Gary Conrod – 2021 at Five Islands on the Bay of Fundy
In 1986, Gary Conrod returned from a nine-day bicycle festival in Poland. The only Canadian there, he was invited to the event of 4,400 people from his involvement in recruiting used bicycle parts to be shipped to the then money-strapped Communist-era country. Full of excitement to hold a similar type of gathering back home in Nova Scotia, in 1987, he organized the first Atlantic Canada Bicycle Rally. It turned out to be a many-hundreds of hours project. Extremely well received, Gary was asked to put on tours around the Atlantic Provinces. His love of organizing cycling events was about to take a huge leap.
Early love for cycling
Growing up in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Gary started biking right off, running his first tricycle down to the rims. In his late teens, the big 10-speed boom arrived. Gary purchased a Monte-Carlo 10-speed, in 1974, it was actually a pretty good bike for its time. Gary would explore all over, riding every day, even during the winter down to -22 Celsius, finding himself exploring every back road and woods path in the entire Halifax region. One day Gary noticed an announcement for the founding of a new bicycle club – Velo Halifax. He got involved from the day of its founding. The only young person in the club, as it grew, the dirty work was passed on to Gary – stamping envelopes, stapling newsletters, wandering halls of universities, libraries, and military facilities posting club schedules. The club blossomed as the big bike boom of the 1980s grew. For the next 43 years Gary did constant stints as Club President, Tour Planner, Statistician, and Webmaster. (photo: Gary on long tour of communist-era Poland)
Bike tripping
His personal cycling trips increased in length, starting with cycling all over Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, leading to a big crossing of Canada in 1976. It was just before the arrival in Canada of triple chainrings and cycling shorts, it took Gary all summer (7,000+ kilometres). From there, cycling became yet even more of an obsession. For Gary, bicycle trips came first, jobs (real life) came second. Stints as library clerk, warehouse worker, bicycle mechanic, and even periods as a bicycle messenger fueled his journeys.
Many of his trips were return journeys; time after time he would bike in two special places for him – Quebec and Vermont. He attended many bicycle rallies across Canada and the U.S. There were some longer trips, including circling around several of the Great Lakes, to England, around Ireland, many trips to all over the U.S.A., two trips cycling in the Netherlands, through Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and his communist-era ride across Poland. (photo: Gary with Cape Breton Island Tour)
Life challenge
Early on, Gary was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. It all came into place, why he always rode so slow and why it was a late day struggle, cycling with pain and no energy. He was instructed not to bike, advice which was ignored. Gary learned he had to not follow the crowd and ride at his own speed. (photo: Gary at coast of Labrador)
Atlantic Canada Bicycle Rally
Upon return from the largest bicycle rally in Europe, Gary created the ACBR – Atlantic Canada Bicycle Rally. The largest gathering of cyclists in Canada’s Atlantic Provinces since the era of the high wheelers, the events required the assistance of family and friends. With multiple daily rides, meals and banquet provided, dance, entertainment and field day, it was exhausting work. Gary ran this cycling convention from 1987 to 2008. (photo: Atlantic Canada Bicycle Rally – Lunenburg, Nova Scotia)
Atlantic Canada Cycling
From demands to extend the fun of the ACBR, Gary began to put on a week camping tour after the event. This prompted more, and soon cycling events stretched on all summer. Gary was so swamped it became very hard to have full time work and do all the organizing. It would occupy most days and nights of the next two and a half decades of his life. (photo: Atlantic Canada Bicycle Rally – Lunenburg, Nova Scotia)
More biking
As duties with Atlantic Canada Cycling grew, Gary had to take shorter tours, such as starting annual cycling pilgrimages to Quebec. He biked California a few times, North Dakota, Florida, Georgia, and a place much less warm – up into the frontier-like remoteness of Labrador. He also did short overseas trips, such as to France, Luxembourg, and Belgium. Gary was appointed Touring Director with the Provincial sports body Bicycle Nova Scotia and later to the Touring Committee of the Canadian Cycling Association. Pedal Magazine named Gary as Nova Scotia’s Canada Year 150 Cyclist. Following cycling every road in Nova Scotia, Gary turned his personal cycling notes into a book on cycling, the “Nova Scotia Bicycle Book”, which sold several thousand copies.
Distance tracker – from the very first day he bought his first 10-speed, Gary has tracked every kilometer he has biked. Gary has so far logged 202,000 kilometres. He started a participation tracking program for his long time club, Velo Halifax. He is also a Director for C-KAP (Canadian Kilometre Achiever Program – CKAP). (photo: Gary at a Newfoundland outport)
After tour leading
The pandemic showed us all lessons about our lives. For Gary, it revealed two work-free summers, and the peaceful rewards of exploring on one’s own. Reaching senior status in 2022, with 35 of his summers busy with Atlantic Canada Cycling, Gary has decided to begin putting on fewer tours and leave more time again for the open road.
He currently lives in Halifax with one wife, two cats, and eight bicycles. Gary likes to take the long-way round. ..always the scenic route. If there is one less car he will go that way. (photo: Gary 2022 solo tour of Nova Scotia)
