The story behind the brand
It Started
With a Bicycle
Pedal & Port began with a single ride and the quiet realisation that health, confidence, friendship, and adventure often arrive together — usually on the same road. This is why the brand exists, and who it’s for.
§ Milestone
Cambridge, Ontario · Tour de Grand · 2017
The ride that changed everything.
In 2017, I wanted to improve my health and find a new challenge — but I didn’t even own a bicycle.
When I heard about the Cambridge Tour de Grand, I signed up for the 100 km ride on a borrowed hybrid bicycle, alongside a wonderful group of friends from the Cambridge YMCA cycling community.
What I remember most isn’t the distance. It’s the people who rode beside me. We encouraged one another, waited for each other when someone needed a moment, celebrated every milestone together, and carried one another through the difficult kilometres near the end. Crossing the finish line was an unforgettable accomplishment, but the lasting memory is quieter — the discovery of how much farther any of us can go when we support one another.
That single day led me to buy my first bicycle — a Raleigh Tamland — and, in time, to countless adventures and lifelong friendships. It also planted one of the earliest seeds of Pedal & Port: a vision of creating opportunities for others to experience that same encouragement, belonging, friendship, active lifestyle, and shared adventure.
§ Interlude
Windsor, Ontario · 2017
It started with a bicycle.
Not long after that borrowed-bike finish line, I drove to Windsor, Ontario to pick up my very first adventure bike — a Raleigh Tamland. Before heading home, I stopped along the Detroit River and took this photograph, the skyline sitting quietly across the water.
At the time, I had no idea that one bicycle would completely change my life.
That bike introduced me to a healthier lifestyle, lifelong friendships, and unforgettable cycling adventures across North America and Europe. Eventually, it inspired the creation of Pedal & Port — a company built to help active adults discover the joy of cycling, travel, wellness, and meaningful shared adventures.
The road opens up.
Cycling has a way of quietly rearranging a life. One local ride leads to another. A weekly group turns into a circle of friends. A weekend out of town becomes a week away, then a country, then a continent.
For Eric, the bicycle became a companion for travel — a slower, more honest way to see a place. Meals felt earned. Landscapes felt closer. Conversations lingered longer. And the people met along the way — at the top of a climb, at a shared table, on the ferry to the next town — became as much a part of the memory as the route itself.
The lesson was simple, and it kept repeating: the best experiences are the shared ones.
Two words. One idea.
- Pedal
- For staying active. For the rhythm of movement, the confidence of a body that still shows up, and the quiet joy of an open road.
- Port
- For the arrivals. The harbours, the villages, the long tables and the new friendships waiting on the other side of the ride.
Pedal & Port exists to help adults 50+ keep moving through the world with curiosity and confidence — cycling, cruising, exploring, eating well, and doing it in the company of good people.
It is not a booking engine. It is a carefully kept collection of experiences drawn from trusted partners, framed by a simple belief: the best years are still ahead, and they’re better shared.
A short list, held closely.
§ i
Community before commerce.
The people come first. The brand exists to serve them, not the other way around.
§ ii
Experiences over transactions.
A trip is a chapter of a life. It deserves more thought than a checkout page.
§ iii
Stay active for life.
Movement is medicine — for the body, and for everything the body carries.
§ iv
Everyone belongs.
At the ride, at the table, at the harbour. No one at the back on their own.
§ v
Travel can change a person.
Given the right moment, the right pace, and the right company — it usually does.
A few of the chapters that got us here.
2017
The Tour de Grand
A borrowed hybrid, a borrowed helmet, and a first 100 km ride in Cambridge, Ontario — the finish line that started everything.
2017
The first bicycle
A drive to Windsor, Ontario to bring home a red Raleigh Tamland — and a quiet photograph along the Detroit River with the Detroit skyline across the water.
Since
A life on two wheels
Better health, lifelong friendships, and cycling adventures across North America and Europe — the road became a way of life.
Cycling through Italy, 2023 Today
Pedal & Port
A curated collection of active lifestyle experiences — and a small, growing community of people who don’t plan to slow down.
Positano, Italy • One of many adventures still to come.
A quiet hand behind the scenes.
Emma is the Pedal & Port AI travel assistant — a helpful, patient companion for guests exploring the collection. She can answer questions about destinations, compare experiences, and help you find the trip that fits the life you’re trying to live.
Emma isn’t the face of the brand. Eric is. Emma exists to make the practical parts easier, so the human parts — the conversation, the guidance, the shared road — can stay exactly where they belong.
Emma will arrive soon. For now, Eric is happy to answer anything you ’d ask her.
An invitation
If any of this sounds like the life you’re after, come along.
Explore the collection, or write to Eric directly. There’s no booking form to fight through — just a conversation about where you’d like the road to go next.