Meanwhile in Canada: Winter Biking FTW!

We present to you three big winter biking events for y'all in Toronto who miss the glorious scene of the summer, when cyclists take over the city in pure fabulousness. In winter Toronto rocks hard at winter biking, so come one, come all and lets have some fun!



Tomorrow!!! It's The Coldest Day of the Year Ride put on by Cycle Toronto! (What's with these last minute posts, right?... jezz...) Meet at 12 noon on Wed Jan 30 at Armoury St. and Chestnut St, just behind City Hall. (see map).



Toronto Icycle 2013!!!!! Wooot! It's Saturday, February 16th, 2013, and starts at 7pm at Dufferin Grove Park. (That's 875 Dufferin Street, just south of Bloor on the east side.) To explain this to outsiders, basically this is a bike race around an ice rink. In costumes. With your friend heckling. Nudity in various forms is ensured. Hilarity! It's because we Canadians embrace winter, and want to have fun all season long. If this doesn't inspire you to bike in the winter, nothing will. (Check out the 2011 National Post article on Icycle that asks Thora and Cannibal Vixen about what they do to bike in the winter.)


Big ups to Jo No for the video and pictures.


And then we have a The Great Lakes Winter Classic polo tournament going on during the Toronto International Bike Show, March 2 & 3, 2013. Keep Checking out the Bike Polo TO website for information as she comes. 



And while not an event, it's related... Our Friends at HMPL just put out a new, semi-NSFW video about enjoying "winter" biking in Vancouver. Ha. (Nice buns there Scott ;)
HMPL Winter from Matthew on Vimeo.

ICYCLE 2012 IS COMING!

It's nearly that time of year again! Everyone's favourite annual ice race at Dufferin Grove... ICYCLE! So stud out those tires and we'll see you on the ice or on the sidelines being rowdy either way. The event this year is going down on Feb 18th. It's $5 to sit in the box (all proceeds going to Charlie's Freewheels), or FREE to watch from everywhere else. Afterparty at Bike Pirates.

And with the way this ridiculous snow free & mild (minus yesterday) winter is going, it's probably going to be a pretty nice night for the race. Fingers crossed....

(photo by Nana Arbova)

ICYCLE 2011

Ice. Studded Tires. Wipeouts, babes, collisions, high speed chases and guys wearing brooms on their heads.
The Nightshades were there. Big love to Linda Shin (she's the one whipping around the track in the Mental Oriental jacket)
who writes for Hello Velo, a local bike shop and biking blog.
And shout out to Frank Maidens for Best Crash of the Night, and to the lovely people at Dufferin Grove for hosting Icycle 2011.

MORE INK...

...then Irene has sewing machines. If you didn't catch that link in the last post, Nighshades Patricia & Laura were quoted in a National Post article about winter biking & ice racing. Hilarious.

Speaking of Seafoam....

Leader's new frame colour for 2011 is Seafoam Green, I just read about it over at Pristine Fixed Gear Blog.



Speaking of Rad and pretty bikes, tomorrow in Vancouver there is the 17th Annual St Valentines Day Massacre Alleycat to balance out the amazing freezing bikeness that will be ICYCLE in Toronto. It gives me the warm fuzzies to know that there will be gatherings of amazing cyclists on both coasts.

xoxoxo

ICYCLE 2011!

Want to make some scary looking tires and still fall off your bike with the entire bike community cheering you on? Yeah you do. Want to cuddle in the bleachers with hot todies and make some new friends? Heck yes!

Then come out to Dufferin Grove on Sat, Feb 12th from 6-9 pm for ICYCLE the annual Toronto ice race! Afterwards, party/fundraiser is going down at Bike Pirates with a pwyc at the door. All proceeds are going to Peter McKenzie - the cyclist who was hit on the Bloor viaduct just before Christmas.

FYI. If you want to race and need some extra traction, Bike Pirates is also going to be hosting a tire studding workshop in the next few weeks. Otherwise, you can race in the rubber class (shown below) as the last race of the night. The real question is which nightshade is going to sacrifice her body and pride for the cause this year?

Come and race, or just come and watch! It's going to be great either way.

(photos by Victor Gedris - check out the rest of his set from the 2010 race here!)

ICYCLE my BICYCLE

on saturday at dufferin grove park, many gathered to celebrate their canadian heritage with their bicycles on ice. yep. ICE RINK RACES. so amazing. all sorts of cyclists came out to test the strength of their physical constitution. here are some pictures for you.





























check out this bike.


..upon closer investigation, perhaps you will notice the fucking spikes on the tires.













then i spotted a group of messengers and asked if i could take a picture of them. they almost stabbed me, and i wondered where the hell the rest of the nightshades were. luckily my cunning saved me, and i ran off with blurry, underexposed photos. so here is only one picture.




















bikes on ice = genius. [probably]





























































.. i don't know who the man on the left is, but the one with the cowboy hat responded to "toast" and became my hero for the night.


























bikes rock. fin.

fotos by frank. check em out.