There are a few stories you can set your calendar by.
First day of spring / summer / fall, you’ll get a look back on how amazing, terrible, or just a little warmer the last season was compared to historical averages.
Tuesday after Labour Day, traffic.
Regardless of where you live, if you read the paper or your local outlet’s website, you read that roads or transit lines across the city were “crowded Tuesday morning as students head back to school.”
True-dat. I saw people waiting for buses on my way to work, it looked sucky.
Also true, is that there’s no better time to ditch the hassles of driving and transiteering by either quitting your job to go climbing, or if like me you’ve got this whole pesky family-you-love-and-want-to-support, biking to work or school.
There are but a few stumbling blocks to joining the super-awesome community of cycling, and I’m here to help you overcome.
Not having a bike
This is a bit of a roadblock, but thankfully just as students are headed back to school they tend to flog their summer bikes on craigslist. There are deals to be had right now more than ever as returning college students realize they won’t be sponsored by textbook publishers, no matter how snazzy their matching rims and grip tape are. Look for older steel frames, single speeds, or internal-hub geared bikes if you want to go cheap, or start scouring the bike shops for deals as summer stock is being cleared out like mad right now.
Not having the right clothes
Until it gets cold out you can commute, even in the rain, for a good 10km in shorts and a decently waterproof jacket. Keep a dry set of clothes in a plastic bag in your backpack and change as soon as you get to work. In two months it’ll be October, and you’ll have saved enough on transit fare or fuel to get a proper set of rain pants and jacket. Avoid the fancy Tour de France tights. You’ll feel way better when you pass someone in full race regalia if you’re just cruising in raingear and layers, and you won’t feel bad when you get passed.
Plus, awesome-commuter-oldguy seems to do fine year-round in gumboots and a plastic-bag poncho. I’m sure your regular rainwear will hold up until it gets really heinous out there.
Not knowing how to ride
If you’re in or around Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, or the Okanagan there are courses for adults available from CAN-BIKE.
Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax, and pretty much every other major Canadian city has an adult cycling program. However, if you do live in any of those places it might just be worth it to move to Vancouver for beautiful scenery.
No, not the mountains and ocean. Once you’re riding you’ll find our cyclists are the best looking in the world.
See you on the street.