They get lots of practice throwing things at road signs, hikers etc.

You guys with thompson seatposts - are the words removeable or are they lazer etched?

I hope you never plan on getting sponsored. OTOH, if you ride often enough, in bad enough conditions, logos last about 3 months; everything turns brown.

This is for my good bike... :(

I think I need to start a new listing website: www.wordweenies.com

no chance for retribution with him going that fast...fk!

wtf is wrong with people these days, seriously!

I think a new level of jackassnesses seems to be completely tolerated as being normal nowadays. It's pretty ****ing sad actually. Not surprising or noteworthy, but sad.

yup...im also noticing alot more hostility towards bikers as opposed to less..

I put it down to jealousy and anger that they have to pay $1.34 a litre to feed a gas hog that they don't really need but bought to keep up with the Joneses or to act as a prosthesis for their ego. Hits them right in the cultural sense of automotive entitlement.

In other news, keep an eye peeled for a smallish Giant Bowery http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/bik/752916987.html

Not all that common so it should be easy to spot.

In yet other news, I just finished Michael Ondaatje's "In the Skin of a Lion". There's a mention of the first vehicle to cross the Bloor Viaduct was a guy on a bicycle who jumped through the barricades and raced ahead before the planned VIP motorcade got across. I went to the Toronto archives and found this, which is my new wallpaper. The fullsize version is available at the Toronto Archives. http://www.toronto.ca/archives/photographs/index.htm
Search using citation number 246332
(sorry the old link expired)

http://cavit8.clawz.com/images/it0868.jpg

Great book. I remember writing an essay on it about 15 years ago it for a girl I was trying to date.

I too, truly love that novel. Hijack this thread: Books with excellent Toronto references... go!

I just read Fifth Business -Davies. Not necessarily Toronto, but southern Ontario. What a gem.

yeah, one of my favourite books. love his detailed descriptions of toronto, especially the waterworks in the beaches and of course the building of the viaduct. imagine the chemistry of toronto before it...

I was reading something by Hemingway last year (I don't recall what) and one of the characters was Canadian and was described as having
"impeccable social grace, as all Canadians do".

We have been really nice people for a long time now I guess or, maybe Hemingway didn't do much cycling in Toronto when he lived here ;)

Wow the Bloor Viaduct looks great in that pic! It looks much better without the suicide cage. Much better view.

I read 5th Business in high school, I'd love to do so again. My friend Liz (who was in my English class) and I had this weird joke where we referred to the book as (phonetically) "Fih Bihnih".

In other news 54cm R3SL is backordered for several months. So I'm getting an SLC-SL instead. Hopefully this week. I'm swapping out a couple of the parts that will come on it so if anyone is interested in a pair of 3T Ergosum Team Carbon fibre drop bars or a pair of FSA SLK Light cranks and bb in 172.5 let me know.

JW- WTF?

re: Fifth Business, the entire Deptford Trilogy is awesome and I have them if anyone wants to borrow.
re: In the Skin of a Lion- I love the descriptions of the Eastern European culture in the East End. So awesome.

re: everything except for JW's story, awesome.

Hands down the best ride of the year so far:

http://www.stridemaps.com/maps/view/146#

Starting at the Aldershot GO station, it's literally about 5mins before you're in the countryside. Like birds chirping wind in the grass countryside. Not that long, but up the escarpment 4 times (~740m total climbing) the hardest being the loose gravel climb up Kelso makes up the difference. The hill down bell school line from top of Kelso is a sweet, sweet reward for the slog up the hill, you lose about 120m in 2mins. I just tucked it and hit 64.3 on L'il hauler :)

The scenery is awesome, the roads are good (with a few fun offroad sections thrown in on sections of the bruce trail and through Kelso), the traffic was light and considerate and the lake at Kelso is nice for a lunch stop/swim.

Lucky I broke my camera on the way out, or I'd have had to stop every 3mins because of the scenery.
Awesome ride. Highly recommended.

Littany of informative posts today!

That bloor viaduct pic, circa?

Oct 18, 1918. You can make it out in the script on the bottom of the photo - more easily in the original.

This doesn't make any sense but it seems like it's wider now than it was when it first got built.

anyone up for a don ride tomorrow? i want to break in my new bike

I've done some riding around there before it is beautiful! I was staying on the road though, it was the course from when they used to do the road race up there. I want to go back soon!

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/bik/753651242.html

anyone have a cinelli frame lying around?
this dude will give you $100 for it.

Do you have a copy of the course? I'm going back for sure.

We didn't go offroad too much. Just a couple of shortcuts and detours for scenic purposes. I don't know the bruce trail very well, except to say it's not very predictable terrain wise, so I kept it to a walkable distance just in case it turned into a rock garden or bog. The one section actually shows as a road on google and on my paper map... although in reality it's just a survey trail.

You can totally go around kelso on pavement and still catch the big downhill, which is what I had originally planned, but after lunch break and a swim I decided that I wanted to see if I could actually make it up with the full on touring setup.

...and where on the climb did you barf?

Joy! I was wondering when I'd be able to get rid of that Pinarello track frame. Too bad he only seems to want Italian. What am I going to do with the Makino and the Zeus frames?

if you must know, i could feel the wine i'd consumed at lunch rising in the back of my throat by the time i got halfway to the top of the cliff ridge in kelso, after riding up from the beach. however, with the rough trail and a hybrid (avec panniers), i had to walk; so i was able to catch my breath in time...

but really, it was probably one of - if not the - best/hardest rides i've done yet.

Brad, is any part of that route you mapped, not on paved roads?

Yes, but I want to do it on my road bike too, so I'm going to revise it to accommodate that at some point.

Here's the course:

http://www.ontariocycling.org/web_do...ical_guide.pdf

It wasn't a very long loop but you got a MONSTER climb on Applebee line and then a harrowing downhill on Bell School Line. That climb is insane. The switchbacks at the top are so steep!

Awesome photo! I tracked down the larger version and posted it on my Flickr account if any wants to d/l it easily.

bah mushy brakes, rubbing front brake rotor, and a slipping rear wheel.



apart from that, i love the new bike. now to fix the problems, and hit up the don! I hope dukes will fix up the mushy brakes for free as i only picked it up today, and dont have any more fluid (not enough fluid, and/or some air in the brakes... that would be my guess)