{"id":902,"date":"2005-04-16T21:38:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-17T01:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/archives\/902"},"modified":"2005-04-16T21:38:00","modified_gmt":"2005-04-17T01:38:00","slug":"spinning-is-for-suckers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/archives\/902","title":{"rendered":"Spinning is for Suckers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, I did it. I biked downtown from Weston.
\nTime of departure from back door of house: 2:24pm.
\nTime of arrival at ‘s front door at Spadina and Bloor: 3:38pm.
\nNot bad. <\/p>\n

What WAS bad was the ride from Weston to St. Clair. After St. Clair there were lots of little side-roads that I knew, and I’m comfortable on Bloor, so it was fine. But before that? These are the roads where cyclists go to die. It was like the fulfillment of a death wish. Bike-rider suicide. So. Bad. Every single driver on the road seemed to think GTA stood for Grand Theft Auto. Jane and Rogers were particularly hazardous, but everywhere were ass-bruising potholes, billions of shards of broken glass littering the streets, and grit-spitting transport trucks. <\/p>\n

Why are there no freaking bike lanes in Toronto? Why? <\/p>\n

I took Jane south to Trethewey, and then headed east past Black Creek Drive until Trethewey turned into Keele, then went too far south to a dead end by the train tracks and had to double back to Rogers Road, went back west, got on Weston road, and headed south. After hitting St. Clair West I had my bearings again, so I turned east onto Dundas West, and wound south towards Bloor down the little Indian Road sidestreets. Then straight east along Bloor until Spadina and I was home free. My route looked like this.<\/a><\/p>\n

Given the amount of meandering I did, I think I could do it faster next time, and probably get myself down to University and Dundas in just over an hour, which would make biking a feasible morning exercise (not an evening one, though – downhill after waking up is one thing, uphill after a day at work is quite another). Except for the grossness of showing up to work sweaty and giving myself a sponge bath in the washroom. And, of course, the PSYCHO KILLER DRIVERS TRYING TO HUNT ME LIKE A DOG.<\/p>\n

Another thought I had as I was gasping for air, trying to ascend the hill at Keele and St. Clair, was that perhaps I should learn how to use gears. I’ve heard from and that they can lessen the pain, but I’m not sure how they work or IF they work on Mlle. Bicyclette at all, as she was purchased at a garage sale, and was chosen more for her pretty hot pink frame than for any particular mechanical functionality.<\/p>\n

That’s all for now, folks. Have a good Sunday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I did it. I biked downtown from Weston. Time of departure from back door of house: 2:24pm. Time of arrival at ‘s front door at Spadina and Bloor: 3:38pm. Not bad. What WAS bad was the ride from Weston to St. Clair. After St. Clair there were lots of little side-roads that I knew, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consciousness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}