Table of Contents
Welcome
This is the landing page for cycling on my WordPress site. It has been updated over time. Since July 2023, I have lived in the Township of Esquimalt, which is adjoins the City of Victoria, on the Esquimalt Peninsula, on southern Vancouver Island.
Logs
Current (2024)
My log for 2024 is a Google Sheet. I expect to update it at the end of October.
2023
My log for 2023 is a Google Sheet, listed in the table in the All Logs section below. My distance in January and February 2023 was barely over 300 km. I rode once in January on January 1, 2023 after a snowy Christmas week. I stopped riding for nearly six weeks as I recovered from surgery. I had a few rides in February, as the weather permitted and began to ride regularly in March. The weather improved in April and May. June, July, August. I lost a few riding days in July to move and do chores associated with moving. September was dry and sunny until a storm September 24-25. It began to get cold and rainy in October. I had a problem with nosebleeds in October as the indoor heating reduced relative humidity in my living space.
Terminology
Bikes I owned:
| Abb. | Make/Model | From – To | Type | Drive train, shifters |
| KA | Kuwahara Apollo | 1980 – early 2022 | Road, drop bars | 2 x 6, friction shifters on down tube |
| Y | Giant Yukon | 1990 – 2015 | Mountain, “hard tail”, upright, flat bars | 3 x 9. Indexed thumb levers |
| FX | Trek FX4 | 2015 – early 2022 | Mountain, Hybrid, upright, flat bars | 3 x 9 Indexed thumb levers |
| CT | Cannondale Topstone (alloy frame) | 2019 | Gravel, drop bars | 2 x 11, indexed, brifters |
After August 2019, my rides were all on my Cannondale Topstone (“CT”). I noted distance on the CT and the drivetrain 2019-21 in my logs. Notes to identify chains, lubrication and other maintenance are included in recent logs:
| ID/Key | Chain | Describe | Details |
| KMC | KMC X-11 | On bike Aug. 2019 when bike purchased | |
| SRAM ‘21 | SRAM PC 1170 | Installed April 2021 | |
| YBN SLA1100 | Ti-Nitride Black | pre-waxed, | |
| YBN.C.02 | YBN SLA110 | Rainbow | pre-waxed, purchased March 2022 |
| YBN.C.03 | YBN SLA110 | Silver | pre-waxed, purchased Sept. 2023 |
| SRAM ‘22 | SRAM PC 1170 | Purchased March 2022 |
In 2022 I started to lubricate my drive chain in melted paraffin (aka hot wax). I use Molten Speed Wax (“MSW”) on YBN SLA 11 speed chains, supplemented with Silca Super Secret Chain Coating (paraffin wax emulsion). I have some CeramicSpeed UFO Drip (also a wax emulsion), but have not used it yet. I used Silca Synergetic wet lube on a SRAM chain in early 2022 before I started to wax, and on a second SRAM chain when supply chain issues held up my acquisition of a supply of MSW paraffin wax.
The log sheets have columns noting which chains I used, and cells calculating the distance on each waxing of the chain.
All Logs
My previous years logs are almost entirely cycling. Some years I noted some days when I did not ride, and some other events or activity. In 2011, I started to make regular long walks (partly as therapy after a stroke).
| Bike(s) | Distance (Km.) | Post | Google Drive | |
| 2025 | tba | tba | ||
| 2024 | CT | tba | Google Sheet | |
| 2023 | CT | 6,638.6 | 2023 Rides | Google Sheet |
| 2022 | CT | 6,095.1 | 2022 Rides | Google Sheet |
| 2021 | CT | 4,373.8 | Cycling in 2021 | Google Sheet |
| 2020 | CT | 2,611.2 | 2020 Rides | Google Sheet |
| 2019 | FX & CT | 2,211.9 | 2019 Rides | Google Sheet |
| 2018 | FX & KA | 2,283.6 | 2018 Rides | |
| 2017 | 2017 Rides | |||
| 2016 | 2016 | |||
| 2015 | 2015 | |||
| 2014 | 2014 | |||
| 2013 | 2013 | |||
| 2012 | 0 | 2012 | ||
| 2011 | 2011 | |||
| 2010 | 2010 Log | |||
| 2009 | 2009 Rides | |||
| 2008 | 2008 | |||
| 2007 | 2007 |
Weather
Environment Canada
Environment Canada, an agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Government of Canada provides current weather condition reports and short term forecasts for places on the Saanich Peninsula and along the “west shore” (west of the City of Victoria) along the southern tip of Vancouver Island through web pages and an app. Other conditions, such as smoke and pollution, are published online by other agencies. Environment Canada will note smoke in its published current condition reports and forecasts.
Some of the places are municipal corporations, and others are places within municipalities. Many places do not have a weather station (automated or staffed by human beings who observe conditions and instrument readings) used by Environment Canada. The places and weather stations, as of late 2024:
| Place Name | Municipal Body | Station |
| “Victoria” | Capital Regional Dist. | Victoria Airport (“YYJ”) |
| Sidney | Sidney | YYJ |
| North Saanich | North Saanich | YYJ |
| Central Saanich | Central Saan. | YYJ |
| Saanichton | Central Saan. | YYJ |
| Brentwood Bay | Central Saan. | YYJ |
| Saanich | District of Saan. | Victoria Harbour |
| City of Victoria | City of Victoria | |
| Oak Bay | Oak Bay | Victoria Harbour |
| Esquimalt | Esquimalt | Esquimalt Harbour |
| View Royal | View Royal | Victoria Harbour |
| Colwood | Colwood | Victoria Harbour |
| Langford | Langford | Victoria Harbour |
| Goldstream Park | Langford | Victoria Harbour |
| Metchosin | Metchosin | Victoria Harbour |
| Malahat | Malahat | |
| Duncan | North Cowichan | |
| East Sooke | Sheringham Point | |
| Sooke | Sheringham Point | |
| French Beach | Sheringham Point |
There are other weather stations on the Sooke Peninsula (e.g. University of Victoria, Hartland Park) and southern Vancouver Island, and marine stations offshore (Race Rocks, Trial Island Kelp Reefs).
Current Conditions & Forecasts
The weather at a place is reported hourly (the reports identify the weather station for which the current conditions are reported) to the last hour and states “current conditions” at the weather station including:
- current observation (reported as “not observed” or not observed before 6 am for the station),
- temperature,
- humidity,
- wind speed and direction.
The reports include forecasts for the next 24 hours and the next 7 days, for the Greater Victoria area, rather than the specific places.
Logging
I used cycling computers to monitor and record my cycling trip distances. My current device is a Garmin Edge Explorer, a cycling GPS receiver. My previous device was a Garmin Edge 130, with GPS.
Before I bought my first GPS unit in 2019, I took distance from older units and used a spreadsheet application on a desktop computer to log the rides. This worked for the years 2007-2015. In 2016 I converted the spreadsheets to that point to tables in the TablePress plug-in the WordPress CMS. I changed the way I saved the data back to spreadsheets in 2022. I used the Garmin app to log after I started to use GPS. The Garmin apps categories of road surfaces are rough; only one category can be noted per ride. The Garmin apps record the bike used but do not record maintenance, repairs and other details I want to track.
The data became too complex to manually enter into TablePress. TablePress was not a spreadsheet program and did not support the calculations I needed. The data was too personal and specialized to be worth publishing. In 2022,the developer of the plugin started to shift the financial model of developing the software to a paid subscription model in the WordPress ecosytem, and changed the basic free plugin. I found another way to summarize cycling information for my WordPress site. I started logging my bike rides (distance traveled and other details) in a LibreOffice Calc sheet on a home device in 2022. I phased out and deleted TablePress cycling data tables after exporting the data and saving it in csv format on my home device. I created new spreadsheets for my own use and put yearly data in year end posts. l converted the 2019-2022 sheets to Google sheets and published them to a Google Drive location. Then I started to publish current year data by publishing the spreadsheet as a Google Sheet on my Google Drive. In 2022 I began to keep my logs in LibreOffice Calc spreadsheets and publish them as Google sheets at the Google Drive location.
Pages & Posts
I have pages with my views of riding in Victoria, and the Galloping Goose, Lochside and E&N regional trails. Also, the Interurban Route. Some links:
- Victoria Routes.
- Bikes page – my bikes, some gear
- Gear preference page (in progress).
I have published some posts on geography, elevations and distances.
I have blogged about the tech on my bikes, and some tech issues:
- after buying a gravel bike in 2019, gravel and all-road bikes. My current bike has 700c x 38 mm. tires, that I run soft enough for comfort. I have put on fenders and use a cycling computer. On bikes I owned in the past, I used a Cateye (and a Bontrager) calibrated to the wheel diameter. I use a Garmin cycling GPS unit now;
- (2021-22) on chain wear, lubrication and replacing chains: The Bike Chains Project (List of Posts);
- tires:
- xxx;
- Tubeless ready tires are regarded in the cycling industries as an improvement on clincher tires. Tubeless tires require a rider to have the right tools and skills to repair a flat.