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Field Notes with a Two-Wheel View

Category: Uncategorized

  • Carbon-free delivery vehicle

    Carbon-free delivery vehicle

    As part of my weekend prep for the upcoming work week, I needed to move a MacBook, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and printer from two different offices in Ocean Park/Crescent community to my Sunnyside workspace.

    Relocating office equipment, small appliances, music gear, etc., is an excellent reason to put a cargo bike to work. I loaded up the computer, monitor, and keyboard/mouse at my Ocean Park home office and headed to the Crescent office site to get the printer. After several attempts to “Tetris” all that equipment into the cargo bay, I was off to deliver the gear to Sunnyside.

    I took a straightforward route down 24 Ave to get to Sunnyside. After a quick unload at the office, I headed to Peninsula Village to pick up some groceries and drug store items (not pictured). Errands completed, I made my way home on the Semiahmoo Trail and the 18 Ave bikeway.

    You can see my route on Strava.

    Carbon-free office equipment delivery
    Larry v Harry Bluebird Bullitt

    My cargo bike is a Larry v Harry Bullitt (Bluebird colour). I bought the frame, bucket, and wheels from a bike mechanic in Edmonton and had him build it up with Deore XT components: 1×12 drivetrain (with pie plate sprocket on the back) and dual-piston hydro brakes.

  • The ride home from Vancouver

    The ride home from Vancouver

    Over the past year, I’ve been riding routes in Surrey, Delta, Richmond, New West, Burnaby, and Vancouver. This spring, I’ve decided to connect some of these routes together into longer rides.

    It takes a long time to drive from South Surrey to Vancouver (or vice versa), so making that trek by bike has felt daunting. However, it’s only a 50-60 km ride, so I decided to try it.

    I brought my bike along on a recent shopping trip in East Van and planned to ride from there to a bike shop in Vancouver, then ride home.

    The adventure started with brunch at Mah Milk Bar (two blocks east of Commercial Drive). Once I finished their amazing sandwich and coffee, I made a quick stop at Bici (excellent store for adventure riders), headed west to pick up my bike parts at JV Bikes on Expo Blvd, then rode home on the Central Valley Greenway, the BC Parkway, over the Queensborough Bridge and Alex Fraser Bridge, then along the Delta Greenway before getting on the Elgin Heritage Park Trail along the Nicomekl River. My route took me through Van, Burnaby, New West, Delta, and Surrey. A great urban/rural ride on pavement and gravel.

    See below for more field notes from the ride.

    You can view my ride on Strava.

    Mah Milk Bar in East Van
    View of the Alex Fraser Bridge from the Queensborough Bridge
    Up and over the Alex Fraser Bridge
    Mt Constitution (Orcas Island) in the background
    Heading south on the Delta Greenway
    Home stretch along the Nicomekl River
    Strava map

    More field notes.

    I rode my Brodie RoMax Steel. I bought the frame and fork set at BikeBike in Calgary in 2020 and it wound up being a pandemic project. The current 1.95” Gravel Kings (650b) are great on the chunky gravel sections of the Delta Greenway, and also roll well on the pavement (and potholes). The Dura-Ace road crankset combined with a mountain-bike cassette is a perfect setup for high-gear ripping on the flat roads and low-gear spinning up the hills and bridges.

    Brodie RoMax Steel
  • Will ride for coffee

    Will ride for coffee

    Downtown Vancouver has world-class specialty coffee shops, but my favourite cafes on the lower mainland aren’t there.

    One of my favourites is Everbean Cafe in White Rock / South Surrey, a short 6-km ride from my house. Another is R Ki Coffee Lab in Richmond, about 50 km away. Two great coffees are better than one, so I decided visit both cafes in one afternoon by riding from White Rock to Richmond.

    If you make the trip by car, you need to join the traffic madness on Hwy 99 or Hwy 91. On a bike, you get to ride a beautiful greenway through Delta (partially flooded in spring, but there’s a detour), cross over the Alex Fraser Bridge, then head west on a separated bike path parallel to the Westminster Hwy.

    You can check out my route on Strava.

    Coffee at Everbean in White Rock / South Surrey
    The Delta Greenway
    Trail closed …
    … due to flooding
    Alternate trail was beautiful
    The Alex Fraser Bridge
    Riding beside the suspension cables
    View of New West from the bridge
    South Dyke Rd in Richmond
    Riding alongside the Westminster Hwy
    Garden City Lands
    Made it to R Ki Coffee Labs
    Worth the ride

    My Brodie RoMax was the right bike for the trip: tires that handle everything from pavement to mud to chunky gravel, with a road crankset up front for fast riding and a mountain cassette in the back for climbs.