Steve's Cycling Blog
With the end of October upon us, I've taken the time to reflect on 10 months of cycling for 2018. At the beginning of this year, my goal was to ride 5000 km outdoors in 2018, and as of the end of October, I've surpassed that goal! I've also now surpassed my previous annual record … Continue reading October 2018 Ride Summary
With the onset of autumn, I find it easy to stay inside. Daylight hours are shorter and temperatures are cooler, and I believe we have an instinct to begin our winter hibernation habits (or it's just my excuse to be lazy, eat and drink more and exercise less!).I've also scaled back this year in the … Continue reading 2018 Howling Coyote Gravel Grinder
When I first started to look into gearing up for bikepacking a couple of years ago, I was immediately drawn to the Canadian company Arkel for a couple of reasons. First, they're Canadian (based in Quebec) and they manufacture their products in Canada. Second, the reviews I read commented on the durability of their products. … Continue reading Product Review: Arkel Rollpacker (A First Look)
In the 1990s, I started cycling semi-seriously as a mountain biker. I got my first "real" mountain bike in 1992 (an Iron Horse). In 2002 I got my first full-suspension bike (a Kona) and started to enter races. So my cycling roots are in mountain biking. In recent years however, I've found myself cycling more … Continue reading Mountain Biking at Turkey Point
On many of my bike rides in warmer weather, I've observed that I sweat a lot more than the average person. In extreme heat (>30 degrees Celsius plus humidity), I can't keep enough fluids in me to keep up with the sweat. This has prompted me to do a little research into the physiology of exercising … Continue reading Cycling in Summer Heat
A few months ago, I blogged about some of the Strava Apps I use. Since I'm an engineer, I like to play with numbers (and maps), so I've spent some time scouring the internet for more cycling tools. Here are a few more: Padvark: This website connects to your Strava account and summarizes the data. … Continue reading More cool Strava Apps
Last spring, I took a tour of some local trails the day after a huge rain event just north of here. The result was a cycling route that had a lot of turn-arounds because some trails were flooded. As some of my Waterloo Cycling Club friends will attest, I've been known to ride across fast-flowing … Continue reading Frozen water everywhere!
2017 was a good year. I surpassed 4000 km outdoor kilometres for the year, and although this wasn't my best year (I've had about 5000 km before), I still deem 2017 to be a success given the slow start I had because of my concussion recovery. The year ended on December 31 with a traditional … Continue reading 2018: A New Beginning
As I've stated previously: I'm a numbers guy. Now that 2017 is (nearly) done, I am going to summarize my cycling year in numbers: Total outdoor cycling distance: 4005 km Longest Ride: September 14, 2017, Day 2 of COLT 122 km Best Month: September 712 km Total Moving Time: 210 hours (8 days, 18 hours) … Continue reading 2017 Cycling Year in Review
I know the year's not over yet, but 2017 has been a good year for me. I started slowly, since I was recovering from a concussion, but my mileage (kilometerage?) slowly increased as the year went on. I thought I'd post some of my favourite photos from the year: In January, I joined Team Colin … Continue reading 2017 Year in Cycling Photos
