Rides and Races - Toronto Fixed

I'm not a huge fan of Dukes. There are worse stores, to be sure, but I generally have to go in there and stand around for half an hour waiting for the resident crack head to help me. I prefer Urbane Cycles, it's in the same 'hood. Much better service, and more knoledgable staff.

Actually the last Now I read gave that honour to Cycle Therapy, Carlaw & Dundas East. They don't sell bikes, just a really really good wrench named Sherri and lots of parts, accesories but it is worth going to see how a bike store could be. Comfy chairs and a couch, nice decor & carpet, magazines & books, videos & dvds on cycling to rent, water to sip and generally a great ambience. If you commute east you ought or are just going that way check them out.

They also sell bike trailers that range from useful to incredibly huge. A friend of ours rented the largest one to haul all her artwork to a show at City Hall last summer. It held a large canopy, lots of easels over a dozen huge finished canvasses, a few chairs and a table and lots of odds and ends. Big trailer.

Yay ... another bike shop to check out!

yeah, i think i'll definitely check out cycle therapy. i needed my track fork drilled for a front brake and was shopping around. someone recommended bicycle specialties (st.clair area) to me but mike barry (owner) told me they were swamped with work on their own mariposa frames and recommended biseagal (carlaw area as well). milen munro at biseagal got back to me and was really helpful. i ultimately bought another fork from keith at cavern that was pre-drilled since my stock fork probably would not handle the stresses of braking.

anyways... lots of good bike options in toronto! the best places are often tucked away.

I'm not a huge fan of Dukes. There are worse stores, to be sure, but I generally have to go in there and stand around for half an hour waiting for the resident crack head to help me. I prefer Urbane Cycles, it's in the same 'hood. Much better service, and more knoledgable staff.


depends on how well they know you.
Ask for Mark at the counter, Hes the best.

Actually the last Now I read gave that honour to Cycle Therapy, Carlaw & Dundas East. .

Sounds like I have to check that out. Never seen that one. The guy on Queen east is cool too. Reasonable prices for fixie stuff, and friendly.

yeah, i think i'll definitely check out cycle therapy. i needed my track fork drilled for a front brake and was shopping around. someone recommended bicycle specialties (st.clair area) to me but mike barry (owner) told me they were swamped with work on their own mariposa frames and recommended biseagal (carlaw area as well). milen munro at biseagal got back to me and was really helpful. i ultimately bought another fork from keith at cavern that was pre-drilled since my stock fork probably would not handle the stresses of braking.

anyways... lots of good bike options in toronto! the best places are often tucked away.


edit: nm
You need to come out for a ride. I wanna see your bike. Looks sweet

edit: nm
You need to come out for a ride. I wanna see your bike. Looks sweet


shiz, are you still at u of t? aren't you guys smack dab in the middle of exams?? how about a lunch ride today? i know this is short notice... but let me know if you can get back to me before 2pm. we can zip around, grab a bite.. then back to work for me. anyone else interested in a quickie?

no man, I'm super lucky and I don't have any exams at all. I'm done done done.

I'd love to go out a for a ride. I'm in the bathurst&bloor area. where are you at?

[QUOTE=what are people's experiences with duke's? any problems? it seems like they're always getting some kinda publicity or other. now magazine award for best bike store, eye award for best bike store.. blah blah blah... .


I'm not a huge fan of Dukes. There are worse stores, to be sure, but I generally have to go in there and stand around for half an hour waiting for the resident crack head to help me. I prefer Urbane Cycles, it's in the same 'hood. Much better service, and more knoledgable staff.

i definately got that feeling when i first started going there too...once you get to know the guys that work there it's a great place to go. urbane cyclist though - they're great EXCEPT for Eugene. He is so f'n rude it's not funny, which is weird cause everyone else at the store is almost too friendly.

yeah eugene has said some pretty harsh stuff to me about my rides, my ideas for projects and pretty much everything else I've said to him. He could have cared less about my campy crank dustcaps that they lost. The other guys and girls at the store felt really bad about losing them though, so I guess it evens out.

i work close to king/bathurst. anyone else in the area want to meet up for a bite/ride? where should we meet? honest ed's? anyone have lunch yet? what's the name of that fleshy thing at the back of my throat????

yeah eugene has said some pretty harsh stuff to me about my rides, my ideas for projects and pretty much everything else I've said to him. He could have cared less about my campy crank dustcaps that they lost. The other guys and girls at the store felt really bad about losing them though, so I guess it evens out.

hot diggity... i've talked with him a few times and never noticed any attitude.. or maybe i'm just too thick skinned. keith at cavern's got my "cool dude, and overall nice guy" vote.

I'm just eating some harvest crunch right now, but I could meet anywhere. I guess it depends on where we want to ride; north or south. I could just meet you outside the wheat sheaf or something (Toronto's oldest drinking etablishment)

the sheaf is good. i'm up for riding anywhere... mount pleasant? just kidding.. let's meet at the sheaf and decide from there. kensington is close by if you want to stop for a bite. is 145pm good?

yeah, I can be there at 1:45pm. just a few more mins to get ready and I'll be down there

in case anyone else in interested... the wheat sheaf is at the southwest corner of king/bathurst, across from the mcdonalds. i'm the one with the red bike!

This is what I get for living 30k from the start point.

I'm in for anymore afternoon quickie rides you want to do, just give me about 2 hours notice :D

good thing you didn't bike down. shiznaz snapped his chainring and it ended before it started (luckily no injuries) and we ended up sipping coffee and chatting with a homeless guy with a suitcase and a dude with a crazy-assed chopper bike. checked out urbane for some parts.. i had to get back to work and shiz decided to walk to cavern. damn.. probably did more walking than biking, but it's nice to put a face on some of the people on this board. better luck next time!

yeah, and I came home without luck. Nobody really stocks track cranks except urbane and they are all like $280+. Looks like I'll be going the ebay route! Anyways, it was nice meeting you and it turned out to be a beautiful day

cavern didn't have anything used? hmm.. maybe you could try calling up a bunch of stores before plonking down dough on ebay. it was funny though.. service at urbane was a bit icy. how was keith?

Keith was great. Definitely the most helpful so far. He spent like 15 minutes trying to figure out some solutions and options for me, but he didn't have anything in stock.

Last time I was in at Cavern, Keith said he's doing less used stuff, complete bikes/frames anyway. You could always try Parts Unknown in Kensington market. Unlikely you'll find a track crank, but you never know.

what are people's experiences with duke's? any problems?

That used to be my primary LBS, and I've dropped a fair bit of money there, so I think I can contribute something. First, in terms of service, it totally depends on who's helping you, how busy they are, and how muc they think you're gonna spend. It's all on commission there, so they'll happily spend two hours showing the rich 250lber their range of $5k+ bikes (god, that Stock is so hot though) and ignore the guy who just wants a new helmet. If you go when it's quiet, they'll always be helpful, but will tend to push you towards their higher-profit stuff (Cannondale and Specalized bikes in particular) unless you're quite firm. However, once you develop a working realtionship with a certain person, they'll always drop whatever they're doing to help you.

Their maintence staff is similar - your experience will totally depend on who you get. Their head mechanic (Dave?) is great and will always gives great advice and good turnaround time. Better yet, he will actually push customers towards better value stuff, rather than trying to get you to spend as much as possible. Some of their newer, younger staff are total crap and only out to rip you off. One of them built me a wheel that lasted 500km, used the crappiest break pads on the planet after charging me for their most expensive ones, and lost/stole my old triple crankset all in one session. Worse yet, he refused to use the parts I asked for and acted as thought they were out of stock of everything I wanted. He basically refused to build a wheel with anything other than a Mavic rim and lied through his teeth about the quaility of my old hubs, and said that I needed "at least" Ultegra hubs. This on my beater bike. I haven't been back since and now do all my own wrenching.

Their maintence staff is similar - your experience will totally depend on who you get. Their head mechanic (Dave?) is great and will always gives great advice and good turnaround time. Better yet, he will actually push customers towards better value stuff, rather than trying to get you to spend as much as possible. Some of their newer, younger staff are total crap and only out to rip you off. One of them built me a wheel that lasted 500km, used the crappiest break pads on the planet after charging me for their most expensive ones, and lost/stole my old triple crankset all in one session. Worse yet, he refused to use the parts I asked for and acted as thought they were out of stock of everything I wanted. He basically refused to build a wheel with anything other than a Mavic rim and lied through his teeth about the quaility of my old hubs, and said that I needed "at least" Ultegra hubs. This on my beater bike. I haven't been back since and now do all my own wrenching.

Holy crap dude. This is why I do my own wrenching. That is rediculous.

Damn Shiznaz, your bike was perfectly fine last Sat. What'd you do!

I totally hate mechanics who try to upsell for no good reason! I know for sure that they rope in people who don't know any better and make them spend way too much cash!

I really like Cavern (Keith) for that kind of stuff. He really cares about the value that the customer gets and is really no nonsense about getting broken bikes back on the road. Cavern is not a "flashy" looking place, but he's not going to try and take all your money either! If I have any repairs that I can't do myself, there really isn't anywhere else in the city I'd go these days.

when I was there he was really pimping the level hubs over phil and paul hubs. Any relation to you perhaps?

you should post some pics of that busted chain ring. and the skid mark on your shoe from using it as a brake ;) ...any luck on finding a replacement crank arm and chain ring?
some great bike store testimonials!

you should post some pics of that busted chain ring. and the skid mark on your shoe from using it as a brake ;) ...any luck on finding a replacement crank arm and chain ring?
some great bike store testimonials!

Shiznaz already got some pics in that other thread he started.

Shiznaz already got some pics in that other thread he started.

found it.. thanks! shoulda looked more....

Hey Shiz....stop by the Cavern...I got a pair of campy dustcaps you can have Gratis if ya want them.

Wow what are the chances of that.

Hey Shiz....stop by the Cavern...I got a pair of campy dustcaps you can have Gratis if ya want them.

I haven't seen the cavern yet, where is it?

I really need to start doing my own wrenching, out of personal interest and to save money but haven't bought the tools yet. i am a student after all. :(

I just realized the reason I have been riding so slow is that all my rear hubs had tightened up and the bearings were really grinding. I bought some cone wrenches and readjusted them and now they're great. I forgot how good the surly new hubs are, they just spin and spin and spin, and then spin some more. I kind of want another one to change my front hub from the QR shimano 105 on it now. I ordered a set of sugino 75 track cranks that should pretty much finish off that bike for good (hah).

hey cavernmech, thanks alot! I may have to take you up on your offer, but I'll try to see if they can find the originals at urbane one more time. they apparently have them, its just the guy that was working on my bike is the only one who knows where they are, and he is never there when I go by the store.... I would get annoyed, but luckily I have alot of time to waste.

I haven't seen the cavern yet, where is it?

I really need to start doing my own wrenching, out of personal interest and to save money but haven't bought the tools yet. i am a student after all. :(

cavern's on queen just east of jarvis. nice shop. nicer owner.

Cavern's address and phone number are in the LBS sticky

Anyone want to do the donut ride tomorrow? Or the less intensive TBN ride?
All that lyrcra on the donut ride scares me doing solo.

Anyone want to do the donut ride tomorrow? Or the less intensive TBN ride?
All that lyrcra on the donut ride scares me doing solo.


What's the Donut ride? I was thinking of doing the stouville ramber (I think that's what they call it) on Sunday: 70 or 90 km, meets at Leslie and lawerence @ 10 I believe. Not sure if I'm going to bust it fixed or geared. Never tried that much distance on my fixie, and I'm not sure what the pace is like.

What's the Donut ride? I was thinking of doing the stouville ramber (I think that's what they call it) on Sunday: 70 or 90 km, meets at Leslie and lawerence @ 10 I believe. Not sure if I'm going to bust it fixed or geared. Never tried that much distance on my fixie, and I'm not sure what the pace is like.

Donut ride is pure hammerfest 35+kph. for 100km. Meets at 9am at Eglinton & Laird, Fri/Sat/Sun. Last time shiz and I went, was like 100+ people huge peloton, even one guy on a motorcycle filming.

I'll come out to the stouffville rambler on Sunday if you're coming.

What's the Donut ride? I was thinking of doing the stouville ramber (I think that's what they call it) on Sunday: 70 or 90 km, meets at Leslie and lawerence @ 10 I believe. Not sure if I'm going to bust it fixed or geared. Never tried that much distance on my fixie, and I'm not sure what the pace is like.

what route do they take for that? I assume they ride up to stoufville? i don't think I'll ride fixed for that but I'll do it geared.

Donut ride is pure hammerfest 35+kph. for 100km.

Jeezez murphy. I'm way too butt lazy for that action....

what route do they take for that? I assume they ride up to stoufville? i don't think I'll ride fixed for that but I'll do it geared.

Won't really know until the leader guy hands out the cue sheets.

Donut ride huh? 35 kph is pretty quick, I think I might get dropped. With drafting it would be fine I suppose. Maybe I'll try it out.

there are alot of different strength folks that do the donut...if ya dont want to hammer you can hang in the 2nd or 3rd group....less speed, more conversation.

I'm going to show up for the 9:30 TBN ride at high park tomorrow. Save my energy for Sundays stouffville ride.

haha I just remember both of us drafting that poor girl against the headwind for a big uphill chunk. I so wanted to take the lead to help her out but my legs were meat by that point and I could barely keep going as it was. I bet she thought we were real jerks!

ps. cavernmech, they found my dustcaps at urbane, but I really appreciate your offer. Thanks again!

when I was there he was really pimping the level hubs over phil and paul hubs. Any relation to you perhaps?

Hey Shiz,

Acutally it was Keith from Cavern who got me onto LEVEL. He had one in his shop on display and I fell in love with it. Since then I became the Ontario Distributor for them, and have a set built up for my own bike. So if Keith was pimping those hubs its not because of me, kind of the other way around :)

Guys, I had a thought...Are any of you into doing the ride for heart this year? I do it on my fixie every year, but I am usually one of very few fixies I see through the day...how cool would it be to have a bunch of us on fixies doing it together? We could all meet up at the Princes Gates and ride in together and then head off on the route...whatcha think?

I was going to do it. But I ain't on a fixie.



haha I just remember both of us drafting that poor girl against the headwind for a big uphill chunk. I so wanted to take the lead to help her out but my legs were meat by that point and I could barely keep going as it was. I bet she thought we were real jerks!


Hah, I was already at LT, breathing pretty deeply and concetrating just to hold the wheel. We weren't even doing 23kph into that massive headwind. If I had taken over, speed would've gone down to single digits.

Some guy in the all pink telekom bike took over for a while so it was ok.

you guys still going to the stouffville thing today?