I’ve spent the last decade riding trails from Hardwood to the Don Valley to Hornby Island, but like any junkie will tell you, you can never reclaim that first high. And I don’t expect to – my current bike is a more capable, robust sample of American engineering (and Taiwanese manufacturing) than that white Norco, and my skill has increased exponentially since that August ride in 2008. But there’s something more at work…
Read MoreAll our lives, we meander through plastic fields of impending garbage. Our thousand-dollar iPhones, our flat-screen TVs, our designer toasters, and of course, our fickle printers – all of it rapidly approaching the eternal ignominy of the trash heap.
Yeah, super original thought, I know. But this isn’t a cliché rant about the opulent waste left behind by the developed world. We all know that it’s easier and often cheaper just to replace something when it breaks, and that “back in my day, we built things to last.” That’s not my point here.
Read MoreThat satisfying tactile kuh-klunk of the gearstick slamming its way through what appears to be a billion-speed gearbox is evocative. The offbeat bellow of a cross-plane V8, the squeal of tires, the tactility of the manual transmission… it’s raw, and it’s primal. You want to be that chisel-jawed young man careening in a state of suspended catastrophe through a crowded city centre. You want to be the one stomping the clutch pedal and sweating into the soft Alcantara steering wheel.
Read MoreLate August always felt like the Sundays of the school year. The lake grew choppy and grey, as though in perpetual preparation for the storms that grew increasingly common. Indoor spaces claimed more camp days, subjecting us to arts and crafts, and group activities in place of sailing and dodge-ball.
Read MoreThe ride to the top of the island had taken me 300 metres above the town at sea level. Steep and unyielding, the climb dragged my out-of-shape body through a tapestry of browns and greens. The trees were at once familiar and foreign, creating a high canopy above the earthy, rocky trail.
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