Steve Stoller Reflects on BikeBrampton 10 Years. For me, it all began with the desire to establish a cycling heat map by Region of Peel Active Transportation. I had responded to a request in the local newspaper for cyclists interested in logging trips. The purpose was to develop a Peel cycling heat map.

Sometimes we have an image in our minds of what we look like, which does not exactly correspond with how other people see us. This is a story of how this, totally by chance, happened to me. The fact that I saw a picture and yet did not recognize myself in the image, still makes…

Becoming a Randonneur. How far is too far? With cycling, this is an open-ended question. My friend has ridden his bike around the world. That is taking it to extremes. To bring it down to a relatable context, my question was how far could I ride in a single day, during daylight hours.

Riding one hundred miles is considered a milestone achievement for cyclists and has been for some time. It may be considered a random number, especially since Canada has long switched over to the metric system. Other sports have milestone achievements that are also quite random. The marathon, at 26 miles and 385 yards, is a…

Cycling Chronicles Vol 11 What makes a memorable bicycle ride? Most people think only of epic rides as being memorable. However, cycling being what it is, an up close and personal way to travel, lends itself to the pleasure of seeing things and talking to people you normally just pass by in a car. As…

Variations in speed are felt to a much greater degree on a bicycle than any other form of transportation. When you have the “hammer down”, using human power to propel yourself faster than a horse and rider, and even some of the early automobiles, you feel at one with your bicycle and the road. At…

You may not think that physics has much to do with bike riding. Staying upright on a bicycle is a lesson in physics and mastering of balance points. The amazing thing is that once these principles are learned, usually as a young child, they become ingrained and are never really forgotten. This universal truth is…

What has psychology of brain function during stress have to do with cycling? I wonder how the fight or flight instinct relates to what happens at the time of survival decision making. It has everything to do with cycling, especially cycling in an urban environment. Whether you realize it or not, you are making many…

There is one day in my life where I lived the term “foreshadow”, after being warned several times to be careful while cycling. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term foreshadow as “to be a warning or indication of future event.” Most of us will be familiar with the term from our high school literature…

When we talk about epic struggles, like man versus mountain, we must realize that in this conflict, the mountain does not care. The mountain is just there, looming. “There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run. When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun” – Canadian Railroad Trilogy,  by…