We share our enthusiasm for bikes by getting involved in almost everything related to bikes in our area. We race, we ride, we build trails, we host events and we sponsor riders of all ages and ability. Have we mentioned anywhere on this site that we REALLY love bikes?
Regular Rides & Events
Quadra Island is an absolutely fantastic place to ride. You really should make a point of coming to visit. Here are some of the best ways to get out with locals and enjoy our road, gravel and MTB trails!
Sunday Church of Dirt
Every Sunday at noon, a group of us meet religiously in the Morte Lake Parking lot at Noon. The ride is a group ride and we wait at all major junctions to make sure that nobody get’s left behind. Our trails are technical, fun and certainly very challenging. Most people say that 10km on Quadra is 30km anywhere else!
Wednesday Night Road Ride
When the weather turns nice in Spring, a group of us meet every week at 6pm to ride from Jack Mar’s Island Cycles in Heriot Bay. We keep the group together on the way out, with the occasional sprint to spice things up. The way back typically escalates into a race to the barn for chips, beer and good company. This is a great way to experience our local roads (and hills!!).
The Great Boar Hunt
We find all kinds of treasures off-the-beaten path on our big rides! Like this wonderfully neglected machine!
A group of die-hard, dedicated riders have been braving the cold on New Year’s Eve Day for over ten years. The ride is invariably a battle of attrition. Some days start with over 100 riders but end with only four or five pushing to complete the 100+km route. Although the past several years we’ve reduced our involvement in hosting a big afterparty and formalizing the ride, you should definitely just show up on the 31st of December at 8:45am at the Yack Shack. We usually leave by 9am and end when we’ve lost all light.
Quadra Island CycloQuest
In response to demand to host a big ride on Quadra outside of the cold of New Year’s Eve Day, we, along with a dedicated group of organizers, host a CycloQuest on the May long weekend. Think of it as a massive, choose-your-own-adventure ride. It involves maps, passports, checkpoints and gruelling day out grinding gravel and pounding the tarmac to score as many points as possible.
Gnarly Climb at 2019 CycloQuest - The MayHem Edition!
2019 MayHem CycloQuest Registration
In a spirit of inclusiveness, our team has developed a children’s program for the day so that families can attend and parents can still ride. We also rent our favourite watering hole on Quadra for the evening and host large afterparty and dinner with real and quirky rides after the big day out.
One of the things we’re most proud of is that we bring $25,000-$30,000 in revenue to the island that weekend. It’s an opportunity for us to support and say thanks to the many businesses on our island that help support our riding habits on Quadra. Furthermore, all of the profits from the event go back into our Quadra Island Cycling Coalition (we’re part of the leadership team there) in support of initiatives that help promote cycling on Quadra Island.
In 2020, we anticipate 200 riders at the event. We’ve kept it as inexpensive as we can. If you haven’t registered, you really should consider joining the ride. Our website is here and features all details: https://quadracycloquest.ca/details
Trail Building
We don’t want to say this too loud, but we love trail building almost as much as we love riding bikes! Every winter a group of die-hard builders meet at 10am in sunshine, rain and sometimes even in snow, to spend the full day fixing trails, re-routing important arteries and cutting new trail.
Morte Lake Reroute, 2019-2020 Winter Project. 1000 hours.
We take great pride in our work and are excited when people come to work with us or ride our trials. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to become educated in best trail building practices through education, experimentation and by just going out and doing it! We’re particularly interested in trail building practices that reduce maintenance and that are sensitive to the land and natural environment. We strive to have an acceptable level of impact on our environment. For example, when re-routing eroded trails, we save ferns and moss that are removed from the new line, so that we can re-plant them when we’re decommissioning the old trail. We’ve had the great fortune of taking several exceptional courses with Mark Wood from Trail Holistics.
We believe in multi-use trails and work very closely with many trail users and especially our local hiking group who’re associated with the Quadra Island Trails Committee. In a typical winter, our group invests over 1000 hours in building and maintaining our network. We’re very proud of the amazing trails that we have and we love sharing them with our friends. We’re also aware that maintaining the system is one way we can contribute meaningfully to our local economy here on Quadra Island.
Trail building is like a choose your own adventure lego-box of possibilities.
A typical collection of tools on Saturday.
To call this trail eroded was an understatement! Some serious re-routing 2018-2019.
Naked Factory Racing - NFR
We’re so darn proud of this tiny team that can! You really couldn’t meet a lovelier, more dedicated and hard-working group of riders. Though we have a core team of officially sponsored ‘Factory’ riders, the community of individuals who race under the Naked Banner is much larger. One of the awards we’re most proud of is the Team Award at our favourite race series, Cross on the Rock, which we have won every year since it’s inception!
Our Factory Racing Team consists of some of the most talented athletes we have ever had the chance to watch. In the past five years, our small team has won several Canadian national championships thanks to incredible efforts by Mical Dyck, Emilly Johnston and Carter Woods. We’re so proud to have such strength and depth at both elite and junior levels.
Follow our athletes at our NFR website!
Mical Dyck - Canadian National Champion.
Killer, AKA Emilly Johnston. World Championship Competitor.
