Although I put the pen down to focus on other priorities in life, I have still been using my bike as my primary mode of transportation (when I am not run commuting to work).

A lot has changed since 2014.

My daughter is turning 9 years old and my dog Mojie turns 18 this year.

After an amazing 6 years, and after being stolen and recovered twice, my Babboe Dutch cargo bike was stolen a third and final time in February 2018. My insurance company helped me purchase an identical Babboe a few months later from Curbside Cycle.

Since 2017, I have been heavily into mountain ultramarathon running; having competed in about a dozen ultramarathon races ranging from 50km to 125km long.

In June 2018, at mile 70 of a 100-mile race in California, I experienced a freak health incident that resulted in spending 41 days in two hospitals while being tube fed for 30+ days and losing about 30 pounds in just a few days after the surgery. 

In a very brief moment, I went from being a healthy runner to being hooked up to tubes with a Christmass-tree-size IV rack that seemed to astonish even the nurses at the hospital.

Life can change in an instant.

Two doctors who were volunteering at the race and whom helped save my life wrote a paper on the incident and were subsequently published in the British Medical Journal.

This incident very much put life into perspective, and I am thankful for so many of the little things now that I often took for granted before.

Shortly after being released from the hospital, I figured life is too short not to pursue your passions, so I fulfilled one of my goals in life: My partner Roxanna and I opened a side-hustle business; a boutique shop selling high quality running/hiking/camping gear to a community that I care very deeply about.

Along with my two business partners, we have grown our consulting firm from 4 people in 2011 to over 70 employees in 2020.

In 2019, we took our whole company to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for our annual company retreat for an epic week.

With respect to urban bicycling, it has actually become comfortable to ride in Toronto, with curb-protected cycle tracks popping up on major streets all across the city. Bicycle transportation is finally being taken seriously here.

In late June 2020, just two days before my 40th birthday, I am planning to cross the finish line at the Western States Endurance Run, to finish what I started in 2018.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done”

Nelson Mandela

Here are some bicycle-related photos from the past year:

James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Life Hack: $2.00 IKEA Bike Ski Rack – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Two years ago my girlfriend Roxy and I each picked up a pair of Nordic skis, which allowed me to re-take-up cross country skiing; a hobby that I had thoroughly enjoyed as a kid. Over the past couple winters, Toronto has lacked adequate snow for us to get out much; but a nice dumping of snow yesterday provided the first opportunity this winter to dust off the skis and get out in the snow.

Unfortunately, finding places to ski typically requires using a car; and the skis are awkward to transport from my apartment to the closest park where I would use them.

Fortunately, I had a couple $1.00 IKEA BETYDLIG curtain rod brackets kicking around in a bin in my apartment and serving no useful purpose.

So, I attached the curtain rod brackets to the side of my bakfiets cargo bike; which created a handy side-rack to hold my skis and poles. This morning I took the skis on my bike to the 36-acre Trinity Bellwoods Park to do some cross-country skiing. After work, I picked up my daughter Sofia from school on the bike and took her to the tobogganing hill; with her sled conveniently hooked on the side rack.

Certainly one of the better $2.00 investments I have made.

Life Hack: $2.00 IKEA Bike Ski Rack – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Life Hack: $2.00 IKEA Bike Ski Rack – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Life Hack: $2.00 IKEA Bike Ski Rack – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Life Hack: $2.00 IKEA Bike Ski Rack – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Life Hack: $2.00 IKEA Bike Ski Rack – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

More Articles Like This:

• Urban Bicycling Is For Lazy People (June 2013)
• Bicycles Are For People Who Can’t Be Late (Mar 2013)
• The World Has Changed. So Can You. (April 2011)
• Barriers to Cycling: Debunking the Myths (Nov 2009)

Waterloo Bikes Article

A story of bike theft and recovery from Waterloo bikes:

Remember how that feels? I’m sure many of you have had a bike stolen at some point, it’s kind of par for the course in bike ownership.

There’s the hassle of reporting it. Calling the police. Calling the insurance company. The feeling of loss, especially if the bike holds sentimental value. .

Wondering, what am I going to ride tomorrow …

Then there’s that feeling that another human being took something that was yours. Someone invaded your personal space and took something.

A silent frustration.

Unless of course it happened to snow in the morning. And you can see the boot prints leading up to your driveway, up the steps to your porch. The bolts ripped out of your brick house where your Brodie Force commuter once lived. Then you see the two familiar tire prints heading off down the street.

Read the full article on WaterlooBikes.ca

If anyone else has any other stories about recovering a stolen bike, please email me at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com to have yours featured on The Urban Country.

James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

More Articles Like This:

• The Stolen Bicycle Recovery Operation
• My Dutch Cargo Bike Stolen & Recovered in Less Than 10 Minutes
• Urban Bicycling Is For Lazy People
• The World Has Changed. So Can You.
• Motorists Prime Beneficiaries of Socialism
• Americans Work 2 Hours Each Day To Pay For Their Cars

Craigslist ad for Dylan’s stolen Trek hybrid bicycle

It all started with an instant message from my friend Dylan, who had recently had his bike stolen from downtown Toronto:

“James, look at this. It’s my bike for sale on Craigslist. What should I do?”

Dylan knew that I had a bike blog, and I had dealt with stolen bikes several times before.

The cautious side of my brain told me that he should report it to the police and have them setup a recovery operation to get his bike back. The realistic side of my brain told me that the police aren’t going to do jack shit to help him get his bike back, because they have more important things to worry about (like directing traffic at construction sites).

So I told him he should report it to the Toronto Police first and see if they will do anything about it. If nothing comes out of that, I told him, I would setup a recovery operation to get his bike back.

After about a week passed, and after dozens of follow-up phone calls to see if anything was happening, Dylan grew extremely frustrated that nothing had been done yet. Even after all that time had passed, the police told him that the officer in the plainclothes division who was assigned to the case was away at a conference and wouldn’t be back for a couple days.

Fortunately, the ad was still online, but it appeared that the police weren’t interested in dedicating any resources to helping us get the bike back. Each day that passed increased the chances of the Craigslist ad disappearing.

This brilliant comic, coincidentally, was posted on the same morning this article went live. Courtesy of Kickstand Comics

Against Dylan’s better wishes, I told him that I would put a plan together so that we could safely recover the bike ourselves. I wasn’t going to take any chances after an 18-year-old was killed after using Apple’s Find My iPhone software to trace his lost cell phone. I thought through all the possible scenarios about what could go wrong, and I attempted to mitigate each of those risks through careful planning. There was no way I was going to get shivved or shot over a $700 bike.

So I created a fake email address and sent a message to the seller, asking him if we could meet so I could look at the bike. I also tried to get the seller to give me his phone number so that if the ad went down I would at least have a chance to identify him.

Fortunately, the seller responded quickly and I set up a meeting point in downtown Toronto in a well-lit parking lot in a busy area on King Street West.

To ensure the safety of myself and others, I recruited two friends to stand across the street from the meeting point to video record the event, and I also gave them each U-Locks to defend ourselves if the recovery operation goes sideways.

I equipped myself with bear spray, and Dylan and I agreed that if at any point we feel our safety is threatened, we would get away as quickly as possible and our two friends across the street would call the police.

The plan was for Dylan to act as the prospective buyer and take the bike for a test ride, while I would stay with the seller and make small talk. Dylan was to ride the bike around the block and check the serial number to confirm the bike is indeed his. He would then call me to let me know the serial number matches and I would confront the seller about the origins of the bicycle. If the serial number did not match, he would return the bike and say he is not interested.

But he was confident from looking at the photos that it was indeed his bike. Checking the serial number was just a formality.

I received an email from the seller, letting me know that he had arrived early, and that he was parked in his car with the bike on his rear rack. This was great news, because it gave Dylan and I an opportunity to record his license plate and do a quick walk-by to see if the bike appeared to be his at first glance.

So after a quick walk-by, Dylan was even more convinced that the bike was indeed his.

We gave the signal to our friends across the street to start rolling their video cameras. We were quite anxious at the time because we didn’t know whether we would encounter a gangster or a hipster, or anything else in between.

I double and triple checked that my bear spray was easily accessible in my pocket. Our hearts were pounding as we approached the seller’s driver’s side door. We tapped on the car window, and the seller opened the door and stepped out.

Expecting an intimidating gangster to step out of the car with a thick coat and three guns stuffed in his baggy pants, we were overcome with relief when out stepped a middle-aged lady who was neither intimidating nor threatening, and was actually very cordial and friendly.

She told us she had driven from her sleepy, family-oriented commuter town (Burlington) and that it was her boyfriend’s bike that she was selling for him.

Dylan asked if he could take the bike for a test ride, to which she complied. I made small talk with her and inquired about the bike while Dylan was out for the test ride. I told her that Dylan was looking for another hybrid bike because his was stolen recently.

At first she was very empathetic about his bike being stolen. But she probably started to become nervous when Dylan was taking a bit too long on the test ride, and especially after I told her that the bike that was stolen from Dylan was awfully similar to the bike she was selling.

Then I received the phone call from Dylan. He confirmed that the serial numbers matched.

I then explained to her that she was in possession of Dylan’s stolen bike, and that we would be willing to go to the police station to take this up with the police if she would like to.

She became visibly upset (but not towards us). She told us she had bought it from a guy she thought she could trust, and she was clearly unhappy about the prospect of being out the $200 that she paid for the bike.

I expected her to cut her losses and hop in her car and drive back to Burlington. But she expressed interest in coming to the police station with us so she could report her supplier and perhaps get her $200 back. So we told her we would bike to the police station and meet her there.

15 minutes later, we showed up at the police station. Convinced that she thought better of the idea and hightailed it back to Burlington, we were pleasantly surprised when she walked through the door a few minutes later.

The officer who was in charge of Dylan’s case took us aside and verbally berated us with some choice curse words about how idiotic it was for us to “take the law into our own hands” without letting the police do their jobs. “You could have gotten yourself shot”.

Our response (paraphrased): Well, when the fuck were you going to do something about it? We gave you a week and absolutely nothing happened.

The officer was clearly unhappy with what we did, but I really didn’t give two shits. I knew that we thought it out thoroughly and minimized the risk of something happening to us.

So there it is. Another happy ending to yet another bike theft.

If anyone else has any other stories about recovering a stolen bike, please email me at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com to have yours featured on The Urban Country.

James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

More Articles Like This:

• My Dutch Cargo Bike Stolen & Recovered in Less Than 10 Minutes
• Urban Bicycling Is For Lazy People
• The World Has Changed. So Can You.
• Motorists Prime Beneficiaries of Socialism
• Americans Work 2 Hours Each Day To Pay For Their Cars
• Barriers to Cycling: Debunking the Myths

James’ Babboe Dutch Cargo Bike – Photo courtesy of Andrea E.

It was only a few minutes after my 5 year old daughter’s school concert production came to an end when I received the phone call from my friend Brad.

My ringer was still muted to avoid disrupting the concert; but I could feel it vibrating in my pocket.

Me: “Hello?”

Brad: “Hey James, do you have your bike??”

Me: “Yep, I have it here at the school. Why?”

Brad: “But do you have it with you right now? There’s a sketchy looking dude riding erratically around the park on a bike that looks just like yours”

Me: “Shit. One sec, let me check… Yep, my lock was cut. That f#cker stole my bike. I’ll run to the park right now.. See you shortly…”

I sprinted to the park with my laptop bag in tow. I arrived only 2 minutes after hanging up the phone with Brad.

I look across to the far side of the park, and I see Brad riding my cargo bike with his 4 year old daughter in the front.

Laughing hysterically at the preposterousness of the situation – and out of sheer happiness that my bike was recovered – I ask Brad how he got my bike back so fast.

“I went up to the guy and yelled, ‘HEY, THAT’S NOT YOUR BIKE! And he drops the bike on the ground and runs that way”

It is hard to fathom that a thief would go through all the effort to use bolt cutters to steal a bike, only to ride it 1 block away from the school and do circles around the park.

I suppose maybe he was high on something and just looking for a joy ride.

Stranger things have happened with my cargo bike. Last year workers at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport threw the same bike in the garbage after clearing it from a non-designated bike parking area where I had left it before heading on a flight to Florida.

I take precautions to secure my bike, but I don’t stress too much about it being stolen. The bike has more than paid for itself already. I have been riding it virtually every single day for the last 4 years. If you add up the public transit costs, gas and parking fees saved, it has paid for itself more than 7 times over. A monthly transit pass in Toronto alone costs $1,698 per year, so I could almost buy a new cargo bike each year just with the money I save from not having to buy transit passes.

But even still, it’s not fun having a bike stolen. I was fortunate enough that this thief was not the brightest, and thanks to Brad’s quick thinking and action, I will ride my cargo bike yet another day.

James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

More Articles Like This:

• Urban Bicycling Is For Lazy People (June 2013)
• The World Has Changed. So Can You. (April 2011)
• Motorists Prime Beneficiaries of Socialism (Aug 2011)
• Americans Work 2 Hours Each Day To Pay For Their Cars (May 2011)
• The Unconventional Urban Citizen Bicyclist (April 2012)
• Barriers to Cycling: Debunking the Myths (Nov 2009)

BMW SUV – Courtesy of Curtis Perry

A few days ago, an article was posted by a bicyclist into the Craigslist “rants and raves” section. The poster highlighted a road rage incident in which an angry driver in a blue BMW SUV screamed and honked at the bicyclist to get out of the way, in order to save a few seconds.

Here are a few key comments from the article that resonated with me:

And then you were making a right-hand turn immediately ahead and had to stop right in front of me and wait to turn because of other people, on foot, being in the way. Obviously annoying for you, but this gave me a good chance to inform you that I was not going to drive INTO the parked cars as you rolled up your window, continuing to yell, “fuck off and get the fuck out of my way!”. Happily for you, the people on the street moved out of the way and then you squealed around the corner and headed north, presumably fuming at the injustice done to you, sitting in your vehicle, having to slow behind a person on a bike who was going at a different speed for a few seconds.

Imagine being in line at the grocery store and, feeling that the person in front of you was taking too long to get out their money, standing directly behind them while yelling at them to fuck off. That would be really, really weird! And it happens to me as a person who travels by bicycle all of the time.

Look: I am a friggin rule follower extraordinaire, a goody-two-shoes, and a people pleaser. There is literally nothing I can do that makes people madder than just riding my bike the way I am supposed to. I feel bad and scared doing something I love and have the right to do, something that is good for the roads, the planet, and the cardiovascular system. It fucking sucks. Your attitude is terrible.

Read the full post here.

This post reminded me that I have been living absent of road rage for more than two months here in China. Despite the fact that I ride my bicycle here every single day, I have not encountered a single road rage incident, nor have I had any angry drivers pass me in a way that makes me feel at all uncomfortable.

This can be partially attributed to the fact that bicyclists have separated infrastructure here in China. Extremely wide bike lines with curb/tree separation from motor vehicle traffic. So bicyclists aren’t constantly annoyed by drivers passing too closely, and drivers aren’t constantly annoyed by having to slow down for a few seconds to move past a bicyclist.

But the deep-seated animosity that I have lived with for so long in North America between drivers and bicyclists actually prevents any progress from being made. Drivers are angry at having to share the road with bicyclists, but refuse to give up any space to create infrastructure that would prevent the very situation that they resent.

Properly-built bicycle infrastructure will reduce the tension and potential conflict between drivers and bicyclists, and eventually the animosity will subside. In places where there is an understanding that both bicyclists and motorists have a place on our roads, tension and resentment is reduced – and in the case of the Chinese city I am living in, it is nonexistent.

Unfortunately, in many cities in North America there is a bizarre widespread belief that bicyclists are a nuisance for drivers and have no right to be on the roads. This notion is perpetuated by the media, and the result is that otherwise sane people feel justified in acting like sociopaths when they are behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. This anti-social behaviour would not be tolerated in any other situation in our culture except behind the wheel of a car.

The more time I spend abroad, the more perplexed I am by the ridiculousness of it all. Let’s just fix it already.

James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

More Articles Like This:

• Grandmother Writes Apology Letter After Driving Like “Idiot” (June 2013)
• Warning: Driving Kills, Maims, Suffocates & Ravages (Sept 2013)
• “Cars Kill So Many People It Staggers The Imagination” (July 2013)
• Taming The Beast On Our Streets (Dec 2013)
• Grandmother Writes Apology Letter After Driving Like “Idiot” (June 2013)
• Responsibility & Accountability On Our Streets (Apr 2011)
• No Cars. No Traffic Signals. No Deaths (June 2011)
• Our Backwards Approach to Road Safety (July 2011)

James’ fixed gear bike in China – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Wow. It has been an inexcusable amount of time since I last wrote an article on here. For the past two and a half months I have been living overseas in the southern most part of China (Hainan Island).

I have been keeping very busy between spending my days outside with my daughter, and working all night to align with the time zone back in Toronto. This has left me very little free time to keep up to date on the news/blogs, or to write new articles on The Urban Country (not to mention the Internet connection here is excruciatingly painful to use most of the time) . However, my time in China is winding down, so I am planning to get back into a somewhat regular routine.

While living in China my bicycle has of course been my primary mode of transportation for getting around the city. For the first part of the trip I was riding a tiny Giant folding bike that I purchased two years ago when I last visited China. Halfway through my trip I picked up a used bright green fixed gear bike and later added a child seat on it for my daughter. She has been riding with me every day since, and we have both been loving it.

A recent rant on Craigslist that was brought to my attention afforded me the realization that road rage has been noticeably absent from my life while living in China. What was a daily regular occurrence in Toronto – drivers who were visibly angry at somebody else on the road – has not occurred even once for me in over two months in China.

The streets in Chinese cities – which would otherwise appear chaotic to anyone from North America – flow smoothly and I have yet to encounter an angry driver or have a close call here. As long as you pay attention to what is in front of you, riding here is far more comfortable than getting squeezed by cars on roads that lack proper bicycle infrastructure back home.

I had all but forgotten about the animosity that I would see every day on the streets back home. It just doesn’t exist here and it is certainly something that I took for granted during my time in China. But soon I will return back home where road rage and bicycle/car animosity is simply part of the culture.

The ‘i share the road’ sticker campaign that I started in 2011 would be unnecessary in this Chinese city. Everybody shares the road here without resentment toward other road users.

Stay tuned for some photos of the interesting child seats that I purchased on Taobao (the Chinese version of Amazon) and installed on my bikes here in China to allow my daughter to explore the city with me.

ames D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

More Articles Like This:

• Urban Bicycling Is For Lazy People (June 2013)
• Bicycles Are For People Who Can’t Be Late (Mar 2013)
• The World Has Changed. So Can You. (April 2011)
• Vancouver Approves Hornby Street Dedicated Bike Lanes (Oct 2010)
• Don’t Judge Canada: Velo-City Global 2012 Vancouver (Apr 2011)
• The Unconventional Urban Citizen Bicyclist (April 2012)
• Barriers to Cycling: Debunking the Myths (Nov 2009)

Here is a very powerful video highlighting the virtue of driving cautiously and slowing down in anticipation of somebody else making a mistake:

When you are behind the wheel of a car, please know that you are in a killing machine, and your actions can negatively impact yourself and other people forever.

James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

More Articles Like This:

• Warning: Driving Kills, Maims, Suffocates & Ravages (Sept 2013)
• “Cars Kill So Many People It Staggers The Imagination” (July 2013)
• Taming The Beast On Our Streets (Dec 2013)
• Grandmother Writes Apology Letter After Driving Like “Idiot” (June 2013)
• Responsibility & Accountability On Our Streets (Apr 2011)
• No Cars. No Traffic Signals. No Deaths (June 2011)
• Our Backwards Approach to Road Safety (July 2011)

The last two days have seen immensely frigid temperatures here in Toronto. I have still been using my bike on a daily basis throughout the winter, but Tuesday proved exceptionally cold when a friend and I pedaled a few kilometres to a computer store that evening. This was a rare occasion in which I was actually almost uncomfortable riding my bicycle because it was so cold.

The temperature on Tuesday morning was –22C, and the wind-chill adjusted temperature was –37C – far colder than Toronto’s daily average (mean) temperature in January of –3.7C.

My friend and colleague Jen H. took public transit to work on Monday, and on her commute home she ended up walking halfway to her home before the streetcar showed up, taking more than an hour for her to get home.

So she decided she would be better off to ride her bicycle to the office on Tuesday instead of being stuck outside waiting for public transit.

Jen described her bike commute to me through a series of instant messages:

“No problems getting parking this AM hahaha”

“It was a fun ride though. Warm once I got going. My feet froze though”

Jen lives on the edge of downtown, a 15 minute bike ride from the office. However, public transit takes at least 45 minutes.

“It was a fun ride – and for real, I don’t have an hour to wait to get home at the end of a work day – I live downtown to avoid those commutes!!

“Wind behind me the whole way home. 15 min and sweating. So much better than the streetcar.”

Here is Jen on her Tuesday commute, sporting frozen eye lashes and snow-white hair:

Photo courtesy of Jen H for The Urban Country 

Photo courtesy of Jen H for The Urban Country 

The conclusion? Even in drastically cold weather, bicycling is still by far the best way to get around Toronto.

James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

More Articles Like This:

• Bicycles Are For People Who Can’t Be Late (March 2013)
• Urban Bicycling Is For Lazy People (June 2013)
• Quote Of The Week: “Now I Know Why You Ride Your Bike Everywhere” (Oct 2013)
• Quote Of The Week: Bicyclists Are People (July 2013)
• Quote Of The Week: Empty Bike Lane (June 2013)
• You Are Wasting Your Life Away Sitting In Traffic… (April 2013)

Edmonton highway photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Massive highways and bridges are often ugly structures; normally the furthest thing from art. On a recent flight home from an Edmonton business trip, the highways were lit up and the reflection of the street lights blurred from the snow looked almost magical out of my airplane window.

Who knew highways could be so visually appealing.

Here are a few of the pictures I snapped that night:

Edmonton highway photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country 

Edmonton highway photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country 

Edmonton highway photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country 

Edmonton highway photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

More Articles Like This:

• Creating Grace & Beauty Through The Bicycle (June 2011)
• Billboard Hijacking To Promote Urban Bicycling (March 2011)
• Floating Bicycle Commuters (June 2012)
• Alain Delorme’s Totems Series (Sept 2011)
• Sit-Up Bicycle Art (June 2012)