Eastern Canada - New to TORONTO - Looking for someone(s) to ride with!

just relocated here and am itching to get on my bike!

i'd be around the Cat 3 level (i've been off the bike for a couple months as i was overseas).

Would be great to get out for some rides ASAP if anyone's willing to have me. hope to have my bike together by early next week.


thanks-
Bryce
bwgracey at yahoo dot com

Hey Bryce

What part of TO are you from?

i'm on College, a few blocks east of Spadina.

i work nearby that area :D
i commute to work on a daily basis, but i'm from waaaay up town.
but we can meet up any day (as long as i don't have to work over time), but probably weekends are better.

Personally i want to explore a few more alternative routes as well, so yeah i'll like to ride around just for the heck of it, and not because i want to commute :)

I don't really like to ride along Spadina, because it Stinks big time! and i'm paranoid about riding my bike over that dirty nasty water in front of all those grocery stores along spadina.

But Spadina is the shortest way to work, so... anyways yeah looking for a better smelling alternative route.

LOL :D


As for getting a new bike, well if you don't mind low cost, Walmart has decent 18 speed bikes for $99.95, you sure can't beat that.

well, thanks for the offer. i've got a bike.

i'm looking for some 50-100+kms rides...so i'm assuming that would be on the outskirts of the city.

Some of my friends regularly do the Donut Ride (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Donut_Ride) ... an unofficial group ride on weekends. It might be a good place to meet other riders.

Hey Brycycle.

I'm from Richmond Hill which is just north of TO. I tend to ride north of where I live because I can't stand traffic lights or busy streets, I rather just deal with the once in a while maniac that flies past you at 100 km.

I was thinking if you were from a north part of TO then we could potentially ride sometimes, but being at College makes it a little more challenging.

Do check out the area around here . There are definitely some nice roads for riding around here.

Bryce, sent you a email. Let me know if you don't get it.

Jaret

got it - thanks Jared!

i appreciate everyone's feedback, please keep it coming.

well, thanks for the offer. i've got a bike.

i'm looking for some 50-100+kms rides...so i'm assuming that would be on the outskirts of the city.

not necessarily.

you can ride along the water front all the way from etobicoke (toronto west end) to scarborough / pickeing (toronto east end), that's a very nice ride with a great view.

you can go further, all the way past etobicoke to mississauga, but the view over there is not as nice. :lol:

on the other hand, if you want to go north / south direction, biking via the Don river, bike paths is very nice it goes all the way up to around Eglinton in north york, after that... well you can take any route and keep going north, via warden / kennedy you can go all the way up to the north lakes, if you are really not afraid of the crazy cars zooming by so close to you on those open areas.

that's the only problem, once you exit the city areas, people on cars will just fly by and it gets quite dangerous for us the bikers.

I've heard so many horror stories, of friends of friends being killed like that.:eek:

that's the only problem, once you exit the city areas, people on cars will just fly by and it gets quite dangerous for us the bikers.

I've heard so many horror stories, of friends of friends being killed like that.:eek:


No need to scare an1 so much. There are tons of us who bike those roads without incident but **** can happen anywhere, anytime.

With time you learn which roads are better for cycling and stick to them. I've biked on weekends mid-afternoon without encountering too many cars. Some roads have decent shoulders.

Just take Bayview all the way down to the city and hit up Queens Quay GOING WEST towards missisauga and then ride around UTM. Amazing views in that area.

Alternatively, I also love going up north of Toronto. I live in Woodbrdige so I mainly stay north of Major Mack and ride up thru to Barrie. That whole area north of Major Mack, or rather I would say north of Kirby road is all farmland and thick coniferous forest. Known as the "Greenbelt", it's a really great scenic way to get to cottage country which is just in another league of awesome.

But even in Toronto, there are so many different routes you can take. I usually just make them up as I go along LOL!

just relocated here and am itching to get on my bike!

i'd be around the Cat 3 level (i've been off the bike for a couple months as i was overseas).


There are a number of bike shops that have club rides. You might also consider joining the TBN (Toronto Bicycling Network), and look for their Tourist (50-120km) Advanced Tourist/Sportif (120-200km), and Country Cruise (40-120km) rides.

www.tbn.ca