mousme | Bicycle: 1 Phnee: 1

I didn't mention it in my last entry, but I have a new bicycle icon. Not quite representative of what I do with my bicycle, but it's nice and peaceful-looking.

Made it to work in 25 minutes this morning, due to no traffic and not having to stop every few minutes due to bicycle-related mishaps. I still had to stop halfway up Courcelles and walk my bike up part of the hill, but I am pleased to report that I got just as far up the hill as I did yesterday, and walked the bike the rest of the way to the traffic light. I am tired today and usually have breakfast when I get to work, so I was worried I'd run out of steam earlier, but it turned out okay.

The bike did score a point when I was trying to get it down the stairs. My pannier was heavier today (bringing lunch and books and stuff to work), and so the bike nearly got away from me and I bashed my elbow against the brickwork of the house, skinning it rather painfully. It's fine now, other than a small scab and some redness, but it's still a point for the bike. Right now the overall score is 7 to 2. Maybe tonight I'll try storing it in the shed out back.

I have been trying to follow

dizietsma's advice, by riding safely but assertively, and following traffic rules as though I were driving a car. I signal my intentions (thank goodness I remember them from driver's ed.), stop at red lights and stop signs, and generally try to behave. I'm also really, really visible thanks to my shiny new yellow safety vest. The one thing I'm not clear on is whether I should or am allowed to change lanes like a car for left-hand turns. I have been going under the assumption that I am, but hanging out in the left-hand lane on a two-or three-lane street is pretty stressful. It beats getting off and walking the bike across the intersection, but if it turns out that's illegal then I will submit and walk my bike where needed.

Anyway, so far so good. If I can keep this up, I think I'm going to enjoy biking to work. It sure beats having to take the bus and the metro (which takes about as long, overall), although it felt kind of strange to leave in the "wrong" direction today. I may alternate taking my bike and taking public transit until I'm in better shape, physically. Right now my posterior is quite sore, lemme tell ya. I'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow morning.

I think that perhaps I won't go by St. Patrick anymore, though: it's under construction, and the lack of visibility there makes me a little nervous. It won't change much if I go via Jacques-Hertel and Monk, at least I don't think it will, and it'll avoid people honking at me (I believe the guy was just trying to "alert" me to his presence behind me, but all it did was startle the shit out of me: dude, I'm on a bicycle, which means I could hear you coming a block back!) and coming too close for comfort in order to pass by.

I bought myself two books on bicycling in Montreal yesterday, and I'm going to read those today, to see about getting around

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The one thing I'm not clear on is whether I should or am allowed to change lanes like a car for left-hand turns.

Yes, you are allowed and you should.

I was walking my bike across a busy, under-construction intersection yesterday on my way home from

owldaughter's, and a car cruised through the intersection like I didn't even exist... *sigh* There will always be crappy drivers and the ones who believe bicycles don't have the right to be on their road.

I like the Jacques-Hertel and Monk route better than St. Patrick, too.

*sigh*

Did I mention the asshole in the black Ford F250 who deliberately crossed two lanes of road to try and run me onto the sidewalk yesterday? It's not like he couldn't see me (bright yellow vest) or like he didn't have enough room: there were two lanes and we were alone on the road. I think my vest just screamed "target" at him.

How is getting to

owldaughter's by bike? I would guess relatively flat, although if memory serves the road goes very gently uphill going there. Am I right?

I take the bike paths, not the road. I cycle down Hamilton to Agrignon park, then cross LaVerendrye onto the Viaduct bike path, follow that as far as possible, which is currently the Lakeshore Hospital, due to some construction blocking the bike path. I'm on the road again for about 3 blocks to get around the construction around the hospital, down to Lakeshore blvd. Then back on the Lakeshore bikepath to 90th ave. Then three blocks up 90th to Red Cross.

It's a 45 minute ride for me, and I'm in pretty good shape due to the fact that I've been running. It's a really nice ride, but give yourself an hour. There are a couple of gentle hills that you'll need a low gear for, but that's it.

All righty. Noted, in the event that I'm ever able to get out to see

owldaughter ever again. *grumblemutterschedulesnarlmumble*

Sounds like a pleasant ride, apart from the construction.

I signal my intentions (thank goodness I remember them from driver's ed.),

Forget the right-turn signal from that class *right now*. Mirror the left-turn signal with your right arm (point in the direction you're going). That way drivers don't have to remember the arm signals from *their* driver's ed classes.

The one thing I'm not clear on is whether I should or am allowed to change lanes like a car for left-hand turns

Yes, you are. For a 3-lane road, the action looks like this: Head check, move to the left part of the lane, signal/head check, move into center* of middle lane, head check, move to left part of middle lane, signal/headcheck, move into center of left lane for turning. Note that this generally only becomes dangerous on high-speed, many-lane streets where it is harder to see you, and drivers have less time to react. Keep in mind that drivers can't see over vehicles that are taller than their car, so try to avoid merging in front of trucks and buses and other large cars.

* Move to center of the lane because these lanes will invariably be narrower than the right lane. TAKE THAT LANE! Don't let drivers think they have enough room within their lane to pass you. Because they don't.

Good to know. I was going on the basic assumption that I ought to act like any other vehicle on the road, so I'm glad to be vindicated in that.

Also, the "point-where-you-want-to-go" thing is very useful advice, since Montreal drivers are crappy enough as it is. :P

I'm lucky enough for the rest that I'm not in an area with much traffic or anything faster than 40 kph speed limits.

Down here you have every right to as much space as a car, unless it is on a restricted freeway. You can't ride bikes side by side though in the same lane, because duh, you couldn't with a car. And people do tend to take all the space you give them to pass in a car if you ride too far the right. My bicycle icon does not reflect accurately what I do with my bike either, but who knows, sometime, perhaps.

Yeah, I noticed yesterday that if I wasn't really assertive with my biking, then drivers seemed to assume that it was okay to squish me/run me off the road. Some of them very "helfpully" honked at me (not angry honking, but honking on the mistaken assumption that I wasn't aware of them coming up behind me).

In my experience, being in shape will not help your butt pain. No matter what kind of shape I've been in (save for when I was a kid), bikes have always hurt my butt, be they stationary or regular bikes.

Boo. I was hoping my butt would get inured to the bicycle seat-induced pain. :(

Well, it may vary from person to person. I mean, somehow people like Lance Armstrong get through it.

Hee!

Lance Armstrong I ain't. :D

Depends on the type of butt pain. If your sit bones are what's hurting, stronger legs and being in better shape will help. If it's something else, then other things need to be looked at (in order: Fit and the angle of the saddle; shape and squishiness of saddle; and shape and squishiness of butt).

Well, if I see that it doesn't get better after a couple of weeks of regular riding, I'll consult the boys at Eddy's bicycle shop about maybe changing my saddle. I rather think that this is temporary until I get used to regular riding/get into better shape.

Apart from the (insanely worded) rule requiring you to ride on the "extreme" right hand side of the roadway, you have the same rights as cars in terms of road position. That includes pulling into the left-hand lane in order to perform a left turn. If this intimidates you (and hell, turning left from Sherbrooke onto St Denis intimidates the shit out of me some days) you are also able to "box" the intersection like a pedestrian would do: ride over to the opposite side then wait on that corner for the lights to change. That approach is a lot safer and less harrowing on busy roads.

As for saddle-sore, expect it to go away after about a week if you're riding every day. If it gets too much, take a rest day. If it doesn't go away, consider a different saddle.

I had to take a "rest day" today, not so much because of the saddle-sore thing, but because my legs were feeling a bit too wobbly to really consider going in all the way to work. I think I'm going to alternate days for a week or two, until I've developed enough muscle to do this every day.

Good thing I have a few months in which to get used to this before I get into winter riding. (Eep!)

be careful for the people turning right on red. if they do that in canada. i hate them.

http://bicycling.511.org/traffic.htm
that site's helpful.

They do it everywhere in Canada except in my city. I love my city for this. :)

Bicycle: 1 Phnee: 1

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