How long have you been riding a bike?

All my life really. It’s always been my mode of transportation in the city, I quite enjoy the ride.

What do you enjoy most about cycling?

I’m never really rushed, and you can look around and enjoy things. Also helps with staying fit and going places that cars can’t go.

What have you learned about cycling that you wish you knew when you started?

Higher quality bikes make riding much more enjoyable and they also last longer, whereas lower quality bikes break more often and have a more sluggish ride. Higher end ones are mostly well-built and make for a very nice ride.

What are the biggest changes you have seen in the last 10 years when it comes to cycling in Ottawa?

Bike accessibility, hands down. The city is much more bike friendly now. You can travel mostly anywhere now thanks to bike paths and bike lanes! I’ve even seen bike traffic lights.

What is your favorite cycling memory?

Too many, but it would have to be when I was biking home with a new LEGO purchase and the handle on bag broke… the box went flying into my front wheel. I was on my new bike so when I was falling, I force rolled onto my back and held the bike in the air above me, so it didn’t break. Bike saved, body may have taken a beating – lol.

What was/is your biggest challenge?  And how did you overcome it?

Finding the right bike. There are plenty out there, but the right bike matters a lot if you plan on more long distance commuting. The one I use now has been a trusty partner over many, many years and it’s a custom build I’ve done myself.  It’s been rebuilt several times by myself and is one of the best riding bikes I’ve ever owned. It makes me want to get out and ride more on it. It took going through 20 or so bikes to find the right one for me. But success! Also, a selection never hurts… Why have one bike when you can have 5 or 10…

Do you have a favorite path or route to bike in Ottawa?

The parkway’s always a fun place, the path beside the canal. There’s a lot to look at and they also close the parkway on Sunday mornings, opening it up for bikes and people to walk on.

What inspires you?

On a bike you can go anywhere, enjoy the things around you, meet new, interesting people. I feel good knowing that I’m one less person polluting the planet. Something else I do for the planet is on garbage day I take my bike or bike and trailer out and I collect all the bikes thrown out in my area to rerebuild them and send them back out into the community to be loved again. Reuse and ReCycle. I wish I could cover more area but I’m only one guy and his bike. You would be surprised at just how many kilometers I bike just doing this!

Sean has worked with IKEA Ottawa for over 13 years. Always as a Recovery Co-worker, in our ‘green’ department circular hub, refurbishing returned products and displays, offering a second life to products and materials to use in As-Is or for donation, and saving what we can with repacking, among much more. Sean is known by his fellow co-workers as the one who can fix anything to give it a second or even third life. More so, he’s known as the Bike Guru. He has his own bike maintenance business on the side, having fixed many of our co-workers’ bikes as well. Sean is a great asset to IKEA Ottawa and for ambitions of a more circular lifestyle.

I am delighted to give a bit of background information regarding the Active Living Club which has registered for the EnviroCentre’s Let’s Bike Month.  The members of our team are all part of the Active Living Club which is a City of Ottawa run program that promotes outdoor activities, in a group setting, for adults aged 50 and older in our city.  Activities include cycling and hiking in the spring, summer and fall. In the winter, the program offers snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. The leaders take us all over the Ottawa-Gatineau area to enjoy the trails, pathways, and landscape that our beautiful region has to offer. 

The members of the Active Living Club (ALC) team have been riding bikes for a combined total of more than 440 years with an average of 49 years of cycling each.  Most team members say they love the physical and mental benefits they derive from cycling but they also have a laundry list of other things they really enjoy about cycling:  the comradery of cycling with friends, the opportunity to foster new friendships, the enjoyment of fresh air and beautiful scenery, the sense of freedom that reminds them of when they were a kid, and the ability to get places in an environmentally friendly way.

The ALC team members have seen significant changes in the last ten years when it comes to cycling in Ottawa.  There is a general consensus that Ottawa is very proactive in getting more people out cycling: more paths, more cycling infrastructure, more awareness about the benefits of cycling and an increased sense that cyclists “belong”.  There continues to be room for improvement, however, with a suggestion to ensure there are paved shoulders wide enough for cyclists on all rural roads.

Of course, our team members have taken the opportunity to cycle on the paths and roads all over the beautiful National Capital Region.  We recognize and appreciate that this area is a cycling paradise compared to many other places in the world.  Given that adults have to be at least 50 years old to join the Active Living Club, our team has significant life experience!  Together, we have cycled in most of the provinces in Canada, in a number of states in the United States, and in France, Ireland, England, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and India. 

Cycling has also given our team members the opportunity to face and overcome a variety of challenges.  One team member talks about the challenge of re-learning to ride a bike after 40 years of not biking.  He started slowly at first, riding 10 to 15 kilometers at a time.  He now has no problem biking 40 to 50 kilometers at a time and managed to lose 45 pounds along the way (no, he is not looking to find them!).  Another team member broke his hip when he fell off his bike during a cycling event in Montreal two years ago.  Determination and persistence have him riding again with confidence and without pain.  Other team members talk about overcoming everyday challenges such as hills and wind.  Their advice is to face challenges more often rather than shying away from them (oh yes, and to complain less). 

Favourite paths or routes in Ottawa include the Ottawa River pathways for the beautiful scenery, anywhere in the Gatineau Park, and on rural roads in Manotick, North Gower and Ashton.

Finally, our team members take inspiration from other members of the Active Living Club program.  There are members of the program who are 75 years old (and older) who regularly ride 40 to 50 kilometres.  We are also inspired by people who may not have had the opportunity to ride a bike when they were young and who take on the challenge of learning to ride a bike as adults.   

Thank you to the EnviroCentre for organizing this year’s Let’s Bike Month and celebrating cycling in Ottawa!

Join EnviroCentre’s Jen Stelzer and Sharon Coward as they speak about Let’s Bike! What has changed? What has stayed the same? What resources are available?

Take a few minutes to watch the link below and get caught up with Let’s Bike. Don’t forget your helmet!

Watch here

We were so happy to recently discover Let’s Bike Stittsville and the great community led support they provide.  We reached out to get to know Jeff, his story and how Let’s Bike Stittsville came to be! Here’s our full interview.

How long have you been riding a bike?

I have been riding a bike regularly for about 6 years now.  A friend of mine gave me an old mountain bike that he no longer rode and I started to use it for a bit of exercise.  After a few rides I found myself going longer distances and began to realize that I was no longer doing it as a quick exercise routine, I was riding just for the enjoyment of fresh air and clearing my head.  In 2015, I made the decision to upgrade to a new bike that was a better fit for my riding style and have been riding that ever since.  I ended up donating the old mountain bike to another resident in Stittsville in hopes it would do the same for him as it did for me.  Last year while biking home from work, I was waiting at a light and my old mountain bike rode right by, it’s nice to know it’s still getting used.

What do you enjoy most about cycling?

There are two main benefits I love about cycling, 1) the improvements to my physical and mental health and 2) engaging with my community.

Since I started cycling there has been a big shift in my outlook on life and overall wellbeing.  I have lost weight, I sleep better, I’m less stressed and my mental health has improved.  The second benefit has been community engagement.  When you’re on a bike in your neighbourhood, you engage more with the environment and people than you ever could while driving a car.  Discovering hidden paths, new neighbourhoods, meeting new people and getting to areas that you can’t go with a car has been quite the eye opener.  It is so much nicer biking along a wooded pathway than being stuck in a traffic jam.

What have you learned about cycling that you wish you knew when you started?

Just how easy it is to start.  The first thing I had to get over was the stereotype of “cycling”, many people, myself included, prior to actually trying it have a stereotype in mind: someone wearing spandex, on a high performance road bike, flying down a road as fast as possible.  That view can be intimidating as it was for me.  Being overweight, the idea that I take up cycling seemed unrealistic because I didn’t fit the look, have the clothing or a decent bike.  The reality quickly set in once I started biking, that the overwhelming majority of riders are everyday people doing everyday things.  Parents and kids exploring, people running errands, exercising, going to work or school.  I try not to use the term cyclist any more I feel it evokes the wrong visual. We are not “cyclists”, we are people riding bikes.

What are the biggest changes you have seen in the last 10 years when it comes to cycling in Ottawa?

The biggest change I have seen since I started has been within the past couple of years.  Riding bikes seems to be much more popular than when I started and along with that comes a demand for better biking infrastructure.  Unfortunately, the city’s response to such demands has been lacking and there is a real need to make biking safer.  I live in Stittsville and one of the biggest obstacles I hear from people is that they don’t bike because they don’t feel safe. It actually inspired the development of our “Let’s Bike Stittsville” group (@stittsvillebike on Twitter and Facebook).  Co-founded by Rochelle Buenviaje and myself, we are trying to advocate to make things safer in Stittsville as well as encouraging people to leave the car at home and ride a bike when possible.

What is your favorite cycling memory?

I think my favourite memory was when I accomplished a major milestone by riding my bike to work (Stittsville to Downtown).  Previously, I was doing smaller rides around the community and going further distances.  During that time, I was getting to work on the bus however, Stittsville had bus issues and I would regularly find myself waiting for a late bus or the bus just not showing.  It was a combination of building up some endurance around my neighborhood and the irritation of bussing to work that made me decide I would just ride.  I did a bit of map searching to figure out how to get there and early one morning I went for it.  It was a great ride and adventure, so many new paths and parts of the city I never explored before.  When I got to work, I remember thinking this is much better than the bus and I ended up not renewing my monthly pass.  I now bike to work from about April until November and have saved thousands of dollars on bus passes over the years.

What was/is your biggest challenge?  And how did you overcome it?

My biggest challenge is winter.  Once the snow starts commuting via bike becomes more difficult.  West-end commuters rely of a few key pathways to get there as safely as possible and they are not winter maintained.  Once those pathways are no longer useable, it means my route to work would be on 80km roads, under less than ideal conditions and without any infrastructure to help keep me safe. That gets out of my comfort level.  I try to work towards making things better by spreading awareness that not everyone can or wants to drive and there is a real need to ensure everyone can safely get around the city regardless of their mode of transportation.  

Do you have a favorite path or route to bike in Ottawa?

Stittsville to Downtown via the Trans Canada Trail (31.4km)

• Grab a coffee at Quitters, need some fuel for the ride!
• Trans Canada Trail East until you get to Kichesippi Beer Co.  If you’re thirsty, stop for a beer, I am a big fan of the Hefeweizen.
• Head North on Greenbelt Pathway and keep going until you reach Watts Creek Pathway.
• Head East along the pathway until you reach Carling.  Cross the road to get to the Ottawa River Pathway.
• Keep heading East until Britannia Beach and feel obligated to stop a Beachconers for an Ice Cream (try the Peach Cardamom).
• Continue East along the Ottawa River Parkway and if you’re feeling tired or hot, take a rest or a quick dip at Westboro beach.  There is also the new NCC Bistro at Remic Rapids a few minutes past the beach.
• Keep trekking East and cross Booth St.  Mill Street is a minute away if you’re interested!

What inspires you?

Many things do, but a big one is people who are making a positive difference in their community.  I love seeing new ideas that bring about equity and efficiencies that benefit our community and environment.   Important things are rarely easy, there will always be obstacles in our way.  We can let them stop us, or we can work around them.  The latter is much more fun!