1995 model year and older vehicles produce 19 times more air pollution than 2004 and newer models. That’s one of the messages that the Retire Your Ride program was delivering at the Dundas Cactus Parade last week. Retire Your Ride is Canada’s vehicle recycling program. The program aims to get higher polluting vehicles off the road and is offering discounts on transit passes, bicycles, car sharing memberships, new or used cars, or even $300 cash to people willing to recycle their old cars.

I was happy to see the Bicycle Forest Pickup Truck Bike used to promote the cause. You can learn more about Retire Your Ride at: www.retireyourride.ca

Earlier this week, Reuters came to film a report on the Bicycle Forest. The first thing we did was take a couple treadmill bikes for a stroll in the park. The bikes turned some heads, so Reuters ended up interviewing a bunch of people about their thoughts on the new fitness craze. Reactions were surprisingly favourable. Scott Ferrede from Core Photography happened to be out as well. Scott took the photo above along with a bunch more which you can see on his blog.

When we returned from the park, we rode some more bikes and talked a little more about BikeCAD. Watch for this piece on TV in the coming weeks.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with the crew from the Chinese language television show which translates to Timeline Magazine. Lily and her team did a really thorough job of capturing footage of most of the bikes in the Bicycle Forest rental collection. They also interviewed me about my Maritime Couchbike trip, the Treadmill Bike, as well as my current focus on developing the bicycle design and fitting program BikeCAD Pro.

This piece should air in the next few months, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out. In the meantime, I better bone up on my Cantonese.

I find this especially flattering since I’m actually very much a novice on the unicycle. Most observers upon witnessing me in action would say that I’m anything but perfectly balanced. However, with my new Choice Organics Tea Shirt and a delicious cup of ginger herb tea. I feel like I’ll be ready for the circus in no time.

To learn more about Choice Organics check out their web site here. ]]> http://www.bikeforest.com/?feed=rss2&p=151 1 http://www.bikeforest.com/?p=147 http://www.bikeforest.com/?p=147#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:00:16 +0000 info http://www.bikeforest.com/?p=147 We’ve arrived in Richmond, VA for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. Look for us at booth #503. We’re just between Calfee and Cyfac and just across from Black Cat Bicycles.

I’m here with a pre-release version of BikeCAD Pro 7.0. I’m looking forward to showing off the new features including curved tubes, enhanced logo controls, and customizable colour palettes. I’ll also be doing a seminar at 4pm on Saturday. Hoping to come away from the weekend with some good feedback. To purchase a copy of BikeCAD Pro click here.

BikeCAD Pro version 6.52* is finally ready. New features include:

• The option to save and retrieve templates for laying out dimensions, paint schemes and frame styles
• Enhanced control of handlebar, and saddle design
• User dimensions can be created horizontally and vertically
• Angular dimensions can be shown in degrees, minutes and seconds
• CSV output file and dimensions dialog box have been synchronized
• CSV output file can now be customized
• Change the look and feel of the BikeCAD interface along with GUI font
• Three state lock frame icon
• Three state fork crown clearance icon
• A new Japanese translation thanks to Susan and Koh Annoura
• An updated Italian translation thanks to Francesco De Vittori

All these features and more are described in the following video:

More videos can be viewed on the new BikeCAD Youtube channel.

*6.52 includes a correction over 6.51. When selecting drop handlebars, 6.51 did not record the choice of ergo or track style bars. 6.52 can be downloaded from the same source as 6.51.

Last weekend was the Santa Claus Parade in Kitchener-Waterloo. Once again, a number of local environmental groups joined together to enter a float called the Tree Huggers. Here are some photos and a video from the day.

The Human-Powered Ornithopter (HPO) Project is part of a student organization at the University of Toronto that is focused on the design and construction of innovative, high-performance, human-powered vehicles. Their goal is to provide students with practical hands on experience in engineering design while at the same time promoting efficiency, sustainability, and the use of human-power as a means of reducing society’s impact on the environment. The HPO Project seeks to achieve one of humanity’s oldest dreams with the successful flight of a human-powered, flapping-wing aircraft, the last of the aviation firsts.

On Monday, the 43kg aircraft with a 32 metre wingspan took to the air for the first time.  On Saturday, October 24, 2009, the team will be displaying the ornithopter at the Great Lakes Gliding Club in Tottenham, Ontario from 10am until 4pm.

For more on the HPO project, visit: www.hpoproject.ca.

We stopped in Penticton for a couple of days to watch my brother Scott at Ironman Canada. Scott was disappointed with his race, but the rest of us were proud of his effort. Not everyone can turn in a top twenty result and still call it a bad day.

We got to cheer on a lot of the other pros as well. It was great to see Tereza Macel race to victory after she won Ironman Lake Placid only five weeks earlier.

I was teammates with Tereza at the 1996 World University Triathlon Championships in the Czech Republic. After having raced for so long, many would have assumed that her best races were behind her, but Tereza’s recent commitment to TeamTBB has obviously paid off.

It was also exciting to watch Jordan Rapp pull off the overall win. Jordan is well known for his movie themed race reports. You can check out his site at: rappstar.com.

After a couple of days at the Ironman circus, it was nice to hit the road again. Natalie and I didn’t put too much pressure on ourselves to cover a certain distance every day. However, mountain passes and the desire to reach certain campgrounds by nightfall sometimes made for some tough days.

Overall the weather was fantastic. We only had one really rainy day which was at its worst as we descended from Sinclair Pass in Kootenay National Park.

Of course, if it weren’t for the precipitation, we may not have got to enjoy the mountains in all their snow-capped beauty the next day.

The wolf on highway sign wasn’t the most reassuring thing to pedal past on our unarmoured bikes. We later learned that the sign had been up for the past two months. There had been a wolf begging on the highway and they were simply trying to prevent motorists from stopping and feeding it. Nevertheless, I was glad Natalie and I decided to leave our bicycles made of straw at home.

Believe it or not, we did make it all the way to Calgary. However, I dropped and broke my camera as we approached the continental divide. As a result, we have only the memories etched in our minds and a slightly heavy feeling in our legs to remind us of our amazing time in Alberta.

Already looking forward to the next bike ride!