Article in The Brampton Guardian about my fund raising ride.

To donate: Click on the following secure link provided by CNIB - http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=2184105&langPref=en-CA

The Brampton Guardian - July 25 2014, page 17

Lake Erie ride next challenge for Brampton senior

By Junus Huang

Special to the Guardian 

When it comes to limitations such as age or partial blindness, Brampton's Budi Tahir doesn't let either stop him from planning his third cycling tour. This time, he's riding around Lake Erie.

When Tahir attempted his second try around Lake Ontario two years ago at the age of 70, most believed that would be the end of his cycling career. Not so. Encouraged by his wife, Theresia, the former Technical Consultant from Nortel Network who migrated to Canada in 1968 from Jakarta, Indonesia will be riding as a fundraiser for the Canadian National Institute (CNIB) for the Blind at the age of 72.

CNIB provides services for people living with vision loss. It's an avenue to obtain independent living skills and includes clothing management, food management, and personal hygiene - simple, everyday things that people without any physical limitations do with great ease but are extremely difficult for those living with disabilities.

"CNIB is an amazing organization. Many people, after losing part or all of their vision, reclaimed their independence and zest for life back with the help of CNIB," says Tahir who lost about 60 percent of his vision in his right eye due to glaucoma.

The cycling tour begins August 17 from his Brampton home and goes on for approximately 11 days. It's about 1,100 kilometres around Lake Erie which means there will be 100 kilometres worth of biking per day, he explains.

On his personal blog, he also says all donations will go directly to the CNIB - all expenses will be paid by Tahir, at a cost of $100 per day.

"Besides fundraising with the bicycle tour, I hope to inspire others to live up their dreams, stay active and challenge oneself no matter how old or what limitation one has. I also hope Brampton will be proud to have a senior member of their community taking on this adventure that not many could do," he says.

For more information about the cycling tour, visit <http://www.busybudi.blogspot.ca <http://www.busybudi.blogspot.ca>

Cycling North of Brampton

Side note: For my CNIB fundraising click here.


Saturday, July 26 2014, the weather was a bit cool (19 C) for a summer day. Some wind and clouds, good for distance cycling. The fore cast called for rain latter in the afternoon.

Michael, Kristian and I started our bicycle ride from my house in Brampton at 9:45 AM; we went North.
This was Michael's first cycling tour through the country side North of Brampton. Michael said he wanted to do some training, cycling the hills in Caledon. So I made a special route that will take us cycling many challenging hills and showed the beautiful and interesting places North of Brampton.

Our route - 84.4 km

This route took us to Badlands, Bellfountain, Forks of the Credit and Caledon East. We cycled North on Dixie Rd. then turn East onto Old Base Line Rd. which was nicely paved and had rolling hills, some very challenging ones near Badlands.

Kristian and Michael paying a short visit to Badlands, Cheltenham.

Then we head North on Mississauga Rd. to Bellfountain, here we had a short break at 'The Shed' coffee house. This place is a very popular 'watering hole' for cyclist and bikers.

About 20 minutes later we were back on our bicycles and rode along the scenic Forks of the Credit Rd. 

Forks of the Credit - Hair Pin turn
Photo by unknown

After mostly going down hill along Forks of the Credit, we turn North onto McLaren Rd. to face the toughest hills on this route. I had never been able to cycle up this long series of hills in the past. Twice I walked up; the second time I cycled a bit further up. This time I managed to conquer it and cycled all the way up. We all rested a bit on top of the hill, it was hard even for Kristian and Michael, before continuing on towards Caledon East.
Charleston Sideroad was very busy with traffic. The Escarpment Side Rd. was not paved, it was a packed, somewhat smooth dirt road. We passed secluded, densely treed properties of large houses.
For our next rest, we headed for the 'Trailside coffee house' in Caledon East. This popular coffee house was closed, it looked abandoned. Not sure if it will be renovated and open again or permanently closed.
So we had our rest at 'Caledon East Bakery', it was a good choice.

Final rest - Mikado 'coffee house' -:)

The ride back was easier although the wind shifted and was in our faces again. We got back to Mikado Crescent at about 3:00 PM. Michael was impressed with the route, he said he never knew that there were beautiful places to ride on so close to home. Kristian rode the Caledon hills with me many times before and he loves it. I love showing off my 'back yard', North of Brampton. We had an wonderful day. End.

Cycling to Niagara Falls - 2014

Side note: For my CNIB fundraising, click here.

Saturday morning, July 12 2014, I waited for Kristian and friends at McDonald on Lake Shore Rd. and Cawthra in Mississauga. Send text msg to Kristian that we were already at McDonald.While waiting and having coffee with Theresia and Edward, I played around with my Nexus7 and the 'ridewithgps' app. The weather was nice, temperature 21C with a high of 28C fore casted, the sun was shining and the wind moderate.

One month earlier, Kristian informed me that Clayton was organising a bicycle ride from Toronto to Niagara Falls and asked me if I would like to join them. I cycled with them two years ago, it was fun. So naturally I signed up, besides this time the route will be slightly different.

Start from Mississauga to Niagara Falls - 138 km.

At 8:08 AM, Clayton and friends, minus Kristian arrived at McDonald; they cycled from Toronto. Clayton informed me that Kristian was late and was about 10 minutes behind them, he asked if I would cycle with them to the next rest stop in Burlington or wait for Kristian. I decided to wait, so they continued to Burlington without me. Thanks for stopping by, guys.

Lake Shore Rd. and Cawthra Rd. was the starting point I choose for this ride because it was much easier for Theresia to drop me off compared to Port Colborne, Toronto, where every one else started.. About 20 minutes later, Kristian arrived; by this time I was already waiting for him at the side of the road, so without waisting any time we took off. I was a bit anxious to catch up with the others; repeatedly I reminded myself not to cycle too fast, to pace myself so that I could cycle the distance. The others were enjoying their rest as we arrived at the Lakeshore Coffee House in Burlington.
At this point Kristian had cycled close to 75 km without rest, drink or washroom break; it was a new personal record for him. He started from his house at Finch and Yonge St. After a washroom break and a short rest we all continued our ride together. There were eight of us. Clayton lead the way.

The next planned rest stop was Port Dalhousie which is about 75 km from Burlington. The group pace was faster than I was comfortable with. I kept my own pace, if I tried to keep up with the group I might not be able to ride the whole distance to Niagara Falls. Soon they were out of my sight. I was not worried, Kristian stayed with me and I had printed cue sheets for the route. The turn by turn navigation from 'ridewithgps' had stopped working, so I just put my Nexus7 away.

As we reached Beamsville, I was going to tell Kristian that I needed a washroom break when I saw Clayton and friends  stopping on the side of the road. Some one, I think it was Michael, had a tire puncture and needed to replace his inner tube. We took this opportunity to take a short rest and washroom break at a nearby Tim Horton's.

Port Dalhousie was now about 25 to 30 km ahead of us. It was 12:30 PM, we decided to continue on and have lunch at one of the restaurants on Lock St. in Port Dalhousie. As I turned the corner from Main to Lock St., I heard someone called my name, Clayton and friends were seated at the restaurant outdoor patio and were ordering their food.
I had a bowl of chili with taco chips for lunch. After lunch, washroom break and water bottle refill, we cycled to our final destination - Niagara Falls; 40 km to go.

With my slower pace, I was again behind the main group. We made a left turn to Queenston St., by this time I had cycled for 124 km, Kristian warned me about a very steep hill just ahead. Great. Wished it was in the middle or better in the beginning of the ride. Using Shadow's granny gear, I pedalled slowly and steadily up the hill; managed to climbed it without walking.  At the top of the hill we met the main group again. Larry had some mechanical problem with his bicycle.

We climbed another hill, this one was just as steep but much shorter than the first one. Our final destination, The Falls, was now just 12 km ahead. We cycled along the Niagara Parkway recreational trail. A couple times we had to cross the Niagara Parkway and waited for the traffic to clear. As usual, especially in the week end, many tourist walked around the Falls area. As we walked our bikes to cross Cliffton Hill, we saw the main group resting across the street and enjoying the view of the Falls. Hooray! We reached our destination. We took a group picture, then walked our bicycles to the Secret Garden Restaurant.

Michael, Budi, Adri, Eddie, Larry, Eric, Clayton , Kristian.
Photo from Michael.

It was about 5:00 PM, we sat at the restaurant's outdoor patio and rewarded our-selves with cold beer, ice creams and other treats. After a while, Clayton and Eric left us to join their wives at the hotel; they are staying overnight. At about 6:30 PM, the rest of us cycled to the train station to catch the 7:20 PM train back to Toronto. I got off at the Port Credit station where Theresia picked me up.

Thanks to Clayton for organising the ride. Thanks to Kristian for inviting me and for staying with me through the ride. I had a great time. We all enjoyed the ride. I am looking forward for next year ride. End.

Fund raising ride - update 3

Note: To read my first blog on cycling around lake Erie and update on the fund raising, click here. On the second update, click here.

To donate: Click on the following secure link provided by CNIB - http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=2184105&langPref=en-CA

Just one month plus a couple days till D-day, time for an update. D day is now set to Sunday, August 17; I will tell you why, later on.

Fund raising: As of to day, July 15, $2,880.00 is raised. Thank you all for your generosity.
New sponsors are: Ash D'Silva, Barbara Low, Edward Tjioe, Laurene Cheung, Thomas Chen, Rudy Leem, Inge Susanto, Merna Jules, Lesmana Gani, Kwan Bhe, Iwan Suwandi, Florentina Harjani, Meta and Tony Tan, Elizabeth Liu, John Liem, Ira Djuanda, Gloria Campbell, Stephen Dobson, Merle Gonsalvez, Patricia Peltier-Joseph, Rudy Budi Hartono, David Tan, Roger Pascall, Leza Laswardi, Marcel Tio, Franciscus Sukardi, Maria Sudjana, Bernice Quintieri, Sioe Theng, Eric Tchao.

Preparation for the big ride.

Navigation:
Last month, I was introduced to a navigation tool that I thought would be helpful for my ride around lake Erie. Our team leader, Greg, for the 50 km Blaze-a-thon ride used his android smart phone with a gps app from ridewithgps.com, to get an audio turn-by-turn navigation during our ride. I was intrigued. I do not have a smart phone but perhaps it could work with my Nexus7 tablet.
After spending some time exploring the ridewithgps.com site, I decided to sign up as a basic member. The audio turn-by-turn navigation works well with my Nexus7, as long as the route is planned well. It took me some time to learn to plan and set up the route properly.
Here is a sample of my plan for Day-2 ride around lake Erie.
There are still things to explore and learn from ridewithgps.com, so far I am happy with it. The basic membership cost $6 a month and I do not have to purchase any new hardware to use the software. I will certainly use it for my ride around lake Erie.

Training:
Ride 4 or 5 times a week. Week days I cycled around the neighbourhood for about 35 km and in the week-end, north of Brampton for about 60 to 75 km.
Last Saturday, July 12, I cycled to Niagara Falls from Mississauga, total distance 138 km, carrying about half the load that I would carry on my tour around lake Erie.

Hills, near Glen Williams north-west of Brampton.

The route I cycled to Niagara Falls from Mississauga on July 12.

Physically I feel good and ready for the big ride around lake Erie.

Logistic:
Changed the D date to August 17 from August 31, because after September 2 the ferry service from Sandusky to Pelee island is limited to 2 runs, one on Friday and another one on Sunday, for the whole week.
To avoid going through Detroit and finding a way to cross the Detroit bridge back to Canada, which is restricted to cyclist, I decided to take the ferry from Sandusky to Pelee island and another ferry from Pelee island to Kingsville, Ontario.

Still have to work on the remaining plan for the route and study available facilities, like restaurants and bicycle stores, along the route.

I will write one more update before the big day, see you then.