Of all the works he created, Curnoe is perhaps best known for his paintings of bicycles. He had taken up competitive cycling in 1971, purchasing a Spanish Zeus and a French Gitane. When he went to pick up his hand-built Canadian Mariposa ten-speed in Toronto, he applied black peel-and-stick letters to the top tube of the bright yellow bike—“CLOSE THE 49th PARALLEL ETC” on one side and “FERMEZ LE 49E PARALLÈLE ETC” on the other. Curnoe created two full-scale watercolours, of each profile of his new Mariposa, always his favourite bicycle.