Megan Siegel

Video: Fixed to Hogtown

Biking from Sudbury to Toronto in October might have been a bad choice, but we did it and we made a video. Thanks to Doug and Matt for being my road pals and for putting this vid together. Also for motivating me when I wanted to bail on day 3.

Enjoy!

5 reasons to love YNOT straps

I picked up some YNOT straps for my Leader and have nothing but love for them. Not only are they amazing foot retention, tight-fitting, easily adjustable and practical—they do lots of other things too:

1. They come in all kinds of fun colors like camo and RAZZLE.
2. They make the install process easy with this video.

3. Local, handmade, innovative, quality products from a team of super solid people.
4. They make lots of other things like bags, u-lock holsters, laptop sleeves and more.
5. They team up with OTHER local businesses to sell fun products. 
 

BONUS REASON: Best of all, they’re made of fabric so they don’t ruin your shoes!! 

Buy YNOT straps online or at lots of shops worldwide. Or drop by their office at 500 Keele St. (unit 102) and pick them up IRL.

Mercy Leather Work

According to their Facebook page, it looks like Rusty from Mercy Leather Work is busy with holiday orders and working on new designs until the spring. Which leads me to believe he’s doing well and making lots of bags! Deservedly so—this messenger bag is one of my favorite belongings. 

This is the one I have, but all bags are totally customizable. If you don’t see the style you like, just ask and Rusty will probably be able to work with you to make the perfect bag. He also does pedal straps, keychains, u-lock holsters… you name it.

Beautiful AND totally functional with all the stability straps you need for cycling.

Visit Rusty’s Etsy store to see what he’s got left in stock.

Sudbury to Toronto

Next week I am biking over 600kms and spending every night in a tent with these two dudes. What could possibly go wrong? 

Tour de Greenbelt: 100kms fixed

10 days before the Tour de Greenbelt I decided I needed to have my new bike ready for the ride on the 15th. It all came together the night before the ride. Luckily it’s a similar setup to my old bike and I had been riding the new saddle for a couple of weeks, so it was actually a pretty comfy ~100kms.

We got down and dirty with final tuneups the night before, had a last-minute wheel glitch and had to swap them out for my old Charge Plug wheels. Was good and ready by 11:30pm, in bed by midnight to meet for the shuttle at MEC at 7:15am.

Matt taped my foot on the shuttle and then I was good to go. Got a bit lost due to poor signage and didn’t fuel nearly enough during the ride, but luckily I caught up with Andrew somewhere around the 55km mark and we finished out the ride together. We missed the last turn sign and only ended up clocking about 85kms, but of the first 8 people finished the ride, 6 of them were torontofixed riders, so that’s pretty rad.

I was also the only female out there on the 100km course. Represent!

Exhaustion set in after the tour and we all obnoxiously piled our bikes on a TTC bus then the subway and hitched a ride back downtown. Turns out my 30km daily bike commute is actually great base-level training for longer rides like this. Hopefully I can survive the BIG one we have coming up in October.

After today, I’m hoping to have some less bike-centric posts going on here.

Here’s a map of the route. Click through for more detail.

The next day I clocked 20kms by foot in TO and currently can’t move. I’ve got a massage booked and some more hefty rides over the next couple of weeks. Wish me luck :s