Saskatoon Cycles April 2019 Newsletter

An incredibly HUGE THANK YOU from us to the Bike Doctor for sponsoring the Bike Film Festival on March 25. Proceeds from the raffle were donated to the Bike Valet. We joyfully received $1500.  Thanks to the volunteers who helped with selling raffle tickets. You were awesome and we cannot do this without you!

Bike Valet:

The bike valet is starting to receive bookings for the upcoming season. We are dependent on our wonderful volunteers to offer this service. Please sign up at info@saskatooncycles.org to be on the list for shifts. We appreciate your time no matter how much time you spend. Shifts are two- hours, and it is a great opportunity to get your friends or family to spend some fun time together for a very worthy cause. We were unable to secure a sponsor in order to provide this service for the long term. There is significant work that is done behind the scenes by the board to keep the operation functioning. We have limited capacity to continue with this effort and will continue to look for a sponsor or a more sustainable way to function.

 Schedule of events

• Marathon – May 26
• Children’s Festival June 1-2
• Word on the Street June 9
• Gran Fondo June 16
• Jazz Festival June 21-30

Inaugural Bike Sale:

Do you have a bike in reasonable condition that you would like to donate to the first Bike Valet Bike Swap and Sale? We will be taking bikes for sale by donation. If you wish to sell your bike for profit we will take a 14% commission.

Bike accessories and parts will also be sold.
Intake 8am – 10 am on June 15 at the Western Development Museum.
Sale is from 10:30 am -3 pm

All bikes will be assessed by a bike mechanic prior to being placed in the sale. You can expect to buy a used bike that will take you miles and miles. This would be a great place for you to refit your children with a properly fitting bike.

This is perfect opportunity to help the work of Saskatoon Cycles as an organization that is working hard for safe cycling for all ages and abilities.

We will need lots of volunteers to help with this event. Please step up if you can spare a couple of hours on June 15. 

BRT Council Meeting:

City Council meeting on April 29 will be discussing the BRT as well as the All Ages and Abilities network of downtown. The meeting begins at 1pm and speakers can register to speak for five minutes. Letters can be sent to the mayor and your ward councillor to voice your opinion. We have been exposed to considerable “bike lash” lately and NEED to hear from the cycling community. Contact the mayor:

We will send out information on Facebook to give you more details of the presentation that the administration will make to the Council that day.

Letter to the Editor:

The following is a letter that an SC board member wrote to the Star Phoenix a couple of weeks ago but it has not been printed yet.

I’ve driven a car downtown in Saskatoon: seldom did I feel unsafe. I’ve ridden a bicycle downtown in Saskatoon: it is frequently frightening. Drivers often pass very closely, people open car doors very suddenly, drivers honk and sometimes yell – drivers fear cyclists will delay them, cyclists fear drivers will kill them, or injure them. The experience in other cities (Calgary and Edmonton immediately come to mind) is that “if you build it, they will come”: Cycling lane use is well beyond projections in those cities because people feel they can safely travel by bike.

As for funding, Saskatoon recently saw the building of 2 bridges for in excess of $250 million. One km of roadway costs almost $8 million. The budget amount for the entire downtown bike lane project is $4.6 million. A small proportion of total budget will be worth it, just like it was in Alberta. Do we want to have a city where there is transportation equity, or do we want a city where car ownership is required and those who cannot drive or cannot afford to drive are left out?

James Arnold, Saskatoon

Bike to Work Day:

Bike to Work Day for May 15 has been contracted by the City to On Purpose to organize the day. Saskatoon Cycles will sponsor a booth with Federated Co-op as we have done for the last couple of years. 7 am to 9 am. We will need a couple of volunteers for the booth. We are one of the busier booths so we can promise a great atmosphere, coffee and goodies. FCL volunteers are lots of fun to work with.

Can you give your time:

Volunteer wanted to review our financial statements. This is a requirement from our non-profit status. It is a one-time job and shouldn’t take too long.
If you are interested, please contact Gwen Charman gcharman@sasktel.net