Next month Built is in Toronto during NXNE Interactive. Built is our series of talks by people who create. It’s a make and tell event with 5-minute presentations by diverse speakers covering a wide-range of topics. This attendee favorite has played in Austin for SXSW and Portland during WebVisions. We’re very pleased to bring the show to Toronto during NXNEi.

We’re on stage in the NXNE Lounge at 1:20 to 2 each day from June 13-15 and want to hear what you’ve got to say about your projects, the cool stuff you make or do. How you take the ordinary and create the extraordinary.

Tic Brown on stage during Built at SXSW 12

Submit your talk now. Built our flavor of Ignite with the bike as a backdrop or a Pecha Kucha. Each presentation is 5 minutes with 20 slides that automatically advance every 15 seconds. The beauty of the format is, the presentations change like Seattle weather. If you’re not that interested in one talk, wait for another.

I’m also talking about being a maker and creator during NXNE. I’ll ride all over Toronto, mayor Rob Ford be damned!

I’m finally done, and was able to take 11 minutes of video down to 3.5, as well as pairing it with a peppy pop song that has been in my head for a few months (thanks to CBC Radio 3). I give you the Sweet Ride paired with “Big Blue Wave” by Hey Ocean.

In addition to the photos I posted on Sunday, be sure and check out the photos Hyedie posted on her Cupcake Ride Blog.

The next Sweet Ride is on Saturday, June 23rd.  We haven’t picked a food theme yet, but will soon.   Stay tuned.

If you are female and can’t wait for June, Hyedie is planning the next Girls Cupcake Ride for Saturday, May 26.

If you want to keep up and informed about future rides, you can also follow BikingToronto and the Cupcake Ride on Facebook and Twitter:

BikingToronto: Facebook | Twitter

Cupcake Ride: Facebook | Twitter

I ended up taking 149 photos and videos along the way.  Most of those (about 100) are short little videos I’m currently editing into one for you (it’s taking a while), but here are the better photos I took.

Details about the next ride are after the photos.

The next Sweet Ride is on Saturday, June 23rd.  We haven’t picked a food theme yet, but will soon.   Stay tuned.

If you are female and can’t wait for June, Hyedie is planning the next Girls Cupcake Ride for Saturday, May 26.

If you want to keep up and informed about future rides, you can also follow BikingToronto and the Cupcake Ride on Facebook and Twitter:

BikingToronto: Facebook | Twitter

Cupcake Ride: Facebook | Twitter

I’ll have the video edited and posted as soon as I can.

Remember, this ride is for Girls Only.  If you’re a guy (or a girl who can’t make it this Saturday) Hyedie and I are planning a Co-ed Sweet Ride for Sunday, April 22nd.  There will be cupcakes (and lots of other fine baked goods) available. We should be announcing details very soon, so stay tuned.

Here are Hyedie‘s words to give you the details about the Girls ride this Saturday:

Our first ride will be fairly short (approximately 9km) so that we can ease into the season. Plus we ride at an easy pace (average 15kms/hr).

I’m so excited to start the 3rd season of the Cupcake Ride! Hope you can make it out!

Date: Saturday, April 7
Time: 1pm

START:Prairie Girl Bakery
Unit 106, 18 King Street East (facing Victoria Street)

- head east on King St to Sherbourne
- left at Sherbourne and Lake Shore Boulevard trails all the way to Coxwell Ave
- down Coxwell to the MGT/Waterfront trail through the Beach
- up Silver Birch Ave to Queen St. East
- Queen St. East to….

END:Life is Sweet
2328 Queen Street East

–
Paul from Prairie Girl Bakery anticipates a busy Saturday and suggests pre-ordering our cupcakes. Would you gals be interested in doing that? If so I can organize a group order! Let me know in the comments!

–
• For those of you who will transit to our start point, the closest subway station is King station.

• Sorry gents! This ride is for girls only!

• My ride rules on the Facebook page vanished – I’ll publish them here shortly.

• You can RSVP at the Facebook event page!

We’re gearing up for the 2012 Sweet Ride and Cupcake Ride season and Joe and I thought we’d be proactive this year and set dates for the whole season before hand.

While this is a tentative schedule, we’re hoping that nothing will come up and we can stick to the dates below. We’ll be setting up Facebook events for each ride, just like last year, closer to the each of the dates.

Hopefully you can pencil in some of these dates and we can see you out on a ride this year!

April
Cupcake Ride (Women Only)
Saturday, April 7

Sweet Ride (Co-ed)
Sunday, April 22 <- Earth Day!

May
Cupcake Ride (Women Only)
Saturday, May 26

June (bike month!)
Cupcake Ride (Women Only)
Sunday, June 10

Sweet Ride (Co-ed)
Saturday, June 23

July
Cupcake Ride (Women Only)
Saturday, July 21

August
Sweet Ride (Co-ed)
Saturday, August 18

September
Cupcake Ride (Women Only)
Saturday, September 22

October
Sweet Ride (Co-ed)
Saturday, October 13

* Dates are not final and may change!

Insanity – Toronto bmx jam 2012 from Will Anderson on Vimeo.

Below is a large collection of photos taken by Derek at the Ice Bike / Icycle Races this past Saturday.  Click on any one of them to open up a larger version.  The one of the dude with the iPhone is me taking one of many videos I used to make this video of the races.

The following is an excellent list put together by Jun over at Biking in a Big City, who also took excellent photos of the races.

Shutterjet has some photos here.

TorontoGP Tourist has some photos here.

Update2: as per the comments, James has added a few more pictures of the rubber race, as well as a video to his original post, including this picture of meon the Xtracycle.

Some other photos by Kiril Strax here.

NOW magazine has a short write up.

Dandyhorse magazine has a nice write up with pictures, and a video that shows me (along with many other of my fellow riders) tipping over during the rubber race.

Torontoist has more pictures, including this one of me headed into traffic. I’m the only one with my headlight on.

I was able to freeze off my fingers and toes taking 70+ video clips with my phone and have edited them into one 4 minute video of a lot of the action.  I’ve coupled it with a rather unorthodox soundtrack too… “That’s What You Do Best” by Adaline – it’s an “electro-torch” song (of all things) that’s been in my head for a couple months and seemed to capture the alternating lulls and fun energy of the Ice Bike Races.

Not a bad little video considering it was shot and edited entirely on an iPhone.

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!