Garden Bikes

You didn't know that gardens & bikes go together well, did you?

I woke up this morning intending to ride but not sure where. A quick perusal of Facebook and I located a promotion for Sustainable Food Edmonton's 2014 Bike Tour of Edmonton's Community Gardens (co-hosted by Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society). Sounded interesting, Sadie was up for a trip to Edmonton, and so I signed us up.

Arriving at The Idylwylde Cheery Tomato Community Garden Sadie & I met up with about 25 other cyclists and received our rainbow tape - indicating that we were riding with the group. 

Sadie promptly installed the tape on her frame so that she could wear it forever. Sadie is partial to colors, in case you haven't noticed. She has a red frame, blue stripes on her tires, pink streamers, red, white & blue spoke beads, and rainbow tape. She's also talking about re-painting herself this winter.

We received a brief overview of the Cheery Tomato garden, checked out the plants, had a quick "bike riding safety for groups" lesson and started on our way. And... Sadie got a flat before we even rolled 10 feet down the road. I grabbed Brian - aka: Mobile Bike Shop Man - and we assured the group we would catch up at the next garden. I carry a spare tube, tire levers, & a pump at all times so was set with the items needed to replace the flat tube. With Brian's help, and the support of the sweeper car, we were done in less than 10 minutes. 

Thank you Brian!

Rejoining the group at the garden behind W. P. Wagner School, we had the opportunity to speak with a couple of the gardeners there. One of them is using a self watering system comprised of 2 terracotta pots glued together (tops together) and the bottom hole sealed up. The pot is then sunk into the ground near the plants and filled with water using the open top hole which is above ground. Over 3 days, the water leaches out of the pots and into the soil, watering the plants. A great solution for hot days when you can't make it to the garden every day! 

Next stop: Mill Woods United Church's community garden.  This one is a fantastic community project. The raised garden boxes were built by the local high-school shop class and the garden is comprised of both private and public gardening spaces filled with herbs, veggies, & flowers. 

 

Next up, a beautiful family garden in Lee Ridge. While this is not a "community garden" per se, this community gardens! 

The bikes and the bikers really enjoyed this little city lawn garden. 

Up next, the Richfield Community Garden. This was by far the biggest garden of the day, located right in the middle of a field, near a walking/biking path. 

Regrouping after the garden info session, we were off and rolling towards the starting point. Overall a good day with only 3 flat tires, 1 drop out due to mechanical reasons, some very interesting bikes - fold ups, recumbents, mountain bikes, road bikes, hybrids, and every color imaginable - and just a bit of rain and cold to make the day complete. Our route took us over 23 km around Edmonton. I highly recommend seeing the city by bike whenever possible. 

To learn more about Sadie & The Ride, visit her post here.

History by Bike

It was a beautiful (hot, very hot) sunny day as Sadie & I loaded up to head to Edmonton for an Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society event: Bicycle Tour of Edmonton's History.

You can find the EBCS calendar here.

Arriving at Bikeworks North, Sadie hopped out of the truck and turned a few donuts in the parking lot while waiting for the group to arrive. Sadie tends to be chronically early to bike events and finds that the nice thing about being a bike is that she is always ready to roll down the road whereas I tend to need to gear up - helmet, sunblock, socks, bike shoes, you get the idea... I took a few minutes to check out the shop and gear up while Sadie puttered around. I love the colors that Bikeworks (North & South) have gone with.

The tour was lead by Karly & Chris who each did a fabulous job of providing interesting historical information on the buildings we were seeing. While I can't recall everything, here is a bit of what Sadie & I saw:

Church Street - Click the link to see the church list and learn more about them.

The above image may not look like much but in a 5 block strip, starting here, there are 22 churches (one or 2 may have moved/closed) on this street.The oldest church is 1903. I'll be back to take photos soon and update. Besides, why spoil the fun of you exploring this street yourself. :)

Stops also included several "block" buildings - warning, most stuff was built around 1903-1913 on this tour so I'll save you the info on years unless it is built later.  The above is the Hecla Block. Many of these blocks are now apartments, some with stores downstairs. The nice thing is that they appear in the middle of the city, when you least expect them. Have a ride around and see what you can find! Someone referred to them as invisible history - you don't realize they are there until you go looking.

The above is on the side of the Imperial Bank of Canada building, built in the 1950's. If you do visit this building, look around for the Canada Permanent Building about 1 block down and across the street. You can't miss it and the architecture is fabulous. 

Sadie's favorite building was the St. Josaphat Cathedral - a Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral:

The tour paused briefly for coffee on 101A Ave and a quick trip around the corner to visit a 1920's Horse Chestnut tree! This tree is in the center of a back alley - see if you can find it and enjoy a sit on the bench in front of it.

Returning to Bikeworks, Sadie hopped in the truck for the ride home, eager to have a rest after her second ride of the day. As for me, I am planning a return trip in August when I have the time to stop and photograph everything, including the historical markers on each of these sites, as well as locate additional sites. Stay tuned!

Bike Fest

Today Sadie & I took part in the Bikeology Bike Fest at Churchill Square in Edmonton.

Sadie was there to tell everyone about the bike ride that she is training for. She was so excited to go that she dressed up her front spokes in red, white, & blue Spokie Dokes (June 14th is Flag day back home), her handlebars in pink streamers, and even made herself a couple of signs to wear. My assignment was to pass out cards and tell everyone about The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer that Sadie & I are riding in August 9 & 10th.

Sadie picked out the prizes and I made up the free prize draw slips for our visitors to fill out. It was a beautiful day in the square. The fun began at 12pm with live music - powered by bikes! That's right! A whole tent full of bikes, being pedaled, to power the music. It was fabulous!
There was also a "pedal-a-smoothie" set up where you could hop on a bike and pedal to power the smoothie blender. Your reward? A tasty orange strawberry bike powered smoothie. It was a very popular item and from what I hear, available for events!

There was also a race to determine who could load their bike the quickest onto an Edmonton Transit Bus rack. Rumor has it that all transit buses will have bike racks on the front in 2015 as Edmonton is working towards becoming a bike friendly town.

Right next to me & Sadie, Bicycle Repair Man & Co. set up shop to offer free tunes ups! You may remember Bicycle Repair Man from Bike School. What fun it is to watch the bikes getting spruced up for riding. Many happy faces!

Quick shout out to Diane of Diane & Dan - who rode in the Enbridge Ride last year. And to Sarah - who also rode in The Ride last year and who hopped on her bike and rode on down to visit me. Great seeing you gals. Devon Cruisers Club - always fantastic to see you out and about! Looking forward to riding with you again soon.

And now for the part you have all been waiting for: The Prizes! Winners will receive an email with info on picking up their prize:

Bicycle Bits framed photo: Serge Dupuis

Flowers framed photo collage: Donna Power

Free Country - book signed by author George Mahood: Barry Bartlett

Bike Sleeves: Alex Youn

Bike Sleeves: Leah Higham

Bike Sleeves: Cadence Cardinal

Congratulations to all and I hope to see a few of you at Spruce Grove Canada Day in Jubilee Park where Sadie & I will be set up on July 1.

See you on the roads soon & if you haven't already, please make a donation to sponsor me in the 2014 Alberta Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer!

Bike School

Apparently Sadie amuses herself online while I am at work. How do I know? 2 days ago she phoned to let me know that she had found a course that she wanted to sign up for:  Bike Repair 201: Shifting, Gearing, Chains & Derailleurs - held at Bikeworks South in Edmonton.

"Oooookay... why?", I asked her.

Sadie informed me that she had gone for the past 23 years not understanding the workings of her own gears, shifters, chain, AND derailleurs and that she felt it was high time she learned.

"Great!", I said and signed us up. Fortunately there was a special 2 for 1 special - the human is $20, the bike is free.

Arriving at Bikeworks South (my second visit here), we were greeted by Keith - our instructor - and 5 other students. If you ever want to take a bike repair course, these are the ones to take. They are affordable, in depth, and the instructor is fantastic.

Sadie quickly hopped onto a bike stand while the humans made introductions.

This was a 3 hour course complete with front & rear derailleur history & functional repair information. Keith (alter ego: Bicycle Repair Man) of Raving Bike Fiend is insanely knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful (except when he is busy breaking your bike!).

After the history lesson on derailleurs was done, we moved on to "How to Tune Your Derailleurs" with a splash of "Cable House Replacement" thrown in when it was determined that the derailleur cable, on the mountain bike we were learning on, was worn and preventing proper shifting.

 

Next up: Bicycle Repair Man breaks our bikes! I think that is known as "repairs in reverse"  The point being to take a functioning derailleur and cause it not to function properly so that it could be fixed - how fun! Keith went from bike to bike, loosening cables, adjusting derailleurs, etc so that we could tune our own bikes. Sadie giggled as her rear derailleur wire was disconnected (it tickled) but sat fairly still as I attempted to reconnect it, adjust the tension, and get her gears changing smoothly. I got a bit perplexed when I had Sadie all back together again but her gears weren't changing smoothly. I'd click the gear shifts while turning the pedals but nothing was happening. Sadie sat on the bike rack, humming to herself, fully aware that I had forgotten to let out the tension before re-connecting the wire. A quick reminder from BRM and I was on my way to disconnecting, letting out the tension, reconnecting, and re-turning Sadie's rear derailleur. Perfect, she was switching gears like a dream. Now on to the front. 

Sadie's front derailleur tends to ride a bit high above the gears, allowing for her chain to hop off to the outside of the gears - a trick she performed beautifully on the last 5 km of The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer last summer. I was not amused. Now, the trick with the front derailleur is to get it lined up parallel with the gears and adjust it so that at each shift, the chain barely kisses the derailleur. Sadie's chain was snuggled up close to the front derailleur and dancing on it as I pedaled. No wonder she makes such a racket! A few turns of the screws and her derailleur was neatly in place, no dancing allowed. Once everything was in place and Sadie was shifting cleanly, I can honestly say I felt quite proud. It isn't nearly as hard as I had imagined, tuning up your own bike! Now if I can find a decent bike stand for my garage...

See the rest of the class pictures here.