I'm not entirely sure if the frames listed by that new forum sponsor (http://www.smartcycles.com/frame_closeouts_list.htm) are legit/rebadged, but DAMN this one is hot:

http://www.smartcycles.com/zar/guer_..._tig_white.jpg

I know this is Toronto, but I thought it'd be my best bet.
I'm heading to Montreal in 2 weeks for a conference at McGill, and want to check out some good bike shops. Any recommendations? Not looking to make any purchases, just check some local stuff out.

Ohhh man - this reminds me of a pretty funny story... I'm whipping down Queen one day in the summer and a dude decides to pull over to let his wife out of the car... the only problem is that I'm beside him. I squeeze through and, rather uncharacteristically, keep riding. My girlfriend at the time had been on me to keep my temper under control so it felt good to let it go... but then he honks and gives me the finger! What the ****?

So I turn around and go at him... he starts telling me "I've been riding for 15 years and I shouldn't pass a turning car on the right... blah blah blah" and I tell him "I wasn't passing on the right, I was riding on the right and I was beside upi when he decided to pull over." The argument degenerated into a "You go home" / "No, you go home!" type of sandbox argument so I figured I'd finish it with a nice loogie on the windshield and ride away...

He started to get out of the car and I was like "dude, trust me, you don't want to do that" and then a friend and his buddy who had heard the argument from a little ways down the street comes over and gets between us and is like "seriously, you do NOT want to get out of that car" and the dude says "why, because there are 3 of you?" Obviously not...

Anyway, the guy's wife gets out of the car super pissed off at all of us (husband included) and he drives away. I run into him at the next stop light and roll up and put my hand on his door (open window) and say "It's just me now, still want to get out of the car?" to which he apologizes emphatically. He totally just couldn't deal with admitting fault in front of his lady.

Ok, maybe that wasn't so funny as it is embarrassing for me giving into a simple middle finger but the macho, alpha male side of me is laughing inside whenever I think about his face when I rolled up on him at the stoplight.

Most of my friends from Montreal come here to buy their bike stuff - fixed stuff anyway. ;)

Check this forum - they'll be able to give you any info.

http://www.fixedmtl.com/

'course it doesn't hurt that you're like 7ft tall Matt!

:p

I stopped giving motorists the finger when one of them tried to run me over once I'd flipped him the bird. It was just me and him along Bloor near St.George, it was a dead Sunday afternoon and it was way before cell phones, like in 1993 or so, so I had no way out except to stop and hope that he would calm down. I guess he realized just what the hell he was doing, attempting to kill someone with his car, so he split pretty quick but it was a damned close call.

The concept of sharing the road didn't even exist back then, we have come along way, believe it or not, hehhe.

Yesssssssss go Matt.

I used to be pretty confrotational then I realized why the F should I get all bent out of shape for no reason - let them do it.

hahahaha. When Shamil told me about this I thought to myself...that sounds like Raisin Boy. Sure enuf...it was Raisin Boy. For the record this guy spends more time arguing with illegal turning cars then delivering packages. The irony is that this guy is one of the most dangerous idiot cyclists out there. Case in point. Many years ago, when I was still on the road, I was cruising west on King just west of Bay. As I passed First Can this clown comes hammering East along the sidewalk and just jumps off the sidewalk into traffic the wrong way. Normally this wouldn't bother me but the fact he crashed right into me made me lose it on him. Several weeks later he was yammering to some driver at Yonge and Queen about the same crap. He put his bike down on the road in front of the guys car and was screaming in the guys face. Driver thought screw this and just ran the idiots bike over. Now I don't condone behavior like this from car drivers but this guy is extremely over the top with his antics. Sadly this clown now lives in my building :(

Calm and happy is the way to go. Nothing angers raging cagers like a smile and friendly wave. They only want to make you angry and when you don't get angry, they lose it.

well that certainly puts a different spin on things....
I'd not be pleased with curb jump to wrong way collision
less than impressed actually

Huh, I just watched that video, it looks like the driver only gave up because he/she saw the cops coming. I think I agree with the cyclist though, making an illegal right turn during rush hour and almost running over a cyclist is really stupid. It is great that the cops were there, they are never there when I need them though. I wonder if the cyclist pulled up alongside of the SUV to watch him receive the ticket. That would have been kinda sweet, the devil in me hopes that he did ;)

Bwa ha ha! I couldn't get the video to load in Opera and was thinking, oh well, until I read Shamil's thread in A&S and the comment from someone about the "nasally voice". And I thought: Hey, I know that guy! You should hear his end of shift rants to random passers by outside my window.

Yup, this is the truest fact about cycling in the city. It takes a lot of time to learn it but this is the best way to go. I think it comes with age too, now that I am 35, I am way more laid back about things on the road.

Yeah opera doesn't load the vid so I had to fire up firefox (no pun intended).

Inexpensive wheelset on CL http://toronto.craigslist.ca/tor/bik/540318137.html

^ That's a good deal.

Similar to what I was going to say except replace "like 7ft tall" with "a MAN-MONSTER!"

Dups, I have your FCV Track 1 card for some reason. 5 bucks.

Does anyone know the rocker who is always walking around Harbord with a walkman on in full Motley Cru? That guy rules. Another local celeb I have to talk to someday is a guy who rides the bloor circut with a shopping cart hooked up to his bike along with other carts, always filled with cans. I would love to interview him for one of those "get to know your local biker" spots.

hahahahahaha....ok settle for a coffee??

no card no track 2 an 3!!

When is tarck 2 happening?

i've always wanted to talk with the woman in her 40s (whom i presume is a messenger) that has on a head to toe rubber rain suit and shopping bags on her feet and heat in any and all weather; i used to see her making deliveries in the bloor/yonge-sherbourne area

I've seen that guy! Hehe. I've seen another in my old area in the east end with a granny cart strapped to a backrack type deal, he goes around collecting empties.

Not a cyclist (that I've seen), but I always wondered about the rollerblading christ guy who goes down near my office on King sometimes carrying his crucifix, but it turned out that it was mayoral hopeful Kevin Clark - I've since seen him a bunch of times, both on and off his meds.

Good to see ya last night Brad, sorry I couldn't stop. I dunno if you heard my hollering from Queen, but I had a guy run across the road in front of me (frantic bell ringing) and he had the total lack of sense to continue to unlock and open his van door directly in front of me, despite me yelling "Watch out watch out door door door for ducks sake!" - I just don't get some people, I hate dealing with that at the best of time let alone when I have to deal with the tracks for avoidance routes.. ah well :) I carried on regardless.

Whenever one of you ****ing slackers gets in touch with FCV and organizes one!

Apparently Brett Gurewitz, guitarist for Bad Religion, is a huge bike nerd. Good times.

he also enjoys jerking off infront of a webcam

Apparently I've been out of touch re: Bad Religion news/gossip. :P Apparently that was Greg Graffin, not Mr. Brett. I just found the bike nerdiness because a friend follows his twitter feed, so I've also been watching it the past couple days.

I just googled it and found a reference to something on "www.conservatipedia.com". The link returned a 404 but I could bring it up via google's cache.

"Lead vocalist Greg Graffin will be burning in hell for masturbating on webcam."

hah!

More gold:
"Punk Rock groups are mainly communist anarchists."
"Greg holds a Ph.D and is a professor at UCLA teaching evolutionary junk science"
"Offensive Lyrics
Sympathy for Foreigners and Illegals: "At least the foreigners can copy our morality. They can visit, but they cannot stay.""

Oh yeah, sympathy for foreigners is SO offensive! ;)


edit for bike content: anyone doing the DSR group ride tonight @ 9:00? I'm hoping to make it out, but I have a date with my trainer this evening too. 45' hard interval session is on the schedule. ouch.