Rides and Races - Toronto Fixed

http://www.pedalmag.com/index.php?module=Section&action=viewdetail&item_id=9948

ps. did anyone else notice the strange mist that was rolling in off the lake? it seems like it was rolling in from the south-west, but it might be burning off now. i thought it was just dust from a construction site until i rode for a while and realised it seemed like i was going through a cloud. anyone with a good view of the lake?
i was walking up to kensington for a haircut during my lunch and noticed that strange mist at the base of spadina as well. it was lit up by the sun and looked pretty ethereal. the fog was obscuring most of the upper parts of the skyscrapers this morning but most of it had burned off by noon. just that strange patch by the lake.....
in other news: lebron james has purchased a minority stake in cannondale.

http://www.pedalmag.com/index.php?module=Section&action=viewdetail&item_id=9948

I remember seeing that at the bike show, but I had forgotten. I'll be there.

Has anyone ever had luck buying a used old bike from a garage sale or Goodwill? Suggestions on the best way to do it?

I think they get picked up pretty quickly so it is a matter of good luck and timing. I have seen a few used bikes at Value Villages but they are kinda pricey, about 50$ or so for old Sporteks. I did have a friend who got a nice old granny bike at VV last summer for 25$, so there are good deals to be had.

Like zippered said, garage and yard sales are coming up and there is also a big City of Toronto Auction down at the CNE sometime soon, I haven't heard any information regarding it yet though. When I hear about it, I will post in this thread.

Silly mainlanders.. It's called "fog". :)

touche'


i was walking up to kensington for a haircut during my lunch and noticed that strange mist at the base of spadina as well. it was lit up by the sun and looked pretty ethereal. the fog was obscuring most of the upper parts of the skyscrapers this morning but most of it had burned off by noon. just that strange patch by the lake.....

ah ha! so i wasn't the only one! ;)

So its been finalized. I am doing my self-supported-across-north-america ride Han Solo. The more I think about it though, the more I think that doing it solo is the best idea. no compromises, and all I have to worry about is is I am having fun or not, getting food in my belly, and having a nice dry place to sleep. My route is also completely free. Hell I might do vancouver to cancun. That would be sweet!

i wanna do that. i was in cancun last december. during a 15 minute walk through town i was offered weed, speed, coke, crack, hot ladies, hot boys, and last but not least, steroids! yowza. anything can be had for a price down there.

If we told you we'd have to kill you... !!

Oh nice meeting you LordFoo :)

Same here operator.

As an aside, my little slice of happiness for the day - I decided to go home early and took my new Tourmalet (which has been sitting on the trainer through the slush/wet since Robin hooked me up in the winter) out for its first spin. Did hill intervals in the beaches until my lungs almost exploded. What a ridiculously beautiful day.. life is good.

Same here operator.

As an aside, my little slice of happiness for the day - I decided to go home early and took my new Tourmalet (which has been sitting on the trainer through the slush/wet since Robin hooked me up in the winter) out for its first spin. Did hill intervals in the beaches until my lungs almost exploded. What a ridiculously beautiful day.. life is good.

Thats it I'm going home. Screw all this BS

ps: whos tall?
http://toronto.craigslist.org/bik/301563902.html

The more I think about it though, the more I think that doing it solo is the best idea.

Provided that you don't get lonely easily, it's really the best way to go. When I toured through Eastern Europe on <$20/day, I often met up with other riders (mostly German, curiously) and while I enjoyed the company, I found riding with them fairly frustrating. Most went very slowly and only wanted to cover 40km MAX per day, and usually weren't very adventurous about staying in cheaper places off the beaten path. They also weren't very spontaneous, as I liked to simply get into a town and find a hostel on the internet that looked fun, while they'd usually want to stay in the city center. Many also liked getting smashed each night (beer was often like $.50/half liter), which makes the next day a waste. More than anything, I found I blew my budget hanging out with other people, and was very bad with my time. If you want to do it your way, the only way to go is to do it yourself.

Does a thread ever get too big from a moderator standpoint? I think this thread needs it's own server!

Silly mainlanders.. It's called "fog". :)

Ha Ha


I'm pining for a new fixie. Hurry up Tony!

Holy slow down, you’ll be living in a van down by the river before you know it!!

As an aside, my little slice of happiness for the day - I decided to go home early and took my new Tourmalet (which has been sitting on the trainer through the slush/wet since Robin hooked me up in the winter) out for its first spin. Did hill intervals in the beaches until my lungs almost exploded. What a ridiculously beautiful day.. life is good.

Hell yes! My first ride is going to make me wonder where last year's 6500+ km's went. Cheers to feeling like I have asthma every spring!

Does a thread ever get too big from a moderator standpoint? I think this thread needs it's own server!

I guess not? We need our own board!

Does a thread ever get too big from a moderator standpoint? I think this thread needs it's own server!

We pwn this server.

http://www.bikeforums.net/memberlist.php?&order=DESC&sort=posts&pp=30
*celebrates 12k post*

Anyone know of a place to get fresh squeezed juice in T.O at a relatively sane price?

The Innis Cafe (NW side of St. George and Sussex) has an awesome juice machine and does all sorts of excellent combos for a very reasonable amount of money. When I was studying there, I always stopped by for some juice. If you're talking about buying >1L, try organic places, but it won't be cheap.

Does a thread ever get too big from a moderator standpoint? I think this thread needs it's own server!

The Somethingawful.com forums are run on vBulletin and they had crashing problems with megathreads, so much so that up until recently, the threads had to be halted at 1000 posts and restarted. They are a much busier forum so they had thousands of these megathreads whereas there are only a few here at Bikeforums.net so I guess we are okay. The guys at Somethingawful hacked together something of their own to fix the problem.

Does a thread ever get too big from a moderator standpoint? I think this thread needs it's own server!

I've Seen threads on other forums get well over 50k posts. I think it pretty much comes down to the servers.

Hell yes! My first ride is going to make me wonder where last year's 6500+ km's went. Cheers to feeling like I have asthma every spring!

I just passed 1000 for the year as of today's ride. Haven't got the road bike out yet this year (unless you count the fact that road biking season last year technically went in to January) but I think I might just do that soon. :)

We pwn this server.

http://www.bikeforums.net/memberlist.php?&order=DESC&sort=posts&pp=30
*celebrates 12k post*

12k? Grundy has over 4 billion!

We pwn this server.

http://www.bikeforums.net/memberlist.php?&order=DESC&sort=posts&pp=30
*celebrates 12k post*

TRaffic Jammer coming in next, who would have guessed.

12k? Grundy has over 4 billion!

He hax

Hey Pyze Guy....I think I have your stainless coffee mug here if you were lookin for it.

Explains why I can't find it. Thanks for letting me know.



Watched Supersize me today. 3 times. Ugh. Think I'll skip McD's for the next 3-4 decades now. Funny as hell, and nasty too.

And the amount of sugar in the Big gulp from 7/11 is unreal. No wonder kids have ADD drinking those things, 48 tsps of sugar in them.

I just passed 1000 for the year as of today's ride. Haven't got the road bike out yet this year (unless you count the fact that road biking season last year technically went in to January) but I think I might just do that soon. :)

I feel bad that I haven't been on my road bike yet this year. In my own defense, I'm waiting on tires brakes and bar tape, so it isn't exactly ridable yet!

Fixie is getting some use, I'm happy to say.

Watched Supersize me today. 3 times. Ugh. Think I'll skip McD's for the next 3-4 decades now. Funny as hell, and nasty too.

My favourite part was watching the reaction of his MD. At the start the guy was staring off into space and by the end he was staring at him, eyes-a-poppin' "You have to stop this, you HAVE to stop". Sad that people eat so much of that frack. :(

Bleh, i'd rather enjoy some nice fruit from kensington. I never go to McD.

Provided that you don't get lonely easily, it's really the best way to go. When I toured through Eastern Europe on <$20/day, I often met up with other riders (mostly German, curiously) and while I enjoyed the company, I found riding with them fairly frustrating. Most went very slowly and only wanted to cover 40km MAX per day, and usually weren't very adventurous about staying in cheaper places off the beaten path. They also weren't very spontaneous, as I liked to simply get into a town and find a hostel on the internet that looked fun, while they'd usually want to stay in the city center. Many also liked getting smashed each night (beer was often like $.50/half liter), which makes the next day a waste. More than anything, I found I blew my budget hanging out with other people, and was very bad with my time. If you want to do it your way, the only way to go is to do it yourself.


QQY is dead on. I rode across Canada last summer alone because all of my friends are layabouts. Being alone can be gruelling after a while—I had a 2 week stint from western Alberta to Winnipeg where I was pretty much alone all day everyday—but the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks. I blew the most cash when hanging out with other cyclists, most of which went towards beer and motels. The guys I spent the most time with were booze hounds that would drop $60 bucks at the bar, then sleep in until 2pm the next day. Although stupid fun, this resulted in 40km days which can become really frustrating if you have limited cash flow and dates to meet.

You'll run into loads of people on the way across. I envy you; I'd love to tour again this summer.

Oh, and a word of advice: Stay the hell off of the Trans Canada in Manitoba. It has ZERO shoulder. You're basically riding in the lane with highway traffic.

damn it! i totally ****ed the threads on my crank puller after working on my winter bike. serenity now!

damn it! i totally ****ed the threads on my crank puller after working on my winter bike. serenity now!
Better than screwing the threads on the crank.

Serenity was awesome.

Serenity was awesome.
Op the sex machine. I knew a Serinity once. And a girl named Taffy Hornybrook.

Not at the same time though.

Oh, and a word of advice: Stay the hell off of the Trans Canada in Manitoba. It has ZERO shoulder. You're basically riding in the lane with highway traffic.

Oh Sh1t. That stuff was the nuts last summer. Probably the scariest part of a cross Canada tour. Gaawd, the roads just suck.

Nothing like riding left of the line because there's not shoulder, and the edge of the road is disintegrating.

QQY is dead on. I rode across Canada last summer alone because all of my friends are layabouts. Being alone can be gruelling after a while—I had a 2 week stint from western Alberta to Winnipeg where I was pretty much alone all day everyday—but the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks. I blew the most cash when hanging out with other cyclists, most of which went towards beer and motels. The guys I spent the most time with were booze hounds that would drop $60 bucks at the bar, then sleep in until 2pm the next day. Although stupid fun, this resulted in 40km days which can become really frustrating if you have limited cash flow and dates to meet.

You'll run into loads of people on the way across. I envy you; I'd love to tour again this summer.

Oh, and a word of advice: Stay the hell off of the Trans Canada in Manitoba. It has ZERO shoulder. You're basically riding in the lane with highway traffic.

Thanks for the advice. I was actually thinking of branching south in manitoba and going around the south side of lake superior and then through michigan. I've heard nothing but bad things about the trans canada highway in manitoba and northern ontario.

the northeast shoulder of lake superior is the most beautiful part of ontario in my opinion. not to be missed.

on a sadder note my bottom bracket sounds like a washing machine filled with rocks on spin cycle. translation: keith, i'll be seeing you on thursday with a broken bike. tomorrow i'm making one of those godawful hands in my pockets bank commercials. ugh.

If I can add my .02 cents: The yellowhead in Manitoba was quite nice (good pavement, super wide shoulder), but once it ends in Portage La Prarie and becomes the TCH heading towards Winnipeg, it's a nightmare, just as described above. Northern Ontario on the TCH was just fine, if my memory serves me well. I was warned about completely broken-up road surface, and found it to be prefectly smooth with a consistently decent shoulder (two or three feet). Traffic never bothered me much. Except for tractor-trailer trucks, but then again, they made me nervous everywhere.

And I fully think you should do Ontario instead of Michigan. Northern Ontario is so spectacular!

Charlie, let me know your ballpark route. You'd be welcome to stay at my folks' farm outside of Regina if you head that way on #1.

And I fully think you should do Ontario instead of Michigan. Northern Ontario is so spectacular!

Agreed. The lakes and rock formations seem to start at soon as you hit the Ontario boarder, and the roads start to get 1000% better at that point too. If anything, Ontario's midsection with it's hundreds of miles of straight cut forest is the part to miss. But sometimes you don't get to choose things like that on a tour.

When I think Michigan, I think smoke stacks and Eminem.

Better than screwing the threads on the crank.

Exactly why I now have new cranks on my fixie (and a new gear ratio.. wheee!). :)

TRaffic Jammer coming in next, who would have guessed.

What'd I win? :D The babble finger award?
New cranks...niiiice.
I've got an irritating ....not a squeak, but a eergh...I think one of my arms is slightly loose....or it's the pedal.
I was out grinding the gear last night and trying to find a nice stroke.....I think I might play with my cleat positioning again, it feels like I'm too far ahead on the pedal for a good quick cadence. Should be finished in court soonish I hope ..... safety soon!

Be well all you punks.

I can't speak of riding Northern Ont., but having been a passenger as a child heading out west of the Northern Highway was an amazing sight that has stayed with me all my life.

i wanna do that. i was in cancun last december. during a 15 minute walk through town i was offered weed, speed, coke, crack, hot ladies, hot boys, and last but not least, steroids! yowza. anything can be had for a price down there.
Sounds like Main and Hastings in Vancouver...but with rain.

I rode through there a couple times when I was in Vancouver in Feb.. fun times. Pray you don't get a red light. ;)

ugh.. I'm "helping" in a training session for the morning. I hate doing this ish. Plus this kb is super loud so I can't quietly goof off in the back.

jeebus I'm bored.. someone post something! :)

I made a poo......and it was Good!

I cleaned gabbys poo...it was not good!

oh you guys!

oh you guys!
you asked for it.

yeah.. I'm always up for a good poo story.

try this on for size wes:

http://home.acceleration.net/clark/COOL938/Email.Essays/LotR/LOR%20Bored%20of%20the%20Rings.jpeg

http://www.vancouverplays.com/images/preview_starwars.jpg

y'all lost me.