Cycling, heavy tools, beer by the gallon: together they form a lethal combo. Separately, they make for great DIY possibilities.
You’re on your bike between May and October, so learn to navigate properly at Cycle Toronto’s free Street Smarts workshops (cycleto.ca) to June 15 at various locations.
Once you’ve mastered the roads, fine-tune your vessel. Bike Pirates (bikepirates.com) leads an expanding tackle-your-own-two-wheels field, offering drop-in hours for maintaining, fixing and building your bike, five days a week (including women’s/trans hours on Sundays).
If you’re still feeling like Mr. (or Mrs.) Fixit, ride to the Parkdale Tool Library (irbe.org/tool-library) – starting their first summer season – to take a course or grab an instrument, big or small.
Cart your shovel and hoe to the Leslie Street Allotment Gardens – or one of 19 other municipally run public gardens (toronto.ca/parks), with a total of more than 2,000 plots – and plant your own vegetable or flower patch.
Reward yourself by brewing your own beer at Fermentations (fermentations.ca) on the Danforth. If grapes are your thing, the Wine Butler (winebutler.ca) offers Gewürtz to Granache for, ahem, bottom-of-the-barrel prices (30 bottles’ worth for as little as $150).