oh man! as i started reading your post i was thinking "funny i had a cop car do that to me yesterday" and on college no less... i guess the rules of indignant hood slapping change when he hood in question has "to serve and -ahem- protect" on it (or is it "deeds speak"?).

when i see cop car parked illegally, especially in the bike lane i'm always tempted to lay down next to the car and writhe in agony pretending i had hit it "oh, god sorry, i didn't see your car there!...if it were only parked legally!....[cue peter griffin clutching ankle] "aaahhhhh!!!!sssscchhhee!!!!!aaaaahhhhh!!!!"

funny i always thought "to punish and enslave" was the cops motto ala transformers movie...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2134/...d9aa65.jpg?v=0

does that car transform into a dougnut-maker?

hahahahahaha yup...or a giant taser...

it turns out i have an unexpected day off so i'm going out for a ride (after i fix this flat) if anyone is interested in a spin or a coffee.

coffee good. six-oh-two, seven-two-nine-eight. I'm gonna pop out for somethin' to eat in a few. I'll likely be in Kensington.

I can't say for sure if I'll be able to get out, stupid work is stupid - but I'll try... if not, maybe tomorrow or wait 'til Thurs...

Cheers...

Ah those fine officers of the law, heh... Did I post here about the cop supervisor car that was too busy checking his/her laptop driving along Queen that he went up the curb at Brock? The driver decided to complete the 'turn' and humped the car over the whole corner - they'd drifted right over from the streetcar lane and up on the curb from not looking up - too bad I didn't have my camera on :(

On Sunday they'd closed down westbound Bloor at Castle Frank and eastbound at Parliament to allow a funeral procession to come off the highway at Castle Frank so I got stuck at Parliament for a few minutes. I was asking the officers in front of me who it was for (as I saw them all saluting as it passed), they seemingly ignored me, then the non-driver said "It was a soldier" and I said "Ah jeez, sh1t" and the driver looked through and said, in an accusatory tone "What did you say!?" I was like "I said ah sh1t" - I'm guessing he thought I said something disparaging about it, he looked like an a-hole anyway. Then after they were letting traffic go again, a lady was trying to turn right on the red (no can do there) from Parliament right in front of two bike cops, who screamed her out pointing at the no right on red sign - as I rolled by with the trailer I waved and shouted "Thanks Officers" beaming at the lady :)

The other day I was heading up Brock and a cop pulled a guy over in front of me. He was just getting out of his car as I passed and he quickly closed his door and backed up against his car to give me more room. He smiled and said "good morning" as I passed.

hahah.. yeah, they're not all dinks thankfully. I've had a couple pretty funny run-ins with them actually where they've had pretty good senses of humor. Especially since in each case it was them joking with me after I'd blown through a stop sign / rolled through a red light in each case respectively. :)

oops - wes, i'm heading out in 10 minutes. i'll be at i deal shortly. four one six six five five six three six zero

Hi all,

A friend got me interested in the Aids benefit ride to Montreal this summer. Originally I thought to use this as an excuse to get a nice, classy touring bike but if I could do it fixed... Why not, right?
Has anyone attempted this ride or a ride of comparable distance fixed? Am I being ridiculous, or just ambitious?

Two of us here have done that ride. While it's totally doable fixed, you'd be happier not to. I did it two years ago, and the one fixed rider didn't seem too happy most of the trip. Then again, that may have simply been his default demeanor. :P I had originally planned on doing it fixed, but the constant grind up hills and spin down the other side got a little old. Not to mention how nice it is to be able to coast for a few seconds every now and then just to adjust/stretch/take-your-weight-off-your-butt-for-a-few-seconds/drink/eat/etc is quite nice.

Either way, it's a really fun ride.. plus this year is the 10th anniversary so it should be a pretty big turnout.

I can't believe you stood me up on our lunch-date. I totally thought you were coffee-date material... now I'm not so sure.

I've had bike cops thank me for ringing my bell while they were mingling about in the far left lane on Adelaide (dealing with tracks/doorzone/bike cops warranted a bell ring :p) - for the most part I've had good interaction with the police so far here though.

Got my registration for the hairshirt acknowledged, woo.

Can someone URL me for this ride to Montreal? Is it the canadaride.com thing from Burlington VT?

hey, i showed up and you weren't there so i left you a message. way to make assumptions [cries into pillow while kicking feet in the air]...

vote to name new Toronto cycling magazine: http://spacing.ca/wire/?p=2698

Looks like it's set to be pretty miserable tomorrow, too, on account of the winds. :)

Lucky they're having it right in the middle of a work day.

funny how they have cog as one of them, i got a copy of cog yesterday

of coarse i was going to make a post about it but matt was well ahead of me

i can't believe people still think it's a good idea to start a print magazine

i was going to order a copy of that but it was like $17 postage so i didn't bother... did they sort that out? what did you pay?

i think print magazines are still a good idea - i don't know how economically viable they are and they may not be entirely environmentally friendly but i don't like to bring my laptop to the bathroom with me... most of the time.

On that note.. anyone here planning on doing the "Ride to Conquer Cancer" (money funding PMH cancer research)? I think I've had enough of the Ride for Heart and the inexperienced crowd that goes with it, but don't know if I'm ready for the toronto-montreal AIDS rally / "friends for life".

The only thing that dissuades me from doing the Niagara ride is that they require each rider to raise $2500.. I don't hang out with the richest crowd (mostly other students) and can't imagine raising that much.. my avg gathered for ride for heart is usually around 300-400 bucks.

Tobias: Well, yes, but I’m afraid I prematurely shot my wad on what was supposed to be a dry run, if you will, so now I’m afraid I have something of a mess on my hands.
Michael: It's just there's so many poorly chosen words in that sentence.

Youch! The minimum for the FFL ride is "only" $2000, and that's fully supported with 6 days of riding/food/etc!

no print definitely isn't a bad idea as far as the medium goes

starting a print magazine is just seems like a bad idea business wise, a lot of magazines that have been around for years and years and years are going under ... i'm sure it can be done successfully though

oh, i got the cog magazine for free with an order from bens ... it's pretty good, i like how they have the fixed stuff and actual track racing aswell ... pretty much perfect as far as distribution of content goes, just which it was longer

i'm affraid i just blue myself

As long as you can sell enough ad space, one could conceivably chuck em all into the river after they've been printed. I'd love to see the print version, and how it was printed. Ad bucks are getting hard to secure these days. Web Magazine = Fancy Blog. If I wanted to a special section in the paper concerning the Messenger World's I'd have to secure 40-60K$ minimum before anyone would begin to listen.

somebody should take this distribution idea to vice (first thing i could think of, i actually don't mind vice sometimes)

Thanks Wes - looks like a great ride.

LordFoo: I was considering it, but again the minimum is what scares me away. If anything, I'll do the FFL ride - 600k/6days isn't bad so long as I can raise the $2k.

For the Ride for Heart and the Pedal 100 last year I just paid the minimum registration fee needed to ride - same as I do for the CN Tower climbs, I'll happily pay $50 to climb the tower (I feel really awkward constantly badgering people for this, that and the other event I'm doing so I cheap out). Last year I asked the folks at work to help me in the Super Cities Walk, so maybe I could tap them for the FFL ride, though I'm still skeptical as $2k is a fair chunk of cashola.

Frankly the idea of riding into Niagara region vs. riding to Montreal is a no-brainer for me, I'll take the trip east hands down.

Re: print magazines - definitely depends on your audience demographic... Our online side of our magazine is behind the curve in terms of online generally, but we're pushing boundaries in our specific field/demographic (a lot of our readers are 50+ females, not so savvy, but keen-to-learn 'net surfers) - we broke all kinds of records for ad. sales last year online, which is always nice. I guess our website is a supplement to the print magazine still, though we do now offer a digital edition and are getting more online exclusive content, it was hard to sway the powers that be to allow us to have more content from the magazine as well as develop fresh/new stuff just for the web - old dogs don't learn so well...

I like some of the Queen West, too-hip-too-live magazines, I get some neat design ideas from them and I get to see what's going on in some design circles I'd generally not be privy to. Not being the hippest old man out there. As well the chinatown papers, party fliers, and Japanese rock mags.