With the launch of our new shop website September 2020 we've setup a "Stories" page there where we will be blogging going forward. Hop over there for all the goods.
We thought we did enough homework. We knew the trail was not optimized for bikes. We knew it would be slow going in spots. But we persisted with our plans.
What we didn't know it would be impassable in many places. We didn't know the trail was completely ripped up from Bonnyville to Cold Lake. Like ripped up completely by water main construction for 40+ kilometres.
Now you know.
In short, we'd recommend avoiding this trail for bikepacking.
Fans of the WID Canal (Western Irrigation District) pathway to Chestermere will likely understand why we were intrigued by the idea of riding more of Alberta's canals: It's peaceful, completely car free, often people free, with wide open views of this beautiful part of Alberta.
One of the interesting parts of the canal system is that it follows a "lay of the land" route instead of the monotonous range/township grid offering an ever-changing view ahead which makes riding out on the Prairie a little less boring.
After some digging in the 'ol intranetwebs this past winter, I found a map of all of the irrigation canals in Southern Alberta and very quickly began linking together some of these canals with those boring rural roads to try and create a route that was available earlier in the season than mountain routes, would be safe and easy for new bikepackers, and explore a part of Alberta often forgotten about.
Is there anything more dreamy than cycling on a highway closed to vehicle traffic?
Here in Southern Alberta, we are lucky to have a handful of highways that are seasonally closed during the winter that are available to cycle on in the weeks leading up to their opening. For some cyclists, taking advantage of these closures to cars is a seasonal treat - with Highwood Pass being the "classic" that most everyone knows about.
There are other options too for people looking for something different, perhaps a little more accessible than Highwood, and even a few gravel options for all you folks that have hopped on the gravel bike bandwagon.
Below are 5 rides we'd recommend you check out before the gates open to cars.
Benno's range of electric bikes are truly unique in their design. Blending elements from large, heavy cargo bikes as well as positioning and styling cues from traditional bicycle design, Benno's electric assist bicycles flatten hills, shortens distances, blunts headwinds and
lightens cargo weight, leaving only the joy of two wheels.
Ebike designs are getting crazy and we decided that we'd see how crazy we could get with by heading deep into the forest service roads of eastern British Columbia.
For more perspective on the potential fun and potential limitations that ebikes can offer bike touring and bikepacking adventurers - have a look at these other trips we've done.
Flashback to the middle of winter 2017-18 when, on a winter's day off I asked Nadia if she'd join me for a day in the car exploring some country roads I saw in the Backroads map book. On this day we ended up finding one of the most lovely country roads I have ever had the pleasure of driving and so it began: Trying to loop together a new gravel/bikepacking route on roads (I was sure) that most local cyclists - even the adventurous ones hadn't ridden.
Further map studying showed me there was, what looked like, a road that ran north-south, west of the Forestry Trunk Road in the Livingstone PLUZ and after some more car-based exploring I was convinced it was there.
The last piece of the puzzle was some more car-based exploring of the Skyline Road in the Porcupine Hills PLUZ and BOOM! - a loop was possible.
So here is the ride report. Connor from AccessCourier.ca agreed to ride it with me and we set off on a Friday night after work so we could start early the next day.
Last year, a few of us rode from the Waiprous area out to the Ghost River Valley to spend the night and I was blown away with how beautiful, rugged, and remote the place seemed. Fast forward about a year and here we are.
For the last 3 years, my brother and I (and sometimes a few others) plan a bike trip of some kind. Getting away for a week like we did for the Castlegar -> Pentiction trip is a little harder now as he has 2 little tykes at home so it was decided to go for a shorter trip together to keep the streak alive.
So, with these things in mind we decided to do something a few days shorter, a little closer to home, and something neither of us had done before.
Ebikes have finally started to catch on with North Americans in the last couple of years and people are starting to use them for all manner of reasons. Electric mountain bikes are a thing. Electric city commuter bikes are a thing. Electric cargo bikes are definitely a thing. But electric touring bikes? Are they a thing?
They are indeed a thing, and we believe they are poised to propel more people into bigger/longer adventures as more and more companies design bikes with bigger batteries and faster chargers.
This ride is part of our "BikeBike Passport" rides around Calgary. Complete all the rides earn a special BikeBike prize.
All
rides are mostly off-street/pathway and are of varying
lengths/difficulty level to accommodate all of you that love adventures.
The
longer routes do require some level of route finding/navigating as
Calgary does not yet have very good (well, barely any actually) route
finding system. We've attached links to Map My Ride routes to make it
really easy to use your smartphone.
"Thinking about something is often far more daunting than actually doing the thing"
Planning your first bike touring trip or bike-overnight can seem like a daunting affair - especially if you're not used to camping. But with some careful planning, route selection, not biting off too big a challenge your first time out, and the right mix of gear, it can open the door to a great experience and whet your whistle to do more trips, longer trips, and more adventurous (remote) adventures.
Through all the years of doing various bike tours and bikepacking trips, one thing has been a constant: Nadia has never come along. There were many reasons for that: the trips we've been doing look crazy to her, far too difficult, painful, cold/uncomfortable, she will not ride on highways, and especially her medical condition (she has an ileostomy) made the idea of bike adventures like that hard for her to contemplate.
But something clicked in her about a year ago and she began to see past those things and realized how much fun I was having and decided she wanted a piece of that fun too. So, one day, she asked me: "Do you think you could plan a bike tour that I could do?" - to which I replied "Of course!" So planning began for a bike touring trip and we quickly zoned in on Le P'Tit Train Du Nordin Quebec because it ticked all the boxes we needed for a fun first trip: basically flat, hotels instead of camping, we love visiting Quebec, no highways involved.
So off we went and here is our trip report. Leave us a comment if you have any questions.
Last year a small group of us rode the Castlegar to Penticton segment of The Great Trail and it was really great. That trip opened my eyes to some of what the "Trans Canada Trail" (now known as The Great Trail) had to offer and I began investigating more areas that might be fun for multiday adventures. The Trail itself actually runs right through Calgary and that got me thinking: What if I could one day ride out my front door and onto a big segment of the trail? While that didn't happen this time, it just might in the future after doing this trip.
I had a few more days of planned holidays (with no corresponding activity plan) and decided to give this trip a go. I had also received a brand new bike from a brand new vendor to the shop and thought why not ride it to get a real sense of what it could do.
After deciding on the route, Nadia gratiously offered to drop me off in Peter Lougheed Park and pick me up from Kimberley at the end of my journey. If that's not true love, I'm not sure what is :)
Please enjoy this photo essay and if you have any questions, leave us a comment, drop us a line on Twitter, FB, or IG. Cheers!
#Underbiking - To ride an inappropriate bike on a route (at least, that's what I think it means).
With a surprise activity free weekend available, and Nadia agreeing to do shuttle duties, a plan was hatched to ride a new-to-me route from Canmore to Elbow Lake campground, then from there out to Bragg Creek where I'd get picked up.
Connor, Mr. Pillows, and Chris overlooking the Rosebud River Valley
In the never ending quest to ride in new places the 3 of us set off on a mostly-gravel bike overnight to the Canadian Badlands, destination Drumheller, Alberta. Our route was based around avoiding pavement as much as we could and would take us through Rockyford, Rosebud, Wayne, and eventually to the giant dinosaur in"Drum".
For the last 4 years, Swift Industries - bag makers extraordinaire - have been hosting their free-form "Swift Campout" bike camping weekend right around the Summer Solstice to help inspire folks around the world to gather their friends together and get outside for the weekend. This year, we were finally able to pull together a trip and 12 brave adventurers joined us for our an weekend of pedaling and camping.
While the lure of the Rocky Mountains is unquestionably strong and there seems to be no shortage of beautiful places to visit, sometimes they can also be overloaded with happy visitors, busy highways, and full campgrounds.
So it was decided to head East and go looking for new roads, preferably some gravel, and to avoid those busy highways and campgrounds.A quick glance at some backroads maps and some time digging around Alberta Parks' website, I picked Wyndam-Carseland Provincial Park as my destination.
The plan would be to use as many range and township roads as possible and if there was some gravel, even better. On the return trip, the plan was to return to Calgary on the soth side of the Bow River via Dewinton. Here are the Strava links:
Almost 3 years ago we had become completely frustrated by the quality of the children's bike we had been offering, finding all of them to be of poor quality, too heavy, with limited sizing, and often in horrible colourways. We decided that we would rather not sell kid's bikes then sell crappy kid's bikes.
The very next day the sales rep for Frog Bikes walked into the shop unannounced and totally blew our minds by showing us these incredible bikes we had no idea existed.
Fast forward to today and we are now Canada's most successful Frog Bikes retailer!
Frog Bikes set out from the very beginning to create a product that would give children high quality, easily rideable bikes that could also be adjustable as they grow so parents could get a few years of use out of them. As a first step, Frog set out to study the differences between children and adults and the results of that study led them to make major changes to the design of their bike range.
Very recently, Frog was awarded the Red Dot for design excellence and the Queen's Award For Enterprise. They are definitely doing it right!
A few words about cost: Yes, these bikes a little more expensive to purchase and like all things in life, you get what you pay for. Lightweight, high quality bikes are worth every penny, especially when trying to pass along your love of cycling to your children. Many families are reporting back to us that they are getting incredible resale prices when passing them along to other families.
We asked a few of our Twitter followers what they liked about their Frog Bikes...
We got ours very recently - amazing build quality, incredibly complete component mix, and extras included. James absolutely adores his. PM for more info.
We like that it came with fenders and knobby tires, that it’s a good quality, lightweight bike. It’s easy for our son to ride. He likes that it’s red, and is looking forward to the next size up when he can get a rear rack.
Our daughter wanted a commuter with the ability to have a rack and fenders; we wanted her to also be able to mountain bike/trail ride with it. So, it’s the best of both worlds for us, plus lightweight and beautifully built.
I love that it's lightweight (my 7 year old can carry it up our front porch stairs by himself) and the fact that it came with fenders and two sets of tires (slick and mountain). So practical!
We strive to have a full size run of these bikes assembled in our shop to size your child. You can also do the sizing yourself at home before coming by. If you are looking for a certain colour/size combination, give us a call to see if we have it in stock. If not, we are more than happy to order it in for you.
In the last couple of years, electric bicycles have burst forth from the shadows into the mainstream and along the way have also become lighter, simpler to use, with bigger range, and more reliable than ever. In many cases, prices have also moderated and in some cases have come down significantly.
Gone are the days where you had to find a bike shop that was interested in and capable of installing an aftermarket kit on your existing bike. The e-bikes available at your local bike store today are sleek, well appointed, fully integrated, and can often be difficult to distinguish from regular non-electric bikes. They are also easy to operate, re-charge, and maintain - with many being not much different than maintenance needed on a non-electric bike.
Time To Look In The Mirror
If you're honest with yourself and take a quick look at your personal driving habits, you'll begin to notice a couple of interesting things:
- your vehicle is parked 95% of the time
- most of your city trips are less than 10kms - see chart below
- the amount of treasure you sink into it is astonishingly high - see image below.
All that time sitting motionless behind the wheel also has major health implications over the long term. Even for people who feel that they are fit, or work out on a regular basis - all that windshield time adds up and over years of driving can lead to negative health issues.
Humans are meant to move. All the time. We evolved as hunter/gatherers and although our technological society has offered us impressive shiny objects and abilities that seem to make us almost superhuman - we are all still those same hunter/gatherers that need to be in constant motion to stay sharp and remain healthy.
The vast majority of vehicle trips taken are well under 10kms. Think about that.
An astonishingly massive amount of money goes to servicing vehicle costs.
The car trip distances above are shockingly short and easily covered by an electric bicycle. When you begin to compare electric bicycles to electric cars the value proposition starts to look pretty compelling.
Here are a few blog posts about the cost comparison between owning a used car and e-cargo bikes:
And we still haven't discussed the real physical health benefits that riding an electric bike offers its rider. Because the truth is, with today's generation of pedal-assist bicycles, you still have to work to make it go. No throttle means the systems only work when you are pedaling. You can choose the assist level you receive from pretty easy to full power to help flatten hills, shorten distance, and disappear headwinds. All the while having fun.
A recent survey conducted in the US showed that people that owned e-bikes rode more often than before their purchase. The reasons behind the purchases were all over the map, but included the
ability to ride more easily in a hilly area; to ride longer distances;
to help overcome limitations caused by a medical condition; and, of
course, to just have fun.
We have curated a full spectrum of electric bikes for every city cycling style. Everything from the speedy commuter through to the family hauler extraordinaire. Bikes you can transport out of town on a car rack and bikes that can replace your car entirely. Scroll down to see the range available now.
All of our electric bikes are available for demo rides too. Pop by the shop to see them.
The City Commuter
The Gazelle Easy Flow is the perfect bike for those looking for a fun handling, lightweight city-styled bike with all the sensible commuter accessories included. Utilizing Shimano's amazing STePS system, power is smooth and abundant with a range of around 80km between charges. A sturdy rear rack allows the use of a set of panniers to carry your stuff to work, pickup groceries on the way home, or attach a Thule baby seat to it and take your little one to daycare. Full coverage fenders keep road grime off you and your machine, and the included kickstand holds everything up.
The Light-Duty Cargo Commuter
You like the idea of the Gazelle above but know in your heart you're going to end up carrying more than it can handle. Or you have more than one child and want to accommodate them onboard too. Or you want a little off-road capability so you can choose whichever path opens upo in front of you. If any of this makes sense to you, than the Benno Boostis the bike for you. Sporting wide 24" tires, total cargo capacity of 440lbs, available front rack that, this bike can handle the grocery run and multiple children at the same time. Powered by Bosch's industry-leading mid-drive system, this is your new Smart Car. Full fenders keep you clean, built-in high powered front and rear German-engineered lighting keeps you visible day and night, and a study kickstand makes loading up easy.
The Medium Duty Utility and Family Hauler
When I discovered Xtracycle back in 2008, it was the brand that caused us to trip and fall down the rabbit hole of cargo bikes/utility cycling - ultimately leading us to conceptualize and open BikeBike a couple years later. Since that time, they have continued to innovate and are still leaders in the cargo bike ecosystem here in North America.
Their bikes are supremely capable on so many levels: city commuters, grocery getters, kid haulers, family bike camping vehicles - the sky is the limit on what these bikes are capable of. Carry up to 3 children or 200lbs of whatever you want - these amazing bikes are super fun to ride, easy to operate, are available in electric and non-electric models. The electric models utilize the reliable Bosch unit as well.
Xtracycle Classic 8e
The 21st Century SUV's and Pickup Trucks
Haul all the children, gardening supplies, groceries, recycling, IKEA run - you name it with these incredible machines. The future of urban transportation has arrived and it looks a lot like these bikes. Capable of doing anything a car can do - in fact - they can be more useful than a car when moving bulky items around.
If you've ever been to Amsterdam or Copenhagen you've seen bikes like these zipping all over the place loaded with a manner of animals, humans, and stuff. It is difficult to understand how incredible these are until you've had a chance to ride one.
As expected, they also sit at the top of the price range but even then, they are still 1/4 the price of the cheapest electric car, can carry more stuff, are cheaper to operate - and you get fit while using it!
Urban Arrow Family Model
If you are seriously contemplating the purchase of an electric automobile, you should come see us and check out what the future of transportation actually looks like. Many of our past customers have sold of one of their cars, took the proceeds and put them towards a cargo bike and have not regretted it for a minute.
Your kids with thank you. Your wallet with thank you. Your retirement savings with thank you. And your heart with thank you too.
