deep much? new Zipp 1080:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...p_1080_rim.jpg

I think those logo's are just big enough for operator's taste.

ps. the coppers are detonating bombs out on the spit right now, if anyone has a view from their workplace. :)

doubles as a safety preserver!

Not worth too much, but it could be a very sweet Music server or something. Put in a 100gig drive and connect to it via ethernet and you'd have a nice server (likely one you could connect to from work or at home with the imac)

i'll be at CM tonight... i'd like a sticker too! i've been rocking the 3-speed this week (avec pannier!) so i'm not sure which bike i'll be on.

this whole PSA business sounds exciting.

i guess today's the day to make loud explosions on the spit 'cuz the jets probably already scared all the birds away.

ps. i found myself referring to something as "the shinaz" today :tear:

How many litres per minute you figger them fancy killin' machines burn?

I'm likin' the PSA angle as at in the advertising/billboard realm the city has been as odds with the big board folks over usage of city space.. IE the advertisers are putting up billboards without permission and places they shouldn't. I figure a tit-for-tat back scratch and we'll cut you some slack for some primo PSA space would be a nice trade off. win win for everyone, I think... .

i heard something about distracted drivers on the radio the other day, but when i tried looking it up it just went the the CAA homepage. i just tried it again:

http://www.caasco.com/advocacy/gov_affairs/theglare/

:D

bad juju all around tonight at CM. a woman ate **** going south on the broadview tracks. kinda endo'ed before the bike flopped over on her. she ate it pretty bad, which i would describe as "gnarly" except james laughed when i said it. good thing a cop was tailing us, cause he got out of his cruiser and helped her out.

then on gerrard east an antsy driver brushes a dude's rear with the corner of his bumper, on the tail end of the mass, then another dude came to his defence and blocked the car. the SUV wouldn't stop, so cyclist #2 kicked the hood. driver lost his mind and leapt out of the car - except he didn't put it in park. cyclist sees the foaming-at-mouth driver coming at him, and he throws the bike at him. meanwhile, the SUV (with driver's wife in the passenger seat) is rolling down the street at a not so slow pace (from whose path yours truly and several others had to scramble to get out of), and the two are about to fight. finally some guy jumps off his bike and leaps into the car, puts it in park. the driver calms down when the irate cyclists now gathered around the scene gang up on him and beat him into a coma.

okay the last part is false, but CM is kinda losing its charm.

WOW!

I don't feel so bad hanging at home, cleaning and drinking Steamwhistle...

Canice ... did the cops get the driver? He does what amounts to assault with a deadly weapon, jumpps out and leaves it rolling? Madness. Someone should have driven the runaway suv into a pole.

I've always had a love/hate with CM. Hope the flying woman is okay.

I realized today I need to order more stickers! some of you got the last of what I have I think have maybe 30 more? Keith I will find a day to drop a small stack off at Cavern for you distribute to fixed gear riders and people you like. The next step is to make those stickers in to t shirts. Next time I ride CM I'm bringing my fixie leaning into the drops of my road bike finger taping my brakes for most of it was murder on my hands.

If you are wondering the stickers are the same image as my avatar.

Most of the people I like are fixie riders! :D

Per C.M. I have found that as time passes, and more people get more militant, (both bikers and drivers) the hostility/confrontation factor has gone up each year. I believe that there is an obvious need for some kind of cycling awareness event to keep people aware of the viability of city cycling......I just can't help but wonder if there is some better way of educating the public at large. I was at the first C.M. in T.O. and have attended at least one a year since then. I sadly have witnessed so much bulls#itedness on the part of both drivers (admittedly the much bigger majority) and cyclists, that I have a hard time being involved in this ride anymore. Perhaps a new approach (the suggested video is a great start) to bringing this issue to a fresh beginning is the right way to go. Until then I will attend the occasional C.M, but the spark and fire for cyclists rights will unfortunately most often be spent standing my personal ground defending my rights as a seasoned city cyclist in this city.

i think everyone just sort of realized the driver was insane and calling the cops would only escalate the situation, so we just carried on and caught up to the rest of the riders.

i haven't been riding for too long in this city, maybe two years, but have definitely noticed CMs are way more confrontational. on broadview, just before the woman wiped out, we passed a car that was half-in/half-out of its parallel park job. the driver had obviously been in the process of getting out or in of the spot when the ride passed, so naturally he stopped where he was rather than move. the disturbance was so slight it didn't even clog up the road, but one woman felt it was necessary as she passed, to slow down at the driver's window and say something to the effect of, "WAY TO PISS UP THE RIDE, WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING, YOU JERK," in the most self righteous, barbed tone. seriously people... some CM riders get so defensive about cars being impatient, well what about an obnoxious cyclist who probably hates her life and took it out on a very nice driver who was taking his time to wait for the ride to pass before finishing his (un)park job? he was smiling and saying hello to some riders as they passed by. felt so terrible for being associated with that bee itch.

looks like one of those inner tubes you would use for swimming...

100% agree. I find that in the summer - especially this one - there's such a high number of new cyclists that it doesn't seem that they actually "get" what's going on. I've over heard them talking about the ride either before or after describing it as a chance to eff with drivers - sort of in a primary function sort of way. And the last couple of times I've gone I've seen a ridiculous amount of altercations that I think are only escalating and I'd hate to see it reach a boiling point where there's an incident that stains the whole thing.

I wonder if having it only a couple of times a year and getting a TON of people combined with some sort of information part - like banners and/or handouts - with a highly visible set ending point - like Dundas square - would be more effective. I think it would help both the people watching and the people riding. As it is it just feels like a lot of people ride CM for their own reasons. Which is fine if it's a small part of why your there, but I thought the point was to unify the community to generate awareness.

weird. i seem to be missing all these incidents! here i was thinking how much calmer CM has gotten since i first started going however many years ago! certainly the police presence/reaction has drastically changed for the better.

i thought it was the little girl that fell? if it was the mother, i saw her almost fall on the tracks only a few minutes before that, even though she was riding a mountain bike with thick tires. actually, people wiping out on tracks has comprised the majority of issues i've witnessed at CM this year.

i love the idea of critical mass. however i do think that the lack of organization can be a blessing and a curse. perhaps there's a difference between one person being "the leader" and people showing "leadership" with positve behaviour. there used to be a bit of discussion at the begining about the "rules" of CM: 1 - stick together, 2 - have fun/being aggro isn't cool, 3 - share the job of corking traffic.

thanks again for the stickers Fil. great teamwork on the new recruit!

ride... safe

This has been my primary beef with CM. Everyone goes to mass for their own reasons, but it seems the confrontational aspect has become, if not dominant, at least more visible. While the point of CM could be debated ad nauseum, CM has always struck me as a form of civic activism that never evolved. I don't think CM is bad, but it should at least have an ostensible point that furthers objectives, even if it's simply a celebration of bike-centric culture. Bike Fridays have far more potential to initiate change than CM ever will, imo.

Wes and I road the ridge trail today (hardtail + cyclocross action), so I can cross that one off the list. There are some spots where I questioned what I hope I had in the area, but for the most part it was an awesome section of the Don that I can definitely improve on (hopefully without bouncing myself off too many trees). Good times, and once I tweak my gearing (39/25 does NOT get my ass up some of those hills) it will be a lot more rideable. Those rooty downhills scare the crap out of me (let's just see how much that carbon fork can take) but it gets easier when I ride with someone who knows the lines (having learned them from someone else who knows the lines).

Also, this may turn into "the next bike" ... yes, it's the same frame I'm currently riding, but shush and enjoy the bike porn.

http://www.devinci.com/web/image/Vel...frame-copy.jpg

The air show is freaking my pets out. Someone tell the guys in the planes to stfu.

That is a pretty cool frame, I am thinking of building up a SS mountain bike similar to this one. I like the utilitarian aspect of a bike like this, I am using my car less and less and a bike like this would make getting groceries a lot more fun.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...chEz/sycip.jpg

Ya, I'm a total sucker for front racks now ... they just do it for me for some reason.

I think CM always manages to accomplish one of its objectives which is to say "hey look there are lots of cyclists on the road so watch out for us!" I think most of the problems stem from the fact that it is not a realistic scenario. This the part of CM that is counterproductive IMO. Because of this, I think Ryan, that your idea of making it something that happens maybe twice a year and making it absolutely huge and "organized" would raise awareness more effectively. Maybe it could have more of a positive impact and less of a piss-off factor. That should be the goal afterall.

After cycling in Europe and the UK I have realized that cycling actually is terrible and really dangerous. We have a long way to go on this side of the pond.