Salt or not, yesterday definitely put an end to the cycling season here in Ottawa, as we received an official measure of 22 cm of snow. There was probably even more at our house, close to 30 cm, so we spent a good part of the day shovelling.
At one point I saw a teen trying to ride his mountain bike in the road, but the depth of snow made it impossible for him to get started. It took him over five minutes to make it out of the street, mostly walking it, while astride the bike. I have never thought two-wheeled bikes were a good idea on snow and ice - they tend you go down very quickly on slippery surfaces and I have met a number of cyclists who have been injured that way.
So quadracycling season is definitely done for this year. The good news is that ski season seems to have arrived early, with lots of snow and no above freezing temperatures in the forecast for the next while. It is great when the "in-between season" is short and doesn't leave us without cycling or skiing for months!
Yesterday brought the first significant snowfall to Ottawa. Well when I say "significant" I mean that when we got up in the morning there was a light dusting of snow, amounting to about 1 mm in ground cover.
Of course, undaunted, the City of Ottawa sent its trucks through the city overnight and dumped thousands of tons of salt over all the roads and sidewalks. We later went out for a walk and found that there was hardly any snow and even where it wasn't salted that it wasn't slippery in the least. However most surfaces were covered in salt, an inch deep in places.
If you think I have a problem with salt you are right. The city keeps destroying the environment each winter, killing the plants, salinating the rivers and lakes, all so that city residents can avoid learning how to drive in the winter. It is an ecological disaster all motivated by pure laziness. I hope I will live long enough to see an end to this nonsense, but I don't hold out much hope.
Anyway, not wanting to see our cycles disappear in a pile of corrosion, we have put away them for the winter, to not reappear until the spring rains wash the tons of salt into the sewer system and thence into the Ottawa River, turning it into a salt ocean.
Last year the quadracycling season was done by 25 November, as the snow came and stayed, but this year, while it has been rainy, the weather has been mostly free of snow so far. It has been cool though; today it just made it to +4C by 3 pm.
Since this was the warmest day in the forecast for the next week and since there is a serious snowfall in the offing for the middle of next week, I thought I would get the Rhoades Car out for a solo run this afternoon, before the sun set.
Cycling of any type isn't that hard in these conditions. The roads are bare and dry and the sun was out, although the shadows were getting long. The high of +4C was one degree warmer than forecast and there wasn't much wind to worry about. The main trick is to know that you will be creating your own windchill and just dress for it. I went for three layers, including a top layer consisting of a fleece-lined windbreaker. I didn't want to forego the bike helmet, but to keep the ears from getting cold a pair of earmuffs worked well with the helmet. Skiing gloves finished the requirements and actually out on the road I was quite warm once I got going.
It was late in the day so I didn't got far, opting to just take the quadracycle around the local streets a bit. Solo riding the Rhoades Car 4W2PCP is easy enough - it handles very well, with no tippy sensations at all. You have to provide all the horsepower yourself, but then again you are lighter than with two people on board, so it works out nearly the same as having two pedalling.
After a few kilometers I was warmed up and working pretty hard on the upslopes and could feel the blood pumping well, warming me up. I had to unzip the jacket a bit. Quickly the light was failing, so I headed home. The last stretch along the main road is slightly downhill, which gives a nice speed boast on the final run and provides the ability to zip into the quiet backstreet without much effort.
Putting the quadracycle away, I wondered if I would get another trip in this year. It is hard to tell, if the snow, and the salt that always goes along with it, holds off then I will be out again soon.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 353 km
Effective today we are no longer Rhoades Car agents.
Back in early 2007, when our Rhoades Car 4W2PCP was delivered, we signed up as factory agents. They offered a simple plan: refer potential customers to the company and if the new customer purchases a Rhoades Car then we earn a commission on the sale.
In early June 2009 we made a sale and, despite inquiries, the company has never paid us our commission.
Even here in the "in-between season" we get some nice days and this was one of them. This afternoon the sun was shining and the temperature exceeded the forecast of 6C, hitting 8C instead. The breeze was out of the south, always a good sign at this time of year.
I knew this good weather wouldn't last, as there is a major storm on the way for tomorrow, although it will be bringing rain, not snow, so says Environment Canada. That made it a priority today to get out for a short quadracycle ride today, as well as get things ready for winter.
Ruth has been house-bound this week, her MS has flared up and that has made walking very difficult. She has been cheerfully crocheting Christmas gifts, but after a few days on the couch I thought she could use some fresh air. I got the quadracycle out of the garage and helped her to her seat and we went for a ride of about 5 km. With her legs not working she wasn't doing any pedalling, but then that is one of the great advantages of the two seater, even with only one person to pedal you can still go. She enjoyed the ride, even if it is cooler to not be doing any pedalling.
When we got home I helped her get to the house front steps and she watched as I lubed all four chains and the steering rod and rear axle on the Rhoades Car. Looking at the forecast we may not have the chance to get it out again until spring, so it is all ready for a few months of sitting in the garage.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 350 km
Ontario always has an in-between season in the fall.
Usually the summers are warm and dry, although with climate change now, they tend to be cooler and wetter in recent years, in other words spring lasts until August. Once spring is done we have a good cycling season of dry weather, which slowly and seamlessly transitions into early fall. In that season the temperatures are cooler, in the low-teens Celsius and the weather is usually dry, although there are more cloudy days.
Eventually we will have winter, the season of snow, when the recreational activity is skiing, not cycling. It is true that there are hardy souls in Ottawa who cycle all winter, dealing with icy roads, out-of-control car drivers who can't see you because they don't clean their windshields of ice and snow and the problem of rusted and corroded cycles from all the salt dumped on the roads. We park our cycles in the winter for those reasons.
But before we get to winter and the ski season, we have to get through this in-between season, and here, at the beginning of December, that is what we are currently experiencing. This season features rain and snow falling, often together, temperatures near zero, cold windy days and overcast skies. The wind is usually northerly and when it is in your face it threatens of ice coming. It is not a friendly summer-type of breeze.
As I have mentioned, there are hardy people here who keep cycling at this time of year and even through the snows of winter, but for us it isn't worth the risks of the corrosion to our bikes. In the winter we walk and ski. In the early fall we do lots of cycling as, with its cooler temperatures, it is often the best time of year for cycling, but here in the in-between season there is neither cycling nor skiing. It is a time for waiting for the season to get on and change.
We installed a set of four Schwalbe Big Apple 20" X 2.35" tires tires on our Rhoades Car back on 16 April 2009 and with winter nearly here, we have now just about completed a whole season on them. As a result Gordon Koppang prompted me to take this opportunity to write a bit about the Big Apples.
As I wrote previously, the Big Apples replaced our factory-supplied Cheng Shin 20" X 2.125" tires, which we had used for two seasons. The Cheng Shins are okay as tires go, but they are slower and make more noise than the Big Apples. Really the only advantage that the Cheng Shins have for on road use is that they are doubtlessly cheaper for the factory to install than Schwalbes, which are a German-made high-end cycle tire.
Our ratings of the Schwalbes have not seriously changed since the first impressions. After about 330 km on them this season they are taller, faster, give a smoother ride, better cornering and less road noise when going straight and especially when cornering. They also offer better shock absorption, even inflated to 50 psi, versus 35 psi for the Cheng Shins. Other than the price of Cdn $43.50 each, they are superior to the Cheng Shins in all respects.
Our good experiences with the Schwalbes on our Rhoades Car have spilled over into our Catrike experiences. My Catrike Speed came with one rear Schwalbe Stelvio slick tire and two front Greenspeed Scorcher slicks that were pretty much worn out. After our good experiences with the Schwalbes on the Rhoades Car I had no hesitation in ordering the OEM tire for the Catrike Speed, 16" X 1.125" Schwalbe Kojaks to replace the Scorchers when they started showing cloth. It is worth noting that Ruth's Catrike Trail came with OEM-supplied 20" X 1.5" Schwalbe Marathon Racers all around and Ruth is very happy with these tires, too. We have had nothing but good experiences with all the Schwalbes on our cycles.
It is too bad that Rhoades Car don't offer the Big Apples as at least an option. Personally if I were manufacturing quadracycles I would be using the Schwalbe Big Apples as OEM equipment, because they are a superior tire and make your product ride smoother and faster, which makes a better impression on the purchaser, than using low-end tires. Of course I would also use Shimano dérailleurs instead of SunRace ones, but that is another story.
To anyone buying a Rhoades Car I would say, leave the factory tires on there for a while and, when it comes time to replace them in a few years, or if you find you want a bit more speed and a lot less noise then get a set of Big Apples. The difference is worth the price.
Here it is, the third week in November and we are still out quadracycling, which is pretty good!
We went out for a run after lunch today, when the day has warmed up to its forecast high or +7C. The sun was shining, so it didn't feel too bad out cycling in this weather, especially after a wet weekend. The weather at this time of year has varied greatly in the past number of years. Thanks to climate change you never know what you are going to get. It can be mild, warm and sunny or it can be wet or even snowy, putting an end to the season. You have to take the weather you get and if it is nice, get out cycling.
Today we decided to go for a ride around the local area and go past Giant Tiger to pick up some more soup. With the H1N1 flu virus in full swing you can never have too much soup in the house. As usual I waited in the parking lot with the quadracycle, while Ruth went inside. I spent the time giving the vehicle a clean-up as it was a bit dusty. I had carefully picked a parking spot in the sunshine and I was pleasantly warmed while I waited for her return. We even had one couple drop by to ask questions, something you get quite used to when you drive a quadracycle.
With the shopping done we headed home, but it was too nice out to go straight home, so we took a detour. The nearby housing development at Deerfield Village finally had its streets given their last layer of asphalt, so we cycled around the neighbourhood and enjoyed their new, smooth blacktop. We even quadracycled on their recreational pathways, now strewn with dead leaves.
Finally we made it home, unpacked the groceries and put the quadracycle away in the garage. The rest of this week looks fairly similar to today for weather, sunny and cool, with no snow in the offing. So perhaps we will get some more rides in before the ski season starts up.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 344 km
We have both had a busy week and a half, doing lots of cycling recently. The continuing great weather has been wonderful for all outdoor activities - no rain and fairly warm, but not hot, temperatures.
On 20 August Ruth took a test drive on a Catrike tadpole-style recumbent tricycle and decided to order a Catrike Trail model from the local dealer Les Bicyclettes de Hull. She wanted me to order one, but on 9 September 2009 I found a used Catrike Speed model for sale in the area and bought that. Going out to see it involved a 50 km round trip on my mountain bike - easier than taking the bus to the far reaches of Aylmer, Quebec! I put in 20 km bringing the Speed home from Westboro, where I was able to pick it up. Since then I have done a number of trips on it and have a good feel for its speed, handling and load carrying capabilities.
Ruth's Catrike Trail arrived on Tuesday 15 September. Ruth got the call from Les Bicyclettes de Hull that her order had arrived, had been assembled and was ready for pick-up. She took the bus up there and I rode my Catrike Speed there to be able to ride home with her. That was a 45 km trip.
Since then we have done more trips together and individually, getting used to the Catrikes and what they can do, as well as tweaking and adjusting things, installing racks and saddle bags for carrying gear on the road. We have also done some quadracycle trips, mostly getting groceries and hauling loads home.
The first question many readers may ask is "are we selling our quadracycle?". The answer to that is "no". When we got our Rhoades Car in early 2007 we knew it would not entirely replace our mountain bikes and in a similar manner the Catrikes don't replace the quadracycle. They all do different things for us.
The Rhoades Car is comfortable and carries a good load, but isn't very fast. Also its width restricts it from NCC bike pathways. Our biggest load carried to date was 280 lbs of top soil - something you can't do with many other cycles. Our longer trips turn in consistent average speeds of 15 km/h. It also has the advantage of side-by-side seating, which is much more friendly and enables both people to carry on a conversation easily while pedalling. It makes a great pick-up truck.
The Catrikes are definitely fast - I can cruise mine at 30 km/h without too much effort on a flat road and get 35 km/h out of it with a bit of work. They are both also very comfortable to ride. With my two saddlebags installed I can carry a few items up to about 30 or 40 lbs total weight. They are both very much road bikes and do best on very smooth surfaces. The handling is very light and they are very manoeuvrable, very much like a sports car. They are also light weight, my Speed is just 29 lbs basic weight weight. When we are out together it is quite different from being out on the Rhoades Car - we are almost always in single file and that means that it is hard to communicate, unless we stop for a break. Still her Catrike Trail does give Ruth some mobility when her balance is off, which is often the case these days. Also, unlike the four-wheeled quadracycle, her Catrike can be electrically motorised legally in the future and turned into an e-bike, if need be. We have started a diary of our Catriking experiences.
Our mountain bicycles are still useful for off-roading and taking routes that require an upright bike. They aren't fast - my long distance speed usually turns out to be about 22 km/h, but they are all-terrain. They can also do something that neither the Rhoades Car nor the Catrikes can do: hop over curbs.
So our garage is getting to be full of cycles of various types, but they all add up to complimentary solutions to getting around without a car. I have to say each one is a lot of fun in its own right!
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 322 km
Climate change is weird - you certainly never know what you will get for weather from one year to the next.
This year we had the wettest month ever recorded in Ottawa and that was July! So far September has not only been very dry, but has proven warmer than July was. In fact September is about to set its own record, as the longest rain-free period ever recorded in Ottawa. Essentially it is like summer started after the first week of August!
Of course that did work out well for our end-of-August camping trip to Sandbanks Provincial Park and it has also worked out well for quadracycling and most other outdoor activities, too.
Today was one of these beautiful days we have been having - it reached 22C in the late afternoon, with a bit of wind following a dry cold frontal passage overnight last night. With the Alcatel-Lucent Bikedays over for the year, we decided to head out and do a local quadracycle trip around the neighbourhood for about 14 km, in the mid-morning. We departed just after 1030 when the temperature was a respectable 19C, not warm with the wind, but nice cycling weather. We stopped in at a local shop to pick up some groceries for lunch on the way home and I sat in the shade of a tree with the quadracycle while Ruth went shopping for vegetables. I even answered a few questions from passers-by about the Rhoades Car.
So far the rest of the month is forecast to have highs in the mid-teens and very little rain. In this part of the country we sometimes get Atlantic hurricane remnants coming through here, dumping huge amounts of rain on us, but this year has been very quiet for hurricanes, just like every year since 2005. I think we will have to take advantage of this late-arriving summer while we can, because the onset of winter has proven equally hard to predict. In the winter of 2006-07 we had no snow until mid-January and that meant a late season cycling instead of early skiing. In 2007-08 the snow was on the ground on 25 November.
I think the only strategy is to "make hay while the sun shines" or "cycle while you can".
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 316 km
One of the sure signs that fall is almost here is the end of the Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikedays on the city's NCC parkways. This occurs every year on the Labour Day weekend, but for us it always seems too soon.
To my mind, at least in the last two years, the end of bikedays has come far too early. This year July was incredibly wet and in fact set a record for the wettest month ever recorded in the city. Summer really didn't get going in earnest until early August, leaving us with just four weeks of bikedays before everything is ended at Labour Day. If it were up to me I would extend the bikedays until Thanksgiving, as this seems to be the period when the best, or at least driest, weather happens. Of course if it were up to me I would just close the Colonel By Drive to motorized traffic permanently and make it a bike-commuter route to downtown!
Today started off a bit cool. We left at 0845 when the official temperature was 11C. By the time we got home again at 1130 it was 17C. With light winds and sunshine it was actually perfect biking weather - not too hot or too cold at all.
The run went flawlessly this time. We made it to the University of Ottawa in good time, made our way through the campus, paying attention to the new "pedestrian-only" mall signs and went to the Second Cup on Laurier for morning coffee break. The university was thick with new and returning students getting ready to start classes on Tuesday. It is the one time of year when you can see fresh young faces, all carrying their favourite pillows to their new life in residence. There were a few tears too, but I am not sure if that was due to separation anxiety or due to the tuition fee increases this year.
On the Colonel By Drive itself there was not all that much bike and roller skate traffic. I think the cooler temperatures dissuaded some people from coming out early. As usual we got lots of waves and positive comments on the quadracycle. The little kids especially seem enthralled by it when we ride by - "Lookit mommy, I want one."
It is always sad to do the last bikeday, as it means that summer is coming to an end soon. Fortunately we will still have at least a couple of months of cycling here in Ottawa before the snow puts an end to the season. We will just be out quadracycling on the streets and other routes, instead of on the parkways on Sunday mornings.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 304 km
Ruth has been doing pretty well with her balance for much of the summer of 2009 and so we have been doing some more trips on our mountain bikes. We have also been doing some quadracycling and the contrast in uses shows where each vehicle's strengths are.
Yesterday the weather forecast was free of rain and so we planned an ambitious round trip of about 54 km from our house near South Keys to Lac Leamy and back. Lac Leamy is a beach in the heart of Gatineau, Quebec, near the casino of the same name. We planned to take a picnic lunch and lots of water as the temperature was forecast to reach 25C. The trip lent itself to bicycling for two reasons:
* We didn't need to carry much, so the pick-up truck capabilities of the quadracycle were not required.
* The route is not open to quadracycles.
The route was the key thing. It starts out on roads north to Mooney's Bay, but from there we are much better off on bike pathways, rather than the roads on a workday, with all the traffic that entails. The NCC's recreational pathways vary in width a lot and overall are too narrow for the quadracycle.
The route was the pathway parallel to the Colonel By Drive, over the Corktown Bridge and then down the western pathway to the bottom of the canal locks. Then traverse the top of the last lock to reach the pathway on the eastern side, up the pathway and onto the Alexandra bridge with its bike pathway. Carrying the 160 lb quadracycle over the canal was a non-starter! From there the route followed NCC recreational pathways all the way to Lac Leamy. An easy biking route, but not possible by quadracycle.
With some scenic lookouts and dawdling over lunch at the beach, some popsicles and such, we made it home in about six hours, a beautiful day well spent and really only possible by bicycle!
Today we did a typical quadracycle trip. This entailed using the Rhoades Car's considerable cargo capacity to do a run to Giant Tiger to get a quanity of milk, can goods and other groceries. The route is over quiet suburban streets - perfect for quadracycling. Completing the 6 km run, we were back home in 40 minutes, even given lots of time for shopping. This is really a mission that the quadracycle excels at - hauling loads.
I think this tale shows that both quadracycles and bikes have their advantages and disadvantages, but in the end, they are quite complimentary.
This mix is going to get more complex, however. Inspired by Gordon's stories about Catrikes and her own try on the Leitra velomobile trike, Ruth wanted to get a closer look at trikes. We made a trip to Gatineau to visit the local Catrike dealer, Bicyclettes de Hull. Ruth test drove a Catrike Pocket and was impressed enough to order a Catrike Trail model. It should be here in early September. Once she gets familiar with it we will be able to compare bikes with two, three and four wheels.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 274 km
We recently made contact with Jamil Shariff who found us on though our website! Jamil is an Ottawa-based writer and consultant who works on green projects for The Boxfish Group. He is also the author of 50 Green projects for the Evil Genius and rides a Leitra Velomobile, probably the only one in Ottawa.
Jamil was interested in meeting up with us to have a look at the Rhoades Car. He does fibreglass work and thinks that the 4W2PCP would be a candidate for a full fairing, like the Leitra has. I think that would be an interesting challenge, given the Rhoades Car's width, but Jamil thinks it would work well and probably not add more than about 25 lbs to the vehicle.
We met up with him on Sunday 16 August 2009 at the University of Ottawa. That was a good location, only a few blocks from his home and just off the Colonel By Drive on a Sunday Bike Day for us! We met there at 1000 hrs, which gave Ruth a chance to get a coffee at the Second Cup on Laurier Avenue first and then make the rendezvous. Jamil brought along his Leitra, sans the body fairing, as he indicated that it was pretty warm and humid out for the fairing. We all had a look at both vehicles, took a bunch of photos and then swapped to head out for a run on the Colonel By southbound. Jamil drove the 4W2PCP with Ruth and I tried out the Leitra, then Ruth took a turn on the velomobile.
The Leitra actually works quite well. Without the fairing it is just a welded tubular steel framed tadpole trike with standard bike components, six rear-mounted gears, a single Shimano derailleur, one rear caliper brake and two front drum brakes. The steering is a curious lever-controlled system, operating through a series of scissors that makes for a very compact set up. Actually the whole vehicle is small and compact, as well as low to the ground. The steering is very sensitive, even compared to the Rhoades Car. The gearing has a very narrow range and it took me a few tries to figure out which gears were low and which were high, they are that close together. This model previously had an electric motor installed and Jamil indicated that the gearing worked better with the motor.
The velomobile is pretty light in weight and accelerates quickly. For me at least the ergonomics are pretty good and I could generate fairly good leg power. Jamil has built a carbon-fibre seat for it and I rode on that without a cushion. It really needs the cushion as the seat back wasn't that comfortable. When Ruth tried it she found the set-up was too tall for her to ride properly, but then I should have put her ObusForme behind her!
I found the trike remarkably stable on the road and easy to pedal. I can see how, with the right cushions that you could comfortably cover long distances with it.
Jamil enjoyed his ride on the Rhoades Car and we guided the two vehicles down the parkway for a few kilometres before we had to head home. It would be interesting on a cooler day to try out the Leitra with the fairing installed and see if it provides any speed advantages through drag reduction. With its windshield it would certainly provide good weather protection.
I have often hoped that velomobiles would catch on better in North America, as they seem to be popular only in Europe, especially in Germany, Denmark and the northern parts of the continent. Given what is going to happen to gas prices in the near future (again) there would seem to be a good market for these almost all-weather vehicles here in Canada, with our climate. I think most of the lack of interest is a "social normativity" problem. Here in North America velomobiles are only seen in commercials for green products and thus seem to be considered part of the "ultra-green fringe". Hopefully that will change.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 268 km
The rain has not totally abated yet. The final stats are in and July 2009 was the wettest month ever recorded in Ottawa and that is looking back over records going back almost 150 years. This long weekend turned out to be two good days and one wet one, which is better than we had been doing in July.
On Saturday we decided to get on our bicycles and do the 32 km round trip to Rideau Canal Locks 14, 15 & 16 at Manotick, Ontario. We took a picnic lunch and found ourselves a nice bench in the shade there to watch a flotilla of small boats negotiate the locks. It was a great trip, one we might repeat some time, maybe by quadracycle next time.
Sunday was a write-off for weather. It started raining very early in the day and poured all day until late in the afternoon. After it had finally stopped I gave the roads an hour or so to dry out and then carefully checked the radar and the sky and went for a little local bicycle ride to get a bit of exercise. I hadn't been out ten minutes when a thunderstorm welled up out of a small cumulus cloud and dumped rain and hail over our part of town. I got soaked to the skin before I made it home again.
Today was again a dry day. This was a holiday Monday, Colonel By Day locally. Yes, everything in Ottawa is named after Colonel John By. He supervised the building of the Rideau Canal in the 1840s and laid out the original town plan. He could probably get elected mayor today, although that is not much of a feat. We originally looked at the weather and considered a trip downtown. The trouble was that this is not a Sunday and so the parkways are not closed to motor vehicle traffic. We considered bicycling downtown on the pathway network, but Ruth's MS was acting up and her balance was definitely not god enough to be bicycling. She was having trouble walking unassisted as it was.
So we re-thought it and decided to quadracycle up to Mooney's Bay instead, about a 12 km round trip. Ruth made up yet another picnic lunch and we set off after 1100.
The roads were pretty clear of traffic, duie to the holiday and the sky was clear, too, except for a few cumulus clouds of little vertical extent. We covered the distance very quickly, even with the hills to climb and got there just after 1130. Ruth was already hungry, so we found a picnic table and set out our lunch. Mooney's Bay is Ottawa's beach on the Rideau River and with the better weather there were lots of people there. The day was not too warm, it had just reached a respectable 22C when we got there, but the wind was cool out of the south-southwest and getting gusty. At noon the city staff announced the beach was open and people did go into the water to do some swimming. For our part we were fending off the too-friendly gulls who thought they had been invited for lunch!
Ruth wanted some ice cream and found the concession stand was open and came back with two cones. Between the sun, sand, gulls and ice cream it was just like a day on a beach on the coast!
After lunch had settled and we had spent an hour or so watching the boats plying the canal system, the kids chasing the gulls and the pirate ship that calls the bay home (don't ask) , we decided to head out. We opted to not go straight home and toured through some of the neighbourhoods near Mooney's Bay, a really nice part of Ottawa. Finally we pedalled home and had popsicles on the front porch.
Ruth was pretty pooped out from out trip, but once again the quadracycle proved itself a very useful vehicle for her sake, since with her MS acting up, her balance and energy levels weren't at high-ebb today.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 226 km
The last two weeks have been amazing - just endless rain. In fact we have only had two days fit for quadracycling, including today. This July has been very much like last year's July, wet, wet wet. It has set records for rainfall.
Friday 24 July 2009 was perhaps the wettest yet. One weather observer reported that Ottawa received 152 mm of rain that day. We were out for a walk in the afternoon and even with our Gortex coats and an umbrella, we still ended up taking cover in a bus shelter for 40 minutes while the rain pounded down, flooding all the streets, over the curbs. Of course, western Canada is suffering with extreme heat and drought. As I write this it is an unheard-of 34C in Vancouver with a humidex of 38C. Climate change has been really a drag so far.
So today there was no rain and the mid-afternoon temperature was a very moderate 24C, so we headed out for a quadracycle ride. With no errands that needed running and no place to go specifically we covered about 15 km in an hour around our local area. Of course with all the rain we have had, the gardens all look nice! It was just good to get some exercise in the sunshine.
It seemed to me that today many other residents were in a good mood, too as we got lots of smiles and waves and even a few positive comments about our quadracycle.
This year seems to be a bit different with regard to comments. We have always received positive comments at a rate of about 2000:1 over negative comments (the latter usually from people driving BMWs, who for some reason seem to be a group permanently annoyed at the whole world), but this year we have heard no negative comments at all. They usually run from the six-year-old who says "Mommy I want one" to the teenagers "You rock" to the older adults "That's the way to travel", or similar. It actually seems odd to be out riding my bicycle, because they are so commonplace that everyone just ignores you!
I think after July we have really now had enough rain. I am hoping it dries out a bit and we can get a bit more outdoor fun in gear for what is left of the summer.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 204 km
I got to do a little unscheduled maintenance today and it turned out to be simpler than I thought it would be, in fact no problem at all.
While Ruth was in grocery shopping yesterday I opted to stay with the quadracycle. I usually do that to chat with people about the Rhoades Car, which is more fun than Wal-Mart is, by far. This time there was no one to talk with, so I started inspecting the quadracycle over and discovered that the left-hand rear wheel brake disc-retaining nuts were loose. I checked the right-hand side and those were fine.
The rear wheel set up is interesting - the wheel rides on the axle, of course, which passes through the wheel's hub-mounted bearings. The brakes are mounted inboard of the hubs and use a machined spacer to mount the brake discs at the right location with respect to the brake callipers. The spacer is attached to the wheel with three studs on one side and attached to the brake disc with three different studs on the other side, all evenly spaced. On the inside of the wheel, the nuts for the studs that retain the brake discs can be seen (photo). These were only finger tight, so obviously my plan was to tighten them. This was thwarted by the fact that you can't get at the stud-heads as the brake disc is over top of them, blocking access. I tried just tightening the nuts, but, of course, they just rotate with the bolts.
So today I rolled the quadracycle out, blocked up the rear bumper on a bin and, with some degree of trepidation, removed the brake callipers and then the main wheel-retaining nut. The wheel then slid off the axle easily. Laying the wheel down, I was able to remove the studs that hold the brake disc to the spacer easily and then the brake disc itself. This nicely exposed the stud-heads and with a hex wrench on the stud-heads and a 11 mm wrench on the nuts I was able to tighten the studs in place. Then I reassembled the rear wheel in the reverse order without any problem at all, adding some new axle grease and inspecting everything over as I went.
I have to admit that I was surprised it was that easy! After also adjusting the crank nuts with the enormous wrench that I have for that purpose I took the Rhoades Car out for a test run and it worked beautifully. I do think, in general the Rhoades Car is easier to maintain than a bicycle, especially when it comes to removing wheels and such.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 183 km
Today was our next attempt to complete the 30 km round trip downtown on an Alcatel-Lucent Bike Day. Our two previous attempts this year had been thwarted by breakdowns and we lost a number of other Sundays to bad weather or just deciding to go and do something else. Last Sunday we went hiking in Gatineau Park instead.
But I am pleased to report that today's foray went without a hitch. Following the uncharacteristic (for July) passage of a cold front we were left with a cool and clear morning, with a starting temperature of 14C. We set off at 0830 and passed the southern gate at the Colonel by Drive exactly at 0900 to the second. That was mostly good luck as you can't time that with any degree of accuracy, given the traffic lights and such.
The run on the Colonel By Drive was quite quick as there was surprisingly little traffic. There were lots of joggers, but mostly on the pathway and not the road and we saw few cyclists until later on in the day. The skaters were out in force, however. Ruth voted for coffee at the Second Cup on Laurier and so we made our way through the University of Ottawa and along Copernicus Street (no kidding) and found a parking spot right on Laurier. The morning was still a bit cool at only 18C by then, but we were warm from having completed 15 km quite quickly at that point so we had our cold drinks outside on their patio.
The forecast winds hadn't appeared and what little wind there was, by that time of day, was behind us, so we set out for home. The Colonel By Drive was getting a bit busier, mostly with parents and younger kids on bikes, but it was still not very busy, even at 1030, which is often a the peak time there most years. Maybe the wet weather has caused people to give up on the bike days? Nevertheless the tailwind and light traffic made for a quick run back to the south end of the Colonel By Drive and we exited onto Hog's Back and quickly made our way home, with only a short stop at the Metro on McCarthy to pick up some groceries for lunch.
The run was quick enough that, even with the dawdling for coffee and groceries, we were home before 1130. With the quadracycle parked in the driveway, it seemed like a good opportunity to also move the bikes and some other items out and give the garage a good sweep and vacuum out, before putting everything away. I had wanted to do that on Saturday, but the torrential rain convinced me to wait for a nicer day to complete that task.
The last thing to do before lunch was to oil the quadracycle's chains, steering rod and axle and check it over. The inspection revealed everything working just fine, no problems at all. So the Rhoades Car is now locked away awaiting our next opportunity to get it out for a grocery trip or just a fun ride. Hopefully the weather will stay dry for a bit now.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 178 km
Today the rains finally abated long enough to get out on our Rhoades Car 4W2PCP and do a run down to Giant Tiger to buy some milk. The past two weeks have been pretty wet and cool, with only last Sunday rain-free. It is starting to remind us of last summer, which was very wet.
On the plus side, while quadracycling though our local neighbourhood streets it was quite apparent that the surplus amounts of rain have resulted in very green and lush-looking parks and gardens. In more normal years the city starts to look a bit browner starting in mid-July.
It was nice to be able to get out for a cycle today and do some errands at the same time. The forecast looks pretty dry for the next few days and Ruth has suggested that we should try the Colonel By Drive Bike Day once again on Sunday. It is my ambition to complete that trip incident-free at some point this summer!
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 148 km
I should start off this report by admitting that this breakdown was entirely my own fault and not due to any design problem with the Rhoades Car. It was even an after-market part that I had installed myself that broke.
We got up nice and early today and the forecast looked good - no rain and a warm day of 25C predicted. We set off just after 0830 and made it onto the Colonel By Drive just after it closed to motor vehicles. Just at the north end of Carleton University we decided to take a break and pulled up a curb cut-down and onto the grass. Some guy with an off-leash dog stopped to talk to us. He wasn't making a lot of sense, but then the NCC enforcement officer stopped his truck and asked him to get the dog on a leash. The guy objected, decided to start a fight and we decided that we had better give the officer some space to write the ticket out.
So we backed up to the curb cut-out and entered the roadway again. Something wasn't working right, my side drive train was making a lot of noise. So we stopped. Everything looked okay, but it wasn't working. We pulled the quadracycle up onto the grass and into the shade. Things still looked okay on a closer visual inspection, but the rear driver's side derailleur was not running correctly.
Since I had all the tools I needed in our bin I decided to remove the derailleur and have a closer look at it. Sure enough it was bent, quite a lot, too. The top idler sprocket was badly gouged and the shims were torn up. This was one of the Shimano derailleurs that I had installed to replace the (twice) cracked SunRace ones last year. Obviously we had had a chain jam when moving the quadracycle backwards, didn't hear it happen and damaged things. My fault.
The owner's manual clearly says:
Caution: Pushing the Bike Backwards Can Cause Damage
Like on any multi-speed bike; never force the bike backwards, if there is a binding or tightening of the chain or derailleur. If the chain, derailleur, and shifter are not fully in gear forcing the bike backwards can cause damage. Always pedal the bike forward, shifting fully into the proper gear (when the chain and sprockets are lined up), before pushing the bike backwards. If the gear is properly engaged, then the bike should push backwards, freely.
Yup it is right, completely right. We were 12.5 km from home.
I tried straightening out the bent frame, but it was not possible to do so. We looked at the possible plans:
1. Put it back together, swap seats and have me pedal the whole way home again, just like last week.
2. Push the bike 12.5 km home.
3. See if I could replace the part.
I had had enough uphill pedalling on my own last weekend, so I opted for 3, although I was not at all sure I could find a short-frame Shimano derailleur on a Sunday.
So I took the old derailleur, some water and set off on foot, leaving Ruth to sit with the quadracycle. I cut through the university and onto Sunnyside, hiked up to Bank Street and there was a cycle shop, right near the corner! Of course it is closed on Sundays. So I caught a bus southbound. I was heading for our local cycle shop, Rebec and Kroes, which I was fairly sure was open on Sundays. I got off the bus at Bank and Alta Vista and walked over to Rebec and Kroes. The sign confirmed that they are open Sundays, but not until noon. It was 1052. I decided to walk back north a few blocks and try Kunstadt Sports. Yes, they sell bikes and yes, they sell bike parts. I went upstairs and the young man working in the fix-it shop had a brand new short-frame Shimano Tiaga derailleur, still in the box for $59.99. So I bought it, picked up lunch from Subway to make it up to Ruth for having to sit and wait, and headed back to the Colonel By Drive.
Ruth was in good spirits and had even managed to attract the attention of some friends of ours who were biking by. We had some lunch, installed the new derailleur, made a few adjustments to it and headed off north. It didn't take long as this is the fifth rear derailleur I have installed, but it was too late to complete the run before the Colonel By Drive reopened to car traffic, so we turned around south of the 417 bridge and headed home. We made it home fine, at nearly 1345 hrs, so it was a good thing I picked up lunch.
So lessons learned: the manual is right - if you are going to move the quadracycle backwards, make sure the chains are absolutely free and don't bind. Penalty for ignoring this edict: $59.99 plus tax and two hours.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 140 km
It is finally officially summer, the solstice having been yesterday.
We missed another Sunday bike day on the Colonel By Drive yesterday. We were actually keen to go, but we had the back flow from a low pressure system funnelling weather over us and it rained most of the day. On the plus side our garden is looking pretty good, but it hasn't been great for quadracycling or any other outdoor activities much this year so far.
So when today dawned clear and sunny Ruth said, "let's go out this morning, before it gets too hot", so we did. She had some library books to to return so we pedalled via South Keys Shopping Centre and on to the library. The shopping centre management has recently put in a large number of extra, portable, rubber speed bumps. I have no idea why, as they didn't have a speeding problem there, it is usually too crowded for that. Instead the speed bumps seem to create new safety hazards as drivers drive on the side walks or through the parking areas to avoid them or run stop signs since they seem to feel they have slowed down enough. From a quadracycling point-of-view it just makes it a rough ride and motivates us to go shopping elsewhere.
While we are complaining about South Keys I should mention that we used to take our quadracycle to The Second Cup there regularly in past years, but no longer. It was recently torn down to apparently make way for a bank. The end result is that South Keys is really losing any lustre it ever had as a destination.
So eschewing the bumps and lack of coffee we headed onto the library. There was an eastern breeze for the third day in a row, which slowed us a bit on Johnston Road, but then we cut off and into the suburban streets and onward to the library, including a run through the drive-through book drop off (that is fun to do). With that job completed we cruised around the neighbourhood streets admiring the flowers, before heading south to cross Bank Street at Queensdale and stop in at Giant Tiger for a couple of grocery items. Finally we made it home for lunch after about 16 km of cycling, definitely a nice way to spend the morning.
I am pleased to report that the pedal that I bonded with Permatex Red is holding in place quite well. Perhaps I can tentatively say that this is the way to attach them, so they stay in place?
Most of the early part of this week looks like it will be relatively sunny, so perhaps we will get out and do some more quadracycling in the mornings before the warm afternoons drive us to more indoor pursuits.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 115 km
After cleaning the errant pedal and crank threads carefully and gooping it up with Permatex Red on Sunday, torquing it into place and then leaving it to dry for almost three days, I decided to take the quadracycle out and give the pedal a try today. The forecast was for "warm" this morning and "hot" this afternoon, so we both decided to head out right after the morning rush hour at about 0900.
This trip was intended to just be a test run, but turned into another grocery trip instead, since Ruth pointed out that we needed a few items, so we got both tasks done at the same time. I dropped Ruth off at Giant Tiger to get some milk and other necessities and, rather than wait for her, I did some more pedalling around a new housing development and then headed back to pick her up. All worked according to plan and, best of all, the pedal stayed in place!
She had more errands to do over on Bank Street, which is a bit busy during the workday for quadracycling, so I dropped her off at the nearest point in the nearby park and headed home to put the groceries away.
A final inspection of the quadracycle showed that the pedal is staying in place, at least so far. This is one that I will keep a good eye on over the next while - hopefully the Red stuff will hold it in place.
Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 99 km
The good news is that today was sunny and warm, no one was sick, there was no rain or other city events that pre-empted the Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikeday on the Colonel By Drive. No excuses, so we finally got out there. I had actually done a "dry run" last Sunday on my bicycle as Ruth had been under the weather and unable to get out cycling.
So we left home at 0830 and made it to the start of the Colonel By Drive exactly at 0900, which is when it closes to motor vehicles. Traffic was light, with just a few cyclists and roller bladers up that early. The new Schwalbe Big Apple tires performed really well and we could quite easily notice the difference in speed with these slicks over the factory-supplied knobby Cheng Shins we had before.
So the sun was shining, winds were calm and the Rideau Canal looked like a mill pond. Even Dow's Lake had not a ripple on it. We made good time and Ruth decided that she wanted to go to the Second Cup on Rideau Street for coffee. So we cut up through the University of Ottawa campus and made our way over to the coffee shop. We had covered the 15 km in about an hour, which is pretty good speed. We even found a parking spot right in front! That was about the last thing that went right for the day.
The first problem was that Second Cup was closed, even though we were there at 0930 and the place opens at 0700. It seems that they had a programmed power outage for some upgrades and they were not opening until 1000. We decided not to wait and instead headed back. So we wound our way back through U of O and onto the Colonel By Drive once again. Immediately I had a problem - loose pedal. We drove up onto the grass and had a look, the driver's left hand pedal was quickly coming off. This was repeat of a previous problem that I thought I had solved last Hallowe'en by using some Permatex Blue (formerly Locktite) thread-locker to secure the pedal. Apparently the thread-locker broke and the problem was back and we were 15 km from home.
The good news is that I carry every tool in our bin that could possibly be of use in fixing the Rhoades Car. So I got out a wrench and torqued the pedal back into place. With some misgivings that it would stay in place we started out.
The misgivings were well-founded as after about 300 m the pedal was falling off again. This was now a problem that we couldn't fix where we were. What would it take to keep this damn pedal from falling off? Drill and pin it? Weld it? There was no solution out there on the Colonel By Drive.
The passenger's side pedals were working fine and so Ruth powered us along for a couple of kilometres, but she wasn't doing well on the up-slopes. So we pulled the quadracycle off the road, switched the seats around and re-retorqued the pedal again. I took the passenger side and Ruth did the steering, with an admonition not to pedal unless it was an emergency.
We did make it home in about an hour and a half, but it was very hard work pedalling the two of us up the hills between there and home. I certainly got enough exercise for the whole week.
So what to do? I decided that the Permatex Blue, which is designed to be removable with hand-tools was the problem, assuming that it was just not strong enough. So a walk up to Home Depot resulted in a tube of Permatex Red. The Red is designed to be permanent, which is what I want. So, back home, I removed the pedal, cleaned the threads thoroughly with de-greaser and then put on a liberal dose of Red, torqued it back into place and left it to dry.
Hopefully this will fix this problem.
Of note, the remaining three pedals all seem fine, with their lock washers on them. It is only the pedal I had previously removed for maintenance that has been the problem. My advice - never, ever remove the pedals for any reason. You will never get them on again tight enough to prevent them falling off.Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 89 km
Yup today was another Sunday and should have been an Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikeday on the Col By Drive, but again we didn't get out quadracycling.
We were very keen to go and the Rhoades Car was all polished up, especially after last weekend when the biking was cancelled in favour of the Ottawa Marathon Weekend. But today was a non-starter. It was very windy, rained much of the day and the temperature dropped to 5C. Once again I doubt many people would have been out there as the north wind gusting to 50 km/h would have deterred most people.
May now comes to a close, having proven colder, windier and wetter than April. Ottawaians are starting to ask if we are going to get a summer at all this year or if climate change is going to deliver something like last summer. Ironically the dismal weather is keeping people from walking and biking and instead, of course, they are driving everywhere and thus contributing further to climate change.
Here is something that I am definitely excited about, there is a new blog about quadracycling that has just been started!
David and Andrea live in Winnipeg and have just ordered a new Rhoades Car 4W2PLF "long frame" for delivery. Because the coupe (short) frames are on back order and the long frames are in stock at Rhoades Car right now they should have their LF in just a couple of weeks. The two of them are keen cyclists and have been living car-free for two years. They get around the city on foot, bike and bus, to which they will shortly add their quadracycle.
They have decided to start a blog about their experiences, starting from the day they placed their order, Tuesday, 26 May 2009, allowing everyone interested to follow them through the process of taking delivery, first impressions and getting out on the roads of Winnipeg this summertime. It should be great fun.
We just think it is great that someone else believes that quadracycling is worth blogging about. There is still a dearth of information about quadracycle ownership experience on the internet and their blog will help fill that gap.
You can find their new blog "Prairie Quadracycling" at http://www.prairiequadracycle.blogspot.com/
Last year most of our quadracycling trips were recreational in nature, nice Sunday drives together, picnics, that sort of thing. But this year we seem to be using our quadracycle almost exclusively for doing work, errands and shopping.
Yesterday was a good example: in our neighbourhood one of the best places to get milk is at Giant Tiger. It is also a great place to buy canned soups and other similar grocery items. The only problem is that it is a 6 km walk down there and back from where we live. That is not a long walk for us, but we usually end up buying a week's worth of milk (8 kg) and then we add on some cans of soup and other necessities and you are hauling back 15 kg of stuff, which is a fair load for that distance.
So instead of walking down there we take our Rhoades Car. The 3 km trip to the store takes only a few minutes on nice quiet back-streets. Then, as we usually do, I stay with the quadracycle and Ruth goes shopping. I could lock it up and go with her, but, to be honest talking to passers by about the quadracycle is a whole lot more fun than Giant Tiger is.
When she gets back we toss the groceries in our bin, (wow she got a lot of heavy cans this time), cinch down the tie-down strap and pedal home.
Most of 2009 has been like that so far - hauling groceries, top soil, bark mulch and sand around. The Rhoades Car really makes a great pick-up truck and a viable motor vehicle replacement.
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