A Tremendous Loss in the Cycling Community
RideCycleSpin | Steve's Cycling Blog
by steves
1y ago
The Waterloo cycling community lost a local legend in September 2002. At age 58, Igor Dragoslavic passed away while on a trail-building trip in Sault St. Marie, Ontario. Though he spent a lot of time in recent years in his homeland of Serbia, his time in Waterloo will be remembered by countless people. As word of his passing is starting to spread through the local cycling networks, it seems like everyone has a unique memory of Igor, whether it’s trail building at the Hydrocut, multiple mountain bike provincial wins, lost-in-the-dark gravel rides in the middle of winter, relentless Tuesday even ..read more
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Hurtin’ in Haliburton 8-hours of Gravel!
RideCycleSpin | Steve's Cycling Blog
by steves
1y ago
I can’t even remember the last cycling event/race I entered, but it was definitely pre-pandemic. Back in the summer, signing up for this 8-hour gravel event seemed like a good idea. Once my friend Andrea agreed to be my tag-team partner, we were all set. I just needed to get some good rides in before the September event. June turned to July, and the world was re-opening, and I spent most weekends doing all the things that were cancelled during the pandemic (travel, live music, visiting with people in person!). Then I caught COVID towards the end of July. Fortunately, I was able to get over the ..read more
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June 2022 cycling report
RideCycleSpin | Steve's Cycling Blog
by steves
1y ago
It seems like personal blogs like this have a half life. When I started blogging 5 or 6 years ago, I learned from some friends who were active bloggers. Some of them are no longer in the blog game. I started this blog to document my 50th birthday and the rides I did that year. In the past year or two, however, I’ve posted less. Blame covid or the state of the world, or apathy or burnout or whatever. I’m still cycling and I’m still getting some visitors, so I don’t plan on discontinuing. Now that it’s summer, I thought it would be a good idea to blog about my current headspace with regards to c ..read more
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2021 – Reflections
RideCycleSpin | Steve's Cycling Blog
by steves
2y ago
I haven’t blogged since September 2020 and since that time, I’ve had the thought that maybe this blog has run it’s course. What is the half-life of a blog, anyway? There are no rules, of course. I have been cycling – more this year than any year in the past. The pandemic has hit all of us in different ways. Many people have lost their job and others have changed jobs. Working from home has changed my view of life and I’ve made some job changes as well. Covid has given me the opportunity to evaluate my priorities. I have been very lucky and privileged through all of this. These changes include ..read more
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My Latest Bikepacking Setup
RideCycleSpin | Steve's Cycling Blog
by steves
3y ago
Over the past few years, there has been a noticeable growth in bikepacking. With the addition of routes and events such as the Central Ontario Loop Trail (COLT), Simcoe County Loop Trail (SCLT), BT700, Grand-Nith-Ramble, Cannonball 300 and most-recently the Log Driver’s Waltz (LDW), bikepackers have a range of events that offer different levels of difficulty. These events range in distance from 160 km (SCLT) to over 800 km (LDW). My introduction to bikepacking started in 2017, first with an overnight to Turkey Point and later a four-day trip around the COLT. Since that first year, I’ve experim ..read more
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Guelph to Goderich Rail Trail – A Cycling Gem
RideCycleSpin | Steve's Cycling Blog
by steves
3y ago
I’ve been cycling in the Kitchener-Waterloo (KW) area for close to two decades – first as a mountain bike and adding road riding a few years later. In about 2012 I added gravel riding to my list and it has become my favourite kind of cycling. Back in those early years of gravel grinding, a “gravel bike” was anything that could be used on dirt and gravel roads. I had an old hard-tail mountain bike that I constantly tweaked to be suitable for these rides. Others were on cyclocross bikes or full mountain bikes. In the years since those rides, I’ve explored the back roads around KW and seen the wo ..read more
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Bikepacking the Simcoe County Loop Trail and More!
RideCycleSpin | Steve's Cycling Blog
by steves
3y ago
Without getting into too much detail, in June of 2019, I joined a work colleague Kelly and headed to Barrie to meet a larger group of cyclists from the GTA to ride the Simcoe County Loop Trail (SCLT). This 160 km loop includes rail trail, city trails and some paved roads and has been growing in popularity recently. At about the 120 km mark of that ride, I decided to call it quits because I was having concussion symptoms. The resulting map of my incomplete ride left me feeling that I had unfinished cycling in this area. I knew I’d complete the loop, it was just a question of when. 2020 has been ..read more
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Product Review: 2020 Salsa Fargo Apex 1
RideCycleSpin | Steve's Cycling Blog
by steves
3y ago
After months of contemplation and a lot of consultation and research, I finally took the leap and purchased an adventure bike. I had my eye on a Bombtrack Beyond at one of my local bike shops (King Street Cycles), but by the time I was ready to buy, it had sold. So I was back to the research. This summer, with quarantine and nice weather, bike shops haven’t been able to keep a lot of bikes in stock; it seems everyone is buying bikes, and this is a good thing! My local Salsa dealer (also King Street Cycles) didn’t have any bikes in my size, so I started to look elsewhere. I ended up buying from ..read more
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Guest Product Review: The New Cannondale Topstone Lefty: A Two-Wheeled iPad
RideCycleSpin | Steve's Cycling Blog
by steves
4y ago
This post is something new for RideCycleSpin.com : A guest post! I’ve known Barry Cox since 2002 when I started racing mountain bikes. That year, Skiis and Biikes hosted a Tuesday Night Race Series at Kelso. As with any race series, there was a wide range of speed and skill levels. Young guns like Peter Glassford would race about 5 laps of a 4 to 6 km course, while weekend-warriors like Barry and I would do about 3. I can remember racing my Kona Mokomoko against Barry’s Klein (was it the Mantra?) while we both fought our way up the long gravel climb at Kelso in a cloud of dust created by the f ..read more
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Gravel Cycling near Kitchener-Waterloo
RideCycleSpin | Steve's Cycling Blog
by steves
4y ago
First: a brief history of my cycling life.  Like many kids back in the day, I had a banana-seat 3-speed (I wish there were some photos of that bike).  In high school, I got into road cycling and bought a nice Bianchi in about 1984 (I still have that bike, but I’m looking for a buyer). In the early 1990s I bought my first mountain bike and through the 90s and into the 2000s, my passion was mountain biking. However, in the early 2000s, I bought a used road bike – something a little more up-to-date than that old Bianchi.  And I joined the Waterloo Cycling Club.  From about 200 ..read more
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