Brakes Just Add Weight

24 February - Spent about an hour in the morning at St Pauls Hospital at their weekly hand clinic. The latest diagnosis is that I DID sustain a fracture and that I should have been in a full cast but now it doesn't really matter. Apparently I'll be called in for a new (CTI???) scan for further tests. Windy and cold but not raining despite the previous night's downpour and all in all a pretty good day. There was a lot of venting involved in the elevators but not many other people heard so I don't really have to worry about it. Ditched my jacket early on and was wearing a t-shirt that I got at the alleycat last weekend - received a lot of positive comments on it - it's just a plain red tshirt with a stylised image of an angel taking a courier up to heaven. It's based on a very beautiful war memorial sculpture down on Cordova Street that has an angel flying up to heaven with a WWI soldier in her arms. I think its nice anyway.
After work there was a bit of a congregation outside the Art Gallery where the couriers usually meet to drink beer and eat poptarts. Apart from the couriers there were a couple of score hippies were congregating for the monthly 'Critical Mass', which is like 'Reclaim The Streets' in Sydney (the bikes all get together then ride through the streets of Vancouver reclaiming them from the cars - in Sydney and London they get a police escort and I think in Vancouver they get a police beating). Lots of bicycles ranging from normal cruisers to high end road bikes, freak bikes (that stand three metres tall), a bike with a barbecue on the back, tandems and assorted other varieties. DIdn't join in because it was getting far too cold but I did have my first ride on a fixed gear track bike in the afternoon. Marcus, the other Australian courier, let me have a go of his - he's a bit of a giant but the bike wasn't too big for me - it's very strange to ride - the cranks move with the wheels so if you stop pedalling you just stop. Still not sure how it could work very well as a courier bike because stopping is not easy on one of these things and the ability to stop is just about the most important thing when it comes to riding (i think that anyway) but all the fastest riders seem to ride them so there's got to be something to it, I suppose. His one did have a front brake but a lot of the fixie riders don't have them (they add too much weight to the bike???), preferring to just use their legs - speeding along and then throwing themselves over the handlebars and jumping down onto the pedals forcing the bike to skid, then slowing the pedals to a stop. And yes, I think they do wipeout rather often.