It’s tough to get out of bed on these cold, mid-winter mornings, when the dull, greyish light of dawn labours to convince you of its presence. Frost covers half of my bedroom window — the sharp fractals a reminder of the violently glacial air that awaits beyond my cosy domicile.
I layer up — thick socks, a sweater, parka, two pairs of gloves, a neck-and-face warmer, a toque — and steel myself for the journey ahead.
As I step outside and unsaddle my trusty steed — a bright orange, single-speed Fuji — I take a deep, invigorating breath. My eyes widen and my head clears as the crisp air fills my lungs.
I hop on my ride, gliding past gridlocked morning traffic, west, then south, with incredible efficiency, eventually arriving at the Wellington bike lane, which ushers me swiftly to my destination, the Toronto Star office.
I enter the building feeling energized and fresh — hyper-aware of my thudding pulse pumping blood toward my extremities, now pleasantly tingling. I shed my layers and head for the coffee machine, my cheeks coloured with a charming crimson flush, where a colleague approaches with the inevitable question: “You biked?!”
Yes. I am a proud winter cyclist.
For the past dozen years, I’ve relied on my trusty two-wheeler to commute to university or work, to do my grocery shopping, to visit friends in far-flung neighbourhoods, to scoot past gridlock after a concert or basketball game, to explore the city’s waterfront and river valleys.
I’m also part of a growing community of Torontonians taking advantage of the city’s cycling infrastructure, which over the past decade has expanded significantly; a community made up of thousands of cyclists undeterred by glacial temperatures or treacherous winter conditions.
Made up of folks of all stripes — commuters, parents with kids in tow, seniors, couriers — this community is often invisibilized or misrepresented by the heightened rhetoric coming from politicians and pundits aiming to remove some of the city’s safest and most vital bike lanes.
So who exactly are these winter bikers? What makes them brave the elements on two wheels winter after winter? And what tips do they have for those who might consider giving such a wild ride a shot?
To find out, I posted a call-out on X and Bluesky and heard from dozens of winter cyclists from across the GTA who reached out to tell their story. Here are a few of them.
Judith Butler, retired school teacher
In mid-January, temperatures in Toronto dipped to nearly -30 C with the wind chill as a so-called polar vortex sent a blast of Arctic air across southern Ontario.
But the weather didn’t seem to phase Judith Butler, 78, who spent the day biking across the icy tundra and manoeuvring the steep hills of West Toronto to get to her gym, travelling a total 12 kilometres.
“I was proud of myself,” says Butler. “I’m originally from Alberta, so maybe you develop an extra layer of skin out there, I don’t know.”
A retired school teacher living in High Park, Butler is among Toronto’s growing community of year-round riders taking advantage of the city’s (slowly, but surely) growing cycling infrastructure; a community undeterred by glacial temperatures or heatwaves, by rain or sleet or snow.
“I’m not a spandex cyclist,” Butler explained, saying that she uses her bike like one might use a car: to run her errands and to visit her friends. “It’s just a very convenient, efficient way to travel.”
“With the advent of these bike lanes, I feel very safe,” she says. “Plus, I don’t find the TTC very reliable, especially as the years go on,” she added. “I would rather ride my bike in the cold than stand on a corner at a bus stop waiting for a bus that might not come.”
Lanrick Bennett Jr., urbanist
Last week, a signal problem halted subway service between St. George and Broadview stations, sending hundreds of shivering riders outside to wait for shuttle buses.
“Cars were stuck behind the shuttle buses, Ubers were literally everywhere. It was chaos on the street,” Lanrick Bennett Jr., who took in the scene from the wide-open bike lane during his commute home, recalls.
“And I’ve got this grin on my face,” he adds. “I’m not snickering, but in the back of my head I’m like, ‘Wow, doesn’t it feel good that I’m able to get myself from U of T to my home in 20 minutes?’”
Calling Bennett Jr. a “cycling enthusiast” would be a major understatement. The former “Bicycle Mayor of Toronto,” Bennett Jr. currently occupies the role of Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, where he is conducting research into how we might better integrate e-bikes into our city.
Applying both an environmental and equitable lens, Bennett’s goal is to create “better connective tissue” for vulnerable road users, “whether that means more straight-edged cycling infrastructure, or integration with public transit to make cycling the best and most convenient way to get around our city.”
A resident of Toronto’s east end, Bennett, 49, has been a winter rider for four years now. The only difference between riding in the fall and the winter, he says, is the types of gloves you need to use.
“We’re Canadian and we just figure out how to deal with winter,” he says, describing the body as an “amazing furnace.” He also points out that Toronto winters, especially in recent years, have been exceptionally mild. “We were in double digits in the last week of November. The days of calling in the army to clear the roads are mostly over.”
Kate Yang, entertainment worker
Kate Yang’s commute from West Queen West to an office building near the Distillery District takes about 25 minutes. It’s easily the fastest way to get through downtown if you’re not on the subway, she says, but also the most treacherous.
“There’s something about downtown drivers here where it feels like someone is going to kill me with their car,” she explains, saying she’s gotten into a few altercations with angry drivers recently. “I think all of this kind of anti-cyclist rhetoric that we’re hearing from Ford and others is stoking the animosity.”
“Perhaps there’s an element of jealousy because they’re stuck in traffic,” she adds. “And I’m like, ‘weeeee,’ zooming by on my bicycle.”
But the danger of battling downtown traffic has not stopped Yang, who works in the entertainment industry, from making the trek on her “ancient cruiser” three times a week (“I don’t want anything too nice,” she says. “Having a beater is a great theft deterrent.”)
“Whenever I have to drop my bike off at the bike doctor for a few days because of whatever has gone wrong, I’m like, ‘My God, I feel like I can’t go anywhere!’” she says.
“It’s free, minus the cost of any kind of maintenance stuff that comes up, but that’s still cheaper than a monthly TTC pass. Plus, the TTC is not always reliable, whereas you can always rely on your own two legs.” she says. “And it’s good for your cardio, or whatever.”
Kerri Scheer, mutual aid volunteer
During her first eight years in Toronto, Kerri Scheer, 39, was a “a reluctant and sporadic fair-weather rider.” Why would anyone bike in the winter, she thought, “when it’s dark and cold enough that the depression and chill gets into your bones?”
That changed in 2020, when Scheer joined the Toronto Bike Brigade — a group of volunteer cyclists who provide free deliveries of essential goods for community organizations, non-profits and mutual aid groups across the city. The organization, which was created in response to the early days of the pandemic, boasts hundreds of active riders and volunteers who cycle year-round, even in the depths of winter.
Her experience with the Brigade, she recalls, was not only an essential way to build community, but it also helped combat feelings of “pandemic paralysis.”
“I found that the benefits of cycling mitigated the impacts of the dark and cold winter,” she says. “The endorphins and warmth of moving my body through the city on a bike actually keeps the chill out of my bones during the dark cold months.”
“To that end, I’d ask folks to have some curiosity about why other people ride. I know it looks punishing, but consider what cyclists are getting out of riding that you perhaps cannot see at a superficial glance. Then, consider whether some of those perks — traversing the city quickly and cheaply, the good feelings of body movement and empowerment, being part of a like-minded community — might be appealing enough to combat their own hesitations about winter riding.”
Brian Tao, bicycle courier
Starting on Jan. 1, 2022, Brian Tao rode his bike 1,001 days in row, “just to prove that one can be a year-round, all-weather cyclist.
Tao, 54, lives in the Harbourfront. For the last four years, he’s worked as a bike courier with FedEx, where he’s compiled a list of helpful tips (beyond just “layer up”) for new winter cyclists.
He suggests beginners find an empty parking lot with snow and ice, and practice emergency braking on your bike. He also suggests using a shower cap as an inexpensive helmet cover to keep your head warm, and wrapping your metal brake levers in hockey tape so they don’t suck the heat out of your fingers.
Like Bennett, Tao believes anyone can be a winter cyclist.
“The spectre of Bill 212 aside, we have started laying the foundations of a truly great cycling city,” he says. “We have some decent cycling routes now, and we’re starting to get protected intersections. But we need those isolated patches of goodness connected together, and expanded outside of downtown. We also need better integration with public transit for truly multi-modal transportation like some European cities enjoy.
Mark Jackson-Brown, father
The last car Mark Jackson-Brown and his wife owned was a maintenance nightmare. In 2019, about a week before the birth of their first child, one of the car’s wheels “quite literally” fell off, he recalls. Rather than replace the car, Jackson-Brown and his family, who lived in north Toronto, decided to make use of the nearby subway and a newly-purchased e-bike.
Since then, Jackson-Brown — a 40-year-old who works in tech — and his family have stuck with their “car-free lifestyle,” even after moving to Scarborough.
“So far, it’s been working out,” Jackson-Brown says. “It means we’ve had to be a bit picky about daycare providers, since distances get pretty long out here in the suburbs. A daycare over 5 kilometres away just isn’t a practical option. Also, it means a lot of very defensive cycling, as there are few bike lanes or trails near us. We are regularly forced to ride on the sidewalks in order to keep safe distance from the tractor-trailers on Sheppard and McCowan.”
For Jackson-Brown, a typical morning commute is about 75 minutes: after dressing his 3- and 5-year-old kids in warm clothes, he hops on his cargo e-bike and zips them to their daycare. He then zips home, parks the bike, and takes the subway line to his office.
“The best way to start winter cycling is to just never stop autumn cycling,” Jackson-Brown says.
