Have you ordered your gear?!

Just a reminder that the Bike Cochrane web shop is only open until December 19th to order your cycling kit or jersey. These items are only available for pre-order and will not be available in stores. You can shop on line by visiting this link. If you have any questions about sizing, please reach out to Robert, the Rogelli Canada rep by emailing robert@rogelli.ca. You can find sizing info by visiting this link These items will arrive sometime in February.

2022 Memberships are on sale now!

You can renew or purchase your membership for 2022 online now!
In 2021 we had a whopping 402 members (THANK YOU EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!). Can we beat that for 2022?! Can we get half way there BEFORE 2022?! Most grant applications are due in the first two months of the year, and most grant applications are more successful when you have larger membership, showing funders that you are working for a larger group. Help us help Cochrane become more cycling friendly by renewing early. We are currently sitting at 81 amazing members for 2022.

Why buy a membership?!

By purchasing a membership you help us be more credible with funders and stakeholders. You support a cause that’s important to you by allowing us to have a better chance at raising the funds required to take on more projects as well as give us a bigger voice and help us achieve our mission and goals more efficiently. You also get voting rights at our AGMs. Membership fees help us pay for our insurance and operating costs. Each Family member counts as a member of Bike Cochrane, which boosts our numbers.

Other Member Benefits:

• Big Hill Cycle - 10% off Accessories, Clothing and Parts

• Access to our Member Only Events (kids camps, adult camps, group rides + more)

• Support trail maintenance, remediation, construction and cycling advocacy as a whole within the town of Cochrane

• Keep the Launchpad Bike Park (and future bike parks) insured

• Participate in Bike Cochrane events

• Voting Rights at our AGM

Membership Pricing:

Individual 1 year membership - $40
Family 1 year membership - $80

You can pair your membership with swag and save. This can be purchased online, or in store atBig Hill CycleorBike Bros.

A big Bike Cochrane thank you

An extra special thank you to the following business that are 2021 Corporate Members. Don't forget to shop local this Christmas. Local businesses invest back into their communities.

Garmin
Big Hill Cycle
Bike Bros
Cochrane Physiotherapy Group
Two Pharmacy
4iiii
Coffee Traders
Wildcat Coffee Company (2022 Member)
Bow River Chiropractic Clinic
Kids Bikes Canada
Kelso's Bikes

Thank you to everyone who's supported us over the years, we are grateful for each and every one of you. Wishing you and your families a warm and joyful holiday season. We can not wait to see what 2022 holds for cycling in Cochrane.

Merry Christmas,
The Bike Cochrane Team

Hi there,

Welcome back to a new year of wheeling and walking around Cochrane. As Bike Cochrane prepares for our presentation to the Town of Cochrane, the Active Transportation Committee felt that it would be useful to share some of the context around our research with our membership.

As discussed in my last post, we’ve been analyzing Strava Metro’s data of cyclists, runners, and walking users in Cochrane to get a better sense of where people are using our spaces. We’ve also been researching our town’s Capital planning documents to get a sense of where they’ll be investing taxpayers’ money in the coming years. In addition, we’ve also been digging deeper into the Cochrane Bicycling Network Plan 2012 to see where our user needs and our town’s infrastructure needs align.

This has resulted in a summary of projects or ‘top 10’ as David Letterman used to present. The Active Transportation Committee took the top 10 projects outlined within the bicycle network plan, and began to scope out the construction costs of some of the projects using some of the Town’s budgetary numbers from Capital Budgets along with numbers from construction projects we could get our hands on.  Then we took a swag at the number of people helped by a given project.  For some regional pathway connections like in Heritage, this would be pulled from the latest published Census figures from 2019 for that neighbourhood.  For some projects like on the Bow River Pathway, this benefits the whole town, and so the entire population shows up in the people helped column. 

While this isn’t a perfect metric as we don’t have a good sense of how MANY people are actually using an existing trail network, it’s a pretty good starting look at how these projects would stack up.  The larger projects like underpasses and overpasses would wind up towards the bottom, not because they’re not important, but because they’re expensive.  One project near the bottom is a proposed underpass under the new highway 22 interchange that would allow cycle and pedestrian traffic access from the largest community in Sunset to what will be our largest outdoor space once the Horse Creek Park is complete.  What’s nice about this methodology though is that it helps to put some structure around WHY a given project would get pushed towards the top of the Capital Projects Budget.  A new proposed project could be given a similar metric and see where it falls so that we can discuss why it may be more or less important than others.

While the result is a bit of an eye chart, looking at the top 4 projects here, we see a project to make the Bow River Pathway safer, one to allow the newly repaired Railway Street to operate as a safer corridor for cyclists, a new multi-use pathway along Griffin Road, and completing the paving project of Glenbow Park, something that the Town’s Parks department has proposed previously.

Now this metric is just using population data.  What if we could actually count how many people use a pathway or an area?

In my next post, I’ll review our thinking on the Bow River Pathway space and some of our community’s comments on that space. Then, I’ll touch on what Strava Metro data brings to this discussion.

As always, if you want to help, or have comments, please email me at paul@bikecochrane.com.

Hello! If you’re reading this, you’re hopefully one of the many people who responded to our survey to tell Bike Cochrane that your #1 issue for us to advocate is ‘Improving Connectivity in Cochrane for Wheeling and Walking’!

Today, I wanted to share with our members some of the research your Active Transportation Committee has been doing around intersections in town. See below a clip of Strava Metro’s user data for the intersection of highway 22 and Fireside/James Walker Trail. Note that Strava (a self-recorded app for phones and wearable devices to track runners, cyclists, walkers) has opened their data set to Bike Cochrane to assist us in our efforts to advocate for improvements in cycling infrastructure. It will be supplemented with our planned traffic studies this summer using old-fashioned clipboards along with bike counter sensors, but for now it’s useful as a data set to set how our cyclists and walking traffic has increased dramatically (in the case below by 78% year over year from 2019 to 2020).

This data set helped Bike Cochrane push Alberta Transportation to prioritize re-painting this and other intersections ASAP in early 2021. It is also helping inform our project prioritizations with the Town of Cochrane and other stakeholders.

If you’re interested in this kind of data, and in advocating for safer cycling connectivity in Cochrane, please reach out to Paul@bikecochrane.com, and please fill in our Active Transportation Survey

Bike Cochrane is pleased to announce our Winter Speaker Series

Our Speaker series is free to all Bike Cochrane Members. If you are not a member, you can purchase your membership here: https://bike-cochrane.square.site/#RLxBwl

December 29 2020 - Jason Pohl

Jason Pohl is a professional long-distance triathlete and a nutritional performance coach. He resides in Calgary, AB, Canada. Jason grew up playing elite hockey for 16 years as a goaltender and then made the transition into triathlon at the age of 23 years old. With extensive experience in athletic nutrition, Jason has worked with renowned nutritional scientists and experts in North America through his elite hockey career and professional triathlon career. He passes along his experience and passion for nutrition to work with individuals to achieve their highest health goals.

Jason's mission is to continue to find and pass new limits as an athlete and human being. Along this journey he has the mission to give back to individuals & athletes and pull out the best versions of themselves through nutrition and mindset. Through nutrition and mindset, Jason has found a breakthrough of energy, performance, and confidence.

---

January 9, 2021 - E-Racing and Riding with Richard Shoebridge, Team GB Winter Olympian

Take your riding fitness to the next level with e-racing and riding – How to set up your pain cave for year-round training and racing, and how to get involved with Zwift riding.

---

Stay tuned for these exciting upcoming chats

Shane Campbell, Owner/Sales Manager, Big Hill Cycle - Date TBD
Part 1: Layering for year-round bike enjoyment.

Calvin Zaryski, Head Coach, Critical Speed Racing Team - Date TBD
The science behind high performance. How to train for success.

Tim Lomenda, Owner, Big Hill Cycle - Date TBD
Part 2: Bike maintenance for safety and performance.

Russ Colnett, Owner, Fixes and Fit Cycling Analysis Studio - Date TBD
Bike fit for optimal performance and injury prevention.

Richelle Love and Rose Serpico, Owners, TRI IT Multisport - Date TBD
Sports nutrition for a healthy and vibrant lifestyle.