Poplar Plains Road at Cottingham.
WAAAAAHOOOOO! I biked Poplar Plains Road!
I am good. Really good. I’m a gooey sweet cavity filled kind of good. Oh yes I am!
After two seasons of walking my bicycle up Poplar Plains Road, this past week I finally rode my bike up that evil evil hill.
Yes!
And I rode up that hill on Saturday. I rode up that hill on Sunday. And on Monday, I rode up that hill. Feels good! Feels really gooood!
Take that, PPR! Your asphalt is mine!
In other bike news…
I had to raise my bike seat. My knees were making crunchy potato chip sounds after a recent ride. Obviously I squashed my seat post down and now my knees hate me. Today during my pre-weekend maintenance (I know, I know, I should do the maintenance AFTER EACH ride) I removed my seatpost, snugged up the saddle bolt, greased the post, and set it back to my usual height. Easy peasy. All the tools I needed were a #5 allen key and a 15mm cone wrench, and a wee bit of bike grease.
I have no new bike gadgets to report, but I must sing the praises of my pedals. They are great! The original ones were awful: made out of plastic, with a bit of rubber for grip. Utter garbage. I spent $15 on nice metal platform pedals with sharp grippy pokey things on one side of the pedals, and it’s smooth on the other side. I like the sharp side best. They go well with my skateboard shoes, and I’m not terrified when I coast down Russell Hill Road from St. Clair to Davenport.
My next challenge: a quicker route downtown. I ride down Duplex to Chaplain Crescent, through the park, then take Lascelles to Lawton, take a right at Oriole Gardens, a left on Bryce and then a right on Heath all the way to Russell Hill Road.
I WANT to take Duplex to Chaplain Crescent, through the park, then turn right on Kilbarry, and continue on Kilbarry to Russell Hill. I think it’ll carve nearly 5 minutes off my commute. This said, Kilbarry might as well be called KilLaura considering the relentless uphill ride and then a sharp rise as I go past Upper Canada College. Sigh, I’m going to ride it tomorrow. It will hurt.