The 2010 Enbridge Ride to Cure Cancer in Alberta was absolutely spectacular !  Well over 2000 participants and in excess of 7.1M dollars raised makes it the largest fundraiser in Alberta ever.

Some of Dave’s impressions, riding a Strida for the 1st time and going 220 kilometres yet.

“There were no other “folders” in the ride.  I was surprised by some of the first impressions people had:  The racer/high performance crowd in general figured that I must be putting out twice the energy…until I let them ride it, and they were blown away by its performance.  I was invited by one “high performance” team to join them for next years ride ! The mountain bike riders were typically embarassed to be passed uphill by a “folding” bike and figured I must have legs of steel.

Downhill I was hard pressed to get much over 55Kph, and glad of it…Uphill was really good…There was one hill in particular, at about 80 K, that challenged the best and defeated many, yet this Strida allowed me to simply keep pumping away and cleared the top in good shape !  Very sweet ride!”

Our thanks and congratulations to Dave, and all the riders in the event!

As posted on RideThisBike.com

“Although a Strida folding bike may not seem like an ideal bicycle for long distance touring, Regis loves his. He has written that the belt drive and simple design makes the bike very reliable.”

You can take a look at  Regis’ blog. There are some stunning images there.

There is also a posting at VivaLaBike.com where they write:

“The Strida that he rides is a folding, single gear, belt drive bike. It’s designer Mark Sanders, designed the bike for urban commuters with the intention that the bike would be used for short commutes. However, we’ve found, and Regis has proven, that the Strida is a more than capable bike for long commutes and can withstand the rigors of the road.”

Thanks to Andrew for this.

In this post which evokes the Santa Baby Christmas hit, Richard drops the sable and adds the Strida among other temptations.

The corporation is just too big to apply common sense, to properly communicate within, and is indifferent to what travellers really think.  It’s not the issue that bicycles are green transport and as such, should be encouraged and welcomed. Air Canada is missing the key point here. They have a policy, appropriate for conventional bicycles that requires the passenger to pay a $50 fee to cover the cost of handling that unwieldly bicycle.  When it comes to bikes which fold up smaller than a snowboard, that do not require any special handling, the fee should simply not apply. Indeed, it often does not.

I have traveled on Air Canada with my Strida folding bike many times. Customarily I pay no fee, drop my Strida’s carry bag on the belt and pick it off the carousel on the other end, much like I do for many other items. Occasionally, when I have been told there is a charge for bicycles, I have had a discussion with the ticket agent in which I compare the Strida folding bike to many other items Air Canada accepts from me and thousands of others every day without a fee. Each time so far, I have not had to pay the fee.
A few weeks ago Yvonne Bambrick, Executive Director of the Toronto Cyclist’s Union, took a Strida folding bike to San Francisco on Air Canada. There was no fee requested on the flight down, but the $50 fee was insisted upon on the return flight.

Read some of the details of Toronto writer Lloyd Alter’s experience with, and impression of Air Canada’s policy in this Financial Post article. Lloyd Alter has stitched together a summary of the saga.

Interestingly while typing this post, I received two email messages from Air Canada offering me 15,000 bonus miles as part of a current marketing campaign to keep us all flying with them.

Sweet!

Some good points to consider from this site.

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