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Cycling in Waterloo Region
(04-22-2017, 08:29 PM)Canard Wrote: Expensive day for our household, but we became a 2-bike family today!  Very pleased to finally get my other half into biking - we celebrated Earth Day by taking a 20 km jaunt along some of my favourite local trails.  He did great!

Have already ordered a second tray for my 1Up Rack that I am always raving about. Smile  Tomorrow we're planing on going for another ride somewhere in Southwestern Ontario.

It's gonna be a lovely day tomorrow. I'm going for my first 200K of the year.

You might like the old LE&N railway bridge in Waterford, the same trail system that starts in Cambridge and goes to Paris splits in Brantford and goes all the way to Port Dover. I haven't ridden south of Paris on the trail but I imagine it's standard stone dust kinda surface all the way down. Brantford to Waterford is about a 20km ride and it's flat as a pancake along that trail.
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That was one of the options we were looking at, yes! I've been using Google Street View at crossroads at a lot of the trails to take a look at their state of upkeep. That segment you mention in particular looks to be in very good shape. I really want to ride the Welland Canal - it looks like a super-relaxing ride, and I love watching boats go through the locks and lift bridges and stuff.

200 km - Wow, that's all I can say! I don't think I'll ever be able to do that; but, I guess you don't get somewhere without first setting a goal, right? If you don't mind my asking, what kind of bike setup do you have, and what kind of roads or trails do you usually ride on?

It's usually my knees and my butt that say "time to stop now", not my state of energy... so maybe my next step is to finally do what Jamincan suggested a while ago, and get my bike properly set up with an official fitting!
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I've biked to Turkey Point with my wife for our Anniversary. It was awesome. But long. Brant paves most of it's trails. Hard pack for most of the rest. To be honest, the Cambridge to Paris section was the worst. We went late in the year and the trail had many overgrown sections there. But the Brant paving was great.
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(04-23-2017, 07:29 AM)Canard Wrote: It's usually my knees and my butt that say "time to stop now", not my state of energy... so maybe my next step is to finally do what Jamincan suggested a while ago, and get my bike properly set up with an official fitting!

Knee problems are almost certainly a sign of a poor fit. Alternately, it could be poor use of your gears, but somehow I doubt that's a problem for you. Generally speaking, though, higher cadence in an easier gear is more efficient than vice versa and will put a lot less strain on your knees.

If you're uncomfortable in the saddle, there could be a number of factors. First the things I doubt are an issue: just getting used to being in the saddle is the first thing, but you cycle quite a bit, so I would expect that you should be fairly comfortable in your saddle for the length of rides you do. Fit can be another factor - you're more prone to putting pressure on soft-tissue in a low aggressive position. If I recall correctly, the fit you have on your bike isn't likely to lead to this, though.

Now for the thing that might be a problem: the type of saddle you have. I don't remember which kind you have, but a lot of people lean toward wide, heavily cushioned saddles thinking that they will be more comfortable. Instead, they tend to cause more chafing and often put pressure on soft-tissue. There's a reason that most serious riders tend to have comparatively narrow saddles with very little to no cushioning. The saddle should be wide enough to support your sit-bones - too much more is going to lead to chafing. Similarly, padding on the saddle also leads to chafing. Get shorts specifically designed for cycling (if you're not keen on lycra, there are liner shorts with a chamois that provide the same function) so that the padding doesn't move next to your body; this will provide the added comfort without the chafing.

Cervelo has a fairly comprehensive article about saddle fitting, albeit with a focus on road/TT bikes, but a lot of the principles would carry over other styles as well.
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(04-23-2017, 07:29 AM)Canard Wrote: That was one of the options we were looking at, yes! I've been using Google Street View at crossroads at a lot of the trails to take a look at their state of upkeep. That segment you mention in particular looks to be in very good shape. I really want to ride the Welland Canal - it looks like a super-relaxing ride, and I love watching boats go through the locks and lift bridges and stuff.

200 km - Wow, that's all I can say! I don't think I'll ever be able to do that; but, I guess you don't get somewhere without first setting a goal, right? If you don't mind my asking, what kind of bike setup do you have, and what kind of roads or trails do you usually ride on?

It's usually my knees and my butt that say "time to stop now", not my state of energy... so maybe my next step is to finally do what Jamincan suggested a while ago, and get my bike properly set up with an official fitting!

200k is a pretty big ride...  I never thought I'd be able to manage anything like it either when I started getting into "serious" road riding, I started out doing 20k and 40k loops around the country side and kept going a bit more and a bit more. The first time I did a 100K I thought I was gonna die by the end. The type of long distance riding I do is called randonneuring, it's more like rally than a race. I also do a lot of random rides around the country here just for fun and riding random trails. I'll go quite a ways out of my to find the quietest roads and look for scenic ones too, usually it means some hills but it's worth it for me. I've started riding gravel roads a lot more too, there is almost no one on them.

I've also ridden along most of the Welland Canal, it's so awesome! There are wicked old lift bridges that are so cool and the ships are so big up close. There's also the old flour mill in Port Colborne, you can see it on streetview at 251 Omer St. Pretty neat stuff all the way along that trail. In that area, the Niagara Parkways is also an exceptionally scenic ride and pretty easy starting in Fort Erie. I've done it the other ways, starting in NOTL and those short steep hills are a bear. The traffic in the falls itself is kinda scary but also slow due to the congestion. I usually don't stop if I am on my bike at the falls, seen 'em so many time. There's also a little trail called the Friendship trail that runs parallel to lake Erie but it's flat and kinda boring. Beats riding the roads around there.

I have a few different bikes, most of my riding is on a specialized roubaix, carbon fiber road bike, I also outfit it with a generator hub and lights for night riding. I've taken it on lots of stonedust trails but I have a touring bike with fatter tires that I use for anything more gnarly. I've got a mountain bike but I rarely hit the trails anymore, used to love it as a kid.
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The Friendship Trail was excellent; I rode it a couple of weeks ago. I'd been waiting all winter to go down and check it out. The scenery was lovely, quality of the pavement was top-notch.

I was thinking about building my own bike later this year, picking out all my dream components, and building just what I want - then I stumbled across these guys... and realized they already put together almost exactly what I was looking for (belt drive and some kind of internal hub - the IVT/CVT is perfect!): https://www.prioritybicycles.com/products/thecontinuum
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(04-25-2017, 07:43 AM)Canard Wrote: The Friendship Trail was excellent; I rode it a couple of weeks ago.  I'd been waiting all winter to go down and check it out.  The scenery was lovely, quality of the pavement was top-notch.

I was thinking about building my own bike later this year, picking out all my dream components, and building just what I want - then I stumbled across these guys... and realized they already put together almost exactly what I was looking for (belt drive and some kind of internal hub - the IVT/CVT is perfect!):  https://www.prioritybicycles.com/products/thecontinuum

That's a lot of bike for 900$ even if it's in USD. I thought about buying a nice road bike setup with hydraulic brakes, belt drive and gear hub... but it was almost 3000$ so I passed. Building bikes from the frame up and picking parts is fun but it is so much more expensive than just buying a whole bike and changing a few parts to suit. I've got to get rid of some of the bikes I don't ride Confused
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I had the same thoughts.  I started listing all the bits I wanted... and the price tag just skyrockets; but I guess that's like anything.  It's almost always less expensive to buy a finished thing, if you can find exactly what you want or are willing to take a bit of a compromise.  That Nuvinci hub in the Continuum alone is around $400.  I just can't find anywhere locally that has any bike that is equipped with one - had I known about it at the time of the cycle show earlier this year in Toronto, I would have been on the lookout for it!

Cute video from Holland; not quite as nice as the Siemens system (which uses your smartphone to try and give you a green by modifying the light cycle, if possible), but probably easier to drop-in anywhere:



(...riding the whole way to work today and back, wish me luck!)
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Een geweldig installatie! (An amazing installation!)
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Does anyone know if Kitchener plans on paving the stretch of trail between Lawrence and Westmount on the trail along the Sandrock Greenway in Filsinger Natural Area? The trail over the hill is quite steep with loose gravel and not very conducive to safe cycling, and the trail along the creek isn't really good quality for most of it.

The trail from Lawrence to the intersection of the IHT is paved, and the section from Westmount to Fischer Hallman is good quality gravel.
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(04-13-2017, 05:13 PM)timc Wrote: The Lincoln Road bike lane PIC info has been posted on the City of Waterloo site:

http://www.waterloo.ca/en/news/index.asp...ee0b724e12

The PIC is on April 27th at Moses Springer Community Centre.

Just a reminder that this is happening today from 6-8 pm.
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So, I biked the whole 25 km to my office and back on Wednesday. I live in Kitchener, and work in Cambridge, on the far East side in the Lovell Industrial Park.

The route I planned took a lot of finagling - I'm quite familiar with all the various backroads to get to and from the office, to avoid 401 congestion during construction. There were only a couple of spots I couldn't figure out how to find "less scary" roads. And they were... terrifying. I don't know if I'll try this again until I can have a real re-think on this. I can't quite figure out how to totally avoid both Fountain and Maple Grove. Those were the only spots I felt like... "I'm going to die". Here's roughly what I did:

https://goo.gl/maps/U361yQGciEv

I really, really wish we had some kind of paved MUT that went all the way from Kitchener to Cambridge, just like the Spur Line Trail from Kitchener to Waterloo. Once can always dream...
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(04-27-2017, 06:36 PM)Canard Wrote: So, I biked the whole 25 km to my office and back on Wednesday.  I live in Kitchener, and work in Cambridge, on the far East side in the Lovell Industrial Park.

The route I planned took a lot of finagling - I'm quite familiar with all the various backroads to get to and from the office, to avoid 401 congestion during construction.  There were only a couple of spots I couldn't figure out how to find "less scary" roads.  And they were... terrifying.  I don't know if I'll try this again until I can have a real re-think on this.  I can't quite figure out how to totally avoid both Fountain and Maple Grove.  Those were the only spots I felt like... "I'm going to die".  Here's roughly what I did:

https://goo.gl/maps/U361yQGciEv

I really, really wish we had some kind of paved MUT that went all the way from Kitchener to Cambridge, just like the Spur Line Trail from Kitchener to Waterloo.  Once can always dream...

That's basically the way I take when I leave downtown to head over to Guelph or southeast of Cambridge. I like Krug instead of Frederick but they've started working on the road; it wasn't closed when I was through there yesterday but that might change. When I cross Fairway I take a right on Riverbank even though it's a bit more distance it's very quiet and quite scenic IMO. On the return trip one has to walk the bike across the road because of the median but I've never found the traffic bad enough to make it difficult. Rush hour along Middle Block sure has changed in the last 10 years since I started riding that road. I just rode townline over the 401 on the weekend and I remembered how much it sucks too! I usually take the extra distance and go down concession 2 and back along Ellis ave.

Here is a completely different take but it's almost 8km more so it might not be exactly what you're looking for but it avoids crossing the 401 with cars, it avoid crossing highway 8 and it uses a lot of trails and the path along can-amera is pretty nice riding and the bike lanes aren't terrible but it's been a long while since I've been down there in rush hour so I dunno if traffic is bad or worse. On this route I take the Iron Horse to get to the Rockway area... it's got some mean hills on the return trip but I like hills and will take them over traffic any day of the week.
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Wow, thank you so much for that - I like that! Totally doable. I decided after doing it that it's not the distance that would dissuade me from doing it a couple of times a week - it's my comfort level with traffic. So, adding 5 km to avoid areas that I feel are a bit risky is no problem at all.

Your route really shows how much of a pain the lack of crossings of the Grand and 401 really is. One of my coworkers said, however, that during the entire reconstruction of the Fountain St. S bridge (the one between Blair and Limerick), it'd be open to pedestrians and cyclists (somehow). Any truth to that? Are they building a whole secondary temporary bridge or something?
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For those interested, Fountain St. bridge is open for access to pedestrians (despite lack of signage), I rode over it, they have simply kept one side (edge really) of the bridge and created a separate surface for cycling.

It really is quite a nice ride right now.
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