BackPeddling

My favorite bike shop is BackPeddling in Guelph Ontario.

The owner is a guy named Clayton and he started BackPeddling 10 years ago.

BackPeddling is a huge store in an industrial area - the size of a warehouse.

The things you notice as you enter are the bicycles hanging all over the 40 foot walls and 6 long rows of bicycles from the front of the store almost to the rear. The rows are arranged logically with one being BMX and another being cruisers etc. There is a row of used bikes and a row of vintage.

On one side is the open air bike shop where you can watch and talk to the techs as they work. All around the outside is parts and accessories, lots and lots of them, and finally the back of the shop is bins of new and used parts. Tires, handlebars, racks, cables, seat posts, derailleurs and wheels.

The best feature of this great shop is the staff, starting with Clayton himself. They all know their stuff, their shop and bikes. Really helpful guys, interesting, and they make it a pleasure to drop in.

Clayton's selection of product is perfect as well. So many great ridable bikes for normal riders like you and I. Not so much of the usual emphasis on high end sport bikes.

If you love bikes and want to spend a fun afternoon head out to Clayton's shop in Guelph.

Cadence and Gears

Cadence - (The measure or beat of movement, as in dancing or marching). Or bike riding. When riding we pedal at a certain rate and that is our cadence. If you were riding a long distance in a serious type fashion you'd hit your cadence and stick to it. Shifting gears as your cadence slowed or as it quickened to help maintain that set pace. That is the joy and use of gears, you can pedal easily at your cadence while climbing slowly up a hill or while descending quickly down. Your rate of pedaling remains the same. So what happens when you don't have gears?

Many bicycles don't have changeable gearing. I rode one this afternoon, a 1946 CCM with coaster brakes. Coaster brakes are a brake in the rear hub that is activated when you pedal backwards. Remember pedaling backwards to stop when you were a kid? It was tough going pedaling up hill. Had to exert a lot of pressure on the pedals to keep moving. Pushing really hard like that can be hard on your knees, especially as we get older.

Fixies and single speeds also have no gear changing. A fixie is a fixed gear bike where the front chain wheel and pedals are directly connected to the rear sprocket, hub and wheel, so if you pedal backwards, you go backwards. You can't coast, if the bike is in motion, you are pedaling. Fixies are track bikes that are becoming very popular on the street. The fixies close cousin is the single speed. Riding a single speed, you can coast, there is a freewheel in the hub so you can pedal backwards without the rear wheel following the pedals. Both types of bikes have one gear.

A single gear bike makes it impossible for the rider to maintain a steady cadence. If you are going up hill you are pedaling slow and hard and down hill you are pedaling so fast your fillings are falling out. Fun, sure. A challenge, absolutely. People riding single speeds by choice are enjoying them, however gears just make it all easier and most would say more enjoyable. Give me gears and my cadence anytime.

The Bike Market

Just got back from the Toronto Fall Bike Sell off. Down at the CNE grounds. Interesting show with a constant stream of new bike owners rolling their new purchases out the doors. When you realize that most of those new bikes are worth between $800 and $1200 (sale price) there was a whole lot of cash walking out those doors! The bikes were upscale performance sport bikes, either mountain bikes or road bikes, few commuters and no cruisers or vintage, which seems strange to me. Looking around the streets of Toronto it seems to me that one of the most desired bikes is the commuter. Comfortable, upright position, fenders, racks, you know, sensible adult bikes to get us from A to B with our stuff. So, are the bike dealers missing the market? Obviously not seeing the number of bikes sold today. My bet is there is another market to be served. Us, commuters, the non or less competitive rider. And we are served by a few great shops - Curbside at 412 Bloor West in Toronto and The Bike Hounds in Hamilton at James North and Cannon. Two great shops with folks who really know bikes and are selling wonderful bicycles.

A Green Bike

Bought a green bike today, a 1959 Columbia Thunderbolt adult woman's bicycle. It's gorgeous as you can see with it's faux gas tank with a bell in it-you can just see the little white button which you push to sound the bell. It has a lovely light built onto the front fender that works. What an awesome bike. Can you imagine the joy this bike has given rise to through the years? I wonder how many girls have had the thrill of calling this bike their own.

Well it's mine now, and not being effeminate I now have to turn around and get this in the right hands. I have a few things I have to do to the bike to make it ready. Change the tires - the tires on it are too big and rub a bit. Clean it, just a touch of rust and dirt here and there, and find a rear reflector that suits.

This is one of the first really nice green bikes (turquoise counts, in my book) my company "agreenbike"has owned so I expect the next task is going to be to photograph this old girl thoroughly. I'll be looking to use her image on our web site and Facebook group and also for promotional purposes. Come spring this bike will find a new owner to make smile.

The Hill

When I last spent a lot of time on my bicycle, mountain bikes were not yet popular. I grew up in the age of mustangs, sissy bars, banana seats and then 10 speeds. The three speed Sturmey Archer shifter, fenders and chain guards were for squares. I didn't have many hills to climb. So it was a new experience yesterday when I rode up the Niagara Escarpment on a mountain bike. It was a long climb, maybe 5 or 6 kilometers and took about an hour. The thrill for me was using the low gears, I felt like I could climb straight up a cliff! Keep in mind that I'm not the light-weight athletic guy I was last time I rode a lot. Hauling 220lbs of 50 year old me up the escarpment would have meant getting off and pushing if I had been riding my 36 year old 10 speed. I guess I just really enjoyed the climb and the bike.

Bombing down the hill was a lot of fun as well and as I got close to the bottom again I took a Bruce Trail side path that led down through the woods to Gage Park. I had to walk the bike for that, portions were very steep, at some points the path was tilting 30 degrees to the right and muddy. I'm gaining a great new respect for the mountain bike side of this sport. I'm sure there are people who could of ridden that path, both uphill and down, and quickly! I want to do that too. So, it looks like I have a lot of learning and riding to do.

Winter and Work

We all got busy with work for a month and now we are back. Over the past month we have acquired a lot of bikes. We have a bunch of old rusty CCMs that are going to take a lot of work to get back on the road, they are going to be beautiful, well worth the effort. I'd love to be able to tap into decent parts for these bikes. John is really interested in "hot rodding" some older bikes, approaching their renewal like a hot rodder would create art out of an old car. I like that idea and look forward to making some really nice bikes this winter. We will also continue getting used bikes back in shape and back on the road. My biggest concern at the moment is trying to figure out a space to paint in the winter. Anyway, we are going to have a lot of nice bikes this spring.