The province announced that today was the day that removal of a section of the Bloor bike lanes would start, and so the call went out to the community. The meeting point was the same place where we massed at the end of September, when we showed up 800 strong. On the way there, I see a decent number of cyclists headed to the same place.

Tonight was Bike the Night, a ride in the Danforth neighbourhood organized by long time cycling advocate and MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon. A pretty good crowd gathers at East Lynn Park. Mary-Margaret greets us all, and says that this is going to be a fun ride back and forth on the Danforth bike lanes, in the face of the province's plans to remove bike lanes.

Today was the 4th Brompton ride held around the time of Oktoberfest. We have gathered at Pedaal, and as per usual there were a lot of shiny Bromptons in evidence. Laurence's purple electric T series was best of show. There was another build inside the shop that also had the Cerakote process done to the frame. Not sure if the same folks that yarn bomb the bike rings by Sam James Coffee did this one.

I had a little time to relax this afternoon, so I did one of my favourite things: a bit of bike maintenance. First off: the Pletscher kickstand on the tandem broke a while ago. I was told that this is not uncommon. Installed the new one from Velo Orange. However, I moved the aluminum top plate from the old kickstand over to the Haul a Day where it provides much better clamping for that kickstand that…

Today there were two bike rides with similar themes: drawing attention to loops in the city that take advantage of the many off street bike and pedestrian paths that thread through the city, while at the same time are held back by significant gaps where there are no safe bike route connections. The longer route was the Loop Ride which includes parts of the Don Valley, the Don Mills Trail, the Finch Hydro corridor, and the Humber River Trail.

This month's ride started at High Park. A pretty big crowd. This guy had a great lighted sign. You might guess who it is referring to at the moment. Two of the many usual suspects it was great to see. David goes over some safety instructions. And we're off for one lap of High Park. I'm corking at the Grenadier. It took a looong time for everyone to go by.

And so ends another week of racing down Route 305 in Battle Mountain, the fastest road in the world for human powered vehicles. It was a year with relatively few entries, and a mix of experienced and rookie teams. As per usual, what follows is a few notes on each team, in the order presented in my preview post.

The week of racing ends with the awards banquet. Here are all the racers that earned new hats this week. A bad selfie with all of the volunteers. We really ran the event on a skeleton crew this year. The flaggers kept us safe, and Mason did a great job as head flagger. Special recognition to the representatives of the local community who provided an unprecedented level of support for the event.

The short version: no legal winds, and nobody bettered their speeds for the week. Results – Saturday PM (PM) – 2026-09-19 Heat 1 · 5 Race · 17:20 Rider Bike Category Launch 200m (s) Speed mph Speed kph Wind fpm Wind m/s Legal New WR Note Justin Tangpongprush Typhoon Men 17:29 11.480 38.97 62.72 823 4.18 ✗ ✗ Heat 2 · 5 Race · 05:50 Rider Bike Category Launch 200m (s) Speed mph Speed kph Wind fpm Wind m/s Legal New WR Note Justin Strahm Woohoo! 2 Men 18:04 8.379 53.39 85.93 717 3.64 ✗ ✗ Ethan Todd Typhoon Men 17:59 10.146 44.10 70.96 719 3.65 ✗ ✗ Heat 3 · 5 Race · 18:20 Rider Bike Category Launch 200m (s) Speed mph Speed kph Wind fpm Wind m/s Legal New WR Note Adam Hari Dark Star Men 18:28 8.015 55.82 89.83 565 2.87 ✗ ✗ One last look at Typhoon. and Wahoo! 2

Six heats from the 8 km and one 4 km run this morning. Winds were forecast to decrease slowly as we approached noon, In the first heat, Alexis went 52.49 mph, earning a 50 mph hat. There were some very interesting decorations added to the shell. In the second heat, Justin Strahm went 51.04 in WooHoo!2, earning a 50 mph hat.

It was assumed that the winds would be bad for this entire evening session, and sure enough, the wind meter looked like this, indicating a strong headwind. Despite all that, Justin ran Typhoon in the first heat from the 4 km start and logged a 51.1 mph run, earning him a 50 mph hat. In this picture, you can see the repaired hatch, the front wheel fairing, and the Michelin Blue tires.

The first heat started out with a bang, with Adam Hari going 73.41 mph in Dark Star. He was followed by Justin Strahm in Woohoo! 2 with his fastest time of the week at 44.84 mph. Finally, Alexi in Beluga went through for the first time without the crash shield, going 48.05 mph. In heat 2, Calvin and Ethan pushed their speed up to 68.80 mph.

Given the high winds forecast for tonight, we cancelled the 8 km runs, but we ran two heats of 4km to give Cal Poly the chance to qualify. It was great to see Cal Poly's bike come through timing twice. Both runs were by Justin, and his second run of 44.18 mph qualifies him to run the 8 km tomorrow morning.

Winds were pretty high so the fast people elected not to run. This left three heats from 8 km with Eta Prime. Christopher dropped a chain. Harrison scratched on the next heat. Erin elected to run, but she got blown off of the course. The wind reading we got just after she crashed was 1129 fpm, over 3 times legal wind.

Wednesday marks the midpoint of the competition where all of the racers start feeling a bit of additional pressure to get good runs. Tonight there were three 8 km heats scheduled, with Eta Prime slated to run three times, and one run for TITAN. In the first heat, Harrison had a dropped chain and was not able to run. In the second heat Erin went overtime on staging and was not allowed to run.

Heading out to the course in the predawn darkness to set up timing. This morning we had three heats from the 4km start, and then two heats from 8km. We've been continuing the qualifying throughout the week to maximize the chances of all entries getting down the course. Unfortunately, both Cal Poly and Sherbrooke were unable to run, so the 4 km heats were all Toronto all the time.

Tonight we had one heat from the 4 km, and two heats from the 8 km distance. The 4 km heat had three bikes and for the first time, all three bikes made it through timing, despite a fairly strong crosswind. Ethan Todd improved his speed in Typhoon to 42.84 mph. Harrison qualified in Eta Prime with a speed of 51.20 mph.

Tuesday afternoon is the traditional Show and Shine where local 3rd graders descend on us to take a look at the bikes and to meet the riders. Before the hordes descend. They feed us lunch. Team Hermus. Making sure that we all know that the bike is called Beluga. Cal Poly. Toronto and Team Falcon. The kids arrive. Beluga is a canvas. Kids clamber into Typhoon. Also Seiran. Adam Hari and Millenium. TITAN Meanwhile in the back, the team is trying to fix the Typhoon drivetrain.

Another day with four heats of qualifying and two heats on the long course unfortunately did not yield more than two bikes through timing. Cal Poly decided to scratch because they need more practice with launching without the landing gear. Beluga tried to run, but they had stored the batteries in their trailer overnight so the video screens went dead.

A few nice runs tonight. Calvin and Ellen finally get down the track from the 4 km mark. Both Typhoon and Eta prime had issues, so the UofT crew showed up at the grandstands to see the last heat. As we approached sunset, Adam went by in Dark Star. Calvin and Ethan close out the day with TITAN. Results – Monday PM (PM) – 2026-09-14…

Up at timing bright and early. This is the trash I picked up while walking back from 200m. What is disturbing is not the amount, but that fact that it is 100% alcohol related. The plan for this morning was to get as many people qualified as possible, with four heats from 4 km, and two heats from 8 km. However, as it turns out, very few bikes actually made it down the course.

Lots of work at the Civic Centre as the other four vehicles work towards getting their bikes to pass technical inspection so that they can actually run on Monday. Here is a nice trike brought by the Adachis. Many 3D printed parts, some of which will be replaced by metal. They plan to put a shell on it in time for next year.

Greetings from Battle Mountain this fine Sunday morning. At catch, Nik is constructing this structure for people to use his binoculars while being shaded. Danny at work. Now laying down the wire to the 200m point at the start of the timing traps. Two bikes down the course this morning. Here is TITAN with Calvin and Ethan, and the crash panels.

Always nice to take a quick look around to see who's already here at the Battle Mountain Civic Centre. Adam Hari's two bikes, with Dark Star in the foreground. Larry Lem refurbished Seiran and will leave it here in case a short enough local rider is willing to give it a try in the future. A first look at Sherbrooke's entry.

Thursday before WHPSC is the usual time that the Toronto team hits the road. It is a little over 3500 km from downtown Toronto to Battle Mountain NV, and according to Google at the moment, it is about a 32 hour drive. The teams need to get there during the day on Saturday to get the bikes through tech inspection in time for the first qualifying runs on Sunday morning.

A lazy Sunday running errands around town. Just as I pull up to work, my Rock Lobster clocks 30,000 km. It's been a little over four years since I had 20,000 km on this bike. A few other random shots. On Runnymede Rd, the southbound bike lane in the underpass at the train tracks still needs cleaning up after the big storm.

WHPSC is less than a week away, and both Toronto teams are busy with their final preparations. Here Evan is demonstrating that a newly installed rear view camera is working on TITAN, although he is showing the image on the front screen at this point. The other team is showing me that they printed out five video camera masts for Eta Prime.

September has rolled around again, and that means that it's time to preview this year's World Human Powered Speed Challenge (WHPSC). Up to date information on this year's event is available on the WHPSC website. This year's poster features Russell Bridge's streamliner "77" that raced more recently last year. Note also that the "mile" markers will be indicating the distance to the finish lines in kilometres.

YouTube video by Brian Tao

A cyclist was killed Saturday August 22 around 11 pm in Hamilton He was cycling northbound on Upper Centennial Parkway (AKA Hwy 20) in the vicinity of Green Mountain Rd. A ghost bike in his memory was placed this morning. Picking the ghost bike up from Geoffrey. Proof that at least part of the ghost bike's journey to Hamilton was by bike.

Tonight was a special edition of Critical Mass to push back against the fact that the sections of Bill 212 having to do with stripping out bike lanes in Toronto are once again the law of the land. A very big crowd, variously estimated at between 700-1000 cyclists. So nice to see so many familiar faces. Tom Flood and Lanrick Bennett Jr.

Tonight was an election town hall in Swansea sponsored by Cycle Toronto. This meeting attracted seven candidates who are vying to be the next Councillor for Ward 4: Parkdale High Park. The meeting started with an intro about city wide cycling issues introduced by Caitlin. Next, Michael talks about Bills 212 and 60, and how the portion of 212 focused on removing bike lanes from Bloor, Yonge and University was overturned, but then recently reinstated on appeal.

With less than three weeks to go for this year's edition of the World Human Powered Speed Challenge, the UofT team is very busy putting final touches on their speedbikes. There will two teams coming from Toronto: the usual undergraduate based team (HPVDT), and HPT North, a second team made up of exclusively HPVDT alumni. HPVDT is planning to bring two vehicles: Typhoon (a Vortex clone) and Eta Prime.

I'm been concerned about the lack of a proper ramp for bicycles on the southern border of Kings College Circle for several years now, ever since the installation of the granite paving around the circle. Today I see that they have finally put in an asphalt ramp. It is wide enough to accommodate a full size motor vehicle (which I think was one of the issues that was raised by the fire department).

A University of Iowa team just watched ripples fire inside the human hippocampus after 20 minutes on a stationary bike.

Just an image dump from tonight's very pleasant social ride. Thanks, Matt, for leading.

I booked off portions of today from work to run a few bike related errands. The main thing was to do the next stage in getting a rear brake put back on the Haul a Day. The last post showed the mounting bolt extraction. I went over to Bikechain, our campus DIY bike shop. The good folks there let me use an M6 tap to clean out the threads on the bike mounts.

When Justin Bellemore found out around four years ago that the Gordie Howe International bridge would have a multi-use path, he joked to his friends that he’d be the first cyclist to cross the bridge ...

As predicted, the weather was bad today, and so all bike rides were cancelled. Given this fact, I decided somewhat regretfully that I would take the GO train back to Toronto at midday today and cut my time at Cyclon short. It was pouring rain during breakfast, but then there was a brief break so I went out for a short ride.

Starting off the day with a hearty breakfast. Now herding cats for the group picture. Abdullah and his wheels. Sam demonstrates how a tall person can be in the front row A couple of versions of the group picture. Now Italo gets the tourist ride organized. Off we go Sections of this part were downhill with a tailwind and we were beating the speed limit.

This year is in first time that I’m attending TBN’s marquee event: Cyclon. This year it is hosted at Brock University. My day started bright and early at Union Station. I was told later that bikes are not supposed to even enter the building during rush hour. I also forgot that the bike cars to Niagara only run on weekends. …

One of the nicest things about a Brompton is the luggage block that mounts a variety of bags onto the front of the frame. Several vendors are now making accessories for the Neo series of folding bikes, and so I got a front mount that was advertised as specifically for the Neo 9. Here's what was in the box. The things to note are a plastic shim that has a curved surface that matches the outer diamter of the headtube, a luggage mount with an elevated position, and an accessory strap to make it easier to actuate the latch that fixes the bag in place.

After P2A, I reinstalled my metal fenders from Portland Design Works. However, there has been an ongoing issue with these fenders: the struts are a bit too short, in particular the strut that is pointed towards the rear. This has resulted in the fender coming loose, as it did during my ride last year between Goderich and London. In that case, …

The portion of Biidaasige Park west of Cherry Street opened this weekend. Had to go check it out. It was great to see plenty of people walking and biking about to check it out. Here is a view of the waterfront from a different perspective that what was previously available. Wetland areas are incorporated as well. There are a couple of colorful metal sculptures that you can use to frame those instagram picrtures.