#ride4pie

A “deliciously brilliant idea” sends moto enthusiasts to bakery bliss in southern Ontario

Photostory by Dan Lim (for HOG Magazine)

It is no secret that bikers love to eat. Maybe it's the country air and the constant wind in your face, but the hunger is real.

What typically comes to mind when you think of bikers and food are barbecue, burgers, pulled pork, ribs and ice cream. Recently, another favourite food for bikers has emerged: pie. Yes, pie! It's a deliciously brilliant idea.

Ride 4 Pie is an event started two years ago by Ross Hergott and Lisa Bure of Oil & Ale. This awesome couple hail from Ontario’s beautiful Kitchener-Waterloo region, about an hour southwest of Toronto. Known as Mennonite Country, the community consists of many small hamlets and villages laden with amazing bakeries.

The idea is for a group of friends to travel from bakery to bakery with a deck of cards, eating pie. You pull up to a bakery, pick your pie (from fruit to meat) and eat it. If you eat every last crumb of your slice, you earn yourself a poker card.

The day usually involves hitting up five or six bakeries. I know what you’re thinking: five or six pies? I will say that choice is key. The last pie stop is where you show your poker hand. The highest hand gets first dibs choosing from the fantastic prizes generously donated by the people and companies within the moto community that support the ride.

Ride 4 Pie doubled in size in its second year. This year, Ross and Lisa decided to take a hiatus. To keep the tradition going, Greater Toronto Area rider Orla Kipling created a smaller version of the ride centred around Caledon and the Simcoe County area. 

Orla participated in year two of Ride 4 Pie as a brand-new rider and fondly remembered what a fantastic experience it was. Her ride was a temporary fix until Ross and Lisa are ready to get back at the helm, but I for one, am thrilled that Orla took up the challenge.

The ride began in Toronto on a beautiful fall day, sunny but cool. A few of us rode north to Tottenham for a huge country-style breakfast at Cedar Kitchen. Trust me – when you know your day (and stomach) is going to be filled with pie, eating a good breakfast is essential. 

After breakfast, we met up with a few more bikers, expanding our group to 13. We took off west towards Orangeville for our next destination, Son of a Chef Bakery. By the time we rode in, believe it or not, we were actually feeling a bit hungry and ready for our first pie. As we looked around, we noticed the selection of tarts was pretty amazing, from your standard butter tart to key lime, pecan, and exotic ones like maple and bacon. It all looked so good that everyone in the group opted to go for tarts instead of pie. 

That's when this ride’s name unofficially changed to Ride 4 Tarts.

We headed north towards the quaint little town of Creemore for Affairs Catering Bakery and Cafe. Everyone declined lunch, as you'd expect, and had their second tart of the day. The weather had warmed up significantly, so we decided to enjoy our pastries and coffee on the sidewalk patio. The group sat around and chatted about the great riding, the fantastic roads of the area, and how inclusive the motorcycling community is. Riding in a pack of friends is easily one of the best things to do. 

We probably shouldn't have spent as much time there as we did, but the moment was perfect. Orla had initially planned to hit two more bakeries, but as we lingered in Creemore, we realized we were not going to have enough time before the end of the day. So, it was on to our last stop. 

We headed south towards Belfountain in the gorgeous Caledon area. We took a wrong turn that actually provided quite the opportunity for a cool photo with the crew. We pulled over to the side of the road to get our bearings and noticed a gorgeous field of goldenrod. The field was backlit by the setting sun, and it was a perfect place for us to strike a pose and ham it up with our cameras and bikes.

By the time we got back on track and rode into Belfountain, it was pretty late in the day – but of course, not so late that we couldn't have our last treat from the Higher Ground Café.

After a day full of sweet treats, most of us ended up sharing our last tarts. We were definitely on sugar overload and stuffed to the gills. But we finished it all, every single one, right to the last crumb.

Although our version of this ride was smaller, involved tarts instead of pie, had fewer stops, and essentially took on its own personality, the vision was the same – to spend the day in the country air, on the open roads with the wind on our faces, enjoying good friends and good food.

It's no secret. Bikers like to eat.