With June brings more pleasant weather and no more reasons to avoid traveling on 2 wheels, especially with our amazing new facilities like the Bike Vault. Cycling now is a joy! If it’s been a while, there’s a reason why the expression is “just like riding a bike” for anything you haven’t done for ages. You’ll find a ton of live events (and digital) on the Bike Month Calendar to get you going.

NEW!!! We have an IRL, outdoor session! After the successful July 15th session, our next is on Aug 24th (small postponement from Aug 10.

Bicycle Maintenance Workshop:

What: Expert bike mechanics will demonstrate the basics of bike maintenance in this hands-on workshop. Topics include: safety checks, assessing air pressure, flat tires, tightening brakes,
lubing chains, and ensuring your bike is the right fit. Feel free to bring your bike to practice as you learn, or just watch the instruction.

When: Friday, July 15, 12 – 1 PM

Where: Outside Toronto General Hospital, Gerrard St. lawn near University Ave.

Who: For all UHN Staff and Volunteers

RSVP: to uhncycling@uhn.ca by July 13 to secure your spot.

Bike Month Workplace Challenge

UHN challenges anyone on TeamUHN to join our Bike Month Workplace Challenge! Whether you’re teleworking or working on-site, you could win one of ten $50 gift cards and the Smart Commute prize pack. The best part is – this challenge is open to cyclists of all levels and signing up is easy! Check out our guide on how to create an account and log your cycling trips. These can be trips anywhere, not just commuting to work.

No Bike? No Problem!

UHN has an updated discount for Bike Share Toronto! We now have a discount of 25% for new AND current BikeShare users! The last discount only applied to new users, so this is better. See below on how to sign up.

They have 2 types of programs now … a 30 minute base and a 45 minutes base (nice if your rides are just a bit over 30 minutes). Each ½ hour over the base is $4 … not too much, but a good incentive to pedal faster :).

BST Corporate Membership Program – How To One Pager – UHN_March 2022Download

Yikes! My bike is in rough shape!

Stop by a non-profit bike shop or do-it-yourself bike repair shop to check out affordable options to get you cycling! There are so many here.

Cycle Toronto will be holding pop-up bike safety stations to provide people with safety checks and minor repairs for those who may not have access to a bike shop but want to get riding. They can help with things like inflating your tires, lubricating your chain, performing an ABC safety check, and anything else their team can safely accomplish in a few minutes:

The chain is clunking on one of my bikes, so I might give this a try too.

Uhhh, what are the rules of the road? Who has right-of-way?

As luck would have it, next week’s Bike Month Webinar is Road Rules on Tuesday, June 7! As we are members of Smart Commute, we have a lot of fun bike webinars to choose from. In this one, “learn about everyday interactions with others on the road in this interactive quiz-style workshop. Topics include: laws and fines that apply to both people cycling and people driving, navigating shared space with other road users, common misconceptions about turns, parking, passing, right of way & more.”

See a full list of Bike Webinars here

And it’s not just digital events … you’ll find a bunch of in-person events, like group rides, in addition to virtual Bike Month festivities.

See more Live events (and digital) on the Bike Month Calendar

What if I can’t bike all the way to work? I live faaaaar…

If you have a long commute, you can still ride to a TTC or GO Station and leave your bike locked there. You can check out helpful tips on locking up your bike from the City. All buses are also equipped with bike racks. You don’t have to bike the whole way.

If you build it, they will come

The City is building over 100km of new cycling routes from 2022-2024 as part of ActiveTO, in addition to the exciting bicycle network expansion we’ve seen last year. For those along University Avenue’s Hospital Row, we are thrilled the bike lanes are being made permanent! (and nicer)! You can see the architectural plans if you’re really keen! Or dig deep into the full proposal!

The basic model for University Ave with a sweet and safer median between car and bike

There are plenty of reasons to keep pedaling beyond Bike Month. Cycling provides both physical and mental health benefits, like strengthening your lower body, reducing the risk of cardiovascular health problems, relieving stress and improving your mood. Let’s not forget that cycling is good for the environment (@ss-powered instead of gas-powered) and helps reduce road congestion, noise pollution, and GHG emissions. With all these benefits, every month can be Bike Month.