columbus slx frame of the 1988 specs. The frame is hand built steel in what is described as classique 1980s TdF style. This is before the materials revolution that brought us fancy aluminum alloys and bikes made from plastique.

changed:
both wheels (3rd set) (presently ultegra/open pro), Back wheels and me don't have long-term relationships
rear derailleur - now a ultegra long cage
gearing: since I ride hillz, it's a mountain bike cassette
chains
seats
tires (700x25 tuff-tires preferred so I can ride ANY road)
bike computers, presently a nice little cateye wireless
SPD pedals - so I use one pair of shoes for all riding.

Parts that need changing include:
rear wheel (hub and rim)
handlebar tape
brake cable housing (its been 23 years chris')

What annoys us?
the bike's finish could be better. A lot better.
seat post should be a little more adjustable.
Shifter is a bit slippy.
I eat back wheels.

What do we love the most.
Point this bike down any road and ride!

Most memorable bystander comment
at the 80 km point in a 100 mile ride (aka a century ride) I was really slacking off in the pedalling department, and a kid (around 10 years old) outside a house in the country shouted at me to "Ride that bike!!!"

Bike Philosophy
You can easily see that the bike isn't set up for pure speed anymore. It is set up for adventure... and fun! It has given back to me more fun than anything else in life. This has substantial value in the quality of life department.

Best ride ever
too many to count, Quebec is a terrific place to ride. Here's some favorites
St-Jean-de-Matha / Sainte-Emilie-de-l'Energie / Ste-Beatrix in northern lanaudiere
St-Alexis-des-Monts to Hotel Lac Sacacomie
Jay Peak loop from Sutton
Any variation of a ride around the Chateauguay Valley (Haut-St-Laurent) (2 dozen)
Any variation of a ride around the MRC Maskinongé on this side of Trois Rivieres (a dozen)
Chemin Craig/Gosford Appalachian ride - an amazing area for riding.

OK, we like hills.

Rides we still have to do:
Montreal -> Quebec city

tomorrow we take some coworkers for a ten-climb tour of Mont Royal

2011-08-16T15:15:00.001-06:00

Hee hee hee.

This should be very interesting.

New Mont Royal loop road delayed until 2013

2011-08-15T18:36:00.008-06:00

The future is looking good, but it is taking its sweet time getting here.

The "Ceinture Mont Royal" loop road around Mont Royal is a great idea, and is supposed to be completed for 2011. (A "ceinture" is a belt)

Well, now it's planned for completion in 2013.

Better late than never, but we are waiting... and waiting... for access to the beautiful northern side of Mont Royal.

Easy access to Mount Royal in 2013 ...
Everything comes to those who wait. The city of Montreal was inaugurated in May Park Third Summit of Mount Royal. But the work has been delayed. The inauguration of the summit will finally Outremont in 2013, together with that of sections four and five of the way of the mountain belt.
Two components of a project of particular interest Outremont, since it is a beltway for easier access to the park from the north-west. But also the development of the wooded St. John the Baptist.

"In the summer of 2013, visitors will have a panoramic view of the north of the island. This is the northern flank of Mount Royal we want to highlight, "said Alan De Sousa, Head of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks to the City of Montreal.

"The public tender was launched on July 6 for the fifth and final phase of the project," he adds.

A beltway

It must be said that the need was real. Currently, visitors arriving by Outremont have no convenient access to the northern slope of the mountain. And for good reason: the land in question are private and belong to the University of Montreal and Cemetery Our Lady of the Snows.

* It will take until 2013 before the opening of the summit Outremont, where access will be facilitated with the unveiling of the Third Summit of Mount Royal.

A situation that has changed for the summer 2013. "The future ring road winds up the north side of the mountain, crossing the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges and along the University of Montreal," says Alan De Sousa. Both of these institutions grant the City the management of 23 hectares in total.

The beltway is an extension of the type of experience offered by the Olmsted Road, located in the Parc du Mont-Royal. Ultimately, it will connect the main peak at the top of Outremont, to join the Olmsted Road along Park Avenue.

The wood Saint-Jean-Baptiste in the spotlight

Finally, the wooded St. John the Baptist will be given a makeover. Until now, the oak forest, unique in Montreal, is relatively unknown to visitors.

"In the summer of 2013, visitors will have a panoramic view of the north of the island. This is the northern flank of Mount Royal we want to emphasize. "- Alan De Sousa, Head of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks to the City of Montreal

A situation deplored Friends of the Mountain, by the voice of his communications director, Gabrielle Korn. "This wood has a really significant ecological value. It includes native species such as white trillium, for example, "said she.

It is therefore natural that the association supports both the proposed beltway and enhancement of woodland, led by the City of Montreal.

But still it provides remain vigilant. "We will ensure that the work be done in accordance with the exceptional natural heritage site, grade Gabrielle Korn.

Can you see the difference in the trails between this picture and the one at the top?

This picture shows a road/trail going inside the cemetery to link the trail with the Beaver lake/maison smith area of Parc Mont Royal.

It is nice to see some news about the progress for this important quality-of-life project.

We first reported on this in 2008 when the city sought public input on this project.

***************************************************************************

What about a real off-road mountain bike trail?

In related news, in 2007 the city started consultations on creating an actual gen-u-wine mountain bike trail in Parc Mont Royal. Problematically, the mountain bikers wanted access to the same Bois St-Jean-Baptiste as was coveted by the planners for the Ceinture trail. As well, Les Amis de la Montagne is dead set against any non-protective activity in this forest that could disrupt the natural ecology, although that exact thing has been going on for years under the radar.

Read more about mountain biking on Mont Royal at our report from 2007 here.

Absolutely zero progress has been made on the mountain bike trail issue. And we are very disappointed and fed up.

*************

Anyway, if you want to see the north summit / bois de st-jean-baptiste, you can go there today and hike it, and see it before they "amenage" it to 21st century design standards.

Youth wing of Quebec Liberal Party attacks cyclists, claims it's social justice.

2011-08-14T15:40:00.004-06:00

The youth wing of Quebec Liberal Party attacks cyclists, and claims it's social justice. (did they leave out the anti-?)

Anyway, this is the view of a few of Quebec's fine young elitists. Here's a bad translation:

Following a heated debate, the young liberals in Congress voted overwhelmingly on Sunday morning for an application "severe" Code road safety for cyclists.

"They (the riders) have a nice bike path, but they will garrocha in the way of motorists," railed one militant young Saguenay.

The representative of the Young Liberals of Montreal, making the proposal, spoke of "social justice" to explain that we want to apply the law as severe as for cyclists and motorists.

Several speakers at the microphone admitted that they spent more time behind the wheel of a car than a bicycle handlebar.

The layer of our society's social stratification where our political elitists live is a scary place for the rest of us peons.

You can thank (or express your unhappiness to) the group's president, Maripier Isabelle, for this progressive measure to improve cycling safety. Click here to reach her on twitter.

Say goodbye to Bixi - and buy your own bike!

2011-08-13T06:34:00.002-06:00

You need to own your own bike, and frankly, bike stores need the business. Death by Bixi is an ugly thing to see.

Don't forget to buy and learn to correctly use a good U-lock (yes they are expensive, and worth every penny). You want to keep your new bike for a long time.

Please bring the bike inside when it rains, and fersure bring it inside for the winter!

You will love your new bike. We promise.

Runners in the bike path

2011-08-12T16:46:00.001-06:00

How about a joke.

How can you tell the difference between the sidewalk and the bike path?

Answer: all the runners are on the bike path.

This would be funny if it wasn't true.

80 km this week riding to work

2011-08-12T16:41:00.002-06:00

Riding a bike to work is a great way to save on gas, get some exercise, and have more fun in your life.

And with Montreal construction detours, the bike is faster than a car in many situations.

Just watch out for intersections, where bike-car/truck/bus/cement mixer fatalities occur with alarming frequency.

Ride safe!

639-NXE Silver Honda CRV

2011-08-09T14:53:00.002-06:00

If you see a silver CRV with these plates, watch out, since we witnessed the male driver run a RED LIGHT at Laurier & Cote-Ste-Catherine road.

While looking down at his PHONE.

And almost, almost hitting the vehicles crossing the intersection.

Two blocks later he was still holding his phone because clearly the phone is more important than other peoples lives.

Northern Lanaudiere Festi-Force ride

2011-08-06T10:09:00.012-06:00

Today's version of our Lanaudiere Nord ride.

This ride's variations on the basic circuit are:

L'Assomption river to near St-Alphonse-Rodriguez (avoid: bad road surface)
short version of the Ste-Beatrix south loop (this is the non-complicated version)
chemin Pied de la Montagne out-and-back from chemin Belle Montagne (do it!)
Rang St-Guillaume at end of ride (do not skip this, it's 100% top quality)

The ride map is here on Bikely (good luck with incredibly unreliable bikely!)

We did a cycling version of St-Jean-de-Matha's Festi-Force Louis Cyr

Louis Cyr was a legendary Strongman - and this ride requires strong legs that are tested with a dozen steep climbs, which -- we promise -- are also fun.

The upside of uphills are the descents: woohoo!

We powered the ride with summer sunshine in the form of fresh-picked raspberries.

The raspberry farm is Ferme Sarrazin on Rang Ste-Catherine. They also sell various pork products in both raw and transformed forms. This is at the start of the first long hill: the three-step climb up and up and then UP to the Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie townline at the hill's top -- and the excellent Scenic Lookout with benches and a great view.

It is OK to take micro-pauses when climbing this hill. Mainly because you don't want to burn out too soon on this ride, but also because you want to have fun too.

Looking back from the top of the Rang Ste-Catherine hill.

There is new asphalt on the first two climbs up this hill, but this last climb remains very rustic (and hard). It feels really good to crest the top of the climb and look down into the Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie valley.

Hilltop church in St-Jean-de-Matha town.

Yes, the ride finishes at the church up this little hill.

Top of first/last hill of the day. See the church?

Also, see the dog?

That dog ruined our zoom-zoom blast down this last hill of the ride.

Cursed beast!

Spot the church.

Go ahead and click the photo. Yes, that is the St-Jean-de-Matha church.

This view is from St-Joseph near Ste-Beatrix. The view from here shows the upper part of the valley of the L'Assomption river. This river valley has waterfalls and is a regional park that includes the three municipalities that contain the L'Assomption river downriver from Ste-Beatrix to St-Jean-de-Matha and Ste-Melanie.

Parc Regional des Chutes

The ride passes over the L'Assomption river at the Ste-Beatrix entrance (one of the three entrances) to the Parc Regional des Chutes. The St-Jean-de-matha entrance is a good bike ride, but has no scenic view. The Ste-Beatrix entrance has a great view, as you can see in these photos.

Waterfall at the Ste-Beatrix entrance to Parc Regional des Chutes

The photo taken from the road bridge over the falls - no entrance fee for the view from the road bridge.

Downstream view from the road bridge.

This is possibly the other best way to enjoy a heat wave.

Road names like Pretty Mountain and Foot-of-the-Mountain promise scenic riding

Some times road names promise things, these roads deliver on the promises.

The section Belle Montagne & Rang St-Laurent rewards better than winning the loto.

Because the reward occurs every time you play here.

Ste-Beatrix has a scenic little main street

Ste-Beatrix is one of the three villages on this ride. They are each located a nice distance from each other. In Ste-Beatrix there is a park beside the church for rest stop, conveniently located right across from the grocery store.

Speaking of rest stops, Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie has the nicest rest stop. It is located beside a little lake at the Tourist Info building. This is located a very short detour off this bike circuit but is recommended. Directions: when the bike ride arrives in Ste-Emilie the circuit turns left. If you turn right instead and follow the Tourist Info sign you will not be disappointed with the quality of this rest stop. Check out the sawmill model inside the Tourist Info building.

Scenic view from rang Ste-Celine before arriving in Ste-Beatrix.

Refilling water bottles and camelbak with lots and lots of water.

Ice-cold water on a heat-wave day is a good thing.

Good hydration management is required when cycling on a hot day.

Rest&refuel was at "near" St-Alphonse-Rodriguez waterfall

This abandoned dam is easily accessed from beside the Rona. The depanneur is located where the back road meets the highway.

This segment of the ride was an out-and-back deviation from our regular route along the L'Assomption river. Frankly the road surface is pretty bad, but if it gets repaved it'll be great addition to this standard circuit. We love northern Lanaudiere back roads.

We saw only two other riders today.

This dude is arriving into Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie from Ste-Come direction. It's a big downhill, and he rode the brakes all the way down. Speed control is probably a good idea in busy areas.

It was a perfect day for riding in a cycling utopia.

It is the weekend of St-Jean-de-Matha's Festi-Force Louis Cyr that festivalizes the memory of Quebec strongman Louis Cyr. So we went out and did out own strongman activity: riding the excellent hills of northern Lanaudiere.

Some bike rides, when repeated, are boring, repetitive, or just grindfests, with a distinct lack of fun. Not our northern Lanaudiere circuit, which is fun fun fun.

Which is why we keep returning to the parking lot behind the city hall (across from the hilltop church) and (until 2013) beside the Louis Cyr Museum. We park under the giant maple tree. We take the bike out of the car and 50 feet after crossing the Rt 131 east of town we are in the country, and in another minute, are climbing a short but crazy steep little hill, observed with disapproval by the bovines chewing their cud.

It is a fact that this ride contains a few hills, and this means that for those of us without triples, there will be standing up on the pedals, and for honesty's sake, let's be upfront and say that there are a dozen stiff climbs that will test your fitness and possibly make you see god, or at least be begging her for some assistance. Here's a hint: instead of doing the zigzag up the hill thing, take some micro-pauses on the hill, 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, and then continue. (You can thank me later).

So this ride has quite a concentrated amount of climbing, but what if it is too much, will we need to call a taxi to get back to the car if we max out and enter cramp city? Let us advise you that this ride is shaped in a series of three (or four) loops from St-Jean-de-Matha. So if the first or second loop kills you (ok, we mean satisfies your need to discover your hill climbing ability), you can abort back to the car. We won't jusdge when you've had enough. Many people say 50 km is nothing, there's no way I'd have enough riding in only 50 km, but in fact on this ride 50 km can be quite enough riding for one day. The option to go long is available, as is the option to go short. It's up to you how much fun you want per ride. And if you go short, you can come back latr in the season for the longer ride. We know, we keep coming back!

But what if you are a hill addict, and you want more? And then you still want more? This ride delivers, with extra hills available even when you arrive back in St-Jean-de-Matha with the road down the the Parc Regional Des Chutes' St-Jean-de-Matha entrance (highly recommended!!!)

Let's list the pluses of this ride:

Quiet roads
Good asphalt
lots of hills
Good and great scenery
More quiet roads
More good asphalt
more good hills

Shadows on Rang Ste-Guillaume

For a change we're here long before sunset!

Tilted barn picture of the day.

We love Rang Ste-Guillaume - don't miss it.

Seriously: make sure to add Rang Ste-Guillaume at the ride's end. Since you have to pass though St-Jean-de-Matha to get to this last segment of the ride, it is very tempting to call it a day and skip Rang St-Guillaume. Don't succumb to this temptation. You want to ride Rang St-Guillaume, and this desire will be rewarded with a fantastic finale to the ride.

The fact that you will find this to be a fantastic finale is in fact a guarantee.

St-Jean-de-Matha roadwork almost finished, and no more bike-unfriendly detour.

The Bertrand is happy to bond at ride's end with its friend the giant maple tree.

What secrets is the bike revealing to the tree?

The surprise of the day was how well we rode in this heatwave.

Another cyclist killed by car

2011-08-05T05:53:00.006-06:00

Another Quebec cyclist has been killed by a dangerous car driver.

The crash was so violent that the cyclist's body was cut in half.

Read the full story here at Cyberpresse.

Remember that when it comes to car-bike collisions, it is the bike rider who is most likely to be killed. In this accident the car driver has only minor injuries.

The acident occurred in Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier.

No one can replace a life, so please ride safe. And hope and pray that each and every passing car is not going to be the last thing in our life.

Also, the bike rider had no identification on him. Always carry identification!

St-Gabriel-de-Valcartier: terrible death of a cyclist

A cyclist aged between 50 and 70 years had a terrible end, yesterday, shortly before 7:30 p.m., at St. Gabriel de Valcartier, when he was hit by a car driven obviously at high speed. The violent incident occurred on 5th Avenue in a section of road that was straight. A blood sample was taken from the driver of the car to see if driving with ability impaired by alcohol or drugs at the time of the tragedy.

Following impact, the rider's body was literally cut in half. The car ended up in a ditch. The driver of 34 years in Quebec, which was the sole occupant, was traveling northbound, but the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) were unable to say when exactly where the impact was the cyclist on the road.

"What is certain is that it speaks of a high velocity impact," said the publicist of the SQ, Daniel Thibodeau. "The investigation is complicated for our investigation because the accident took place in a rural area and there was no eyewitness to what happened. Our reconstitutionniste has a lot of work to do to remake the scene of the accident. We sent one of our best reconstitutionnistes on hand to do the job. "

The scene seemed pretty elusive, indeed.. No trace of braking was visible on the asphalt. When the ambulance arrived, the driver was conscious and did not seem to be of major injuries, said a supervisor of paramedics CTAQ. He was taken to the Hospital of the Child Jesus, where blood sampling was performed.

"We still do not have the version of the driver, said Thibodeau.. We have reason to believe he could be intoxicated by alcohol and / or drugs at the time of the accident, and that is why a blood test was done on this man. He could be charged with driving while impaired causing death. "

According to what The Sun has learned, the motorist has a criminal history, including at least one charge for driving while impaired.

Police work to identify the victim was also difficult because the man had no identification on him at the time of the tragedy. 5th Avenue was still closed in the area of the accident, at the time of printing.

Work underway on new north-south Montreal Island bike axis

2011-08-04T20:08:00.004-06:00

This new north-south axis is not the route verte missing link in orange on the map, but serves the same basic route.

(you might say "that's not north-south" but Montreal geographic reality is a bit different than that practiced elsewhere)

A new bike path through Northern Montreal for traffic coming south from Laval is under construction on Henri-Julien, Lajeunesse, and Berri streets in Montreal's North end (Ahuntsic).

Is this the new Route Verte link along the CPR train tracks? Nope.

But it is a new north-south axis for riders going to Laval. The single existing north-south route is very busy (and frankly over-crowded) at peak times.

Here are a few facts from the newspaper:

L'avenue Henri-Julien, de même que les rues Lajeunesse et Berri, profitent également de cette cure de jouvence estivale. Ces travaux ont lieu à la suite de ceux déjà entrepris dans le secteur. Ils visent à implanter une nouvelle voie cyclable pour relier Laval au centre-ville de Montréal. La durée de la réfection des trottoirs et des travaux de saillies variera selon les lieux, mais ne devrait pas dépasser 24 à 72 heures pour chaque tronçon.

- 1,5 M$ pour l'avenue Henri-Julien et les rues Lajeunesse et Berri

If you have never bicycled north to Montreal island's north shore, now you have the nice option of a loop. Although frankly we are hoping that this new path is better than the existing path and thusly becomes a new and desirable route to go north across our not-very-wide island.

Make some local tourism today and ride across the rover to Laval. Dare you!

Mt Royal bike race on 10 august... 1968!

2011-08-04T19:38:00.004-06:00

Click to read the story

If you are thinking what I am thinking, then the question you have is Montreal had a professional lacrosse team?

Seriously, click on the picture above and read the article.

Ok, you're back. I hope you enjoyed it.

This was the first time a bicycle race was permitted on Mt Royal. And the shock of this still has not permeated the thinking inside the roads department of ville de Montreal: the city is still in a state of denial of sporting road-bike use on this road, example the elimination of any road shoulder at the new Camillien-Houde and "Mont Royal park chalet / maison smith / parking" intersection.

This race was a precursor to getting the 1976 Olympic Games, proving the city was ready, willing and able to manage a big sporting event.

Also, notice that the Camillien Houde road is called not a street or a road, but a highway! We're now rebuilding the urban environment around Mont Royal as a "street" environment. No one needs highways inside a park in the core of a city.

Mystic-Frelighsburg plus Joy Hill ride

2011-08-04T06:13:00.008-06:00

Mystic loop, plus joy hill and a bit of eastern exploration.

We stopped before the big descent to Abercorn, which would have required a heroic effort to reclimb the hill back to Frelighsburg.

Compare the ride map to the shorter version we did last spring. See the post below for the map.

Tree tunnel south of Frelighsburg.

Note that this road has a short section of dirt road.

Which is something we would change if we were in charge.

Church and rectory in Frelighsburg.

The rectory has some Ormstown brick, but not the church itself.

Back side of the Pinnacle.

No, this is not a Bon Echo joke.

Miles keep slipping in to the future.

9% descent? this can't be true.

And why not?

Because this was our coasting speed down the hill.

No way we can hit 83 km/h on a 9% hill.

One of many old cemeteries on this ride, this one is beside Domaine Pinnacle.

Cemeteries make good snooze stops.

Mandatory pre-collapsing barn picture

How true.

Many nice elm trees on this ride. This beauty is in Frelighsburg.

Mystic facts

We parked at the Walbridge barn parking which welcomes bike tourist parking.

The barn is entirely unique and houses part of the Missisquoi Museum.

Back to Mystic

2011-08-03T08:22:00.003-06:00

We liked our ride in Mystic-Bedford-Frelighsburg early last spring, so we're going back today. This time we'll park in Mystic.

A beautiful 52 km ride in the eastern townships

Another rest stop, and another cemetery.

This is the smallest old rural cemetery we've ever seen.

Downhill back into Frelighsburg

Our ride is counterclockwise, so we didn't have to climb up this hill the hard way.

Really old anglo cemetery on very scenic Philipsburg Road

Basswood tree and cemetery

12-sided barn in Mystic, now part of the Missisquoi museum.

Frelighsburg is one of the better places in Quebec for road bike rides. You can park here and ride across the border into mystical magical Vermont. or you can stay on this side of the border, and ride to mystical magical Mystic.

Or you can park in the new parking lot in Mystic and bike to Frelighsburg.

Today's route was very good. We'll be back again, perhaps even looking for a longer version of this ride.

Here is the map on Bikely.

The ride in relation to Montreal: southeast!

The Eastern Townships are east of Montreal.

The Chateauguay Valley is NOT part of the Eastern Townships.

Mont Royal's Camellien Houde climb - 100% new pavement

2011-08-02T15:32:00.003-06:00

The ultimate road bike training climb on Mont Royal is Camellien Houde. It climbs from Mont Royal Avenue in the Plateau for 1.7 km and then you turn around and repeat 10 times.

This climb has just been repaved, from top to bottom to top, and this includes the road shoulder areas populated by cyclists. Translation: Woohoo!

Here are some climb time parameters, if measurement is important to you.

According to the the user Becane on the local cycling website Velocia, the time-to-climb results can be categorized as follows:

Temps de référence:

Les pros .................... <>
L'élite national ............ 4:01 - 4:45
Coureur provincial ....... 4:46 - 5:30
Cyclosportif express ..... 5:31 - 6:30
Cyclosportif rapide ....... 6:31 - 7:30
Cyclosportif ................ 7:31 - 8:30
Cycliste courageux ....... > 8:30

We clocked in today at 8:20, or right at the back of the pack, as usual. We had been avoiding rigorous climb training, but not any more. We are going to do this climb 100 times before the snow arrives.

See you there!

Please walk your bike

2011-08-01T15:06:00.002-06:00

Walk your bike on sidewalks.

What's the problem, and just how lazy are you?

Walk your bike please.

Bodaciously bad biking behaviour.

Dressed kill, and riding like it too.

Park your bike and walk. It is not dificult.

Hopefully on a better bike rack then this loser model. Bad bike rack, bad!

Camillien Houde repaved!

2011-07-25T19:39:00.006-06:00

The city is repaving the entire Camillien Houde climb up the east side of Mont Royal.

Yes, the entire thing.

They are digging up the old asphalt (it gets recycled), and laying down new pavement from the bottom to the top, the complete width of the road.

Amazing.

It's not quite finished, but it's already much appreciated by cyclists.

A few Camillien Houde facts:

Camillien Houde was mayor of Montreal four times between 1928 to 1954.
After his death, Mayor Jean Drapeau named a new road over Mount Royal after Houde, an act many considered ironic, as Houde and many others had long opposed building roads over the city's famous mountain.
The road that is now known as Camillien Houde was previously only a streetcar route, there was no street and the canyon on top of the climb was a tunnel originally.
The Camillien Houde climb was in the 1976 Montreal Olympic games.
More at wikipedia.

Enjoy!

piste cyclable + circuit vitalité = total fitness

2011-07-19T18:57:00.001-06:00

Some news from Sherbrooke.

Implantation d'un circuit vitalité à Sherbrooke

La ville de Sherbrooke implante actuellement un circuit vitalité aux abords de la piste cyclable sur le boulevard Lionel-Groulx.

Il s'agit d'un circuit d'entraînement qui mise sur l'utilisation du mobilier urbain.

La chef de section loisir et milieu de vie de l'arrondissement Jacques-Cartier, Chantale Carrier, décrit en quoi consiste le projet.

Le circuit devrait être finalisé cet automne et a nécessité un investissement de 25 000$.

Mentionnons que d'autres projets similaires devraient voir le jour éventuellement dans d'autres arrondissements.
original info here.

How others see cyclists

2011-07-18T16:40:00.003-06:00

Welcome to Ormstown!

How others see us? Show me the money!

perfect sunny summer bike ride, and then the mega-rain arrived

2011-07-18T15:53:00.005-06:00

Montreal from across the St-Laurence river on the Voie Maritime (Seaway) bike path

Almost home, but we dawdled at the biosphere, and got caught in mega rain.

What a beautiful day for a bike ride.

Summer sunshine perfection.

And then came the mega rain orage severe thunderstorm - this rain can't bring us down, but after 30 minutes of standing under a tree and the rain and wind get stronger and fiercer and finally we realized that if we wanted this mega rain to stop, we had to start riding our bike. So we got on the bike, rode through rivers of water, and within 5 minutes the rain stopped. Woohoo!

We went for a ride along the Voie Maritime/Seaway to St-Catherine on the south shore for mid-ride ice cream. The recreoparc at the west end of the Voie Maritime path is making a few improvements. This is one of the most scenic spots in Montreal. This is not just recommended: it's mandatory.

This is a wild riverside bike path with no civilization for miles and miles.

The rain arrived and got worse fast. Much worse. Much, much, much worse.

Update: So the rain took out our bike pretty good. It fucked up the headset bearings, loosened the handlebar tape, and loosened BOTH spd cleats under our shoes. Also the spot we were standing had some recently disposed gum, and that entered our SPDs. Yuck.

We don't mind rain, but the collateral damage is hard to ignore.

Raid Jean d'Avignon this weekend

2011-07-18T10:19:00.003-06:00

It's time for the annual East Hereford mountain bike festival:

Raid/Marathon Jean D'Avignon et du FestivAllezY qui seront les 22, 23 et 24 juillet 2011!!

Nous nous donnons un défi à chaque année, celui d'offrir un événement meilleur que l'année précédente!!

La recette que nous utilisons depuis quelques années ressemble à ce qui se faisait avec Jean D'Avignon dans les années 90: le samedi c'est le récréatif et le dimanche on compétitionne. Depuis l'an dernier, nous avons ajouté le vendredi dans le FestivAllezY. Il y a l'incontournable souper du maire du samedi soir, les sapins de Noël un peu partout et voilà, c'est East Hereford!

Depuis 5 ans les pistes de Circuits Frontières viennent mettre du piquant. L'ADSVMQ a travaillé fort et c'est au travers 30 km de sentiers "simple trace" incroyables qu'on s'amuse à East Hereford. Vous n'en reviendrez pas. Nous manquons de mots pour décrire l'expérience. Disons simplement qu'il n'y a rien de comparable à ce qui se passe à East Hereford pendant la fin de semaine du Raid/Marathon Jean D'Avignon. Si vous ne venez pas, vous ne saurez pas.

Les vendredi, samedi c'est le FestivAllezY (remplace la récréative AllezY.net)

Le dimanche c'est trois compétitions:

Le Jean (environ 31 km, le parcours est à vérifier)
Le D'Avignon (un peu plus de 50 km)
Le Jean D'Avignon (un peu plus de 78 km)

Visit the Raid/Marathon Jean d'Avignon website for more information.

This is a great way to get an introduction to this amazing mountain biking destination.

on vacation

2011-07-17T15:55:00.002-06:00

Bon voyage!

Bonnes vacances!

VIA Rail's Bike-Train is back for 2011 summer

2011-07-04T18:33:00.004-06:00

Via has added baggage cars to more trains so more bikes can be carried to more places.

Where are these places?

Toronto
Montréal
Ottawa
Québec City
London
Windsor
Jonquière
Senneterre (this is deep in the northern bush!)

It is also possible that bikes can be packed in a box and carried as baggage on other routes, but don't take this as 100% fact.

Read more here (news) and here for the VIA Rail's Bike-Train webpage.

It costs $20 per bike each way, which is pretty reasonable.

Note that this not on all trains/days, so check the VIA website first.

Has anybody done the VIA bike-train thing? Leave a comment please.

Canada Day in the forest - East Hereford mountain bike day

2011-07-02T10:01:00.009-06:00

East Hereford village from Panorama trail

We spent the friday canada holiday celebrating that thing that happened in 1867 by playing in the forest. And what better forest to play in that the mountain biking paradise of East Hereford?

We rode, rode, and rode some more for a full day of quality riding, with the following routes making us happy with their usual level of awesomeness.

Bobine (uphill direction only)
Quartz US&Canada
uphill on forest road (i.e. the road at the finish of Troll... to...
50 Pesos (same start as L'Epicée - which has a new start a few metres from the old one)
50 Pesos - again! (this is the funnest trail on the mountain and very lap-able)
down the forest road and then up a bit to Chainon Manquant's western start
Chainon Manquant funfest
Troll
exit the Mont hereford area to paved road down to Zen (avoiding Slalom) and the doubletrack north-of-town trails.
Zen northward (first water crossing has stones to walk across, otherwise go fast and stay left!) and cross stream again to get back to the road and continue north to
Rang 9 which we ride uphill to Trials (Rang 9 is VERY uphill, 'ostie)
back into the woods for Trial (clockwise direction) and don't forget to look back - there's some great views up here (The trail Trials has nothing to do with riding trials-style obstacles, it's all zoom-zoom stuff)
L'Express (This is the start of the final section of today's ride, so it's always a bit sad to know that the day's fun will soon be finished.) Go fast and have fun on this doubletrack.
Panorama - last trail of the day and right near the end you have great views looking down on the village of East Hereford - take a minute and stop and appreciate the view. (Hydro Quebec wants to build mega-power lines through this valley - help protect the Hall river valley!)

Total ride time was about 6 hours for this adventure.

Click HERE for Hereford trail info at AllezY's Quebec mtn-bike trail directory.

For an interesting outsider view on the trail network at East Hereford, You can check out this article at Mountain Bike Vermont (MTBVT) website: East Hereford – the best mountain biking in New England…in Quebec.

East Hereford on facebook and twitter

Circuits Frontières (which is the official name for the East Hereford trail network) is on facebook and twitter. We still click HERE for Hereford trail map info at AllezY's excellent Quebec mtn-bike trails online directory. It's really good.

Don't forget to pay the small trail access fee for mountain bike trail access (this funds trail development) at the kiosk beside the behind-the-church mtnbiker parking.

One major improvement to our day's enjoyment was riding on brand new tires. What an improvement over the worn out carcasses we were riding before.

Who are anti-bike-path people?

2011-06-28T18:53:00.002-06:00

We don't understand the anti-bike-path people.

How can allocating 0.01% of the road department budget to create a very small number of safe routes for bicycles be a bad thing?

Why are safe routes for bicycles a bad thing?

Why is offering a place where anybody and everybody can go for a safe bike ride a bad thing?

Why is riding a bike for exercise without the constant risk of being hit by a car a bad thing?

Why is creating tourism resources in outlying areas a bad thing?

Why is it a bad thing for bicycle riders to demand that some of their tax dollars be spent to provide a long-term investment in health and transportation and recreation.

Why is ok to build ten kilometres of autoroute but not ok to spend the same amount of money that built all the bike paths ever made here in Quebec?

When the number one reason people don't ride their bike is a fear of riding with cars on the road, why is it a bad thing to build a bike path?

Why do people who write angry letters to the editors about bike paths like to complain so much? They should go for a bike ride and relax a bit. Oh, sorry, there's no safe place to ride their bike, so riding on the road will give them even more stress and anger, but maybe now they will write another angry letter to the editor, but this time demanding a bike path for their own neighbourhood.

Statistical note: all statistics presented here have no basis in fact, but we're working on it.

Abandoned bikes everywhere!

2011-06-28T18:47:00.002-06:00

There are hundreds of abandoned biked all over Montreal.

Last winter Montreal for the first time didn't remove the bikeparking and many bike owners left their bikes outside. All winter. In the snow rain ice and salty slush.

Spring arrived and it was revealed that these people's bikes did not survive. And now there are semi-destroyed bikes parked all over town.

Sad, abandoned bikes, all over town.

some bike commuting improvements

2011-06-23T16:03:00.004-06:00

We like to commute to work on bike.

Well, not in winter (salty slush and bikes don't mix), and usually not when it rains in the morning, but at all other times we do it.

But lately we are arriving home more stressed than we want to be.

We have an precisely optimized and direct route between the paradise on earth that is our workplace and our home.

And that's the problem. There are lots of cars on this very direct route. And that doesn't relax us, because some of these car drivers exhibit less than completely responsible car-driving behavour.

So modifications to the route will be made. Parks will be added to the route. (Yes, difficult but not impossible)

And we will try to relax about the crazee car drivers and other bike riders on the road.

Our goal is to arrive home in a peaceful and happy state. This being one of the Dalai Lama's specialties, we think it's time for a useful quote:

In our daily life, tolerance and patience have great benefits: developing them will allow us to sustain and maintain our presence of mind.

OK, so that is the other essential modification to our bike ride home from work.

And now, a short plea to the Montreal weather: please stop raining!

Another reason to ride a bike in Montreal

2011-06-17T18:05:00.004-06:00

World class styling, third world reliability.

This Ferrari 328 won't run and needs to be pushed!

We hope he brought his Bixi key to get home with.

Actually we would trade one or even all our bikes for this less than perfectly reliable pen1s substitute. Because it is red. And Italian. Just like our favorite bike.

Uh-oh, we do our favorite hill ride with some faster skinnier riders!

2011-06-17T08:17:00.004-06:00

Newly rebuilt Chemin au Pied de la Montagne north of Rt 337

We brought a couple of buddies to our favorite hill-ride in St-Jean-de-Matha in northern Lanaudiere. Unfortunately they are skinner, faster, ride more, are better climbers and have lighter bikes than us. But the good thing is that our enthusiasm levels were equal. We love to ride our bikes.

These guys are Eastern Townships locals and had never been to Lanaudiere, which is not easy to get to from the townships at all. But they heard me talk about how much I like this region and specifically my favorite St-Jean-de-Matha hill ride circuit.

So we coordinated, met up at the Wallyworld at the Rive du Nord mall (exit 98 on Autoroute 40) and arrived in St-Jean-de-Matha, parking behind the city hall across the street from the church.

Here is what these guys liked about this ride:

Quiet roads
Good asphalt
lots of hills
Good scenery
More quiet roads
More good asphalt
more good hills

After 85 km we had enough and called it a day. There was the possibility of another 10-25 km of riding on this very flexible circuit, but the day had been perfect and we arrived back at St-Jean-de-Matha and didn't need to ride the last two route variations.

Here is the bikely map of the ride. 85 km, 1000+ metres climbing with three good climbs and a few short climbs.

red=ride circuit. Blue=two options for a longer ride.

Option 1: Descent to St-Jean-de-Matha entrance to Parc Regional des Chutes
Option 2: Rang St-Gillaume loop to finish ride (note: involves riding on busy Rt 131)

If you like riding bikes, and you like riding hills, and you like riding back roads, then this is a ride you will like.

Mercier bridge closed to cars? Let's open it to bikes!!!!

2011-06-15T15:46:00.003-06:00

Shocking news today that they have closed the older, southbound span of the Pont Mercier Bridge to car traffic.

But wait, maybe we can turn this to our advantage.

Since the bridge cannot support the weight of heavy car traffic, why not now open it to bicycles?

Bicycles are light, they weigh almost nothing. We are 100% certain that the Pont Mercier bridge is safe for bicycles.

It is time for the government to do the right thing to alleviate the traffic disaster that is the emergency closure of the Pont Mercier and open it to bicycles for the duration of the summer or until emergency repairs are completed. Let's try to get a little utility and value from this emergency.

Plan A was to restrict the bridge to cars only (trucks have been banned from this bridge for months). Now the gov't is at Plan B, which is to to close the bridge to cars. It's time for Plan "C" which is open the bridge to bikes for the summer.

Plan C is Plan Cycle, so let's take this opportunity to cycle this huge bridge across our magnificent fleuve St Laurent/Saint Laurence river.

We think this could become a major tourist attraction and one of the funnest happenings of 2011.

OK, gov't, let's hear the 10 reasons your engineers thought up to ixnay this great idea.

Let's make this happen!

Roadtrip!

2011-06-12T15:33:00.009-06:00

Since 2000 we have been steadily and diligently exploring the road biking of Quebec. First we explored everything that was located a one hour away from Montreal. Then we explored everything two hours from Montreal. Now we are working on the three+ hours from Montreal list.

But our exploratory adventuring has been mainly road cycling. What about off-road cycling?

Two years ago we got our 4th iteration of the mountain bike genre (replacing a dead-for-ten-years bike), and began to explore Quebec's off-road possibilities. But in the two years since we have visited only one mountain bike destination. The good news is that this destination is East Hereford/Mont Hereford in the Eastern Townships (near Coaticook southeast of Sherbrooke), a destination that we fell completely in love with and visited a dozen times. But the problem was that we never explored anywhere else.

Until now.

We have some time for a little road trip, and our exploration goals direct us to the northeast. After extensive research through our vast library of Quebec regional tourism maps and guidebooks we decided to destinate the road trip to the Vallée-Bras-du-Nord/St-Raymond area in the Portneuf region (west of Quebec city on north side of St-Laurence river) and to (provincial) Parc national de la Jacques Cartier north of Quebec city. Both of these are supposed to have good-to-excellent mtn biking, hiking, and river canoeing. (canoeing is an excellently fun thing to do in summer, and both these places have rental opportunities). And both of these places have truly spectacular natural settings.

Quebec is big, and it takes a long to time to explore it all. This means years and years of fun exploring, and eventually we will ride all the very best cycling places in Quebec. And we will ride and ride and ride until we eventually die one day in the late 21st century of what we are sure will be an overdose of pure cycling-induced happiness.

We recommend this to all people: ride your bike and have fun and explore and have fun and ride some more, and explore some more and have fun riding and do it again tomorrow. Summer is short, play hard.

Update: Several Mountain bike trails were closed and/or wet, so we went for a hike on day 1. Bad idea, because we were left semi-crippled after the 9 hour hike and came home for some therapeutic recovery. The good news is that the Sentier des Falaises is a beauty of a hike, and is great cross training for the cyclist.

We will be back again soon (ok, maybe after mosquito season) to bike on and off road in this lovely region of Quebec.

The view from Sentier des Falaises, and of Chute Delaney (falls) which is quite a landmark!

Inside Refuge des Falaiases, a mere four hour hike from the car.

We didn't see any bears, but lots of moose tracks and this shark fossil.

You are required to contribute some coin for the trail development in this area, or your conscience will getcha!

What to do if you see a bear? Don't look it in the eyes and if it attacks: fight back. Oh boy!

Blainville-Lachute backroad and Laurentian foothills ride 95km

2011-06-12T11:28:00.007-06:00

Blainville-Lachute is an excellent ride.

Bike path, then backroads around airport, then a dirt road to almost-Lachute, then a bit of highway, and then backroads back to the bike path and home.

You can get the map here at Bikely.

Colourful house and colour-coordinated bike rider

Our buddy sure knows how to dress real purdy.

Obligatory falling-down barn photo.

One of Chemin Riviere du Nord's many scenic attractions

Today's ride was south and west of world-class white-elephant Mirabel airport.

Chemin Riviere du Nord is NOT a paved road.

This bothers some riders, but not those who use their bicycle to seek out adventure.

Second moose sighting in the same weekend!

This was an honest-to-goodness chicken coop.

Buddy told us that we would cross the riviere du Nord on a wood bridge.

Buddy was half right.

Ste-Scolastique's 60's church.

The 60s was the last time the church tested the "new ideas" thing.

Everything now looks like summer. Woohoo!

A bit of complicated zig-zagging but the result is a great ride.

Time was tight today but next time we will ride INTO Lachute.

Mont Hereford trails day and sunset ride

2011-06-05T09:15:00.004-06:00

Went to East Hereford to la Journée Québécoise des Sentiers which is the Quebec version of National Trails Day. We filled in a few mud holes on Troll, had lunch and then did some major work on Chainon Manquant (english=Missing Link).

We finished at 4 pm, and then your correspondant went for a mountain bike ride to check out the new trail repairs. We know that 4 pm is a late start, even for us. We're happy to report that we got first tracks!

Troll

Small mud hole removed and rebuilt on Troll

The morning was spent rebuilding a few wet spots and mud holes on Troll.

This was our first journée Quebecoise des Sentiers and we learned a lot about the process. The basic idea is to remove the mud and then rebuild the trail to stabilize the trail and permit proper drainage of the wet section in the future. Here's a bit more detail.

Identify location for repair, survey site, bring the correct tools
remove mud from repair location
remove earth on downhill side of trail to permit drainage
Find a dirt supply in the forest, clean off the organic soil on top, and transport inorganic soil to repair site
Find big rocks to fill in and stabilize repair zone
fill in the rest with dirt, gravel and small rocks
Compress and stabilize the soil on the repair zone
create a smooth 10 degree slope on the finished trail to permit drainage and eliminate puddles
Add natural barriers at side of trail to return the trail to normal single-track width. (mud holes create wide spots in trail)
re-naturalize the site with loose leaves, transplanted vegetation, etc

The tools that we used include:

Shovels - short handle and long handle
McLeod - a triple purpose super-rake for trail building
Pulaski - combo pick & axe tool for rapidly clearing ground vegetation
Long steel pry-bars - for extracting and moving big rocks
5 gallon plastic buckets - for transporting soil & rocks from forest to trail
Rock chisel & small sledge hammer
portable saw & secateur (pruning scissors) for removing low-hanging branches and vines
work gloves and steel-toe work boots
water and food, sunscreen and bug juice
a camera for that group photo when the job is done.

Chainon Manquant

2 tonnes of rocks + 1 tonne of dirt & gravel + 8 people = 20 feet of rebuilt trail

This was a BIG mud hole on Chainon Manquant, but not anymore. Now it's a happy place.

Many big rocks were moved and meticulously placed under this new section of trail.

The re-naturalization activity at the end of the rebuild process made the repair invisible. We spread lots of dead leaves around to cover the excavation and mud, planted a few ferns, and placed rocks to mark the trail edge. This rebuild was a lot of hard work and the result is a stable trail that will not be destroyed by erosion every time it rains.

We finished our ride around the usual time - sunset!

Transports Québec new "what roads are safe for bikes" online map

2011-06-03T14:50:00.009-06:00

Safe roads, unsafe roads, or you can just choose the back roads.

Transport Quebec has unveiled its new online road maps with a "which roads are safe for bikes" functionality, which they call conviviality.

The map is here and to get the "conviviality" function, you have to select that option at the interactive menu on the right side of the map.

Choosing safe roads/avoiding unsafe roads when cycling is quite important and this is a great new tool. We always recommend checking out the map before your ride and this map feature gives you some darned useful information.

We have some quibbles with the algorithm, which seems to use traffic volume as a criteria but not if there is a paved shoulder. We've had many good rides using a busy highway with a paved shoulder, and a few bad rides with a highway with no paved shoulder. But this is a starting point. And in some good news, closed bridges are indicated. (although from our knowledge this doesn't seem completely up to date - hey Transport Quebec, this matters!)

These maps exist on top of the Google maps platform, and are also available as an App.

Other really useful Transports Quebec links:

The text info about the new conviviality function
Quebec511 - lots of useful traffic and road construction info
Bicycle safety - since you are all grown up, you should probably know this stuff, seriously, you should know this stuff!
Quebec road maps by region, in pdf and formatted for printing on normal size paper

June 4 is Journée Québécoise des Sentiers / Quebec Trails Day

2011-06-01T18:35:00.003-06:00

Mountain bike trails don't build themselves. They need human help. Humans just like you, volunteering to make the world a better place for people who love to ride their bicycles off the road.

Loads more info here at ADSVMQ.

Howick-Ormstown-Huntingdon-Ste-Chrysostome bike path developments

2011-05-31T18:29:00.005-06:00

Yellow = new rail-to-trail bike path(s), red = existing bike paths

The MRC de Haut St-Laurent (which is the french name for the Chateauguay Valley) has announced the go-ahead for this rail-to-trail bike path(s) in the Chateauguay Valley:

The old railway line will be spruced up and its vocation recycled.

Bicycle lovers, check your derailleur gears, grease your chains, shine up your steed!! The Haut-Saint-Laurent is setting up a bicycle path that will take you around the country.

The MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent has signed a lease with de Ministry of Transportation for all disused railway corridors on its territory. These corridors will become a bike path.

This project will be implemented in three phases:
Phase 1: Howick - Ormstown is scheduled for Fall 2011.
Phase 2: Howick - Saint-Chrysostome is scheduled for Fall 2012 / Spring 2013
Phase 3: Ormstown - Godmanchester is scheduled for Fall 2013 / Spring 2014.

Financial details will be announced later since the portion of government funding is not confirmed.

Regarding the rules of use, we know at this stage that quads will not be allowed on the bike path. Regarding skidoos, negotiations will take place.

Landowners neighboring the railway corridors will be notified by the Ministry of Transportation regarding their rights and duties.

More information will follow as the project develops.

CONTEST

The MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent will soon be launching a major contest in the schools and among the population in order to find a name for the bicycle path. Details of the contest will be posted shortly on the MRC website and in the newspapers. Don’t miss this opportunity to leave your mark…

This seems to link together the two existing railroad rights-of-way: Howick - Huntingdon and Howick - Ste-Chrysostome. Put antother way, it links and extends (in a big way) the two existing regional bike paths Sentier du Paysan (Lacolle-Ste-Chrysostome) and Ste-Martine-to-Howick (this path is presently named "LA PISTE CYCLABLE SAINTE-MARTINE/BEAUHARNOIS, and is part of the Reseau cyclable de la MRC Beauharnois/Salaberry.

This is good and exciting news.

If the path is built as described in the announcement, then it will connect the two existing regional bike paths together. Then this path will run southeast for as much as 50 km.

The route paralleling the Chateauguay river will extend the 7 km existing Ste-Martine bike path ( 7 km from Ste-Martine to outside-Howick where it ends abruptly and unhappily at Rt 203). Finally it gets extended! To Huntingdon is 35 km and it could go 20 km after that into the wilds of Godmanchester. (where our mom was born) To ease the making of signs, I suggest they go the 5 km further into the easier-to-spell Dundee.

This path will go the entire way through the Chateauguay Valley. Starting in Ste-Martine it will go southeast through Howick, Brysonville/Allan's Corners, Ormstown, Dewittville, Huntingdon and beyond to the wilds of Dundee.

The surprise is that this path will connect to the most-unknown bike path in Quebec, the Sentier du Paysan (it is not even on the Monteregie tourist office's map of Monteregie bike paths. The connection to Howick gives this path a much better "official starting point." Recent work at the east end of this path means this path now goes all the way past Lacolle right to the Richelieu river! This is getting seriously amazing. You can ride bike path from Howick to Lacolle, then north along the Richelieu river and then the Chambly Canal bike path. This is one amazing week or weekend bike ride, leave the car behind and bike the entire loop from your doorstep in Montreal.

This fills in a big gap in the bike-path network that existed in the south and southwest Monteregie.

Very southern Monteregie ride - Sentier de Paysan, Lacolle, Covey Hill loop

2011-05-24T17:48:00.006-06:00

An almost 100 km ride. Go over the Richelieu on the 202 bridge to bring it over 100km

Clockwise from highest point on ride loop:

Sentier des Paysan (paved bike path)
The Axe cyclable Vallée-des-Forts on the right side (shared country road)
Follow the canadian side of the Canada-US border westwards for a long time
Until you ride up to the top of Covey Hill until Stevensons sideroad
Zoom downhill back to the start at left side of map.

Get the map on Bikely: click here.

Winds were 50 km/h gusting to 70 km/h, luckily from the side

You can get the two Montérégie cycling maps here at the Montérégie tourism website.

Note that the Sentier de Paysan in southern Montérégie is now extended east past Lacolle to Route 223, making a big loop ride from Montreal with the Axe cyclable Vallée-des-Forts much easier. (it will be easier still when the Pont Mercir finishes building its much-improved replacement bike sidewalk (note the Pont Mercier bridge is presently closed to bikes/pedestrians).

This is one serious new railroad crossing. I think they want us to pay attention.

Larch (tamarack, meleze), the "evergreen" that isn't, is growing its needles for 2011.

This weekend is traditionally a great one for apple blossoms.

Historic Odelltown church, built in 1827.

How historic is the Odelltown church? Those are horse sheds behind the church!

Riding south, not supposed to be beside the river but the flooding changed that a bit.

The Richelieu river was at a historic high level on the weekend.

Hmmm. That road looks... kinda flooded.

OK, it's crossable. But by bike?

We have to decide: do we get the shoes wet or not?

Not.

Hmmm, not cold at all. But definitely wet.

This ride has only one hill, just one. The famous Covey Hill.

The bottom part of the ride's loop is directly along the US-Canada border.

Photos St-Jean-de-Matha to Ste-Emilie-de-L'Energie to Ste-Beatrix ride

2011-05-20T18:54:00.006-06:00

Edible fauna abound throughout Lanaudiere.

Rang St-Guillaume always impresses us as the best end-of-ride let's ride 10 km more detour ever.

This recumbent passed us but didn't even say hello.

Three entrances to this park, two of the entrances are visited on the bike ride.

Top of the Rang Ste-Catherine hill, scenic lookout just to right of this photo.

Lots of spring splendor in the northern lanaudiere yesterday. Lots of major new asphalt too!

This ride is highly recommended for both soft and hardcore hill junkies.

If you can ride Camelien Houde a couple of times, you'll have no problem doing this ride.

Crossing the Riviere Noire to get to Chemin de Belle Montagne

We love Chemin de Belle Montagne.

New asphalt on Ste-Emilie-de-L'Energie's Chemin Feuille de l'Erable climb.

This is a sustained, but not too long climb. Nothing too crazy steep. And from the top is one of the great descents. You zoom zoom for a long time.

Spring's colour palette of greens.

New pavement on Chemin Rang Ste-Catherine climb.

This climb is memorable. And at the top is one of the greatest scenic-outlook rest stops you'll ever be glad to stop at.

Looking back to St-Jean-de-Matha from first climb at edge of town.

If you take the Rang St-Guillaume option at the ride's end you also arrive back here at end of ride. We really recommend finishing the ride with Rang St-Guillaume.

Yet more new asphalt is found on the Chemin Pied de Montagne. This really spices up the ride after Ste-Beatrix as this gives you a second side road to zig and zag back to St-Jean-de-Matha.

Map here on the ever-slow bikely website. (Bikely needs new servers real bad)

This is one of our favorite rides EVER.

Note the three little highly scenic and fun additions at the end of the ride compared to the map in the post below.

These are:

Chemin pied de montagne
Cul de sac road to St-Jean-de-Matha entrance of Parc Regional des chutes
Rang St-Guillaume

Time for St-Jean-de-Matha hills ride

2011-05-20T07:13:00.008-06:00

65km of paradise. Many excellent hills are included at no additional cost.

Check out many photos of our previous Lanaudiere rides here.

Spring hasn't been the greatest in 2010, but today the sky is blue and the temperature is rising.

By now we've ridden every Chateauguay valley road, so it's time to return to another of our favorite destinations: St-Jean-de-Matha in the northern Lanaudiere. Northern Lanaudiere is kind of the eastern Laurentians, but with better roads.

The circuit is St-Jean-de-Matha - warmup loop east of town - little hill north to amazing scenic lookout - downhill to Ste-Emilie de l'Energie - go south up big hill feuille de l'erable to chemin de Belle Montagne - which is a super scenic road all the way to to Ste-Beatrix - to bridge beside big waterfall at Parc Regional des chutes de quelque chose by the back road - highway (with paved shoulders) back to the car. (you can reverse the Belle Montagne road if you want a longer ride here).

Unlike the Chateauguay valley, where almost any road is a great cycling road, in Lanaudiere we stick to this specific ride which we use as a base for a ride with many distance options, but today is the basic ride. This ride is so good, we do it again, and again, and again. It has the all the important essences of a great ride - and it is essential that you go and ride here!

The circuit is only 65 km, but you can add a southern loop to the ride to add 40 or 50 km. You know, for a full afternoon's ride. And by afternoon we mean until the time when we see the sun set as we get back to the car. (actually, this is a good thing.)

Where is Lanaudiere? It starts at the eastern tip of Montreal Island. It's that's close. Not far. No sir. Do it.

Go east on the 40, go north past Joliette. A mere 70 minutes from Montreal.

Where to park? Park behind city hall (across from church). This is the site of the Louis Cyr Museum, and has washrooms. (note: we've heard this museum may move to a new location in the future)

We like our St-Jean-de-Matha / Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie / Ste-Beatrix ride because:

good distance
good hills
The two long hills have good descents after the summit is reached
good scenery
good scenic lookouts, one with benches (northbound top of hill to ste-emilie)
good roads (mostly)
quiet roads
97 km from Mtl car distance, not so far
undeveloped area (no tims, macDo, other corporate crap)
the ride is made up of many short sections
many options exist to increase ride distance
easy to abort - many places you can call it quits and get quickly back to car
Good descents
No jerkin' around with flats until the hills finally arrive (first 20% hill
at 4 minutes into the ride)
The two highways part of the ride both have paved shoulders.
There's a raspberry farm at foot of one of the major climbs - Yum!
There's annual repairs/rebuilding to the roads of this ride
You feel like a tour de france mountain stage survivor by ride's end (and not one of those front-of-the-pack guys)
You can leave Montreal at 2 pm and still have time for a ride... thanks to summer's late sunsets.

Add it up and you see why we think this is one of the best road rides around.

Check out many photos of our previous Lanaudiere rides here.

Veloroute des Bleuets 256 km route around Lac St-Jean now 100% asphalt

2011-05-19T19:45:00.003-06:00

The Veloroute des Bleuets 256 km bike route around Lac St-Jean is now 100% asphalt.

Maybe this is the year we ride it?

For more information, go here.

World's strangest bike fender?

2011-05-19T18:55:00.005-06:00

Another outside-the-box WTF.

This one seems more traditional.

bike haters and anti-tax fetishists fill Gazette's op-ed page

2011-05-19T15:06:00.004-06:00

People with poor math, reading, and business-finance skills filled the Gazette's letters to the editors page today.

Too funny!

Quebec Trails Day - we need you to volunteer on June 4

2011-05-18T18:55:00.003-06:00

June 4 is Quebec Trails day.

The ADSVMQ needs a few people (people just like you) on Saturday June 4 to build and maintain mountain bike trails. These trails don't build themselves.

Besides making the Quebec trail situation even better, volunteering has other side effects. It causes happiness. And did you know that volunteers get 17% fewer flat tires?

Lots more information on how you can volunteer at the Association pour le Développement des Sentiers de Vélo de Montagne au Québec's website ADSVMQ.

the bixi letter

2011-05-18T15:58:00.006-06:00

We received this letter from Bixi about the recent headlines.

BIXI. Establishing the facts.

Letter to members and BIXI users

In the past days, much has been said about BIXI that does not correspond to the reality. Therefore it seems essential to restore the facts, particularly now that the plan proposed by the City was finally well-received by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs after more than five months of delay and waiting. The following serves as a clarification regarding some of the allegations which have been circulating in the media.

“BIXI is a financial disaster and is not profitable”: FALSE. BIXI experienced a liquidity problem which was the direct result of a five-month wait for the approval by the Municipal Affairs Minister of its agreement with the City of Montreal. BIXI is a company which experienced rapid growth and realized, after only 2 years, volumes of some $50 million. BIXI also posted results that were 40% greater than the projected budget, thanks in large part to the successful expansion of its system internationally. BIXI does not have a profitability problem nor is BIXI a financial disaster in any way.

“The Montreal operation of BIXI is not profitable”: TRUE. From the beginning, the business plan projected that the Montreal operation of the system would not derive profits in the first years of operation. The plan also indicated that operational costs would be covered once BIXI reached 50,000 members and with the involvement of sponsorship. Proud of the 30,000 members at the end of 2010, we have currently exceeded the level of 40,000 members after only one month of operation in our new 2011 season.

“Montreal is absorbing the BIXI debt”: FALSE. The City gives no money to BIXI. Montreal advanced a loan to BIXI. The initial loan to BIXI in the amount of $37 million is repayable with interest. This loan was accorded to cover conceptualization costs of the system, the patents, the manufacturing and delivery of the components (bikes and stations), the operation losses of the first years as well as the start up costs. This loan is presently owed to Stationnement de Montréal.

“The city is giving $108 million to BIXI”: FALSE. Let us take the time to properly understand the numbers that make up the whole.

$37 million : this amount is a loan to BIXI repayable with interest. The remaining $71 million, guaranteed by the City of Montreal, is comprised of a financing package negotiated with the National Bank subsequent to a tender notice.

It consists of a revolving line of credit of $6 million, as is standard for all businesses; a letter of credit facility up to $5 million for deposit guarantees for all public offerings which is a standard practice with the guarantees rescinded after the process.

A factoring facility up to $60 million offered by the Bank to finance accounts receivable which allows for the necessary liquidity to pay our suppliers while waiting for the cities with whom we do business to effect the payment of our invoices. This facility can only be used when a contract is signed by a city in good and due form.

“Montrealers are financing the export of the BIXI system to other markets”: FALSE. It is, in fact, the contrary. Montrealers fully benefit from the export of the BIXI system to other markets. Last year, it is the successes of the sales of BIXI ($8.5 million) on the international scale that covered the operational deficit of Montreal ($7 million). In this way, we were able to achieve a surplus of $1.5 million and offer a quality system to Montrealers.

“We have a luxurious bike costing $7,400 compared to Barcelona with a bike costing $75”: FALSE. BIXI does not cost $7,000, no more than it costs $3,500, heard on television. The Barcelona bike does not cost $75. The Barcelona bike costs more than 600 €, basically the same cost of our bike. How could we sell with such success on three continents if the bike costs so much? The Montreal bike is likely the most solid and best conceived bike in the world. Its reliability is greater than the bikes currently used in other cities.

“BIXI employs 450 people”: FALSE. . BIXI employs 50 people and has created more than 400 employees at different suppliers everywhere in the region for the manufacturing of the diverse components of the system.

Our business plan is clear. It has been presented publicly. We remain in line with the business plan and once again count on respecting these objectives again this year. The plan outlines clearly that the system will cost nothing to Montrealers. This is our commitment.

By Roger Plamondon, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Public Bike System Company

East Hereford's super-scenic mountain bike paradise about to be destroyed by Hydro-Quebec mega-towers to export electricity to US?

2011-05-15T11:31:00.008-06:00

Lots of scenery and no Hydro towers...yet

Beautiful rural scenery..... destroyed by our masters at Hydro-Quebec

The Gazette reported this weekend about a protest ("Hands across the border") by citizens on both sides of the US-Canada border about a new electricity transmission line that will pass through the mountain bike paradise of East Hereford. The road biking around here is pretty good too.

Hydro-Quebec, well known for it's scenery-destroying mania to build power transmission lines EVERYWHERE, is finally having to confront some citizens less easy to ignore than us Quebecois. Yes, noisy Americans, bless their hearts, don't want their scenic state scenery spoiled by a hideous electricity transmission towers.

Premier Charest's new "Plan Nord" to flood yet more areas the size of France so we can export electricity to power-hungry yanks depends on passive citizenry meekly accepting their local scenery being destroyed.

It looks likely that the route through New Hampshire will change due to citizen protests. No such luck here in Quebec. Hydro-Quebec rules this province and citizen voices about power transmission corridors do not affect the decision-making process at Hydro-Quebec.

Just say no to destroying this beautiful corner of Quebec.

Hydro towers don't add much to the tourism appeal of our beautiful countryside

65km Ste-Martine to near-Hemmingford ride

2011-05-14T19:09:00.004-06:00

Will we ever get tired of riding through fields and forests?

65 km is a nice distance. Not too short, not too long, Just right really for a active-recovery day kind of ride.

We chose to ride from Ste-Martine with a poorly defined destination of southeast in the Hemmingford direction. We knew the first 1/3 of the ride, and we knew the last 1/3 of the ride, but what was in the middle we knew nothing about. Mainly because we rode right off the edge of our map for the resEAU cyclable du Suroit.

But we weren't worried. We had quiet country roads, a good sense of direction, even a bit of bike path (the very unknown La Sentier du Paysan).

It was also the first hot day of the 2011 year.

The end result is that we went as far as the delightfully named Backbush road, and got home before sunset.

Here's the link to the map on bikely.

Summary: Just another nice country-road ride. Easy distance, easy terrain, but a few little hills to keep it interesting. You could visit hemmingford on this ride, and this is what we will do next time.

Ice cream is available in Ste-Chrysostome if you need a bit of refreshment to make it back to the car in hot temperatures. We can't recommend this enough.

A nice southeast loop from Ste-Martine.

There are a lot of route options when you start in Ste-Martine. From super-short and flat bike paths, to easy road rides, and you can extend these road rides to all distances from 15 to 150 kilometres. The special thing is that there is not one Tim Hortons or other korporate krap anywhere on these rides. (Not yet, so get here soon!)

Rainy Day...

2011-05-14T17:12:00.004-06:00

What to do on a rainy day?

How about a birthday party for montreal's newest 100 year old?

Ok, but what about the rest of you?

Might we suggest that it is time to fantasize about summer, and riding the hills of Quebec. Some hills are bigger, and steeper than others, and the Charlevoix has the most and the biggest hills that we know of.

Some of these hills are so steep, that we are afraid to even look at them. Yes, it's true! We've done a bunch of Charlevoix hills, but the steepest one is at St-Joseph de la Rive, chemin cote a godin, and it's 20% steep. Once we went to the bottom of and dared not look up. For we knew that we were not yet worthy of such a hill.

We have reached kind of a stalemate with this hill. We knew it was steep, but we knew nothing else, and were afraid to find out more... and double afraid to try the hill and fail, and have to walk up it. (NO!) Yes, we are kind of hoping we get a bike with even lower gears than the Bert, but that plan was going nowhere fast.

But today we lost our fear of this hill and soon, mere weeks from now, we are going to go to this hill.

From where did this inspiration come from?

From watching a youtube video of one of the most improbable descents we've ever seen: a bigwheel descent.You sort of have to see it to believe it, so we suggest you do exactly that.

Click here now to see a descent of Cote a Godin that you'll never want to do yourself, but you are glad to know "can" be done.

Perfect weather for bike commuting has arrived

2011-05-11T16:18:00.001-06:00

It's easy to ride your bike to work.

It's even easier to avoid doing it!

Here's our tips for bike commuting, or vélo boulot as they say en français.

Get everything ready the night before. (EVERYTHING!!!!)
Be aware that car drivers are not at their best first thing in the morning. They will do lots of stupid and dangerous things that can kill cyclists. So ride extra safe in traffic. HIGH VISIBILITY cycling clothing is safer. As is riding safely and predictability in traffic.
Ride mellow to work so you don't get that (Madison avenue-driven) need to shower when you get to work.
Bring the correct key for the lock you are using. Doh!
Identify which intersections are extra-dangerous and use extra caution.
Start to begin to think about pondering the creation of an idea in your mind about sort of obeying red lights and stop signs. Don't do things where, if you were watching the situation, you would say "Hey look at THAT idiot!" Admit to yourself that yes, there are some intersections where it is just a simple fact that I have to stop here and wait a minute.

And for gods sake oil your chain and put some air in the tires.

Update: On commuting day 3 we forgot the key for the lock we keep at work. Heck, we know we're not perfect, just fun.

la Presse reveals Montreal's 2011 cycling infrastructure projects

2011-05-10T17:09:00.004-06:00

Yes, La Presse is hard at work printing advance copies of press releases from the city of Montreal. They reveal that there will be 50 km of additions to the Montreal island bike path network.

Additions to the bike path network for 2011:

a new route north on Berri and Lajeunesse north of Castelnau to Gouin. But no word on the non-street Route Verte bike path route north along the CP train tracks.
Extension of the downtown de Maisonneuve path from Berri east to Papineau.
and 24 other projects!

Other sorts of cycling infrastructure improvements:

Concrete separators on the St-Urbain on-street bike path to separate bikes and buses. This one is going to have to be seen to be comprehended.
Other cycling infrastructure will include bike-boxes at three busy intersections.

You can read the original article at La Presse (french) here. (recommended)

The article does not reveal if the Pont Jacques-Cartier bridge will get it's connection north to the Rachel path and the Plateau-Mont-Royal's bike path network. We are so waiting for this one.

Improving the cycling infrastructure means increased safety for the cycling public.

Now, can we all try to get along please?

Think happy thoughts department

2011-05-08T13:19:00.002-06:00

Sunny weather is here!

Woohoo!

Get up, and go for a bike ride.

Do it.

One farmer's dream is to delay proposed Chateauguay Valley rail-to-trail bike path by ten years!

2011-05-08T11:23:00.007-06:00

The Huntingdon Gleaner predominately features a letter from local farmer Peter Finlayson who is against the proposed rail-to-trail bike path that will cross his farm and take 62 feet of land.

Based on documents from the 1890s Mr Finlayson argues that this is more land than previous rail road had owned and is simply the government stealing his land. Since this letter was published he has proposed that the bike path development be held up in court for ten years until this gets sorted out.

We think that Quebec's rural areas benefit from recreotourism resources like bike paths. The rest of Quebec is benefiting today from the recent creation of regional bike paths. Think of the P'tit Train du Nord, the Estriade, and the Cycloroute de Bellechasse as drivers for regional tourism and employment. Quebec is now criss-crossed with the Route Verte network of connected regional bike paths. Everywhere, that is, except the Chateauguay Valley.

The Chateauguay valley, which has its share of closed factories and struggling farmers, will benefit from a future economy that includes tourism. The politicians and farmers need to look to the future, not to events of two centuries ago when deciding what needs to be done to grow a strong economy in the 21st century.

The Chateauguay Valley is a beautiful regions of Quebec and is already known as a destination for road cycling. It is time to get this bike path built for the people people who think that a rail-to-trail bike path is their preferred destination for cycling tourism. Let's welcome these tourists to our beautiful region.