Aw~ man! Was the bike blog just a passing fad?

Some of my favourite bicycle blogs have not been updated in quite some time, while others have posted dramatic good byes.

RIP:

• The Julie Blog
• Help! My Chain Came Off…

Kind of stagnant blogs (some of them in over a year!):

• Toronto Cycle Chic
• For The Love of Bikes
• The Common Elite
• City Girl Rides

Do you have any bike blogs that you follow that are still active? If so, could you share with me? I need to repopulate my bike blog list!

For us in Canada, we had a long weekend with Monday being Victoria Day.

How was your long weekend?

Mine was thoroughly satisfying with lots of bike dates (even a super long 44km ride out to Port Credit), beagle time, gardening and even some decluttering!

Also a friend just returned from a 10 month stay in New Foundland, so we went to check out the new Grasslands (formerly Fressen) to welcome her back.

My last bike date ended with rain but the temperature was still quite warm. So despite the drizzle, the ride home wasn’t so bad. Summer has arrived in Toronto!

Announcing the first Cupcake Ride for 2013!! We are co-hosting this ride with Councillor McMahon’s Office (thanks for all your help Kristin!) to celebrate Ward 32 during our upcoming Bike Month in Toronto!

Date: Saturday, June 8th
Time: 1:00pm
Start place: Tori’s Bakeshop (2188 Queen St East – between Maclean & Balsam Ave)

We’ll start at Tori’s Bakeshop (a spot we visited at last year), a wonderful vegan bakery, bike west on Queen St and then down Coxwell to take the Martin Goodman Trail over to Tommy Thompson park. We’ll loop through Tommy Thompson (aka the Leslie Spit), bike along the lake and then back up to Queen St to end at Life is Sweet!

If you are so inclined, you can RSVP to this event on our Facebook event page.

This is an everyone welcome bike ride. Hope to see you out!

Saddle-less bicycle pattern – spotted in Chinatown.

One of my favourite annual group rides was blessed with dry weather, despite the ominous forecast leading up to the event day.

I’m always amazed at how many people come out to participate in Bells on Bloor (and Bells on Yonge and Bells on Danforth). It’s so great to see such a cross-section of the cycling community coming out to advocate for safer streets. If I heard one of the speakers correctly, the group from Bloor St was close to 1000 cyclists!!

The Bells on Bloor group was the first to arrive at Queen’s Park and while we were waiting for the other groups to join us, we were offered organic apples! What a nice touch!

The Bells on Danforth parade was headed by an 8 seater bike!

Denise came out with the Danforth contingent and we both agreed that we totally underestimated how cold it would be. We really wished we brought extra layers and gloves for the ride. We started to actually shiver while we listened to the speeches during the rally portion of the event.

The highlight of the event for me was the bike decoration competition. Despite it being a ‘competition’ everybody who entered their bikes was awarded a prize (a $25 gift certificate to Sweet Pete’s!!) and we were all crowned as winners in our own special categories. For example, I won for ‘Best Monochromatic’.

Plus, I had a celebrity moment! While I was queuing up to get my flowers judged, Olivia Chow, who was a few steps away from me, came up to me and mentioned how beautiful she thought my paper flowers were.

Here is Annie (a past Cupcake Rider) and I with our award winning decorated bikes!

Congratulations to all the Bells on Bloor/Danforth/Yonge volunteers who put this great event together.
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More great photos here!

You know bike riding season has arrived in Toronto when there are multiple group rides being held on a single weekend.

As mentioned earlier the annual Bells on Bloor (and Bells on Yonge and Danforth) is being held rain or shine this Saturday.

Plus on Mother’s Day, the international CycloFemme Ride is being held in cities all around the world. The ever intrepid Emma Woolley has organized the Toronto ride and it will start at 3:00pm at main entrance to High Park.

I’ll definitely be going to Bells on Bloor, but am sitting on the fence for the CycloFemme ride, only because I’m behind on my training for the Ride for Heart. The initial, ‘Oh, 75kms will be fun and challenging with a little training’ excitement has turned to ‘uuuhhhm, with less than 3 weeks to go I hope I can get enough practice time in to not injure myself at the event’ anxiety.

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On another note, I noticed another site that is promoting Bells on Bloor announced that there will be a contest for best bike decorated with home-made flowers. I always wanted to try my hand at the Martha Stewart Pom-Pom paper flowers. I’m not a huge fan of plastic so I think I’ll participate in the contest with decorations that are 100% recyclable after!

I made these flowers using old tissue that I saved from the tissues that stores use that wrap your purchases up for you. The tissues are branded so I couldn’t use them for anything … until now!

A belated b-day prezzie, taking me one step closer to a rattle free ride!

Do you like Portuguese Custard Tarts (or egg tarts if you prefer)? If so, you need to join me on this upcoming Pastel de Nata Ride!

Along with the other volunteers from the Ward 18 Cycle Toronto Advocacy Group, I’m helping to organize this event (one of three that our group will be hosting) for the upcoming Bike Month.

The specifics are still being finalized but here are the initial details:

Date: Sunday, June 9, 2013
Start: Brazil Bakery – 1566 Dundas St. West
Time: 2:00pm

We’ll be riding around Ward 18 and visiting a few Portuguese bakeries.

We’ve started a Facebook event if you’d like to join the discussion there as well!

More details to come!

This dude is what I stereotype as the Bad E-biker. This guy couldn’t stand being passed by anyone! After I passed him for cruising slowly in the bike lane, he couldn’t take the fact that someone had passed him and in turn had to pass me. And in a typical fashion, obviously slowed down in front of me once he passed.

He then thought he could overtake a car that had slowed down to allow another car to come out of the parking lane and rode out into the fast lane to pass but couldn’t get enough speed. He ended up being dangerously caught between two lanes (riding along the white lines) until the car he wanted to pass graciously slowed down so that he could go back into the bike lane.

I don’t believe that cyclists should be licensed (although there have been times when I’ve wished that bicycle licenses were required along with expensive insurance just to keep ignorant, selfish, too-cool-for-school cyclists off the road), but when it comes to ebikes I really think that licenses should be issued. (And when I talk about ebikes, I’m referring to the ones that are like low-powered scooters, not bicycles that come with an electric assist where you actually need to pedal.)

Many times ebikers conveniently forget the rules of the road and use the streets as both a bike and a car – the speedier option wins. If licenses were required, there would at least be a minimum level of knowledge that I assume would come from the licensing process which would make things safer for everyone.

In my hierarchy of road users that I hate, Bad E-bikers come second to the Selfish Cellphone-Using Driver. That is how much I despise them.

On that positive note, I hope everyone has a great weekend free of douchey ebikers!

Running errands on a warm spring afternoon.