Zero_Enigma

Toronto bike show by CNE.

Take subway to Bathurst station then get the 511 Street car that takes you right to the front door of the event.

https://www.telsec.net/bicycleshow/ht...pringshow.html

$13/day x 1 adult
$23/2days x 1 adult

Family rates on the site.

Dates and Times

Friday, March 2, 2007 Noon - 9 pm
Saturday, March 3, 2007 10 am - 7pm
Sunday, March 4, 2007 10 am - 6pm



https://www.telsec.net/bicycleshow/html_pages/map.html

Directions to the place.

MEC https://www.mec.ca closes at 18:00 ET on Sat. so after you've seen enough of the show then take a walk over to MEC a few blocks from the CNE. Also check out Taylors Outdoor Gear along the way. There enterance looks a bit blended into the wall the first time I saw them. They have some damn good packs. Most Deuter sizes are there. MEC only has 2 Detuer pack sizes.

Also a long standing watering hole called The Wheaf Sheaf is at Front & Bathurst if I remember right. They're so well known ask any local and they'll point you there. It's only about 2 blocks from the show.

Obviously it's a bit late to work out any meet and greets but perhaps next time. I sure hope Dinotte showed up cause I have to see that stuff in person.

Ryan Leech will be there! Sweet!!! Just found out about the guy off the web while looking for bike videos and this guys has some nice moves. https://youtube.com/watch?v=1F7z4HxpWfA One of the videos I really like with Ryan in it.

Zero_Enigma

Zero_Enigma

Brownie points for whoever can find out what song is being played in the background.


Zero_Enigma

rajman

Why not ride to the show? I guess that storm gave you quite a dump

The wheat sheaf is indeed an excellent pub, but it is located at King and Bathurst.

I'm in Calgary this weekend - I was in T.O. last weekend, so I missed the show . I've been to it before - great deals and great eye candy.

Zero_Enigma

Just got back from the show. This show had about 85% more space then the fall show. Day and night in space. However 60% of the faces I have seen before from the fall show are dealers while 40% dealers and events I have not seen. I got there late so I missed out on Ryan but I got a poster at his booth. Next time. I ended up getting a vest for $10 CDN ($11.40 w/tax 14%) which had reflective piping all over but no triple back pocket but it did have a large back pocket with some fuzzy fleece like feel. This vest is a little thicker then the thin ones by a little bit. The black ones I wanted were either S, XL, or XXL

BTW the ATM's there yank you $2.00/transaction. It does not make sense to get less then $40 if you needed it at the ATM.

They had the Cateye Tripleshot/Double Pro in stock. I checked it out and it's BRIGHT!! It passed my squeeze test and the CSR there told me the rep. from Cateye smashed it on the table to make a point on how durable it is. I like. Problem is the Tripleshot is ~$790 CDN and I think the Doubleshot is $550 CDN.

I compared the Doubleshot to the Maglite offical 3W retrofit and the brightness looks the same at about 1 meter and a half when I looked into the hot spot head on. Now when I did the 1ft away hand check the Doubleshot was brighter then the 3W Maglite and the AL-X 1W.

Tires are $16.80/ea at one store but the multi-low rolling resistance I wanted was only on the 700 size. 99% of everyone I spoke with did not know of Dinotte or Cygolite or TurboCat. Hell even the guys that were hosting some 24-hr race didn't know of Dinotte calling anything LED when mentioned even when the 400lm Dinotte was mentioned. Diffinately somehow I did not feel welcomed when I was talking about high power LED's to these people. They think HID is the best and HID does not fail while in this forum I've heard lots of stories of HID's failures when bumped on the ground of bulb die out from too much on/off cycles. Heck some place that claimed to be some hardcore MTB racing group (D-hill) and other stuff did not even know WTFF a HID was. I had to explain it to them and they thought I was whack when I compared a car headlight at point blank.

Now that I've both spring and fall shows I think I'll only go to the fall show only for $5 bucks and buy a tire or some tubes and such as this show didn't have what I wanted. I wanted spacebars, HID's, lots of power lights (the Cateye display by some shop in Quebec) was layed out nice to have people check and see the lights. That lady was very friendly and accomedating. I got to see the LD1000 in the flesh. That light is HUGE!!! Not what you expect in the photos online. I was thinking a little smaller then what I saw online. Someone needs to invite Rob to the show. Zzzz arching hard. 48 hour bigms


Zero_Nigms

jyossarian

I was at the show today. The True North customs were nice, but I didn't see too many bargains.

ghettocruiser

Hugh's bikes rock.

And the DeVinci booth was pretty neat.

Not much else to see, IMO

rajman

Guess I didn't miss too much - I'll check out the fall show (maybe they'll have Nokians for cheap). Did anyone end up at the wheat sheaf??

Zero_Enigma

ManI totally passed out while writing the last paragraph. I've not slept for 24hrs before going to the bike show. I ended up going in zombie mode with like 36hrs no sleep. Sorry I didn't take many pics. like I normally do. I did get a dirt bike pic but that's it. Somehow the love in the show didn't quite fit well with me. To me with everyone I spoke with it seems like 3000km for someone that just starting out that went serious (at least to me it's serious from say 100-300km/yr in all my previous riding before) for someone that does not have riding balance issues (read before some people can't ride a bike because they have balance issues) and out of shape (not fat) is nothing to them. It seems like if you're not doing 2000km/month or around 25,000km/yr you're nobody is the feeling I got at most booths I spoke to. More from the 24-hr booths is my feel from said comments. The Rona MS tour was something I've been thinking of for 2 yrs now. First year I did not ride as much as it was after Aug. when I wanted to ride more but being late in the season my time was cut short. Thus why last year 2006 I went serious on the riding and during my riding I did think of the Rona MS tour but when I was at the booth they didn't seem too interested in helping out because of the low milage from my starting out and made it feel like even the bare rookies they have starting in thier starting tours have like 10,000km/yr before starting. *shrugs*

Anyways, enough of that. Lets focus on some of the good stuff I saw. I caught a little bit of the dirt bike race (pic soon) which was cool and I was amazed they dumped that much dirt into the building. I saw the bike ramp free style half pipes and mid sections area which was cool. One of the things that amazed me was the BMX area that I stayed briefly at. These guys were rather fluid on thier balance and tricks on the BMX hanging off the front wheel peg while spinning like a draddle (sp?).

Also if you ride locally you should check out the TTC booth. They got a whole bus in there with the front rack loader for the bikes. The guy there showed me how to operate that front loader. It was cool. Apparently according to the guy in the USA some buses have up to 4 racks up front. Our buses only have 2 racks and only run on a few select test routes currently with plans of expanding by 2009 (I think he said 2009) to most routes. That really got me excited as it would really make a lot of people not commuting by bike to get places more into riding as they can take some of the distance load off on the bus. Especially if you're downtown T.O you know a bike can go pretty much anywhere faster then a car with a huge advantage on parking. No point paying $2.50/ride on the TTC each way down there when you only go 2 blocks each way.


Zero_Enigma

Zero_Enigma

No wheat sheaf here. We should have some meetup for the fall show. I'm sure most people will be riding then to that one. I don't recall seeing snow tires at the fall show before or even in the spring show.



Zero_Enigma

jeff-o

I went on Saturday, it was good I guess. Where are all the recumbents?? I left having spent only $25 on bits and pieces (after spending $23 on admission and parking!!), it looks like most of the big stuff will end up coming from Nashbar again. I don't know if I'll even go to the fall show, unless I can save more than $23+gas...

I_bRAD

Re: Gas and parking.

Go train stops right outside (not sure if that serves kitchener), and if you're prepared to walk (or cart your bike down and ride from your car) from Dufferin you can park for free on residential streets.

pinerider

Zero, you sure you were at the right booth? Maybe you got the randoneuring booth mixed up with the MS Biketour booth! I've worked the MS Biketour booth the last 3 years, I don't think anybody I've been there with has done 10,000 km in a year! The purpose of the booth is to encourage new riders and remind experienced riders what a great event it is. We have found that a lot of cyclists credit the MS Biketours as their introduction to "serious" cycling, even though the events are always lots of fun.
You don't have to ride a lot to participate and have a great time too. You should get some riding in beforehand to cut down on the aches and pains of distance rides, but you don't have to ride a lot to be comfortable on the tours. Great ride support with checkpoints every 45 minutes or so make it fairly easy to go long distances, even when you're not used to it.

Use your $5 off coupon from the show and register!!

gbcb

Careful to not get too excited at the Wheat Sheaf: a bit of singing got my friends and me kicked out a few St. Patrick's Days ago