Stanley Park and West Van by Bike

A slightly different trip to the usual cycles, but with Charlie and Bao passing through Vancouver at the end of their trip I had to act as the tour guide!

The plan was to hire bikes and explore Vancouver. We started walking along the waterfront passing numerous rental stores as it turned out Charlie, and to a lesser extent Bao, were set on a tandem. We finally found one at Spokes Bicycle Rentals and I got a Giant hybrid, a far cry from my Cervelo!

We set off around Stanley Park on the one way bike route, offering great coastal views of the city and the harbour, before taking a slight ‘cross country’ detour to head across Lions Gate Bridge. I learnt that hybrids with slick wheels are not stable on dust and that a couple on a tandem leads to a constant conversation of where the power is coming from, especially on a hill climb! Having crossed the bridge we cycled along the waterfront in North Vancouver. Marine Drive in West Van has a lovely waterfront and a very coastal town feel about it.

We played around with some unsuccessful variations on the tandem much to our, and other peoples amusement, with the general consensus being Charlie is a leader not a follower and not graceful!!  We then went in search of lunch and after a 10 minute wait for a table at a not busy Earl’s we went exploring and found the Fresh St Market which was excellent. We got some Sushi and Kombucha which took definitely took some getting used to but by the end I think we all enjoyed it.

The return trip took us over the Capilano river where people were fishing for salmon using rock weirs, which was interesting viewing and highly effective. I’m always on the scout for fishing locations so may return with the fly rod in Sept/Oct and try my luck!

Once back in Stanley Park, I tried my hand at downhill mountain biking on the hybrid and after a very close call agreed with Charlie it was better to walk down to rejoin the Seawall bike route. This then took us all the way past Third Beach, Second Beach, English Bay and round Sunset Beach. At this point we headed back to the bike hire shop via the Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park to complete the trip.

We were extremely lucky with the weather as when we started the smoke that has be engulfing Vancouver was still around although slowly clearing. However by the end of the day it was beautiful sunshine and very hot.

An excellent trip and a very nice change from the TT bike and solo riding. Vancouver and Stanley Park by bike is an excellent way of seeing the city and highly recommend it. Heading over the bridge was fun but don’t think there is that much in range to explore. If I do it again I would probably do the seawall further round to Kitsilano rather than head across Lions Gate Bridge, although it is quite impressive and fun to cross.

Thanks to Charlie and Bao for the visit and being excellent exploring companions and I look forward to hearing about your next tandem adventure!!!