Wanted:

Does anyone have a 26mm silver flatbar, bullhorn, or drop that they are willing to part with? I love my nitto b115, but it just won't jive with my new nitto dynamic stem. THANKS CYCLE THERAPY for the great deal! PM S.V.P.

Brad haven't forgotten about you.

Anyone have experience with Mavic Caliper Adjusters or the like to allow running 700's in a mtb frame? Thinking about it beats working.

and I hate everything (almost) about U of T's online library system....

There was at least one checkpoint with nobody manning it.

yeah the winner of the race was a tool.

"As was already mentioned....a sad way to end off an otherwise excellent event. I wish it was "Keith the Hardass" making these decisions at the end...I would have had him wrestle the "harmonica dude"...best 2 out of 3 falls for the right to leave with all his chicklets intact. Huge props to Nadir for being the ever humble ambassador in a otherwise untenable situation." - Keith

What Keith said.

There used to be a guy in Toronto who made a limited amount of these before Mavic did. they worked great for everyone I know who used em. The refined version would be just as good I would think. Kinda pricey tho.

Hey Hey Thanks all. Despite me getting 1 year older i hit the trails @ 9:00AM this morning with a vengeance.
Cheers

Yeah, cheapest I've found is $25 USD a pop at speedgoat. I have to see how much room I'd have to see what I could run in there before I make any concerted effort in that direction. Cheaper than buying a full-on 29'er though.

I just read the bloggings, what a crappy way to end a fun-filled time. As if we don't have enough ******-bag motorists harshing the fun out on the streets, now other cyclists are not down with an equal and good time? Rats.

Haha. The race report was a bit "muddled" in this respect. I thought they called it because the guy who eventually won it said it suxx00red.

Tessar Lo

i still don't understand why the race was stopped for everyone because of a person not at a checkpoint. at least let everyone that payed finish the race. and showing up to a checkpoint only to find a scrap of paper that says "the race is over!" was pretty lame. I don't know if the course was meant to be ironic as the race was part of the introduction of two new track bikes, a road bike would have been the ride of choice. this prolly sounds more bitter than i actually am. The race was really fun.. while it lasted. this entry was awkwardly written.

I thought that the concept and the race route was well thought out....except they under-estimated how fast the top guys were. The flaw was trying to get 1 person to man 2 different checkpoints.
As for the distance..I thought for a $3000 prize, make em ride for it...suffer a bit. The top fixed person through the checkpoint I was manning came in in about 10th or so. I promise the next big race like this (prolly March) will have none of this drama or problems of Saturday.

The route and distance were great! especially the leslie spit(riding through there at night was super fun, nothing but silence and blinky lights in the distance) and the bluffs. I just thought it was ironic that half the reason for the event was introducing track bikes at a race that was clearly for road bikes. other than the abrupt ending and the winner being a dick, the race was cool as hell!

Cool.. It's funny, in retrospect I think I'd actually enjoy these types of longer races rather than the shorter races which seem to have more of an emphasis on just knowing where the heck things are in the city.

ps. not totally sure what my plans are, just checking my options: anyone around for lunch? I have a hankering for green onion pancakes and dumplings at Mother's Dumplings.

So.. did anyone score a good deal at the CT auction? I couldn't make it out, and only really had my eye on some of the brooks saddles (team pro), but assume they went for signifiicantly more than starting bid.

Heh.. well if that's what you're assuming, perhaps you don't want to know.

Actually, a lot of stuff ended up going for the base price.

The day was okay for us from a "clearing out stuff before the move" perspective, but we didn't have as many people as we would have liked. A little birdie (okay, me) told me that we'll be listing the auction again in craigslist/Toronto papers and running it again this weekend to the general public. Anyone want to hang out and watch for shoplifters with me? Should be good times.

We're literally leaving all the auction items on display all week and all the silent auction sheets on the wall. All the "this weekend" items are done, but everything else will be in a silent auction running for the week (ending Friday end of day), then Saturday from say, 2-4pm we'll run another live/silent auction. That'll hopefully clear out enough stuff so that we don't have to put inventory in storage once we move downstairs.

ps. Mike, I'll drop by in the next day or so with money and car to pick up my stuff.
pps. Phil is still dead to me.

It was a fabulous race concept, and I second your props to Nadir for his handling of it, I'dve DQ'ed anyone returning to start b4 the finish.

As for the under-estimate, I thought it was me, for an hour i thought I'd ruined the whole thing, well, not me but rather my checkpoints.

See, I was told to drop the JFtickets, hit the spit w/JP who met me there and then wait for a call that would come when the fast guys hit the bluff, then proceed to city hall from the spit. If you take that in reference to the other checkpoints and fast-guy travel time, it shoulda gone great. I was released from start at 5:16-17pm, I called the JF tickets down at 5:25pm, while hauling ass down parliament knowing that the fast guys were so much faster than me that 4 minutes and 3 kilometers was scant lead. I was told at 5:27 that the race was start in 10min, not 3min. So I didn't slow down but I didn't worry with an extra 10 minutes, that's plenty.

I attribute this to unsynchronized watches, read on.

JP, who went straight from the start to the spit but carrying traffic cones, & I came together simultaneously at the barricades ( 43°38'53.19"N, 79°19'42.90"W) that begin for us the ugly part of the spit. I had a feeling that he was coming from the west so would take the cherry st bridge and he did. I took Eastern to Leslie as it's faster, then Unwin to be sure not to miss JP. We estimated the fast guys at still 5-7 minutes back based on a 5:40 start. We didn't go slow but it is still a long way out there from that point. We took the cut through the brush to get back to Leslie. We were 20 yards from Leslie when a small group of fast passed. There were other cyclists out there, so we weren't sure but we picked up the pace (no hope of catching, just bottlenecking.)

Once on Leslie I got a call to check status. I advised we were on the spit, had maybe seen some fast? and was informed they went off at 5:30 on the dot. I was about to tell him it'd be okay because we had them bottled up, we knew then our time was off, I looked over the shoulder and there were 4 more bearing down on us. I said "oh ****!" and hung up (almost crashed too, hanging up while breaking into a sprint just as I reached a speed bump )

You're sot supposed to make it easy for them so I tried to get to the end of the spit in front of them. JP hung back to catch any coming out. We did catch them all, we know we did because they couldn't have gotten to the next without us. The guys pursuing caught me after a 2 minutes, passed me and were 75+ yards ahead when they reached the top of the hill at the end of the spit. There was much shouting, darkness & confusion but with both me & JP shouting that we were checkpoint they all figured it out, got their info & rode off.

We got many more riders, though I understand at least 10 or so didn't get to the end of the spit, and many that did packed it in, race over due to a bad-ass checkpoint! It was a great checkpoint selection for night, very exciting & dark!

What we didn't get was a call from the Bluffs. I tried calling base, but got no info. After a while we decided we had better go to City Hall, I was panicking by this time. I left the guys that had stayed to hang out with us behind, left JP behind and sprinted to City Hall. I got a call at Eastern & Leslie from the ther guy doing 2 checkpoints. I asked if this was my call (he had been at the bluffs, was enroute to the bridge) he didn't know, not his function. So I asked when they had their fast guys....30 minutes prior I was told! My call was a half hour over due and now these fast guys had a serious jump, even considering the distance.

I hauled ass to City Hall and caught all but that first crew. At -that- checkpoint I must presume they called base and were directed to the next. I was at City Hall for 5 minutes before the next riders came, members of the same pack that had passed us on the way to the end of the spit, after we'd seen the first group through the bush. JP showed up at City Hall after about 5 riders passed through.

We got a few more and then got a call from base, asking if where we were. We weren't sure if any had gotten past, but we'd been there awhile. Then we knew for sure we'd missed the fastest pack but that they'd been directed on. Then we were told the race had been called, due to our dead checkpoint.

Very upsetting, we waited 15-20 more minutes tops, and left notes that the race was over and proceeded to base where I tried to hide in corners.

However in the end I understand it was the dead checkpoint at the Humber Bridge that sent the fast crew returning to base without completing. That checkpoint was to have been covered by a vehicle leaving the Bluffs with or before the fast guys, the fast guys beat it badly because the claim was they or at least the winner, waited 10-15 minutes before heading to finish.

So that's what happened, it was still a great race, everyone but the few who got upset had a great time. Fab checkpoint selections, except for a few crucial logistics it would have been the best ride ever. And really, even with what happened...you don't leave without a signature or instructions from dispatch and expect to win.

It was very gracious the way Nadir handled it, both for us working checkpoints, the "winner" and the other riders who did have to accept that group was way, way in the lead, long enough to change a flat if need be. Albert did a good job with that course and if there had been 10 more minutes notice/lead for 2 different volunteers it would have gone off perfect. It was still exciting as hell on the spit, that much I know.

edit- Haha, I read on a blog that someone though the directions from spit the "rolling brook" were no good. (nevermind you were handed a map on the spit) Queen East, to it's end, you can only go left, take first right onto, following the human indicator, Fallingbrook Crescent, proceed to Fallingbrook Road.

Easy as pie, nowhere else to go. Our direction on the spit (besides providing a map) were "End of Queen East, Left, then 1st Right"

Sounds like you got a good haul. What did you get?

yeah, my directions were fine. that's a fun hill

Correct Guess I'll swing by the store this week and see what's still around..

Car is optional, but I have to go run some other errands (for heavy stuff) anyway. I just got a bunch of tools, a fork, a new saddle.. and uhh.. I think that's it.

I live out east and ride past there frequently.. I've always wondered how anyone living on Fallingbrook Road/Drive/Woods/Crescent ever get their pizza on time
Google Map of the area
My sympathies to those that had to climb Brimley fixed.. my knees hurt just thinking about it.

hahahah.. "take your 3rd Fallingbrook and..."

Reminds me of trying to give people directions in downtown St. John's.. "Well, go down there and take 6 lefts, then..." Too bad Gmaps doesn't have contour lines.