I have a confession to make… I usually hate group rides. We’ve been on a few and find them kind of tedious and slow. But cycling with other Bromptoneers is completely different. I’ll explain why at the end of this post. For now, I’ll simply say that every Brompton ride and event we’ve attended has been a blast! So when we found out the Brompton Urban Challenge wasn’t happening this year, we and our friend Kay decided to organize our own Brompton event – a Brompton Social Ride!
We’re already members of the Toronto Brompton Owners Facebook Group, so we created an event and shared it with them. Even if no one wanted to cycle with us, we decided we’d do the ride ourselves.
But 26 people showed up! Look at this amazing group:
Photo by Jun Nogami
We organized the ride in two parts:
PART 1
The first leg of the ride was 17km. We began in Toronto Inukshuk Park and cycled west to Marie Curtis Park on the border between Toronto and Mississauga.
Click HERE for the detailed Google map.
Gathering at Toronto Inukshuk Park. Photo by Kay Pea.
Bromptons take over the Martin Goodman Trail along the Lakeshore. Photo by Jun Nogami.
Stopping for a photo op at the Sheldon Lookout. Photo by Jun Nogami.
Smile, Bromptons!
Heather and 26 beautiful Brompton bicycles.
Cycling into Marie Curtis Park.
At Marie Curtis Park, we had a picnic lunch and played some games with prizes donated by our favourite bike store, Curbside Cycle!
Brompton Picnic
Draw your folding bike blindfolded.
The drawings…
Partner folding challenge.
Blindfolded folding challenge. Photo by Kay Pea.
Starting line of the Slow Bike Race.
And finished the games with a Slow Bike Race. What’s that? It’s where the object of the race is to come in LAST, so you bike as slowly as possible. It’s pretty funny to watch. Here’s a video – sorry for the low quality, but you get the idea!
Then we bid adieu to those who were heading back to Toronto as the rest of us continued on to…
PART 2
The next leg of the ride was 7km from Marie Curtis Park to Port Credit.
Cycling selfie!
A fairly woodsy ride.
When we arrived, we discovered Port Credit was having a street festival with lots of bands playing. We stopped to have a drink at a restaurant with a patio and this cool mural wall.
Then we cycled all the way back to Toronto!
THE RIDE HOME…
So what makes a ride with fellow Bromptoneers so fun? First, everyone is so passionate about their bikes. It’s fun to swap stories of cycling and traveling with our Bromptons, not to mention compare parts and accessories. Second, we’re all pretty fast! We made sure that the first part of the ride went at a leisurely pace – not racing, but not turtle slow either. However, on the second part, everyone picked up speed, especially for the ride home! Turns out quite a few of us have geared up Bromptons. 😉 It wasn’t a race by any means, but it’s fun to zip along at a decent tempo.
Thanks to everyone who came out and made the day such an enjoyable success! We’ll do it again soon.