Urbane Holiday Soiree

Last Friday evening, about fifty-odd people converged to celebrate together whatever year-end holiday they observe. Under cover of darkness we met, descended a short staircase at 720 Bathurst, and proceeded to eat, drink, be merry, and pedal our butts off. Our friend Navid brought GoldSprints, a stationary fixed-gear bicycle race using Urbanite track frames; our friend James from the Bicycle Music Festival brought his bicycle-powered sound system, running off of a BionX wheel he got from us; and our friends from Chocosol came by with their bicycle-powered blender to mix up some amazing margaritas. Three entertaining and awesome ways to transform our muscles into merriment and calories into something cray cray! Massive amounts of thanks and a rousing round of big ups go out to those mentioned above, as well as our hosts, CSI Annex, all our staff, their friends and families and everyone else that was there. We hope you all had a blast, as we did, and we look forward to another great year of cycling and all that.

Serial Numbers and You

Serial number on BB shell

One of the most important pieces of information to have about your bicycle is the serial number. Typically found on the underside of the bottom bracket shell, a serial number is a unique identifier which, when submitted to the police database, can help reunite you with your bike should it ever be stolen and subsequently recovered. Serial numbers consist of strings of alphanumeric characters which contain information about your bicycle. This information usually includes year of manufacture, model, and frame size.

Now called Bike Shepherd

Some bicycles do not have a serial number, or it may be unreadable. In cases such as these, or should you wish added protection for your bicycle, we have Bike Shepherd. Previously known as Bike Revolution, Bike Shepherd combines weatherproof heavy-duty 3M adhesive stickers with QR codes linking your bike to an online database. If your bike is stolen, Bike Shepherd sends out alerts via various social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Anyone with a smartphone can scan a QR code and see if a bike is stolen or not.

In any case, no matter how you record your bike, having a means of concretely identifying it as yours is an invaluable asset. And if purchasing a used bike, here are a few things to watch out for:

Filed-off serial number

Scratched-off sticker

Igor Kenk

Tweed Ride Toronto 2011

Jeremy selects a winner for one of our giveaways

Tweed and tea, a match made in England

The inaugural edition of Toronto's Tweed Ride, which occurred this past Saturday the 15th, was a great success. Urbane Cyclist hosted a tea service in nearby Grange Park, with refreshments, treats and support provided by Merchants of Green Coffee, ING Direct, Ontario Natural Food Co-op and Sweets From the Earth. Three varieties of tea, about 300 cookies and a whole lot of tweedy cyclists made for a great afternoon. There were some stunning bicycles, including a shiny Schwinn Tandem and, of course, a pennyfarthing. There were draws for prizes from Brooks and much, much merriment. Thanks to Bikes Without Borders and everybody else who had a hand in this superb Saturday. We'll be putting some more pictures taken at the tea service (courtesy of Single Malt Studios) on our Facebook page, so check them out and tag yourself if you fancy.

Six Rivet Status

Andrea Meneghelli, Michael Firn and our own Nancy Kendrew

We here at Urbane are proud to annonce that we have been designated by Brooks England as one of their Supreme Dealers. This honour is bestowed upon only one hundred shops worldwide and we are ecstatic to have been chosen to be among this select group which includes such renowned shops as Condor Cycles and Harris Cyclery, former home of the late, great Sheldon Brown. Brooks presented us with this accolade at Interbike, North America's largest bicycle trade show. In addition to the Supreme Dealer designation we were awarded a limited edition violet Swift saddle, the presentation of which was made by Andrea Meneghelli and Michael Firn and accepted by our own Nancy Kendrew. We are currently displaying this beautiful saddle in one of our vitrines and we eagerly await the arrival of our Supreme Dealer plaque. Many, many thanks to Brooks England, their North American distributor Highway 2, our knowledgable staff and of course our customers.