October 21, 2024

Protest the bike-lane ban this Wednesday

We expect the Doug Ford bike-lane ban will be announced today, Oct. 21, when the provincial legislature begins its session. The proposed law will prevent future bike lanes in Toronto like the planned Parkside two-way lane, and may also target existing bike lanes on Bloor St. and University Ave. for removal.

Regardless of your political affiliation, we hope you can agree that this is a huge overreach by the province into matters that should be left to municipalities.

A rally followed by a ride to protest this legislation is scheduled for this Wednesday, Oct. 23, 5:00 PM at Queen’s Park and Wellesley (South Lawn). We hope to see you there!

If you would like to help out as a volunteer marshal during the ride, or if you need more information, please contact dal2@tbn.ca.

Know Your Rights (Zoom) workshop

Join us Nov. 18 for a virtual session with Dave Shellnutt, managing partner of The Biking Lawyer LLP who are lawyers for injured cyclists but also are dedicated road safety advocates and cycling community champions.

The online workshop will focus on cyclist rights and entitlements should the unfortunate occur and you’re involved in a collision with a motorist. Dave will also discuss recent road safety challenges and ways to push back.

The 20-30 minute workshop will be followed by a lengthy Q&A to give all an opportunity to share and discuss. Topics covered will be bike cameras, road rage, police, rules of the road, cycling insurance and more.

This will be a Zoom session. The Zoom meeting details will be sent to you in your event registration confirmation and reminder emails. Check the Calendar for details.

Trip Presentations

TBN is launching a new social event this fall featuring presentations about members' trips abroad. These in-person presentations will take place weekday evenings in TPL libraries, and we hope to encourage other experienced bike travellers to share their experience with TBN.

We are kicking off with two presentations about trips in Europe. Terry Walsh will present his trip Amsterdam to Aachen in 10 Days, and Sandra McCrossan will present Biking and Barging in Europe. This takes place on Oct. 28, 7-8 pm, in the main floor meeting room at Northern District Public Library, 40 Orchard View Blvd near the Eglinton subway station on the Yonge line. Click here for details.

If you want to speak about your experiences at a future event, feel free to contact experience@tbn.ca to schedule your presentation.

Social events

AGM Dinner and Dance, Nov. 9. This event has sold out and registration closed on Oct. 20. If you have registered and cannot attend, please remember to cancel as there is a wait list.

TBN Pub Quiz, Nov. 21. The TBN Pub Quiz series continues on the third or fourth Thursday of each month at one of Toronto’s best and most interesting venues, the Prenup Pub. Registration for the Nov. 21 event is now open via the calendar. More details about the new quiz format and about the Pub Quiz series are available here.

Dancing on the Danforth, Nov. 16. This will be a very special evening as it will feature the band that played the TBN Spring Fling in May. The Junctioneers play a mix of covers, mostly from the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Come to Noonan’s Irish Pub and dance to or just listen to this great band. There is NO COVER. More information, music videos and registration can be found here.

City Walks

Our Sunday City Walk program continues on Oct. 27, although that particular walk will be marked as “Pre-Season” and may be rescheduled to a later date if the weather is good enough for a Leisure Wheeler ride instead. City Walks take place every Sunday until Dec. 15, and on the evening of Dec. 21 we will have our traditional Christmas Lights Walk.

We will also be running some weekday walks again, with walks scheduled for Oct. 17 and 24, and Nov. 14. This year will have a special Halloween evening walk on Oct. 31. Additional weekday walks may be offered, so please check the TBN Calendar for times and details.

Zwift your way to winter fitness

TBN will be offering its third year of winter virtual rides, using the Zwift computer platform to provide an almost limitless number of indoor rides as the weather turns cold, wet or snowy. Beginning Oct. 28, we will be scheduling morning rides on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. As well, we are hosting Tuesday and Thursday evening rides. If demand is sufficient, we will host weekend rides (we need some more volunteer virtual ride leaders). Each ride will be posted one month in advance. Check the TBN Calendar for scheduled rides.

Zwift allows us to offer curated rides in two fantasy worlds: Watopia and a Japanese-themed Makuri Islands. Also available are virtual routes in London, France, Innsbruck, Yorkshire, Richmond, Scotland and a futuristic New York City. There are more than 160 routes, from gentle to extremely strenuous. Many of our rides will use the "rubber band" feature in Zwift to keep all participants close together.

If you are interested in Zwift rides, either as a participant or as a volunteer virtual ride leader, please email virtualrides@tbn.ca with your preferences (day, time, distance and duration) and whether you are willing to host an event. Details about upcoming Zwift meetups will be posted on the TBN website. For more information about the meetups and how to get started, see Zwift Meetups.

Reminder to update your TBN profile

Please ensure to periodically update your TBN club profile. Perhaps upload a photo of yourself (so other members know who you are), confirm that your email address listed is correct (as this is the primary way for us to contact you), confirm your phone and emergency contacts are still valid, and update your current (or former) occupation and let us know if and how you would like to volunteer with TBN. We are always looking for helping hands, especially those with needed skills. How to do this: Login to the website www.tbn.ca, click on your name, then click Edit Profile. When you are done, press Save to commit your changes.

Event registration reminder

Please remember to login to the TBN website prior to registering for our Events. If you are not logged in, the system does not know who you are, and will only offer you the Guest Rider registration choice. Also, when you are logged into the TBN website, a lot of members-only content appears.

Chain of Events editor is Rick MacMillan. Email coe@tbn.ca.