Everything Looks Better With Bicycles

It seems like I have been seeing bicycles in every second magazine I open.

Okay, I get that bikes are being treated as this year's must-have accessory, 

but I think it's more than that: tastemakers have discovered that 

everything looks cooler when it's photographed with a bicycle.

Ironic dust-collecting sculptures of wild animals.

{The otherwise covetable apartment of editor Kevin Sharkey 

in the September 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living.}

Ridiculously unwearable floor-length skirts.

(Love the cloche though!)

{Promotional email sent 13 Oct 2010 by Anthropologie.}

Huge padded eighties-style shoulders.

{Jean-Paul Gaultier via Fashionising, from July 2010}

Fur.

{Saks Fifth Avenue print ad campaign from Sept 2010 via Benepe's Bike Blog}

Shorts as office wear.

{Anna Kendrick in ELLE's October 2010 issue.}

Beauty is a state of mind, but please buy our skin cream.

{Marcelle cosmetics print advertisement in ELLE Canada, March 2009}

Seventies-style chunky-heeled boots and a Relic toque on a hyper-skinny model.

Of course, this bike is a vintage Raleigh-built Robin Hood,

so it naturally has the power to make things alluring enough to make out with.

{Print advertisement is from the October 2010 issue of In Style.}

Wait, the guy you were just snogging with has a bike with rod brakes and a double top bar?

Is that a Brooks B-33 saddle?

...Carry on, then.

{Print advertisement from ELLE Canada, September 2010}

...Powerless to resist ...the allure of ....vintage rod brakes

...combined with mothering instincts

...must ...buy ...cashmere ...scarves

{From the Autumn-Winter 2009 Burberry lookbook}

Exploring the Sharrows in Millwoods

We've been wanting for awhile to do a ride where we go explore the roads with the new sharrows in Southeast Edmonton, which have been installed painted this year as part of the implementation of the City of Edmonton's Bicycle Transportation Plan. Weddings and illnesses have intervened, but we finally got a chance this weekend, while turkey was in the oven and warm sunshine tempered the autumn winds.

We rode from Angel's place to her son's elementary school, followed the sharrows partway along the Millwoods Road loop in light traffic, then ducked down 66th Street (which is busier and has no markings) to warm up with coffee at Millwoods Town Centre. I definitely felt like the drivers on 66th were more impatient than those we encountered on the marked section of our route.

Angel has fantastic new slouchy suede boots and shiny teal tights.

The idea is that you ride square down the middle of each sharrow marking, 

but that makes it trickier to photograph them.

(When you ride over these fresh ones, unlike the older ones around the U of A,

you feel a gentle bumpity-bumpity-bump under your tires from how thick the paint is.)

A better view of an entire sharrow marking, taken with the camera at handlebar level.

Most of the way along Millwoods Road, the markings are in the middle of the lane, as seen here. 

However, there are also a couple of sections where they were placed (like a bike lane) closer to the curb,

and then cars had parked over top of them (which makes them considerably less helpful). 

The roads with sharrows also have signs like this one, reminding drivers to expect bicyclists in the lane.

Coffee was lovely. I had chai and a poppyseed roll, mmm.

Since the chain cafe where we stopped had no bicycle parking (shame!), 

we sat outside in the sunshine at a table beside our bicycles. 

The cafe could definitely use a rack, since there were three other bicycles parked beside ours.

Our next stop was Millwoods Park. We took some portraits:

Angel and Daisy

Angel complained that the wind was trying to flip up the hem of her stretchy jersey dress while she rode,

but she looked so comfy and colorful. Not to mention badass, in this shot.

Deborah and Mary Poppins

Vintage herringbone wool shift dress, herringbone patterned tights, and vintage Naturalizer pumps.

I like to imagine that the pumps were nurses' shoes in their previous life. 

I think in the future I'll wear this dress with leggings instead, 

since it had a tendancy to ride up as I pedalled, 

but the wool was the perfect weight for 13C with a cool breeze.

After Millwoods Park we swung down 26th Ave to peer through the window of an LBS I had noticed.

Then it was back via the road past Grey Nuns Hospital, and a residential street with great Hallowe'en decorations already being put up, to Angel's to chill out.

A Perfect Fall Day

It was a perfect fall day today: sunny and warm with just a hint of crispness on the breeze.

We met at South Campus LRT station and chatted for awhile...

Laura and Monie both had covetable boots.

Megan and Coreen

Elise and Micah. Check out Elise's patterned tights.

then rode the multiuse paths north...

saw some incredible things...

admired the homes in the mature neighborhoods near the University 

(and commented on how few now are the original bungalows)...

I spent a lot of the ride admiring Monie's cool slouchy purse with crossover strap and polkadot dress.

... as we took a 45 minute ride skimming the top of the river valley.

Sadly the leaves have mostly fallen already, but it did mean we had views through the branches.

High Level Bridge peeking through the trees

We stopped and took photos under the trees near the Faculty Club.

Karen looks amazing! 

She was our pregnant friend in the first Critical Lass ride, & her gorgeous little boy is 6 weeks old. 

The Fluevog boots, Sock Dreams tights, and corduroy skirt are a divine match to her vintage Sparta.

 Here's another shot of the Sparta (swoon!):

Laura sewed this incredible liner for her Eaton's Road King, BeBe, herself. 

She says the crucial thing is to dry-fit the bag to the basket before you sew the bottom in 

(which she learnt the hard way).

Coreen is effortlessly cool. Check out the button detail on her blouse and the purple tights.

Gorgeous Selene and her gorgeous Raleigh. 

We're so very grateful that they weren't badly hurt in the crosswalk incident a few weeks back.

You know, Judy, it's hard to get a good photo of a photographer! 

Matching the narrow belt you cinched your shirtdress with to your covetable Yakkay helmet? Nice touch.

Judy has lots of terrific photos from the ride on her blog.

This shot really shows off Micah's sundress and t-strap shoes,
and gives a nice glimpse of a beautiful tattoo and wonderful large-gauge ear plugs (I wish I had caught her name! update: on Corby).

Group shot. Thanks to the stranger who took this for us.

After photos, we continued on to the little retail area in Garneau near the High Level Bridge.

I also attempted some self-portraits:

I made the layered sterling silver chain necklace myself 

(the secret: tiny split rings and special pliers made for holding them open).

The hemp-blend skirt has drawstrings that let you ruche the top layer as little or as much as you like.

I triple-tied them so they wouldn't end up in my spokes. 

My equestrian boots are old favourites, 

bought to allow my summery 1st-pregnancy wardrobe be worn for my 2nd (autumn) pregnancy.

The dry leaves in the bike lane rustled as our wheels rolled through them.

I'm glad not all the leaves had fallen.

Our destination.

I didn't take any photos in redbike, our favourite LBS, but it's a wonderful shop full of temptations. I finally got to meet Cliff, the owner, and got some advice on a rack for installing a child seat - and Chris noticed that one of Mary Poppins' tires has a loose spoke and needs attention. (So *that's* what's creating that wobble in her gait!). I'll be returning very soon so they can attend to that and some other somewhat-urgent maintenance matters for me (Getting to EBC has been a challenge for me lately!).

Then we popped into The Sugarbowl for rehydration and an early supper. I probably spent an hour a day there back when it was a cafe and I was a grad student. The menu has changed, but the atmosphere is still wonderful there. We arrived just as the menu was switching, so some of us ordered right away from the brunch menu and the rest of us waited 15 minutes and ordered from the dinner menu. I had the delicious corn bread and part of an enormous serving of crab fritters - the rest got packed to come home.

Doesn't Selene's oatmeal look delish?

Karen's husband Dan and a friend met us at the bistro, so we all got to see her beautiful baby boy.

Then we parted ways, and Laura and I rode back the way we had come. 

On the way back I just enjoyed the ride without using my camera.

Thanks to all the fabulous women who came out for the ride!

Next Critical Lass ride date will be announced soon.

Update: in addition to Judy's blog post, there are more fantastic photos of our beautiful ride at Coreen's blog.