As anyone in Toronto knows, we've seen an explosion of new cyclists while infrastructure breathlessly tries to catch up. However, if we were to conduct a demographic study of who's buying bikes (and who's riding) our hunch is that the numbers would reveal a population segment that ranged predominantly from 18 to somewhere in the 60's.  Toronto is home to a great urban planning consultancy named 8-80 Cities whose name reflects their mission to make streets safe for cyclists from the age of eight to eighty. This is a sentiment we share. Which brings us to the topic of kids bike ..read more

2023 brings new opportunities, and even more innovation from our favourite British bike brand. Follow our streamlined system below to choose the ideal Brompton for you and your needs. We’ll walk you through the process of building a custom 2023 Brompton below!   ELECTRIC OR NOT? - Empowering The Ride You need to decide if you want a Brompton Electric or a standard Brompton (what we lovingly call an “acoustic” bike).  Standard Bromptons are excellent for many reasons. They’re more lightweight than the Brompton Electrics (weighing in at 24-28lbs depending on spec) and can fly anywhere ..read more

Human beings are creatures of habit, and sometimes it takes a crisis to run an internal audit on oneself and make some big changes to health, happiness, and especially your wallet! But habits can derive from deep cultural assumptions and right now we are in the midst of a huge cultural shift. Part of this is climate change, part of this is quality of life, and part of this is sheer economics. If you grew up in North America, chances are good you grew up in a suburb where bicycles were toys and the car was king. But, North America has been changing. Where property values were once measured ..read more

Our Top 15 Recommended Brompton Upgrades If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re sold on Brompton being the single best folding bike on the market (and you’d be right!). But nobody’s perfect - and that includes Brompton. These are some of the most common upgrades we make to our customer’s Brompton bikes, and what we recommend checking out if you’re buying a Brompton or looking to soup up an existing bike. 1. Easy Wheels Easy Wheels: The frame wheels supplied with your Brompton are small and more suited to standing the bike up when folded than actual mobility. Upgrade to a wider E ..read more

The world has changed quite dramatically with COVID-19 and it's had a major impact on the cycling industry. In most cases in the past, getting a flat fix done was an in-and-out kind of thing - at the very worst, it took our mechanics a one-day turn-around. However, with cycling now becoming the top method of getting around Toronto, bike shops are overwhelmed with bicycle service requests and require appointment bookings, sometimes weeks in advance (even for flat fixes). With this maintenance guide, we hope to help those that are mechanically confident to replace a tube on their Nihola car ..read more

The Global Cargo Trike Cargo bike buyers tend to be avid researchers, which is something we love, because it takes a lot of research for us to import a cargo bike brand ourselves! As we've remarked elsewhere, each brand we carry needs to meet or exceed our strict standards. First, they must be brands that are trusted in their home market. That's why we visit Denmark and sit in cafes, watching bikes go by and taking careful notes. But that's not enough. We also look at those same cargo bikes parked on the street and assess their wear and tear, determining which bikes can suffer ans survive a ..read more

Serving the Purpose, one bicycle at a time. When we first started importing Pelago bikes, we were astonished by their marketing materials. All their promotional images depicted fashionably bundled up cyclists, riding through ... snow!? Most bike brands wouldn't dare show their bikes being used in such tough weather conditions: cycling is almost always presented as a strictly summertime activity. Clearly, Pelago is a different kind of company. A company that doesn't really care if you ride through snow, but proudly declares that if you do, they make a bike for it. As Canadians up here in the ..read more

WOOF WOOF! 8 REASONS NIHOLA BIKES ARE FOR THE DOGS Some people have children, some people have dogs. In the eyes of Nihola, even fur babies deserve a cargo bike. Enter the Nihola Dog. It’s a lightweight bike with terrific handling that lets Fido walk inside, smell the sights, and enjoy the ride. We’ve sold tons of these to happy customers and, of course, happy dogs! Read on for 8 reasons dogs and their people love Nihola bikes. 1. DOGS ARE UP FRONT! Up until now the only way to transport a dog was in a pet basket. Rear pet baskets are great, but you’re always twisting sideways to check o ..read more

THE BABBOE GO: THE PERFECT BIKE FOR GROCERIES, KIDS AND FIDO TOO! The Babboe Go is kind of like the Honda Odyssey of Holland. It may not have the sportiest handling but by gosh it can carry a ton of stuff. And it does it with total ease-of-use which is top of the priority list. Folks with a keen eye might observe that there is very little difference between this and the Babboe Curve, one of our best selling models – and that’s true. The Curve has always functioned as Babboe’s minivan model, but up until now it was lacking one major thing: a door. The solution was the Babboe Go: essentially ..read more

TOP NINE REASONS NIHOLA MAKES THE BEST CARGO BIKE At Curbside we adore a company who lead by example, who are pioneering, and who make cycling available to everyone. Perhaps the greatest example of this is Nihola and their Nihola Flex. There’s no better way to say it: the Nihola Flex is a wonderful bike designed by someone who clearly wants to get everyone out on a bike, even if they can’t ride a bike. That ramp in the front? That folds down to form a wheelchair ramp. And, those tie-downs on the chassis? Those tie down the wheelchair so that everyone can experience the fresh air, a bike rid ..read more