Rides and Races - Toronto Fixed

yeah, i've filled two traffic complaints, but didn't hear back (as promised) either time, as expected. i tried following up, but didn't get through.

the sense i get is that unless someone get's hurt, it doesn't matter. if they do call, i'm sure the driver has all kinds of lovely sweet-talk/blame to squirm their way out.

also, they want you to provide a *lot* of specific details, beyond just the plate number: where were you, where were they, how fast were they going, what kind/colour of car, what did the driver look like etc etc. since you have to go in person to the station, it might be helpful to type up an incident report beforehand.

there are a few "bad driver" websites around... just a place to vent, no actual consequence.

I can't remember who told me to call it in as a possible drunk driver. Apparently that will get action/

Just sent this out via Faithbook - amen - to the Devil Strip Rollers:

Wednesday, January 9: Group Ride
Meeting at Dundas Square @ 9pm. Ride around the core followed by a couple of laps at the Ex. Weather should be good, but cooler than lately.

http://www.cbc.ca/weather/conditions.jsp?station=YYZ

Hope to see you tomorrow. Bring yo fraands.

interesting ideas in the january 7 entry of bike snob NYC (http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/01/hiding-in-plain-sight-why-cycling-is.html).

a reiteration of the helmet debate? yes, but there are some plain-truths in there "...riding a bike with a helmet but no brake is like leaving the stove on when you go to work because you have homeowner’s insurance..."

no offense to any brakeless guys and gals here; i like to play devil's advocate.

I'm grateful I'm riding WITH the wind this morning. You people in the East end that have to come into the core are in for quite a wild ride this morning methinks.

I just woke up and it's looks like an interesting ride indeed, 90kph winds whoo!

"Best skate video intro ever" -> http://www.lifelounge.com/Best-Skate-Video-Intro-Ever.aspx

"Best skate video intro ever" -> http://www.lifelounge.com/Best-Skate-Video-Intro-Ever.aspx

That is a good one. I also like the intro to Yeah Right! the Spike Jonze directed one, where they digitally erased the skateboards so it looks like they are floating on air.

Yeah, that's pretty sweet too actually. In the closing credits of that they show him doing a nollie heelflip while wearing loafers too. :D

interesting ideas in the january 7 entry of bike snob NYC (http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/01/hiding-in-plain-sight-why-cycling-is.html).

a reiteration of the helmet debate? yes, but there are some plain-truths in there "...riding a bike with a helmet but no brake is like leaving the stove on when you go to work because you have homeowner’s insurance..."

no offense to any brakeless guys and gals here; i like to play devil's advocate.

i've always thought this would be funny, but i find it generally works out that guys who wear helmets everyday (like ... me) always have a brake ... but i've always got that thought in my pocket incase i see someone riding brakeless while wearing a helmet on a regular basis

i'm assuming since this one is a girl film that spike did some of it

[edit] according to wikipedia he is one of the 3 directors.


the ride east across college today was fun. at university i didnt even have to pedal to start moving.
the wind did all the work.

a couple pretty gnarly cross winds between spadina and university.

...and it was Recycling day today, my street is covered in garbage. Fullface helmet in effect... end of block ..pie plate in the face :lol: Andrew makes a good call. Careful out there, watch the cross winds! plsplspls stay blowing East, I can't WAIT to go home. 6km in 45sec. hahahaha

i'm stoked to go out there and ride that tailwind, even if i am undergeared for that sort of thing.

i forgot to mention: i saw this girl yesterday riding a nice specialized hybrid type thing on college push off after a red light and try to unclip out of her crank brothers pedals. when she did the whole pedal came with her, still clipped to her shoe leaving only the spindle on the crank. the look on her face was priceless. i offered my assistance; it looked like she ripped the threaded bushing connecting the spindle to the pedal body. note to self: don't buy candy/smartys whatever they were...

...and it was Recycling day today, my street is covered in garbage. Fullface helmet in effect... end of block ..pie plate in the face :lol: Andrew makes a good call. Careful out there, watch the cross winds! plsplspls stay blowing East, I can't WAIT to go home. 6km in 45sec. hahahaha

Gold! Did it have a custard pie in it? ;)

I had to dodge a xmas tree on my way down my street this morning!

I'm refraining from saying positive things about my experiences with Crank Brothers products as it will likely result in a severe jinxing. :) That said, it always makes me smile during messy/muddy races when I see people struggling to get back into SPD pedals when I easily clip right back into my eggbeaters. I still have yet to try out any Time mtb stuff though. I've also always wondered what the Speedplay Frogs are like.

i think it's luck of the draw. i have a pair of older egg beaters and they seem to be fine so long as you re-build them once a year.

Yes.. plus regular grease injections make them happy too. Just like me! :D (got my fill from the chip wagon on St. George yesterday)

No Sir, luckily it was clean.

TJ:

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l232/Darko4272/Pie%20Man/957323545_l.jpg

I <3 pie, and their tin plates :lol: That's my outfit if we ever have a superhero race.

anybody know where i can find a wii downtown? i really didn't think it was going to be this hard to find one.

i'm assuming since this one is a girl film that spike did some of it

[edit] according to wikipedia he is one of the 3 directors.


I'm not sure what he did, but I assumed he did the opening digital effects part because it looks like something a 'real' director would be doing. The rest of the video is pretty normal for a skateboard video, so who knows who directed that.

Speaking of Crank Bros... I'm going to be pulling my eggbeaters off soon - might be a good time to service them. What grease/methods do you lot use? I've lubed them with tri-flow whenever I've gone over the rest of the bike, but that's probably not doing much/if anything as I believe the guts are sealed in.

Wind looks (and sounded) roaringly nuts out there... tonight might be my first ride of the year - I've been rolling around in my own filth for two days off work - yay for unused 07 holiday days :p

flimflam: you need a grease injector (and bicycle grease, naturally) to get anything inside them. Lube on the outside does nothing. In fact, I believe they recommend against that as it only attracts dirt. Should be info on their website.

That is a good one. I also like the intro to Yeah Right! the Spike Jonze directed one, where they digitally erased the skateboards so it looks like they are floating on air.

Yeah, but you can only watch those gimmick intros once. The rest of the video is amazing though!

Yeah, but you can only watch those gimmick intros once. The rest of the video is amazing though!

Vaguely related, but back when I still skated I "loved" the bails section of Toy Machine - Welcome to Helland Rodney Mullen vs. Daewon Song (part 1) was and is pretty much my favourite video ever.

... but i've always got that thought in my pocket incase i see someone riding brakeless while wearing a helmet on a regular basis

Well come out for the ride tonight and you can use it on me! ;)

Heh... there's a funny story I forgot to share in regards to that; Because the day tends to suck the life out of me, my ride home tends to bring out the 15 year old in me. That said, on my final approach to my house I like to pull a long ass skid which generally ends in an extremely low speed 180 up onto the sidewalk so I can dismount as I come through my gate. One day a week or two ago, when I came to a full stop... my brake lever did not. It instead continued and swung down into my spokes. Somehow - I'd imagine in the constant switching off my bars - I'd managed to strip all the threads off the lever. Timing was totally on my side as about 1 minute earlier would have resulted in a concrete upgrade to ma grill.

Ps. - I do have a new lever, cable and housing sitting at home awaiting re-mount.

Reminder:
Group Ride: Tonight, Dundas Square @ 9p. Be there or be somehwere else!

Well come out for the ride tonight and you can use it on me! ;)


Or on me... except i rarely wear my helmet these days... and i won't be able to make it out tonight because i scored 4th row raptors tix so i'll be doing that with my lady. ;)

Go Whalers!

Well come out for the ride tonight and you can use it on me! ;)

I'll be there if it isn't too windy, but you usually have a brake and a helmet, so my thought is more for those who do it on a regular basis. I striped my brake a few months ago, were you using a tektro rl720 or a simular tektro? those things are garbage.


Or on me... except i rarely wear my helmet these days

I've only ever seen you wearing a helmet while sprinting ... which you don't really need a brake for ... your helmet is nice, wear it ;)


I'm in the habit of not wearing my helmet in the winter, but I've always got a brake. I was at sandy's cycle shop earlier in the week getting a wheel trued and he was giving me the second degree about not even having a rear brake.

...stuff...

No helmet in the Winter when the roads are way worse? I see no logic! :D Just get a nice hat that fits under your helmet. I have an awesome Sugoi one that I picked up a couple years ago at Urbane. It's really thin so it fits and doesn't get TOO warm, but it blocks the wind pretty well. Then again, I've also stuffed my regular ski-toque under there when my Sugoi went missing (ie. Mike stole it at a cx race). Did I look like a total dork? Of course! But I also wear a reflective ankle band on my pants when it's cold, so I already have that well covered. ;)

yeah i just picked up a sugio balaclava last weekend for under my helmet, fits great, so i may get a sugio hat aswell since the balaclava is overkill if it's not cold enough.

also, most of my riding in the winter is between point a (my apartment) and point b (my office) and the streets are almost dead when i'm on them ... would still rather be wearing a helmet though.

There is a pair of rollers for $100 on CCC, I can't remember who was looking for them

...would have resulted in a concrete upgrade to ma grill.


:eek:

(but kinda funny because i can picture you saying that, and you didn't get hurt)

As promised here is the data from the donut ride.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/reciprocity/donutridewattsperkm.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/reciprocity/donutridespeedperkm.jpg

As you can see I don't know how to use excel very well.

Here's the raw data.

http://www.filecrunch.com/file/~py1efb

Over 700 watts? Are you freaking kidding me?

No jokes. Taken from powertap +/- 2%.

No jokes. Taken from powertap +/- 2%.

Whose? :D

Show power vs speed!
Do you have a route map?

(ie. Mike stole it at a cx race)

Whatever, this ****er did the exact same thing a week later.

So, it would appear the Tosca ate another rear derailleur ... bringing the body count up to:
- 2006 XT rear derailleur: catastrophic failure (explosion on Queen Street).
- 2007 Deore rear derailleur: pivots blown (5mm of play).

Remind me of this next season when I'm second-guessing the whole SSCX idea. Also remind me that I bend my derailleur hanger on what seems like a monthly basis (and that I'm tired of that **** - tired, tired, tired).

Also, how do you quickly go to the end of a line when you're editing text on a Mac? Or back to the beginning of a line for that matter? I have mere days to figure this out! And wait, what the ****?! How do I use the "Delete" key like ****ing delete? It's going all "Backspace" on me! DAMN YOU, STEVE JOBS!!!

holding the apple key and using the arrows get you to the front or back of the line

i'm assuming you're on a short (laptop) keyboard.
fn + delete = windows delete equivalent

Okay, on the machine I'm on (eMac at the moment, laptop in a few days) and as I type in this text box that acted like hitting the "Back" button in Firefox. And trying ... Shift, Control ... Control (again, ****ed up Kensington keyboard), Alt/Option, Apple key in conjunction to Delete don't make it work as I hoped. Oh wait, there's some sorry ass forward delete key stranded out past F15 on this keyboard. That blows hard.

I need to find a "Mac Keyboard Shortcuts For Emotionally Fragile Beginners" website ...

yes, sir brenway i've stripped a couple of those tektro levers. i do believe it's only plastic in there so it's easy to do. you might try using a slightly larger bolt and some loctite - worked for me but not bar-swapping friendly.

any of you blokes (sorry, i've been watching coronation street) have experience ordering from swerve cycling (http://www.swrvecycling.com/index.html)?

Go Whalers!

lol

Thanks Wes, I never noticed the re-packing kit before. Is there a preferred grease, or is any bike gunk good?

Ride tonight was good, wind provided a decent work out across Bloor somewhat, and definitely around the Ex. Great to be riding again, woo.

I use the Tektro RL720s, I've found them a huge help being able to ride on the tops in traffic (geared bike so F&R) and they seem to work(tm). Saying that, I don't swap them out - they're a perma-fixture on my road drops. I'll probably get something similar again for my fixed gear front lever, I'm just umming and arring over choice of caliper and I want black ideally.

Nice stats, I'd like to speed/power in there too... I want to do that ride soon, anyone have a route map?

Thanks Wes, I never noticed the re-packing kit before. Is there a preferred grease, or is any bike gunk good?

i'd say just pick up the rebuild kit from dukes and slap some phil grease in there as you go along and you should be fine...

Over 700 watts? Are you freaking kidding me?

It's only for a brief sprint or something, so it isn't that outrageous. In fact, looking at the whole thing, it really doesn't seem that bad. A higher intensity/pace than I normally ride at solo, yes, but nothing insane. Especially when you factor in the benefits of riding in a large pack (for the speed graph, that is).

Flimflam: google works well.. ;)

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Donut-Ride-Short-Route
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Donut-Ride-Medium-Route
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Donut-Ride-Long-Route

their start/finnish is right by my work, around eglinton/laird.

I was curious whether there were any new sports debuting at the olympics this Summer besides BMX, so I looked it up on wikipedia and found this:

"The BOCOG also plans to carry the flame to the top of Mount Everest.[33] In June 2007, construction began on a 108 km (67 mi) long "highway" scaling the Tibetan side of the mountain. The $19.7 million blacktop project will span from Tingri County of Xigazê Prefecture to the Everest Base Camp. Environmental concerns about the effects of the road on the fragile Himalayan region have been expressed by the media, but denied by the Chinese government."

wtf?! China scares the hell outta me. I keep thinking about footage of the towns and cities (ie. big enough to have highrise apartment buildings) along the Yangtze that I saw in one of the Michael Palin doc's... totally unreal. They looked like something out of a Hollywood post-apocalyptic movie.

I don't know much about climbing Everest, but is there enough air up there to keep the flame alive?