Friends in Halifax will hold a memorial bike ride Saturday for Adam Excell, a former resident who died in an apparent hit-and-run in Toronto last weekend.

Excell loved active living, photography and cycling, friends said. He ran the bike shop at Mountain Equipment Co-op until a few months ago, when he moved back to Ontario.

The 26-year-old was cycling in Toronto when he was hit and killed.

"To be honest, I think I put myself in his place," said his fellow cyclist Daniel Collins. "I cycle every day and it made me feel sad that someone who was doing something so joyful suffered."

He hopes to join Saturday's ride. "Just to represent. This is a needless situation. These collisions are preventable."

Staff at MEC and friends of Excell's will ride along Agricola Street and stop at the Lion and Bright to raise a glass for a life cut short.

The Facebook page for the Adam Excell Memorial Ride says they'll meet Saturday evening outside of MEC.

Adam Excell's love of the outdoors didn't stop during winter. This outdoor adventure caught the eye of a Globe and Mail photographer in March 2014.

Toronto friends are organizing a Ghost Bike Memorial Ride for Excell on Saturday.

His Halifax running friend Tristan Cleveland said Excell always wore a helmet and cycled safely.

"To get out, to be running with someone, you really know that they are totally full of life," he said.

"It's frustrating that someone who can get out there on a trail and run for hours on end — because that is how much life and health and passion he has in him — dies because he's getting out there and living like that.

"Because he wants to jump on a bike and experience life that way, experience the city, and he died for it because we have not built cities that are safe for people who want to live healthily. It's wrong."

Two cyclists were involved in collisions with cars in Halifax on Thursday. A woman was riding on Sackville Street when a vehicle bumped into her bike. A second cyclist on Windsor Street was hit by a car.

Neither cyclist was hurt.