Saskatoon Cycles November 2019 Newsletter

Join us for our AGM Thursday, November 14th

Our Annual General Meeting is only a week away. Join us next Thursday at the Grad Students’ Commons (1337 College Drive, Corner of College and Wiggins) for what promises to be a great evening.

Our event starts at 6:30 with a vegetarian (GF) supper for $12/person, along with a cash bar serving wine, craft beer from 9 Mile Legacy, and non-alcoholic punch.

At 7:15 pm, we launch our new short film “Life on 2 Wheels,” which features three vignettes of year-round riders living in Saskatoon. Thank you to the Saskatchewan Health Authority for partnering with us on this health promotion initiative; SHA provided production support for the video.

Next up, at 7:30 pm, we will present our annual Award for Activism. Then representatives from Walking Saskatoon and Bus Riders of Saskatoon will provide brief updates on their work. Our Annual General Meeting will begin at 7:40, and will include elections for board seats, if required.

The night will also feature some giveaways, including Meaghan Hackinen’s new book South Away (see story below). If you like bike touring adventures, you will love this book! PS – That’s Meaghan in the picture at the top of this issue.

Winter Cycling Workshop coming up December 6th

A big thank you to the many intrepid winter cyclists who have stepped up to help provide information for the workshop and to be a buddy for someone who would like to get started. Our first workshop will take place Friday, December 6th at 7 pm at the Bike Doctor. Save your seat today by registering on our website.

Bike Sale and Expo May 9, 2020

Our second annual Bike Sale and Expo will take place Saturday, May 9th. Set up will happen Friday night, with the sale and expo to run all day Saturday.

We will be accepting donations of bikes that are in reasonable condition. We will also be selling bikes on commission (25%). All bikes will be checked by a bike mechanic prior to being placed in the sale. If they don’t pass muster, we won’t sell them. If you know of bikes that would love a new owner, please keep our fundraiser in mind. For more information, call 306-664-3908.

Call for volunteers: We need volunteers to serve on a small planning committee for this event. The group will likely meet 2-3 times between now and May 2020; the time commitment will increase closer to the date of the sale. If you are interested in helping out, please send an email note to: info@saskatooncycles.org.

Crowdsourcing to identify hot spots of cycling safety, risk, and crime

Saskatoon Cycles is beginning to promote use of BikeMaps.org, a crowdsourcing app where you can map your cycling incidents, hazard, and theft locations so they can be analyzed to identify hot spots of cycling safety, risk, and crime.

Karen Laberee is executive director of BikeMaps.org. She says the data that BikeMaps.org is generating is being used in a variety of ways across Canada:

• In Saanich, BC it was used to inform their 30-year active transportation plan. We created a hotspot map for them (twice) using police data and BikeMaps.org data and they have been working away at “getting rid of” the hotspots.
• In Victoria, BC initial reports on BikeMaps.org helped plan the route for their AAA bike network.
• In Guelph, ON Transportation Services uses reports right off of the map to plan upgrades.
• In Ottawa, ON the engineering department uses both the hazards and the incidents to monitor for “low hanging fruit” – things that can be easily fixed. They also use the reports to create a priority list of infrastructure projects.

“We know from the Public Health Agency of Canada that public health units are increasingly looking for more granular data on injury and a platform such as BikeMaps.org can serve as a complementary data source to achieve this,” says Laberee. “The Interior Health Authority in Kelowna, BC has recently taken up promoting BikeMaps.org with their team.”

Laberee says the BikeMaps team generally works with engineering, planning, or public works departments, depending on which area is responsible for bicycle infrastructure in a municipality.

South Away: The Pacific Coast on Two Wheels

Meaghan Hackinen will be doing the Saskatoon launch of her book, South Away: The Pacific Coast on Two Wheels, Thursday, November 21 at 7 pm, in the Travel Alcove at McNally Robinson Bookstore. South Away follows Meaghan Marie Hackinen and her sister in the adventure of a lifetime: bicycling from Terrace, BC down the West Coast to (almost) the tip of the Baja Peninsula.

Meaghan, who now lives in Kelowna, is well known in the Saskatoon cycling community. She was employed by Saskatoon Cycles and Bridge City Bicycle Coop as a volunteer coordinator, and was also on the BCBC board. Meaghan has generously donated a copy of her new book as a giveaway for our AGM on November 14.  

Meaghan will also be doing a presentation Friday, November 22, at the Bike Doctor loft, as part of the Cycling Speaker Series. This event, which runs from 7-9 pm, is organized by Bridge City Bicycle Coop and Bike Doctor.

Saskatoon cyclist wins 24-hour time trial world championship (Source: StarPhoenix)

Meaghan Hackinen started to worry around midnight. The first few hours had gone better than expected. She was averaging 35 kilometres per hour on her new Cervélo P2 time trial bike, completing endless 29-kilometre loops in the California desert. Then the temperature fell, and so did her pace — below the 32 kilometre per hour target she’d set for herself for the daylong time trial at the 6-12-24 World Time Trial Championships on November 1st and 2nd in Borrego Springs, California. “I was kind of bummed out because I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to hold onto that additional number I was striving for,” the 34-year-old ultra-distance cyclist from Saskatoon said Monday in an interview from Kelowna, B.C. Read the full story

Move to Grow 

We are delighted to see that the Saskatoon Public School Board is actively working to encourage children to be more active. One of their actions is to encourage children to ride their bikes or walk to school. Check out their web site for more information.