Words of Advice for TO, Mukluks, and Scotland

I came across this article a few days ago: kind words of advice from a Montrealer to Torontonians who are about to encounter Bixi. I thought it was cute. Plus, hooray for Toronto for getting Bixi. It's a town that does lend itself to getting around by bike, as my brother found when he was living there: you can use side streets and paths to get almost anywhere (unlike Ottawa, where outside of the downtown core the side streets don't cross the waterways that run through the city, so you're forced onto bigger streets.)

On a completely different note, Salsa Cycles just introduced a snow bike that looks really cool for all kinds of terrain, not just snow: the Mukluk. Check it out here: I know it's hard to think about snow at the beginning of August (even if the cicadas have started buzzing and the nights have started getting cooler) but think about what this bike might do on sand, dirt, debris, gravel. If I was rich, I'd be looking at a bike like this for the winter, and then once I had it, I'd start itching to do some massive offroading. (Once, last summer, I decided to try one of the ski paths at Mer Bleue Bog, which are nominally hiking trails but actually sit under about six inches of water and muck for most of the trail, and are knee-high in grasses and weeds. I was dragged to a slogging halt, and finally gave up halfway to bushwhack my way back to the road, spattered with mud to the shoulders. Now with one of these bikes, I'd totally give that trail another shot.... on a day when I didn't mind getting really dirty.) 

And this might be my last post for a little while: I'm heading to Scotland for a couple of weeks to visit my sister and her husband! I can't say that I won't be posting (apparently there are some great bike routes in Scotland) but I make no promises. I may be way too busy having fun!