BrompTOberFest 4

Today was the 4th Brompton ride held around the time of Oktoberfest. We have gathered at Pedaal, and as per usual there were a lot of shiny Bromptons in evidence. Laurence's purple electric T series was best of show. There was another build inside the shop that also had the Cerakote process done to the frame. Not sure if the same folks that yarn bomb the bike rings by Sam James Coffee did this one.

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kickstands and racks

I had a little time to relax this afternoon, so I did one of my favourite things: a bit of bike maintenance. First off: the Pletscher kickstand on the tandem broke a while ago. I was told that this is not uncommon. Installed the new one from Velo Orange. However, I moved the aluminum top plate from the old kickstand over to the Haul a Day where it provides much better clamping for that kickstand that…

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Ride the Link: close the gaps

Today there were two bike rides with similar themes: drawing attention to loops in the city that take advantage of the many off street bike and pedestrian paths that thread through the city, while at the same time are held back by significant gaps where there are no safe bike route connections. The longer route was the Loop Ride which includes parts of the Don Valley, the Don Mills Trail, the Finch Hydro corridor, and the Humber River Trail.

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Sept 2026 Critical Mass

This month's ride started at High Park. A pretty big crowd. This guy had a great lighted sign. You might guess who it is referring to at the moment. Two of the many usual suspects it was great to see. David goes over some safety instructions. And we're off for one lap of High Park. I'm corking at the Grenadier. It took a looong time for everyone to go by.

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WHPSC 2026: Wrap up

And so ends another week of racing down Route 305 in Battle Mountain, the fastest road in the world for human powered vehicles. It was a year with relatively few entries, and a mix of experienced and rookie teams. As per usual, what follows is a few notes on each team, in the order presented in my preview post.

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WHPSC 2026: Awards Banquet

The week of racing ends with the awards banquet. Here are all the racers that earned new hats this week. A bad selfie with all of the volunteers. We really ran the event on a skeleton crew this year. The flaggers kept us safe, and Mason did a great job as head flagger. Special recognition to the representatives of the local community who provided an unprecedented level of support for the event.

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WHPSC 2026: Saturday PM results

The short version: no legal winds, and nobody bettered their speeds for the week. Results – Saturday PM (PM) – 2026-09-19 Heat 1 · 5 Race · 17:20 Rider Bike Category Launch 200m (s) Speed mph Speed kph Wind fpm Wind m/s Legal New WR Note Justin Tangpongprush Typhoon Men 17:29 11.480 38.97 62.72 823 4.18 ✗ ✗ Heat 2 · 5 Race · 05:50 Rider Bike Category Launch 200m (s) Speed mph Speed kph Wind fpm Wind m/s Legal New WR Note Justin Strahm Woohoo! 2 Men 18:04 8.379 53.39 85.93 717 3.64 ✗ ✗ Ethan Todd Typhoon Men 17:59 10.146 44.10 70.96 719 3.65 ✗ ✗ Heat 3 · 5 Race · 18:20 Rider Bike Category Launch 200m (s) Speed mph Speed kph Wind fpm Wind m/s Legal New WR Note Adam Hari Dark Star Men 18:28 8.015 55.82 89.83 565 2.87 ✗ ✗ One last look at Typhoon. and Wahoo! 2

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Saturday AM

Six heats from the 8 km and one 4 km run this morning. Winds were forecast to decrease slowly as we approached noon, In the first heat, Alexis went 52.49 mph, earning a 50 mph hat. There were some very interesting decorations added to the shell. In the second heat, Justin Strahm went 51.04 in WooHoo!2, earning a 50 mph hat.

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WHPSC 2026: Friday PM

It was assumed that the winds would be bad for this entire evening session, and sure enough, the wind meter looked like this, indicating a strong headwind. Despite all that, Justin ran Typhoon in the first heat from the 4 km start and logged a 51.1 mph run, earning him a 50 mph hat. In this picture, you can see the repaired hatch, the front wheel fairing, and the Michelin Blue tires.

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WHPSC 2026: Friday AM

The first heat started out with a bang, with Adam Hari going 73.41 mph in Dark Star. He was followed by Justin Strahm in Woohoo! 2 with his fastest time of the week at 44.84 mph. Finally, Alexi in Beluga went through for the first time without the crash shield, going 48.05 mph. In heat 2, Calvin and Ethan pushed their speed up to 68.80 mph.

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WHPSC 2026: Thursday PM

Given the high winds forecast for tonight, we cancelled the 8 km runs, but we ran two heats of 4km to give Cal Poly the chance to qualify. It was great to see Cal Poly's bike come through timing twice. Both runs were by Justin, and his second run of 44.18 mph qualifies him to run the 8 km tomorrow morning.

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Thursday AM

Winds were pretty high so the fast people elected not to run. This left three heats from 8 km with Eta Prime. Christopher dropped a chain. Harrison scratched on the next heat. Erin elected to run, but she got blown off of the course. The wind reading we got just after she crashed was 1129 fpm, over 3 times legal wind.

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WHPSC 2026: Wednesday PM

Wednesday marks the midpoint of the competition where all of the racers start feeling a bit of additional pressure to get good runs. Tonight there were three 8 km heats scheduled, with Eta Prime slated to run three times, and one run for TITAN. In the first heat, Harrison had a dropped chain and was not able to run. In the second heat Erin went overtime on staging and was not allowed to run.

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WHPSC 2026: Wednesday AM

Heading out to the course in the predawn darkness to set up timing. This morning we had three heats from the 4km start, and then two heats from 8km. We've been continuing the qualifying throughout the week to maximize the chances of all entries getting down the course. Unfortunately, both Cal Poly and Sherbrooke were unable to run, so the 4 km heats were all Toronto all the time.

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WHPSC 2026: Tuesday PM

Tonight we had one heat from the 4 km, and two heats from the 8 km distance. The 4 km heat had three bikes and for the first time, all three bikes made it through timing, despite a fairly strong crosswind. Ethan Todd improved his speed in Typhoon to 42.84 mph. Harrison qualified in Eta Prime with a speed of 51.20 mph.

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WHPSC Tuesday afternoon show and shine

Tuesday afternoon is the traditional Show and Shine where local 3rd graders descend on us to take a look at the bikes and to meet the riders. Before the hordes descend. They feed us lunch. Team Hermus. Making sure that we all know that the bike is called Beluga. Cal Poly. Toronto and Team Falcon. The kids arrive. Beluga is a canvas. Kids clamber into Typhoon. Also Seiran. Adam Hari and Millenium. TITAN Meanwhile in the back, the team is trying to fix the Typhoon drivetrain.

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WHPSC Tuesday AM

Another day with four heats of qualifying and two heats on the long course unfortunately did not yield more than two bikes through timing. Cal Poly decided to scratch because they need more practice with launching without the landing gear. Beluga tried to run, but they had stored the batteries in their trailer overnight so the video screens went dead.

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Monday PM

A few nice runs tonight. Calvin and Ellen finally get down the track from the 4 km mark. Both Typhoon and Eta prime had issues, so the UofT crew showed up at the grandstands to see the last heat. As we approached sunset, Adam went by in Dark Star. Calvin and Ethan close out the day with TITAN. Results – Monday PM (PM) – 2026-09-14…

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WHPSC 2026: Monday AM

Up at timing bright and early. This is the trash I picked up while walking back from 200m. What is disturbing is not the amount, but that fact that it is 100% alcohol related. The plan for this morning was to get as many people qualified as possible, with four heats from 4 km, and two heats from 8 km. However, as it turns out, very few bikes actually made it down the course.

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WHPSC 2026: Sunday PM

Lots of work at the Civic Centre as the other four vehicles work towards getting their bikes to pass technical inspection so that they can actually run on Monday. Here is a nice trike brought by the Adachis. Many 3D printed parts, some of which will be replaced by metal. They plan to put a shell on it in time for next year.

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WHPSC 2026: Sunday AM

Greetings from Battle Mountain this fine Sunday morning. At catch, Nik is constructing this structure for people to use his binoculars while being shaded. Danny at work. Now laying down the wire to the 200m point at the start of the timing traps. Two bikes down the course this morning. Here is TITAN with Calvin and Ethan, and the crash panels.

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WHPSC 2026: Saturday Racers’ Meeting

Always nice to take a quick look around to see who's already here at the Battle Mountain Civic Centre. Adam Hari's two bikes, with Dark Star in the foreground. Larry Lem refurbished Seiran and will leave it here in case a short enough local rider is willing to give it a try in the future. A first look at Sherbrooke's entry.

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WHPSC 2026: T minus 48 hours

Thursday before WHPSC is the usual time that the Toronto team hits the road. It is a little over 3500 km from downtown Toronto to Battle Mountain NV, and according to Google at the moment, it is about a 32 hour drive. The teams need to get there during the day on Saturday to get the bikes through tech inspection in time for the first qualifying runs on Sunday morning.

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Another 10,000 km goes by

A lazy Sunday running errands around town. Just as I pull up to work, my Rock Lobster clocks 30,000 km. It's been a little over four years since I had 20,000 km on this bike. A few other random shots. On Runnymede Rd, the southbound bike lane in the underpass at the train tracks still needs cleaning up after the big storm.

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Final preparations for WHPSC

WHPSC is less than a week away, and both Toronto teams are busy with their final preparations. Here Evan is demonstrating that a newly installed rear view camera is working on TITAN, although he is showing the image on the front screen at this point. The other team is showing me that they printed out five video camera masts for Eta Prime.

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WHPSC 2026 Preview

September has rolled around again, and that means that it's time to preview this year's World Human Powered Speed Challenge (WHPSC). Up to date information on this year's event is available on the WHPSC website. This year's poster features Russell Bridge's streamliner "77" that raced more recently last year. Note also that the "mile" markers will be indicating the distance to the finish lines in kilometres.

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Critical Mass — Hands Off Our Bike Lanes!

YouTube video by Brian Tao

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Ghost bike for a cyclist killed in Hamilton

A cyclist was killed Saturday August 22 around 11 pm in Hamilton He was cycling northbound on Upper Centennial Parkway (AKA Hwy 20) in the vicinity of Green Mountain Rd. A ghost bike in his memory was placed this morning. Picking the ghost bike up from Geoffrey. Proof that at least part of the ghost bike's journey to Hamilton was by bike.

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