I have to admit: even though the Mother of all Funk Chords has been all over the web (posted in places as disparate as Slashdot and Virtual Dave…Real Blog), I still think it’s the coolest thing I ‘ve seen in ages.

It’s all done by this guy.

So I became one of those guys who rode in the snow today. Not on purpose. In fact, I headed west on a training ride and it was all blue skies in front of me. Unfortunately, it was all grey skies when I turned back east and the snow started some where around Kent & Cambie. Then it got cold & blowy, let me show ya.

Here’s something to listen to!

 

It’s what the Digital Cobbler was all about 7 years ago! The CBC has finally caught up to us 🙂

 

[thanks to Paul Woods for the tip].

So I guess I shouldn’t be so quick to complain about the attention paid to our bike routes. Ridgeway greenway (37th ave. bike route) was certainly salted when I rode this morning. And today was a Sunday so I don’t know when this was done.

Rock salt on the bike way.

Here’s one of these vexing, ongoing daily-cyclist’s conundrums. Regular pants that are fine for sitting in front of the computer all day in an office are, essentially, a big-time fail for riding on the bike in Vancouver in the Winter.

It’s not just the rain so rainpants aren’t just the answer. And, anyway, part of the problem is trying not to have to change or carry too much paraphernalia. I’ve got gore-tex rainpants and, when it’s really raining, I give in and pull them on.

There’s already been plenty of talk on Vancouver blogs about looking and/or not looking like a cyclist. That’s not really the problem. I’m not pretending that I don’t care what I look like, that would be a bit disengenuous. It’s more that I want to be comfortable while, at the same time, not having to worry about what I look like or have to screw around with changing clothes.

One of the unspoken problems is that, around here in winter, three default weather conditions: Raining (about which see above); if it isn’t raining it’s either 4-degrees and clammy and about to rain; or it’s beautiful, clear, and 1-degree (and icy, but that’s a whole ‘nother post, trust me).

I admit, in the comfort/function department: I’m spoiled. But they fail the practical hang-around-all-day-in-them test.

Regular casual sit-around pants, on the other hand, aren’t warm enough. I just find that the wind cuts right through them and my knees are cold for half the ride (the downhill half). I’m starting to think I’ll have to try a pair of knickers. They’re making a bit of a comeback. Maybe they won’t look as goofy as they sound. Hmmmm. What else is out there, I wonder?

Saw something interesting the other day: A handful of folks gathered under the portico of Vancouver’s central library around an electrical outlet charging their electric bikes. That got me to thinking: nomads need electricity.

Now, of course, in this day and age we already know this. But I suspect most of us who are thinking of on-the-go electrical needs are thinking of electricity for devices (you know: laptops, phones, and so on). That’s certainly an important question. But E-bikes are becoming an important part of the transportation spectrum and they can’t bring them into coffee shops and libraries to get them charged. And, in addition, coffee shops aren’t exactly free electricity anyway. You have to buy something to sit there.

So, that brings me to the puzzle of finding free or near-free, outside public electricity access for E-bikes. Is there some kind of wiki/blog/list where somebody is keeping track of outdoor plugs? Is it in this Yahoo Group? It would seem to be a good idea to maintain a list somewhere. I’m not tapped into the e-bike community at all so I don’t know.

As an example: people are tracking power in airports and there’s plenty of public wifi lists (here’s one) so I suspect the e-bike community trades this info somehow.

Of Course, if the idea catches a public-buzz, then somebody will definitely try to commercialize it so I suppose one should be careful what one wishes for.

I have to admit, haven’t been riding this week. Too much frost & slippy rodes in the morning. I no longer accept falling down. But, still, I’m glad to see that at least somebody is riding.

Fog used to be pretty common here when I was a kid. I can remember lots of days walking to school and hearing the Pt. Atkinson fog horning going. This past week we’ve had a return to that kind of weather. I’ve even heard the fog horns once in a while (though they aren’t as prominent as they were years ago.

The strange part of all this is that, up on the north shore mountains, it’s sunny and warm. Heck, it’s down right hot. I was up there today and it was 18 degrees.

I don’t know if temperature inversions are really rarer now than they were 30 years ago but, man, it’s weird to get off at the top of the Grouse skyride and feel a wave of air 12 degrees warmer than down at the base.

So, I finally rode to work today. Bikeways were passable as Roland Tanglao suggested they would be but there was snow down the middle of them for their whole length and some intersections were still pretty sloppy.

Busy car-streets have been completely clear for days now. Why the city can’t run a plow down the bikeways to help us out is beyond me. So much for the supposed “priority” status of bikeways in this town.

My neighbour put these down on his sidewalk during the snow. They’re still there today.

I have no idea why.

Really.

Any conjectural suppositions are welcome.