Vancouver to Vancouver: After the Expedition

Two Feet and a Heartbeat

2007-11-30T01:28:00.000-08:00

Tim is working hard on his book again this winter. A film is also in the works. News will appear here and on www.vancouvertovancouver.com in the fall of 2008.

Bike Shorts: International Cycling Cinema

2007-06-19T01:41:00.000-07:00

Bike Shorts: Vancouver's annual celebration of the bicycle in film. Thursday June 28, 2007 @ the VanEast Cinema - 2290 Commercial Drive (near the Broadway Skytrain station). Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; Show starts at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $10. Secure bike parking will be provided. Advance tickets available at Jett Grrl Bike Studio and Bikes on the Drive (until the day of the show.

All proceeds from this event benefit the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and Free Geek Vancouver.

So far, there are 14 films on the playlist! Come and enjoy an inspiring evening of pedal-powered cinema. Click here for details!

Life, the book and music on wheels

2007-06-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

By popular demand, I’m posting a dispatch from a home in the Comox Valley, midway up the east coast of Vancouver Island. When I look out the window of this empty house I share with two beautiful, slobbering dogs, all I see is forest, and rain.

In a nutshell, my plans to head south after the wildly enjoyable and soulfully revitalizing Salish Sea kayak journey (which my brother Jonathan wrote about on his new blog), I aborted plans to head south when Jonathan asked me to do him a favour. Would Adrian and I head up the coast and hike around the Northern Gulf Islands looking for land? Jonathan has a pioneer’s vision of living off the grid, growing an elaborate garden and sinking his own roots into the soil.

I was, of course, travelling by bicycle with a laptop stuffed in one pannier. I called in on another brother who immediately offered his soon-to-be empty home as a refuge for me to write. For those tracking my book project, there’s great news to report. In the course of conversations with Howard White, the founder of Canada’s saltiest publishing house, Harbour Publishing, we decided to postpone my release date from next fall. Seeing me push my own writing into fifth gear as my deadline loomed close ahead, White cautioned me against rushing out the latter stages of a book that deserves the utmost care. Advice from the man who co-penned or published so many of the books I grew up with, which shaped my perceptions of BC Lit at an early age, wasn’t to be taken lightly. So now I’m back to trundling along in my writings, a lifestyle balanced by one or two jogs per day in the trails around Comox Lake, with two feisty year-old puppies – a pitbull and a bulldog – bounding along the trail at my heels.

I was, however, back on Galiano just long enough to catch a great folk music performance by a couple of troubadours on wheels. Playing with Johnny Eden was Derek Olive (here pictured at the Grand Central Emporium on Galiano), who recruited Johnny to CYCLE ACROSS CANADA while playing concerts in almost every town between Powell River, BC and Petite Riviere, Nova Scotia. They’re calling it the Musicycle Tour: 6500 kilometres of Positive Emissions. These two classic Canadian characters light up the stage with dazzling wit and musical genius. Yes, genius: by his mid-twenties, Derek had already composed stirring works performed by the Vancouver Symphonic Orchestra and the UBC String Quartet. Check their schedule and try to catch Derek and Johnny as they pedal across our great nation!

On another note entirely, I just read an article about the melting of Greenland's ice. I learned the following:

"Two to three days' worth of icebergs from this glacier alone produce enough fresh water to supply New York City for a year.

The rush of new water leaves scientists with crucial questions about how much sea levels could rise and whether the system of ocean currents that ensures Western Europe's mild winters -- known as the "conveyor belt" -- could shut down."

Read the whole story here.

A Spur-of-the-Moment Adventure!

2007-05-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling, lately, that it's high time to hurl myself into the elements of nature again. And so, alongside those same two scallywags who sprung me from a Panamanian jail one year ago, I'm heading on another international human-powered journey. We're heading to the USA, by kayak and bike.

It'll go something like this. Adrian, Jon and I paddle to Saltspring Island for some advanced kayak skills training on a lake. After our second night camping out, we part ways on the water: Jonathan and Adrian to run the river-like currents of Active Pass, while I head south on a solo crossing to San Juan Island, in the United States. Jonathan and Adrian, meanwhile, take two touring bikes from Galiano to San Juan Island (by ferry, via Sidney on Vancouver Island) to find me. Then things get interesting: Jonathan takes my kayak on his own solo expedition northward. At 21, it'll be his first multi-day solo paddle. Meanwhile, I will ride Jonathan's bike south with Adrian. We'll probably keep riding for a couple of weeks - how far will we make it? Who knows...

The funny thing is, a week ago, none of us had any idea we'd be doing this. That's the beauty of it. But there comes a moment when you can't accept life as a process of taking breaths, which is what I'd been doing lately. Life is about moments that take your breath away. That's what we're after. It's impossible to know what adventures will pass. There's only one way to find out.

A couple of days ago, a northwest wind kicked the ocean into a raging dance of whitecaps and wind-blown spume; a raven soared past carving the air the way a snowboarder leans into fresh powder. I yearned to be surfing those elements myself. My body had been languishing in recent weeks as I wrote my book. My brother was there with me, and he felt it too. We looked out at the Salish Sea and said "what if" which suddenly became "why not?" A phone call to Adrian compounded the joy of our brilliant idea - we had another partner. Adrian, who calls himself a "Masters' student on wheels," didn't hesitate. He'll pack a few heavy textbooks and hit the open road, or sea, as the case may be.

We have our mission. On Sunday, we launch.

Note: this picture represents the first few days of our journey. We start on Galiano Island - the yellow line, starting right at the top (that's where I live). The overland section represents the lake training (in red). From San Juan, Jonathan paddles north, solo (blue line), while Adrian and I pedal south.

Two Feet and a Heartbeat

2007-05-02T04:01:00.000-07:00

Many Thanks to Simon Vine for the stellar music, and to Duncan Smith for his magic editing this short video montage of footage from my journey.

Enjoy!

I'm NOT saying you shouldn't wear a helmet....

2007-04-18T23:18:00.001-07:00

Protect your melon. I didn't, and I was fined $29 on a recent trip to downtown Victoria, BC. Have a look at this picture of "Fancy Clancy" back in the 1920's, and you'll see he's not wearing a helmet. Unless I'm doing something as chancy as Fancy Clancy, I often go bare-headed too.

It's a controversial position, because we all know that helmets protect our precious brains. But do they protect us from drivers who, one study shows, drive dangerously closer to helmeted cyclists?

Consider this: cars and trucks tend to pass, on average, 8.5 centimetres closer to a cyclist wearing a helmet. They tend to give bare-headed cyclists more space, and they give the most space to cyclists with long hair (and no helmet).

So to be really safe, you should wear a wig over top of your helmet.

Want the full story? Here is is:

Drivers pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets than when overtaking bare-headed cyclists, increasing the risk of a collision, the research has found.

Dr Ian Walker, a traffic psychologist from the University of Bath in the UK, used a bicycle fitted with a computer and an ultrasonic distance sensor to record data from over 2,500 overtaking motorists in Salisbury and Bristol.

Dr Walker, who was struck by a bus and a truck in the course of the experiment, spent half the time wearing a cycle helmet and half the time bare-headed. He was wearing the helmet both times he was struck.

He found that drivers were as much as twice as likely to get particularly close to the bicycle when he was wearing the helmet.

Across the board, drivers passed an average of 8.5 cm (3 1/3 inches) closer with the helmet than without

The research has been accepted for publication in the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention.

"This study shows that when drivers overtake a cyclist, the margin for error they leave is affected by the cyclist's appearance," said Dr Walker, from the University's Department of Psychology.

"By leaving the cyclist less room, drivers reduce the safety margin that cyclists need to deal with obstacles in the road, such as drain covers and potholes, as well as the margin for error in their own judgements.

"We know helmets are useful in low-speed falls, and so definitely good for children, but whether they offer any real protection to somebody struck by a car is very controversial.

"Either way, this study suggests wearing a helmet might make a collision more likely in the first place."

Dr Walker suggests the reason drivers give less room to cyclists wearing helmets is down to how cyclists are perceived as a group.

"We know from research that many drivers see cyclists as a separate subculture, to which they don't belong," said Dr Walker.

"As a result they hold stereotyped ideas about cyclists, often judging all riders by the yardstick of the lycra-clad street-warrior.

"This may lead drivers to believe cyclists with helmets are more serious, experienced and predictable than those without.

"The idea that helmeted cyclists are more experienced and less likely to do something unexpected would explain why drivers leave less space when passing.

"In reality, there is no real reason to believe someone with a helmet is any more experienced than someone without.

"The best answer is for different types of road user to understand each other better.

"Most adult cyclists know what it is like to drive a car, but relatively few motorists ride bicycles in traffic, and so don't know the issues cyclists face.

"There should definitely be more information on the needs of other road users when people learn to drive, and practical experience would be even better.

"When people try cycling, they nearly always say it changes the way they treat other road users when they get back in their cars."

The study also found that large vehicles, such as buses and trucks, passed considerably closer when overtaking cyclists than cars.

The average car passed 1.33 metres (4.4 feet) away from the bicycle, whereas the average truck got 19 centimetres (7.5 inches) closer and the average bus 23 centimetres (9 inches) closer.

However, there was no evidence of 4x4s (SUVs) getting any closer than ordinary cars.

Previously reported research from the project showed that drivers of white vans overtake cyclists an average 10 centimetres (4 inches) closer than car drivers.

To test another theory, Dr Walker donned a long wig to see whether there was any difference in passing distance when drivers thought they were overtaking what appeared to be a female cyclist.

Whilst wearing the wig, drivers gave him an average of 14 centimetres (5.5 inches) more space when passing.

In future research, Dr Walker hopes to discover whether this was because female riders are seen as less predictable than male riders, or because women are not seen riding bicycles as often as men on the UK's roads.

Global Coolers: Kipchoge and Eco

2007-04-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

I've brought you video from Kipchoge Spencer before; yes, that's Kipchoge of the Ginger Ninjas rock band and the one of the minds behind this uplifting blog: The Pleasant Revolution . This video, the story of how Kipchoge found fun and literally uplifting ways to reduce his carbon footprint, features the music of his Eco. It is a gem of guerrilla media:

Kipchoge is also one of the minds behind the Xtracycle, a life-changing apparatus that turns almost any bike into a stylish workhorse. You'll find more info and pictures like this one (what a beauty!) on the Pleasant Revolution blog.

A New Book You Must Read

2007-04-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

I have the great honour to be among excellent company as one of 25 contributing essayists in a brand new release from Greystone Books: Notes from Canada's Young Activists: A Generation Stands Up for Change.

When I wrote a contribution from an island off the coast of Morocco way back in January 2006, I had a feeling it would be an awesome book, given the focus on young Canadians struggling to make a difference in an often senseless and discouraging world. Without singling any of them out, as they're all exceptional stories of exceptional people, I will way that nothing could have prepared me for the joys and inspirations of reading this anthology. Beginning with a moving introduction penned by the four editors, it is the story of an empowered generation of Canadians guided by a passion for living to create a better world.

I was so thrilled by reading it that I promptly gave my only copy to an old friend, singer / songwriter Sarah Cheevers, who played on Galiano last weekend. I promptly ordered 10 more, which I will thrust upon ten other poeople.

It contains stories of youth whose activism stems from childhood and shapes their adult lives; people who defy apathy and make anything possible. It's not every year that a book comes along that offers a glimpse into the soul of a generation, but this book delivers. Put it on your list, or swing through Galiano and borrow a copy from me. You'll find me madly working on another book for a fall release with Harbour Publishing. The difference is, this book has only one author so my contribution is much larger.

Two More Bricks in the Wall...

2007-03-20T23:47:00.000-07:00

Two great new videos have surfaced on Youtube, both using Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" to broadcast a message about Global Warming. The first video below scores big points for entertainment value, and features some exciting cycling and running footage as well. The second offers hard-hitting information. Two great short films with one soundtrack that is, of course, second to none.

Jason Lewis struggles for shore

2007-03-14T02:13:00.000-07:00

It’s been an epic month at sea for Englishman Jason Lewis in his bid to complete a crossing of the Arabian Sea from West India to East Africa, in a pedal boat. It’s all part of a larger mission to which he’s dedicated over a decade of his life: a human-powered circumnavigation of the planet Earth. Lewis is making history: after The Guinness Book of World Records recently announced an official definition of what a "global circumnavigation" actually entails, they effectively disqualified a circumnavigation claim by a rival adventurer, Canadian Colin Angus (my previous travelling partner) who never actually crossed the equator, and therefore did not circumnavigate the axis of the Earth. Lewis’ monumental effort more than measures up to the formidable geometry of the Earth, and if he reaches England safely later this year, he'll take be the first human being ever to circumnavigate the planet by human power.

Lewis has vaulted humankind into the elite ranks of self-powered circumnavigating species, thanks to Lewis' efforts. Certain whales, pelagic seabirds and possibly some sharks and sea turtle species have circumnavigated by muscle power, but Lewis will be the first organism of any kind to document the journey and satisfy Guiness standards.

And he is doing it in style. Lewis consistently updates a thrilling website (www.expedition360.com) with photos and video, and brilliant writing dispatched from the adventure. About a year ago, Lewis was kayaking (and capsizing) in shipping lanes around Indonesia. Then he was pedaling with a bad case of malaria in monsoons in the Himalayas. Now, he’s fighting headwinds, pedaling through oil spills, eluding pirates and enduring the high seas with his paddling mate Sher Dhillon, in the closing hours of his bid to reach the African mainland. In these gripping final hours, Sher and Lewis are fighting adverse winds to reach shore, with a dwindling supply of fresh water. This truly will be the greatest adventure completed yet in the 21st Century, and Lewis deserves special congratulations as he fights for shore on the final long ocean crossing of his global journey.

As his website recently reported:

“A few Yemen fishing boats have crossed our path, but in general they're not as friendly as the Iranian fishing boats from a week ago. One did stop by earlier today to try and see what this floating submarine covered by dirty laundry was all about, but duly took off as soon as they saw me appear on deck without a stitch on. The old anti-piracy strategy works every time!”

But according to Lewis, all is not well on Arabian Sea. As he wrote in a recent email, Global Warming is adding unpredictable challenges to life at sea:

“wish I could swap you some weather - some snow and ice for some roasting 40 degree heat. This is the strangest stretch of water I've crossed so far. It maybe that it's the strong El Nino effect this year or global climate change, but what we're experiencing in terms of wind and current as totally not in tune with the historic data as per the pilot charts.”

No one killed the Electric Bike!

2007-02-26T11:47:00.000-08:00

Need a boost?

Why not take full advantage of the sun this spring, with Canadian Entrepreneur Peter Sandler's new E-V Sunny Bicycle, which charges a batter with solar panels built into the wheels? Ingenious.

I hear all the time that my zealous promotion of active living as a fun and healthy solution to climate change (see my Vancouver Parks Active Communities Profile) hits a hollow note among people who - and I hear this a lot - are too old, or too unfit to throw themselves into a self-propelled lifestyle.

Granted, some people are over the hill - but they're not doing most of the driving. Let's remember that the key to staying fit enough to cycle is simply to use one's body! It's that initial step into active living that is most daunting, but for most of us, our bodies will respond to the added demands and we'll feel younger and fitter as a result. So go ahead, loose 3,500 pounds in one day -- sell your car!

The good news with electric bikes is that we don't need to be entirely self-propelled to be entirely green. With the E-V Sunny bike, a conversion kit that runs about $800 bucks, we can ease ourselves into the joys of car-free living.

In China, according the UC Davis researcher Jonathan Weinert, electric bikes are gaining ground among women and elderly. Weinert does a great job in telling the story, in this engaging dispatch from the heart of a congested city in China:

2007-02-08T03:41:00.000-08:00

Click To Play

Sam Whittingham: The Naked Truth

2007-02-02T17:45:00.000-08:00

You won't find a more gritty or inspirational story than that of Sam Whittingham, the world's fastest velo-man. Sam travels each year from his home on Quardra Island, BC, to blow the socks of competition at the world championships of human-powered-vehicle speed racing, which takes place on a flat stretch of highway in Nevada.

That’s right: Sam Whittingham, who runs a custom-built bike company called Naked Bikes (www.timetogetnaked.com) is the fastest self-propelled person on earth. Without revving an engine or leaping out of an airplane, it’s tough to move faster than Sam’s world records speeds in the 1000, 500 and 200 metre categories. He tops out at 130 km/h, and once sustained 78 km/h over 60 minutes, another world record.

Somehow – and I suspect the clean forest air and organic food of Quadra Island has something to do with it – Sam pulls off these speeds without the assistance of gravity or wind. He does it with brute willpower, a big heart, capacious lungs and legs of steel. He rides a fully-faired aerodynamic bike designed by Gabriola sculptor George Georgiev. Sam is known to blow past competition including Olympic medal-winning cyclists who ride crafts designed by race car engineers.

You can probably tell that I’m a big fan of Sam Whittingham. When I hit the road on tour in Canada and the US with my upcoming book and film, I aim to be riding Naked – that is, a Naked Bike built by Sam. Partly, that is because his bikes are custom-built beauties, but it's mostly because Sam shows us, with more blazing speed than anyone on Earth, just how much is possible without fossil fuels. Sam is a true Canadian hero. It isn’t a question of “can I get there by bicycle,” for Sam. The question for him is: “will I be ticketed for speeding?”

See Sam Ride on this CTV news feature:

“Call it a renaissance; call it anything you like, A new culture’s coming and it’s coming on a bike”

2007-01-30T01:19:00.001-08:00

I'm just back on Galiano from a weekend in Victoria, where I overhauled an old Mongoose Mountain Bike at Recyclistas, the only bicycle co-op in the city (where you can pay $5 per hour and use all their tools and expertise in a fun and friendly environment). The results were interesting: my old bike morphed into something a friend described as a "giant preying mantas" due to enormous BMX handlebars that make it difficult to ride except standing up (pictures coming soon).

Why the heck would I do this to my bike?

Because it's so much fun to ride. I feel like a kid again, on a over-sized adult bike. Except that I'm an adult on an over-sized kid's bike. It looks so absurd - and I promise to post photos soon -- that I can't help but smile when I see it.

Fun, of course, is the point. Fun was the major impetus behind my whole 2.5 year journey around the planet. Fun (and fitness) is a major reason I cycled into Victoria last Friday, instead of taking a bus or a car. The world's biggest irony is that the revolution in thinking and lifestyles that we, as a species, need to adopt -- in order to avoid the worst of climate change -- IS SO MUCH FUN! So let's do it!

Cycling is fun AND emission-free. And it's better than medication for relieving stress. But wait, what about stacking on groceries, piling on kids, hauling lumber and tools? Bikes can't do that, right? WRONG! Bikes can do almost anything. I plan to haul my sea kayak by bicycle.

But don't take it from me - see for yourself. Below is a video about one of my expedition sponsors, a group of guitar-pluckin', tree-huggin, xtracycle-ridin' freewheelin' bicycle lifestylists in Northern California -- my friends at Xtracycle. This fun documentary explores the joyful living that will save our Earth, filmed and edited by BoonDocs Film and Video:

2007-01-26T02:30:00.001-08:00

Things are looking up...

2007-01-24T04:30:00.000-08:00

As I keep telling people, I feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle.

Not that I've been sleeping for the last few years -- far from it, in fact -- but I've been out of the loop, outside of Canada, slogging around the world for a cause. Now that I'm back, I see that a heck of a lot has changed. I'm not talking about my newfound propensity to devour bread by the loaf; I'm talking about public awareness of the healthy living that it was my goal to promote.

My journey had a couple of causes - healthy, active living, on one hand, and also breaking our addiction to oil as a way to combat climate change. Neither were very high on the public agenda back in 2004.

I used to look around me and see obese kids, people wheezing and hacking and driving everywhere ... and those people are still there. And I used to see a lot of single-occupant vehicles belching a heck of a lot of CO2 into the air... well, they're still there too. So what has changed?

Public awareness of these issues has exploded. Everybody's talking about Global Warming. People are calculating their carbon footprint, and even the Harper government is now talking about the environment. Everyone's buzzing about An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed the Electric Car (Haven't seen them? Hurry up!)
How about the fitness front? Well, it's not like everyone is running around in Spandex (and thank goodness for that!) but I have noticed a lot more bicycle commuters (not one of them? You don't know what you're missing!).

And now the BC government has even appointed a Minister (Gordon Hogg, pictured with me to the left) for it's new ActNow program, which is, essentially, an effort to prod people into exercising (instead of growing obese and clogging their arteries, and the public health system). What an excellent idea! The goal is to increase physical activity by 20% by 2010. The Vancouver Parks Board is on board as well, to expand their support for people looking to get active. I'll report on this initiative in a future post.

As Bob Dylan sang, "the times, they are a-changin.'" At least it seems that way. But will all this awareness translate into action? That remains to be seen.

What's at stake, anyways?

Not just your health and happiness. We're talking about life on earth as we know it. We're talking global meltdown, if we don't stop burning gasoline in cars and airplanes. And while we're at it, let's stop using disposable coffee cups and plastic shopping bags...

Today I ran into a great interview between two of my favourite TV personalities, David Suzuki and George Stromboulopolous, on CBC's The Hour. It's a bit of CBC brilliance, and it hits the nail on the head. Repeatedly. Enjoy!

Book and Film Update

2007-01-04T19:29:00.000-08:00

The book is coming along! After high-tailing it out of Vancouver in mid-November, I cranked out a solid 12,000 words by the end of the month, a great start to what is shaping up to be an epic travelogue. I wrote by the woodstove as a cold flash and snows knocked out power to the island. As the deer chewed on frozen leaves outside, my fingers pattered across the keyboard at a furious pace. Stories of "going native" in the Darien jungle unfolded on the pages stacking up in my workspace.

But in December, I concentrated on other things. After years on the road, the time had come to visit with family and friends. My mother, and with her Canadian jazz legend Peter Dent, arrived back from Africa and regaled me with stories of Kilimanjaro, which both had summitted, giving it their all at sixty-something years and counting. What you've heard is true: the snows of Kilimanjaro are almost gone. Later in the month, My father and his partner, the painter artist Anne Marie Harvey, invited me to the Okanagan for some days of hiking and catching up in a hot tub overlooking the lake.

Even after than visit, there were more to be made: A few days ago I kayaked to visit friends on a neighboring island (Mayne). I could have taken the ferry, but I opted for the more fun, cleaner-burning option. There was some excitement: a Northwesterly wind kicked up some high seas, and I surfed across Active Pass in a matter of minutes, terrified that a BC Ferry might appear and fail to see me. My kayak is, after all, the colour of a whitecap!

At last, I'm back at the keyboard, cranking out a book. It's due out with Harbour Publishing next fall.

Happy 2007

Tim's Schedule Calendar

2007-01-01T17:27:00.000-08:00