Tag Archives: sweet ride

2012 Recap in Photos

The most viewed photo in 2012 – a panda shot taken in March.

I thought it would be fun to do a year in review.

Looking back, I am amazed that we had dry, sunny weather for every group ride, except for one Sweet Ride. How lucky!!

In 2012, I organized 5 Cupcake Rides:

We were in short sleeves and light jackets during our April ride – a huge difference from the April 2011 ride that was cancelled due to snow!

By May we were in full-on summer mode!

In June we braved 38 degree weather and rode from Avenue/Lawrence down to Little Italy.

The July ride was not as hot, but most of us opted to end our ride with a popsicle!

The last Cupcake Ride of 2012 had a smaller than anticipated turn out due to torrential rain in the morning.

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And Joe and I organized 4 everybody-is-welcome Sweet Rides:

The Sweet Ride season opener (Cupcake Edition) was a bit chilly despite it being held at the end of April.

The second Sweet Ride started and ended with the consumption of Frozen Yogurt!

The Sweet Ride, Ice Cream edition saw the biggest turn out for our food themed rides yet!

Our last group ride of the year: Sweet Ride, Poutine Edition. The only ride this year that was postpone due to inclement weather.

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I also took part in a few non-Cupcake/Sweet Rides:

I biked out to practically Mississauga for a Rib Fest!

Embarrassed myself at the Red Bull Mini Drome

I participated in an online bike challenge!

And 2012 saw the inaugural Women Who Bike brunch!

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Top 5 most Popular Posts on Cupcake Ride blog for 2012
#1 Why I organize Girls Only Rides
#2 Cupcake Ride Season Opener Recap
#3 Winter Rider Interview with Denise
#4 Sweet Ride and Cupcake Ride schedule
#5 July Cupcake Ride Details

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I know I always end a post with a lot of thank yous, but I am very grateful to everyone who came out and rode with me whether on a Sweet Ride, a Cupcake Ride or even just a brief ride together on the streets headed towards different destinations.

Thank you for making my bike rides in Toronto that much better.

Happy New Year and may your days in 2013 be filled with happy, safe and fun rides.

Sweet Ride: Poutine Edition Recap

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The last Sweet Ride was originally set for mid-October so that we could take in the fall colours, but the weather didn’t cooperate so we postponed the ride and luckily for us the weather was super warm and dry(despite there being a lack of beautiful leaves).

We started mid-town at Uncle Betty’s, a cute diner on Yonge north of Eglinton.

They served us complimentary roasted marshmallows!

Greg’s meatloaf poutine

The teal bike brigade!

And then we were off! Thanks to Joe’s great route, we had an enjoyable ride on residential streets to the Belt Line.

Then we biked through the Kay Gardner Beltline until we got to Mount Pleasant Cemetery. There were still leaves on the trees and the sunset was casting a nice golden glow on them.

The timing was perfect for this ride because we got to ride towards a beautiful sunset.

By the time we got to Smoke’s it was dark. A few of us were too full from our Uncle Betty’s poutine to order a 2nd one, but most of us stepped up to the challenge and we chatted a bit about which poutine we liked better. Most of our conversations, however, were centered around civic politics and of course bike related topics.

Thank you so much for coming out to the Poutine Ride, guys!!

And thank you to everyone that came out to one of the co-ed Sweet Rides this year. Looking back, it’s amazing to see how many people came out this year! I hope everyone that came out was able to meet as many amazing people on these rides as I did.

Thank you for coming out!!

With or without bike lanes, we WILL ride in the city Stay safe out there.

Sweet Ride: Poutine Edition (let’s try this again!)

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Since we were rained out last time, let’s try this again! The forecast calls for warm, dry weather – let’s hope it stays that way!

… and don’t forget your poppy!

DATE: Sunday, November 11, 2012
TIME: 3:00pm

START:
Uncle Betty’s Diner
2590 Yonge St

END:
Smokes on Dundas
203 Dundas Street East

ROUTE:
- Head west through the side streets of North Toronto
- Follow the Beltline through Forest Hill to Mt. Pleasant Cemetery
- Through the Cemetery and south into Rosedale
- Down the new Sherbourne separated bikelane

ROUTE MAP: http://goo.gl/maps/pmEDK

ROUTE LENGTH: 12 km

If you are so inclined, you can RSVP on Facebook!

Hope you to see you out to the last group ride for this year!

Sweet Ride: Poutine Edition Details

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The last Sweet Ride for 2012 is happening in a week! Will you join us for this last group ride?

DATE: Saturday, October 13, 2012
TIME: 2:45pm

START:
Uncle Betty’s Diner
2590 Yonge St

END:
Smokes on Dundas
203 Dundas Street East

ROUTE MAP: http://goo.gl/maps/pmEDK

ROUTE LENGTH: 12 km

If you are so inclined, you can RSVP on Facebook!

Hope you to see you out to the last group ride for this year!

Sweet Ride: Ice Cream Edition Recap

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WOW!! What an amazing turn out (we had around 50 people join us) and what glorious weather we had this past Saturday for the Sweet Ride!

We started at Bakerbots and we all indulged in their super awesome ice cream sandwiches. They have so many different cookie and ice cream flavours that there was an infinite number of combos that you could try.

I had an ‘everything’ cookie (choco chip, pretzel, etc.) with vanilla bean ice cream. So yum!

I was the sweep this time and biked at the very back to try to make sure we didn’t lose anyone (although later on I found out we did lose one person for a short while. Sorry!).

So most of my shots are from behind!

I wish I could have captured how big our group looked on the streets!

Our route this time was through the city and we took mostly quiet residential neighbourhoods.

Joe shared some interesting facts about the neighbourhood we just biked through and information on the neighbourhood and street that we were about the ride into. At this point we crossed a little known foot bridge.

Then we biked through a street that is closed to cars where people set up a flea market!

Then we wound our way through more residential streets to Ed’s Real Scoop for more ice cream.

Duncan, who is the new Online Editor for Momentum Mag, brought us all the newest edition of the magazine. In fact he carried it on his bike for the whole ride! And we all got to leave with some schwag too!

It was a great ride and a nice way to see Toronto’s different neighbourhoods and discover some unknown tunnels and bridges that are closed off to cars.

Thank you Joe for being a great ride leader and sharing your knowledge of the different neighbourhoods that we rode through.

And thank you to everyone who came out!

Our last Sweet Ride is in October and Joe and I have already started to brainstorm some ideas for a food theme. Hopefully see you then!

August Sweet Ride: Ice Cream Edition

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Come one, come all! The August Sweet Ride is a week away and the food theme is ICE CREAM!

Everybody is raving about the Bakerbot’s ice cream sandwich and apparently it’s quite big so make sure to bring your appetite to the ride as well!

DATE: Saturday, August 18, 2012
TIME: 1:00 pm

START:
Bakerbots Baking
205 Delaware Ave

END:
Ed’s Real Scoop, Beaches
2224 Queen Street East

ROUTE
To be determined!

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If you are so inclined, please RSVP on Facebook or on Meetup.

See you soon!

Sweet Ride: Frozen Yogurt Edition Recap

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We lucked out with the weather again!! The heat wave in Toronto broke on Friday and Saturday was sunny but not too hot.

I think the weather had something to do with the wonderful turn-out we had.

We started at Menchie’s where they offered us a 10% off discount!

Then we took Christie up to Davenport to get to the West Toronto Railpath. It made me so happy to hear that many people said it was their first time riding the Railpath – I hope it means that they’ll be taking this route to get north/south the next time they are in the West end. The brown-eyed susans are just starting to pop out now so if you can get back there over the next several weeks, you’ll be able to ride amongst some beautiful flowers!

After a slightly tricky left turn onto Sorauren we arrived at Gurt’s on Roncesvalles! And filled up on more delicious frozen yogurt. I noticed that some of the riders opted for some of their yummy baked goods instead of frozen yogurt.

We then rode over the Sunnyside Bridge (which I actually never paid attention to and didn’t realize it existed until Joe and I planned out this route!) to get to the Martin Goodman Trail.

… to get to our final destination, the MEC Bikefest! I sadly, forgot to whip my camera out at Bikefest but we checked out all the bikey vendors at the Distillery District and even go to take advantage of the bike valet that Cycle Toronto set up for us.

Hopefully we’ll see everyone in August for the next Sweet Ride!

A big thank you to Joe of BikingToronto for being my co-organizer and doing an awesome job marketing this ride and getting the word out!

Also another apology to Steve and Wilma for leaving you both behind on the Railpath. I’m so glad you were both able to find your way to Gurt’s!

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More photos on Flickr!

Also check out Joe’s photos and Emma’s write up on our ride!

June Sweet Ride: Frozen Yogurt Edition

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Just thought I’d send out a reminder! The Sweet Ride is next Saturday – hope you can make it out!

START

When: 1pm
Where: Menchie’s
(Annex location)
511 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON M5S 1Y4

2nd DESTINATION
Where: Gurt’s
283 Roncesvalles Avenue

END
Where: Bike Fest
Distillery District

ROUTE
We’ll be taking a longer route from Menchie’s and Gurt’s so that we can ride down the West Toronto Railpath (Joe and Hyedie’s fav!) and also work off some of the initial frozen yogurt that we eat at our meet up spot!

Gurt’s also serves baked goods, so if you’ve had your fill of Frozen Yogurt from Menchie’s there are non-FroYo options for you there.

Then from Gurt’s we’ll ride down Roncey’s to the Martin Goodman Trail to head over to the Distillery District so we can check out the MEC BikeFest!

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Just one possible tricky bit for this route is: turning left from Dundas West onto Sorauren Ave, right after we exit the Rail Path. Let’s try to take the whole lane so we can turn left together as a big group. Also watch out for those streetcar tracks too!

RSVP on Facebook to keep up with any communication we might have for the upcoming ride, or keep on visiting our blogs to keep up to date on all things Sweet Ride.

Sweet Ride: Cupcake Edition Recap

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Despite the nippy weather, we had a great turn out for the first Sweet Ride of 2012!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to join my co-organizer Joe and I on this ride.

We started off at Flour Studio on Eglinton (where most of us totally earned our cupcakes after riding north towards Eg and climbing all those hills to get our meet up location).

With all the delectable cupcake flavours to choose from, I think many of us had a hard time to pick just one to eat!

Then it was time to hit the trails and wind our way down to Bobbette and Belle.

After a little bit of riding on Bathurst we entered the beautiful Kay Gardner Beltline and enjoyed a downhill ride through to Mount Pleasant Cemetary.

Well … actually the whole ride, not just the Belt Line was downhill! I’m glad I brought the grocery-getter (despite the basket malfunction – who knew that Loctite would be THAT important over bumpy terrain) and not the fixie because I was able to coast for almost the whole way!

Then after a slightly rocky trail along Bayview, we hit up the Don Valley trail south to the Lake Shore trail before we headed up Carlaw to our final destination!

And I don’t mean to gush so much but I just love< Bobbette and Belle.

Everytime we visit the beautiful bakery, we always get such special treatment. The first time we visited, owners Allyson and Sarah took time out of their busy schedule to come meet us and also treat us to special bicycle paperclips (that I still use in my daytimer). The third time they had special whoopie pies for us to try. This time all of us riders were treated to a free macaron to go with a cupcake (or other purchase).

Despite always being busy with customers, Allyson, Sarah and the Bobbette and Belle staff always make us feel really welcome.

Thank you ladies!!

Thank you again to everyone who came out! It was so nice to bike with so many Sweet Ride and Cupcake Ride veterans but also with a lot of first timers. Hopefully we’ll see you again soon.

And a big thanks to Joe who took the reigns to do most of the planning for this ride and being our leader for our beautiful ride down the city.

To see more photos, check out the Flickr set here.

Here are Joe’s photos and some rider submitted photos on the event page!

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If you missed this ride and want to join us on the next one, check out the season schedule!

Sweet Ride: Cupcake Edition 2012

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We are so happy to present the first Sweet Ride of 2012! This ride is Cupcake themed and will happen on Sun, April 22 at 1 pm (which by the way is Earth Day)!

Everyone is welcome – so please tell all your friends!

This would be a perfect setting to bring along that friend who wants to ride in the city but is a bit intimidated. We don’t ride too fast and being sandwiched between experienced riders will help that person feel safer. Strength in numbers, right?

Here are the details!

START
When: 1pm
Where: Flour Studio, 883 Eglinton Ave. West

END
Where: Bobbette & Belle, 1121 Queen Street East
BlogTO Review of Bobbette and Belle

ROUTE: We have an amazing route planned that takes us on the Beltline, through Mt. Pleasant Cemetary, zooming down the Moore Park Ravine (be sure and make sure your brakes work!!!) to the Don Valley Brickworks and then down the Lower Don Valley and the Martin-Goodman Trail to Leslieville!

RSVP on Facebook to keep up with any communication we might have for the upcoming ride, or keep on visiting our blogs to keep up to date on all things Sweet Ride.

click on the map to view it larger!