Saskatoon Cycles June 2021 Newsletter

Provincial regulations on e-bikes

With increasing numbers of e-bikes around the city, Saskatoon Cycles would like to remind our members and #yxe citizens generally that there are provincial regulations in place that specify the physical characteristics of a “legal” e-bike: specifically, that the motor cannot exceed 500 watts, it must be pedal assist (not a throttle), and cannot go faster than 32 km/hr. These regulations are intended to keep e-bike riders themselves safe as well as the other cyclists and pedestrians they encounter. If you support the City of Saskatoon and Saskatoon Police Service increasing awareness of — and enforcing — these rules, why not send a letter to your city councilor.

Bulk Basket is our newest “Friends of Cycling” sponsor

We continue to add new Friends of Cycling sponsors to our circle of friends. We are happy to celebrate our new friend Nag Arajan and his zero-plastic business Bulk Basket. His is one of many new businesses in the Riversdale area. Check out this 2018 StarPhoenix story about Naj and his shop.

We have been going to Nag’s store for a few years now — for a whole host of reasons…

• It feels so good to reduce our plastic use from containers for shampoo, cooking oil, liquid soap, powder for dish washer and washing machine and more.
• He carries a wide range of fresh, local, and organic dried fruits
• We’ve found tasty new snacks we’d never tried before
• Naj provides great explanations about all the snacks he carries
• We can buy various grains, lentils, and numerous types of pastas with no packaging and in as small of quantities as you want
• Naj’s mangoes are the best — be sure to get on his mango list
• Bulk Basket carries amazing free run brown eggs; they’re the BEST
• He sells fresh juices with no added preservatives or water

Local initiative providing bikes to improve young lives

U-Cycle YXE is a local initiative comprised of seniors from Bedford Road Collegiate looking to provide students with the equipment necessary to remain active and healthy during the pandemic. Through our partnerships with TakingITGlobal (TIG), Bridge City Bike Co-op (BCBC), SPSD, and HelpOne, they are supplying bikes, helmets,
locks and accessories to the youth of Saskatoon. While the program is targeting specific schools in the city, parents/families can also apply directly to the program. To request an application form, send an email to: u.cycleyxe@gmail.com. Kids are part of the application process too: they need to make a creative submission — which can be a drawing, photo, sculpture, video, etc — describing why they need a bike and how they would benefit from receiving one. 

Thank you to our YXE pedal counters!

A big shout-out to our SC members who stepped up to count #yxe pedallers as part of Canada’s first-ever bike count. While final national figures haven’t been tallied yet, the realtime pedal counter shows that between June 1 and June 6, our local counters counted 1,333 riders. According to our local coordinator, SC board member, Jim Arnold, we learned a number of lessons from this first go at pedal counting:

1. A seemingly mostly empty or clear path transports tons of people.
2. We can get a day’s snapshot by combining counts at the same spot from several days.
3. We can decide to count on the spot at a new place.
4. Count data can be used to plan better facilities for cycling.

“The CounterPoint app will let us count every form of transportation,” says Arnold. “Citizen data collecting plus citizen science equals a more liveable city.

Got bikes collecting dust in your basement, garage, or shed?

While we weren’t able to host our annual Used Bike Sale and Expo this spring, we are still accepting donations of good-quality used bikes. We will make these available for sale at reasonable prices through our Instagram account. If you have a bike you’d like to donate, send a note to: info@saskatooncycles.org. All proceeds help support our work to make Saskatoon a safer, more cycling friendly city for riders of all ages.

Have an idea for a cycling project or event?

We want to increase our ability to spread the cycling love, so have a standing call out for volunteer “advisors.” Do you have an idea for a biking-flavoured event that you’d be willing to take the lead on, if you had some support from the Saskatoon Cycles board? Send us an email note (info@saskatooncycles.org ) outlining your idea with as much detail as you can.

We’re blowing out t-shirts to make way for a new design

We have a small number of men’s and women’s t-shirts left in limited sizes (primarily XL and XXL). We’re selling them off at just $15 a shirt, to make way for a new design. You can purchase one through our online store.