Author: admin

Move over Natascha Badmann. There’s a new Natasha on the Ironman scene. Like the fan favourite German, the new Natasha has a million dollar smile. Ironman officials have suggested that it was this innocent smile that allowed the rookie triathlete to get so far into the race before being pulled off the course just five miles from the finish.

Transition zone marshal, Helen Graves, noticed Natasha entering the run course with a large, wheeled contraption. “I’d never seen anything like it before.” said Graves, “I just assumed that it was some sort of prosthetic device. I didn’t want to appear insensitive, so I let her go. Besides, she was so far back; I never thought that she could affect the outcome of the race.”

Aid station volunteers were similarly perplexed. “That girl was really moving!” exclaimed Lloyd Mercer, “I asked if there was some sort of motor in there. She was running way faster than anyone else I’d seen all day. But with such a sweet smile, I couldn’t bare to stand in her way.”

Nobody seemed overly concerned about the device (a 79 lbs rattletrap with no freewheel) until Natasha reached the turnaround on the Queen K. To the astonishment of race announcers Natasha had moved up through most of the pro field and was poised to overtake Canada’s Sam McGlone for second place.

At the 21 mile mark, Natasha was running even with McGlone and Germany’s Marc Pschebizin. Head Marshal Owen Jeeves concluded that this would have to stop and pulled the young athlete to the dismay of a growing number of fans eager to see if Natasha could ride the treadmill bike to victory.

When asked for comment, officials at the Bicycle Forest, the developers of the treadmill bike, only had one thing to say…. “Happy Birthday Natasha.”

Today, the Discovery Channel came around to shoot a piece for a Kids show called 2Cool. The first scene that was shot had the host, Andrew Chapman, asleep on the couch. A car horn was honked and the camera moved to reveal that Andrew was in fact stuck in traffic and sitting on a Couchbike. He quickly dawned his helmet and pedaled down the road.

From there, we headed to the bike path and shot several scenes of various unique bikes passing by, one after another.

Here’s Jerry with the bike trailer that he may or may not have towed all by himself behind the Pickup Truck Bike.

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped with the shoot.

Today, under cloudy skies and strong winds, Bryant and Sarah headed out on the Couchbike to take part in the Ride for Refugees. This charity ride raises funds for the service of refugees along the refugee highway, including refugee resettlement in Canadian communities. All in all, the couchbike covered 75km today. Not bad.  Not bad at all.

Jonathan Sippel and his buddies are pretty amazing unicyclists.  I met Jonathan this summer when he came to try out the Coker Big One unicycle. He just put together this compilation video from a long summer of unicycle action. Great work Jonathan.

You guys make it look so easy!

Today was Car Free Day. A festival was organized in Kitchener’s Victoria Park. Park Street was closed to car traffic and various bikes from the Bicycle Forest collection were available for the public to try.

A solar-powered stage featured live music from Moglee, Capital Grass and the No Men, Prize Fighter, Jolly Llamas, and Mathmatikos. Ted from Mathmatikos used the Pickup Truck Bike to move his band’s gear onto the stage.

This was the fifth year for the festival in Kitchener. I’ve always found it a challenge to maintain order as crowds of adults and children descend upon the bikes, all so eager to have a turn on the unusual machines. This year, we only had six bikes out including a Varna handcycle, a Strida folding bike, a Kickbike, a Mini125, a Hulabike and a Pimped out Rhoades Car. Everyone was still very enthusiastic about the bikes, but I felt a little more at ease with the bearable degree of chaos that ensued.

By the end of the day, Mohrgan and I were pretty hungry, so we stopped on the way home for all-you-can-eat Sushi. It seemed appropriate that as we dined on the evening of Car Free Day, one of the parking spots out front was occupied by a bicycle.

I’m proud to have Sweetpea Bicycles of Portland, Oregon using BikeCAD Pro to design their frames. I love their bikes and their philosophy. Natalie Ramsland from Sweetpea was recently featured in this HP promotion. Natalie does an awesome job of presenting herself and her company in this clip. However, BikeCAD pretty much owns this video between the 0:39 to 0:40 second marks. Check it out!

A wedding in Thunder Bay seemed like a good excuse for a bike trip. Greg and I left Thunder Bay last Sunday and arrived back in Waterloo today. To cover the 1350km in seven days, we elected to travel light, carrying only minimal clothing and tools. We mostly slept in motels and ate at grocery stores and restaurants. We also meant to travel with Nat, who was doing the same route with full camping gear. Unfortunately, tailwinds, an excess of macaroni salad, a Zellers belt, and a communication system consisting of Post-it notes left at random tourist information centres conspired to keep us apart until the last night of the trip when we met up with Nat on the Chi-Cheemaun ferry between Manitoulin Island and Tobermory. Although Nat is a really great guy, with the furious pace that he set on our final ride through Southern Ontario, I realized that it might have been for the best that we did not spend the entire week with the pro cyclist and RAAM record holder. All in all, it was a great week of cycling through some of the most beautiful landscapes in Canada. Here are some photos from the trip.

Friday was Justin’s bachelor party. We took some bikes out on the town for a mostly wholesome night of fun. Here are some photos from the evening.

I was surprised to hear from Alex so soon. He said he’d write when he reached the ocean. It seemed like only yesterday that he rolled in for a visit on his way out east. I realize now that it’s been thirteen days. In that time, he rode back into the States at Niagara Falls and traveled through New York State, Vermont and New Hampshire to reach the Atlantic seacoast on Sunday. Here’s a photo of Alex at the end of the road.

Congratulations on fulfilling your dream Alex! I hope you have a safe trip back to Washington State.