If you want to check out a good wheelbuilder... www.wheelbuilder.com
One of my friends has ordered off that site with good results - they know how to build wheels, prices are very, very reasonable and customer service is amazing or so i've heard.

I'll ask about the shipping -

I'd love to go with a local builder, or even build them myself for sure. I had some wheels built at cavern this summer which rode great until the bike was stolen :-(

it seems that given speed and cost are the main concerns of my roommate (doesn't really care if it's the highest performing wheelset) some crap machine built internet wheels seem like the best option unfortunately. Unless I can find some cheap rims and hubs here in ottawa, or even toronto I suppose.

Formula + openpro is pretty affordable AND also happens to be quality/reliable.

To the peeps talking about riding to Niagara, I might be down for that as well. Rob's plan of 'whenever average highs start hitting 20-25' sounds good, as long as it's not a weekend I have a race.

email sent to these guys. I didn't see any prices or anything on the site but i'll keep my fingers crossed. What wheels did your friend get? It seems like they're geared more towards building more high end racing wheels.

Internet wheels are a crap-shoot, IMHO. I ordered some Mike Garcia Aerohead/SpeedCific wheels, and they are rife with issues: tire bead doesn't hook easily and the rear came out of true the first time I used it. I guess the point is that you can't always trust the internets. Next time, I'm definitely gonna build my own or have them done locally. Suggestion: find a good shop in Ottawa and have your wheels built there. If you're concerned about paying full retail at the shop, only order the hubs online. If the rim isn't a perfect extrusion, you'll have no end of headaches with constant truing/tension-balancing, which is a really good reason to avoid online rims.

Yeah, I'm gonna run around as well and talk to my favorite LBS and maybe a few others to see if I can get any deals that'll bring the price of building local down a bit.

I'd like to avoid buying online and building them myself would be fun. If I keep doing builds for friends I'll have about 7 wheels to build by the time april hits.

I've never been to sweden or norway, so i'm super excited for that

this will be my third trip to copenhagen and my second to venice

in norway i'm planning on attending a couple days of the hole in the sky festival
holeinthesky.no

among those playing are Carcass, Municipal Waste and Meshuggah!

I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb.



to get back to the bike talk
the ride in was pretty messy in a few spots today.

If you can learn to build them yourself you'll be way better off. That said, i don't build mine myself as I don't have those type of skills.

In that case it would probably be best to learn to build wheels. I took the first part of a two part workshop last week and lacing the wheels is pretty straightforward - I haven't moved on to tensioning / truing yet so we'll see how that goes this week. Even with lacing; I had a couple of screw ups in the class but laced a second wheel on my own this weekend and it was quick and easy so I get the impression that, like most things, it just gets easier and easier the more you do...

Thanks, Keith, for cutting those spokes for me this weekend! They worked out perfectly as far as I can tell...

http://www.makergo.com/shutup/images...ild_home02.jpg

I think i'm going to try and build the wheels myself. I built one earlier this year with the help of my LBS and the local co-op, but I could certainly use the practice. Especially when it comes to final tensioning and stressing of the wheels. Does anyone know of any good deals to be had on lower end track hubs (formula/surly) in toronto? I'm going to be in town for a weekend soon.

Also, are the mavic opensports really terrible? They seem like a good deal for a doublewalled eyeleted rim, but don't get talked about much on the boards.

I haven't tried the opensports but I had a Mavic SUP rear on my Marinoni and it was solid as hell. And I just popped a set of Mavic G40s onto my single-speed and I am amazed at how solid they are for an entry level rim. I guess you cannot go wrong with Mavic, the quality really is nice.

Go to the Cyclery and ask for Nick, tell him Wil from La Carrera sent you and he'll hook you up. ;)

Does anyone have any favorite restaurants in the College & Spadina area? I usually bring leftovers for lunch, but sometimes I wind up buying lunches and I'm getting tired of eating at the same places. I actually have a list of nearly 30 decent places within a quick walk/ride from my office, but somehow as time goes on I find it harder and harder to pick any of them.

I hear splendido is very nice.

I do enjoy a slice from Mossomo's.

I don't think they'd let a scruffy nerfherder like myself in through the door. ;)

Saigon Palace, for that intersection gets my vote. Not much money and mm mmm mmmm good food. mmm Beef wt Satay sauce on salad... yum Mavic has always seemed to make a pretty nice hoop. MA-40 and an MA-30(?) being used here..

damn i should have waited until this afternoon to take a ride; all that ice and slush seems to have melted away...

Dear Winter,

Thanx for the visit, please leave ASAP as Spring is trying to come over and cant get in with you in the way.

Regards,

Duppy

yeah, no kidding. i'll sign my name to that as well.

Sorry I missed you guys this morning. Messed up times with my wife. Went down to the spit around 10:15 and did some laps. Wet feet indeed.

Yeah, I was just out on a short grocery run and it's like 10X better than when we were out!

no kidding, next time i'm waiting until the afternoon. i'm not used to riding in the morning anymore.

hey, shot in the dark here: does anyone make orange fenders? the soma fab ones come in different colours but red is the closest.

Hey Pyze, was the spit a park, or a dump today? We weren't sure on account of the semi-holiday.

Hipster hotwheels fenders are orange!

Empty. I saw 1 jogger and that was it. Awesome, just me and the birds.

Rick Mercer on a fixed gear. Oh look, four scary dudes on horses ...

You can get formula hubs at Urbane for sure. My formula/cxp22 wheelset seems to be holding up so far, I ordered it from bicyclewheels.com (despite an original budget of $350/4 I had to downsize to real small budget stuff for now) - Been running it since Jan 1st and have ridden through just about everything we've had thrown down so far over a few unseen potholes and all seems nice, I've not yet had to true or anything - I guess it is a crapshoot, as I've heard bad stuff too.

I was genuinely surprised to see snow this morning, totally didn't know it was supposed to happen. Other than a unfendered wet ass problem, no different though.

Does anyone have a desire to ride to Whitby this weekend? I'm thinking of going there as a trial run for my future commute, my plan is ride there, eat/drink/smoke/whatever then ride straight back - I'm wanting to do it Saturday because I'd like to join the Randonneurs on Sunday for their ride.

Is that for the show, or for his own fun?