Bike Union / MEC Member Appreciation Night [Toronto Cyclists Union]

Join us for our Member Appreciation Night at Mountain Equipment Co-op on Thursday December 1^st from 7:00 – 9:00.  Like last year, bike union members will receive 10% off everything in the store except boats.  New this year, MEC has extended their 10% discount to bikes as well!

TCAT Turns Five and Gets a New Name [Toronto Centre for Active Transportation]

Since becoming a project of Clean Air Partnership, a registered charitable organization, TCAT has evolved from a grassroots advocacy group into a research and education organization. As a result, we are celebrating our fifth birthday by changing our name to the Toronto Centre for Active Transportation.

BIXI Toronto expands coverage by 50% [Dandyhorse Magazine]

 BIXI Toronto has reached 3936 members after only 6 months of service and riders have made 372,417 trips. BIXI Toronto is also reporting that the average number of trips per day has seen little decrease even as outside temperatures continue to fall. Toronto’s bike-share system is up and running year around, the first system open all year in Canada.

[photo from Dandyhorse Magazine]

About the News Cycle

The News Cycle is a periodic post which brings together links to news, events and other things which may be of interest to Toronto’s cyclists.  If you have an item you would like to see in The News Cycle, please email it to me at joe[at]bikingtoronto.com

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Via the Bike Union, this dance party is also mentioned in our News Cycle from this morning.

You’re Invited to Derailed!

We’re kicking our drive to 2,500 members up a notch – join us for Derailed: A Dance Party at CSI Annex on Friday Nov 11! Doors at 9:00. Presentations until 10:00. Silent auction, raffles and dancing until 1:30. Members get in free. Non-members $5. Join or renew and get in free & get a free beer. Bring a non-member and let’s keep the drive alive!

RSVP on our Facebook event page! Not on Facebook? Check out our event page on our website for more info.

A special thanks to our event sponsors Mill Street Brewery, the Bicycle Commons and Hoopdriver Bicycles!

You may know that BikingToronto organizes co-ed “Sweet Rides” that revolve around food every once in a while, and we organize them with Hyedie Hashimoto, the woman behind the Toronto Girls Cupcake Rides.

Hyedie has posted a re-cap and photo wrap-up of the latest Girls ride, and it looks like a great one. Go to the Cupcake Ride site to check in out.

In case you are wondering, yes… there WILL be a Sweet Ride soon… we’re aiming for mid-November, and we’re aiming for a warm food theme.

Two weekends ago, the Red Bull Mini Drome came to Toronto and set up at the Evergreen Brickworks. Dandyhorse Magazine was there and caught all the action:

In the heart of Evergreen Brick Works, next to the kilns that fired the bricks that built Toronto, 85 skilled and daring riders took on a steep and shrunken velodrome. With speeds reaching 35 km/h, on a track that appeared no larger than a suburban garage, the challenge was not only to set the best time but do so without slamming to the ground.

Johnny “Jet Fuel” Englar, made an appearance (racing a front rack-equipped single speed) as did many other legendary local riders from the days of the Human Powered Rollercoaster. But the big competition was Addison Zawada from Jacksonville, Florida who was also the Montreal mini drome champion.

Photos by Chris Kaiser

All photos courtesy of Dandyhorse. View a TON of photos on the DandyBlog post.

It was immensely successful (we estimated about 200 people showed up) and this will be an annual event. We kept hearing again and again how much fun everyone had and how they can’t wait until next fall when we do it all again (and hopefully bigger and even better).

The best part is the event raised over $10,000 for the fantastic work that Bikes without Borders does, which is currently sourcing and buying bicycles and bicycle ambulances for health workers in Malawi.

If you missed the event (or even if you were there, looking dashing and lovely in your tweedy best), you’re probably interested in seeing videos and photos from the event. This post is for you.

Let’s start with a great video put together by Xander of 416CycleStyle: Tweedride Toronto on Queen St.

The next video is also from Xander… of the massive tall bike (complete with propeller) on the ride. It has a funky soundtrack, that somehow mashes Tweed with the 1970s. haha.

After the ride, we all stopped at Dovercourt House (on Dovercourt, north of Bloor) and parked our bikes at the BikeValet provided by the Toronto Cyclists Union and Autoshare, and proceeded to have dinner and a swinging 2-floor party.

Here’s a video of Tweedsters and Swing Dancers cutting a rug to “Sly Blue”, a swing band from NYC.

Finally, there are hundreds and hundreds (maybe thousands) of photos out there of the absolutely astounding fashion on the ride. Here’s a few from our TweedRideTO Flickr Group:

If you’re looking for more photos, you can find them just about everywhere:

• Dandyhorse Magazine: Bowlers, bow ties and bikes: Tweed Toronto Ride
• Dandyhorse Magazine: Bike Spotting at Tweed Ride Toronto
• BlogTO: Photos of the Toronto Tweed Ride
• Toronto Tweed Ride Facebook page
• Toronto Tweed Ride Facebook Photo Album
• The Grid TO: Snapshot – Tweed Ride Toronto
• Torontoist: Spotted: Tweedy Bike Riders
• Photojunkie: Tweed Ride Toronto

Wow! The last few days have been amazing for registrations for the Tweed Ride!

It’s going so well, in fact, that we’ve decided to extend registration a little bit longer (making it easier for people to get the cheaper online rate of $15). IF there are any spots left on Saturday, it’ll be $20 for in-person registration (from 12 to 2:30 at the Trinity Bellwoods Park Gates), so it’s in your best interests to sign up online.

Our NEW Online Registration deadline is Friday, Oct. 14, at 12 noon!

Remember, we’ll aiming to leave Trinity Bellwoods promptly at 3pm, so be sure and show up BEFORE 2:30 to get your ride packages, and hobnob and pontificate and conversate and take pictures with your fellow Tweed riders!

Useful things to bring is a teacup (we’re stopping for tea, of course) and a blanket (if you want to relax a bit during tea) as well as a bit of money. We’ll have a pay-what-you-can light informal dinner at our after-party, plus an amazing raffle for a Bobbin Bike courtesy of Curbside Cycle (pictured above).

Our Dear Leader, Rob Ford, has defied expectations and continued tradition by officially proclaiming October 9, 2011 as Messenger Appreciation Day. In doing so, Rob joins Mayors throughout North America in paying respect to thehard-working and fearless (fearsome?) men and women who cycle Toronto’s streets for a living.

As October 9th is a holiday, we’ll honour our brothers and sisters on October 11, 2011 from 10am – 2pm outside Roy Thomson Hall

We’ve brought together the Toronto Cyclist Union, Roy Thomson Hall, CLIF Bars, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Orontas, Charlie’s Freewheels, Urbane Cyclist, Trelock, Community Bike Network, BikeSauce, ING Direct, and many more to ply Toronto’s 500+ messengers with free caffeine, energy bars, and great bike swag.

If you’re female, love cycling, and most importantly love cupcakes, you owe it to yourself to check out the Toronto Girls Cupcake Ride today!

PLEASE NOTE: Although the graphic above says Oct. 1, the ride has been rescheduled until today, Oct. 8th!

START: Bake Sale
3076 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON

Time: 1:00pm
Date: Saturday, October 8th

We’ll start at Bake Sale (just west of Brentwood St on Bloor), which is super close to Royal York Station (just 2 blocks east).

-> head south on the Royal York bike lanes
-> left (east) on Lakeshore Blvd
-> enter the Martin Goodman Trail at Park Lawn
-> north on Strachan Ave
-> through Trinity Bellwoods Park
-> to either Crawford (if Dundas isn’t that busy) or Roxton (we’ll cross at Shaw)
-> east on College St
-> right/south on Bellevue
-> right/east on Nassau to Augusta where we’ll dismount and walk to

END: Miss Cora’s Kitchen
69 Kensington Avenue, Toronto, ON M5T2K2

via Dandyhorse Magazine:

The Red Bull Mini Drome will be at the Evergreen Brick Works this Saturday, October 8, 2011.

The event starts at 2 pm and the main race for the grand prize ~ a custom-painted T1 Cervélo track bike frame ~ is scheduled to start at 7 pm. YNOT bags and some beauty trophies are also up for grabs.

The sprawling grounds will be littered with cyclists and fun lovers from far and wide. The winner from the Montreal event will be competing along with about 70 other riders. You  can find more information hereand on the Facebook event page.

Your $15 registration fee gets you:

• Official participation in Toronto’s first annual Tweed Ride
• High Tea (bring your own teacup)
• Swag Bag
• A Swinging After-Party at Dovercourt House.

People are putting together their Tweed outfits (or outfits inspired by a bygone era), and we want to see photos of what you are planning!

In fact, we want to see your outfits so much (and have your outfits inspire others), that we’re having a photo contest (which also closes on Wed. Oct. 12)…. all you need to do is “tweet” your photo to our @TweedRideTO twitter account, or email them to info@bikeswithoutborders.org and you’re entered!

Prizes! The winner of the photo contest will win a Basil Memories Basket and a Giro Bike Helmet, courtesy of the Urbane Cyclist Co-op.

Here’s a few photos to get you started…. submit a photo to win!

Yvonne Bambrick, Mike Brcic, Kristen Corbet, David Miller, Tanya Smith, Casie Stewart and Ryan Smith

This is me, trying out some tweedy clothes.  Yes, I don’t usually have a beard… the things I do/grow for Tweed! haha.

Kristen of Bikes without Borders, with the Penny Farthing at the ING Direct Cafe