Critical mass tonight!

Duke's I'd expect... haven't seen them in any other shops besides Sporting Life :S

So, I went to a job fair in RIM Park, Waterloo, then hung around until the evening. All I can say is wow, are there a lot of very good looking girls there. Also, the mean population age of Waterloo must be 25. Lots of cycling and lots of bike lanes; actually, I was surprised when I didn't see a bike lane painted on some roads.

I posted in the road forum, but I'll ask you all: for a grad gift, I've asked the parents for a steel road bike. Now, I was looking at Italian classics (De Rosa, Colnago, Cinelli), but I'm really leaning towards Marinoni because they're Canadian and reasonably priced. Someone also suggested True North, but I don't know much about them, other than being more money than Marinoni. Is there a substantial difference in quality between those two builders?

I have never seen a True North up close but the Marinoni that I had was pretty awesome but it was from the '80s when the Marinoni lineup was a lot smaller. Dunno about the new ones, why not get a sweet used steel Marinoni, they come up quite often on CL, especially the Montreal one.

I wish I could have made it for the drinks last night but I work with people who are insane and I couldn't get out of there before 9:45pm, ugh!


Anyone want to take a bet on how bad the financial markets do today? I am thinking the DOW will be down at least 200 by the end of day. I read yesterday that Washington Mutual ATMs stopped giving out cash yesterday afternoon. What a nightmare....

True North would build up anything you wanted, whereas Marinoni will do custom geometry from a stock design. I have dealt with Hugh at True North - class act all the way. Since he is relatively local, it couldn't hurt to pop down and speak to him and look at some of his creations.

Arrrr!

Interesting hub... SA?

I have a portfolio on updown.com ("play" trading site) - recently took a dive like the market, but picked up some AIG stock while they're low. That ought to pay off.

It's just been terrible, looking pretty bleak down in the land of the brave.

I work for welfare, my job is secure if the economy keeps bombing ;)


On a side note, anyone know if it's even legal to filter through slow moving traffic? I was going up Yonge yesterday working my way through traffic in the dividing line between the left and right lane when I came across a motorcycle cop. I wasn't sure if I should keep going or not so I thought I'd ask the guy, so I said "hey man, am I allowed to squeeze between those cars and just ride ahead?" and he tells me "I'm not gonna stop you" which worked for me but immediately after I realized that I still don't know if I have to look out for cops while doing that or not in the future...

I think filtering is illegal. I don't actually know for sure.

In practicality, I've found that even filtering past cruisers doesn't seem to cause any concern - I don't know if it's just the cops in the car or what, but I've not had issue. I also creep across lights as they're inbetween changes (to get the jump on traffic) and that never seemed to bother police either, when/if they're around.

There is also Naked Cycles on Vancouver Island. Never used any of the builders, I just like the 'look' of the Naked cycles. I really like the stainless steel lugs. That's a personal thing. Also, apparently Naked sold Lance a bike at the last handmade show, apparently the first bike he has purchased in years.

Once upon a time there were lots of Canadian builders. As far as I know Marinoni, Guru (no steel), Devinci and Steelwool (the "pure laine" frame) remain made here. Maybe some Rocky Mountains or Konas or others?

Anyway for lugged steel your choice is on the used side. Great deals to be had. On the new ones I know Cinelli has one (the Supercorsa) and I think Fuji is coming up with one too... Otherwise many large manufacturers have some TIGed steel in their line-up.

True North, Naked, Golem (Québec), Foundry Frameworks (Montréal), Jester (Welland ON), are some local smaller builders, but more $$$ (there are some others in QC I can't remember).

IMO Marinoni is awesome bang for the buck.

BTW talking of Marinoni I'm starting to think mine is too small. Anybody interested in a trade? Mine is 53x54... looking for around 56x56.

I'm a crankset closer to my single speed project being complete (thanks again Keith). Maybe I can convince the girlfriend to go for a bike ride tomorrow, lose her at a stoplight, run into Urbane to get the rest of the stuff I need and then find her again and pretend nothing happened...

I guess it is a good thing I don't invest in the markets because, clearly, I don't know what I am talking about; the DOW closed up 121 points :/

Quit hanging out on different cx forums and just come race with us. This weekend is in Guelph, week after that is in Toronto. Do it.

Can't race, I hate to lose so much it makes me ill, and yet I suck. Not a good combo! :)

the dow always rallies at week's end. investors and brokers like to go home for the weekend feeling relieved. and paid.

wamu's takeover is actually a good thing. that banks are in a financial situation to consolidate and acquire means a) they have financing to do it, so the credit markets are still able to support that, b) or that the coming bailout package will be able to offset costs, and c) that banks still see a positive outlook as far as expansion and potential for business. jp morgan mostly does investment, so for them to acquire a more consumer-oriented savings and loans type asset shows they're trying to spread their money around so that if they do get hit in either the investment or savings markets, the damage is mitigated.

as for wamu not dispensing cash, maybe operations have slowed so they can assess the situation and then make changes as necessary? or that wamu customers are freaking and taking out all their savings in cash rather than taking bank notes? either/or/both.

i love finance.

anyone got a ride to the tour de green belt?

i want in, but dont have a ride, call/msg me at 6472235781 if you gots room :D

Stuart, why don't you take the MEC van?

Thanks Mike - I was expecting a reply from you.
I went with him and he went with the 58 - it is a touch big (but not too badly and he shouldn't bag himself) but we talked the guy into throwing in the shorter stem (Really, should I have had to? Come on now!) and I think it'll be pretty comfortable - the 56 would have been ideal but the 53 was way, way, way too small.

not sure if there is room, and i dont wanna get there for 6:30 to find it full

dont know if anyone saw the cp24 thing on CM but it seemed very uninformed and negative...
maybe it was just the part I caught it at....it was funny because they were shooting the spot from the car tryin to follow CM...and they couldnt find them anywhere....ha ha...

CM was awful tonight. The riders were terribly organized and the police were aggressive. Probably the worst CM I've been to so who knows what crap ended up airing about it if someone was filming tonight.

Indeed. Just after it started I was riding alongside my buddy when the cops started going "Red light, red light" at St. George, with a threat of "we'll give you tickets, we're not kidding!".

They actually pulled two guys over, one of which was my buddy (I turned around to notice he got stopped, I just carried on through). $180 ticket for failure to stop.

Another guy got hauled into the paddy wagon as the police caused mass chaos at Queen/John holding up the streetcars and traffic (the 'mass had actually sprawled all over Queen on both sides due to this stoppage). I didn't see what started it or what the guy did to cause that reaction.

So yeah, in short it was a pretty messed up CM, no idea how the police think it was a good idea being like they were - I have no idea what caused this... I missed the past two CMs, were there any recent (since the Gardiner debacle) incidents to provoke?

edit: On a kinda-geeky/cool note (IMO :p) I passed 4000 miles tonight. Yay. Time for some overhauls.

just finished watching that movie Traitor...

Dayumn....pretty deep.

Alright.. I'm getting politics/financial talk from all directions, can this be my safe haven? Pretty please? :love:

About the size: too small a frame and the saddle to bar drop is too large, too big a frame and the reach is too long. I've been using a too small frame and It's not very confy on the long run, and a tall stem would kinda ruin the look. I have a short stem on a taller frame and it's fine. Good call!

After mass broke up I got some cops together and had a talk with them. I sent Geoff (of Bike Pirates) an email about what we talked about in hopes of having an announcement made before next month's mass:

The riders were very disorganized this month. Some people were going through the reds, some were stopping. This created gaps in the pack right off the start. Also, there wasn't much control to keep the front of the group at a reasonable speed so there were always people breaking off the front and causing more confusion for the people behind them (catch-up/wait for the rest).

The police openly admit that there's been an increased presence because of the incident on the Gardiner, which is pretty understandable. Now we've got police at mass each month and their purpose is to maintain order. Here's were it gets tricky. On one hand, it's up to each individual officer to make the call on if they're going to take action because of something, but then once that starts the other officers are obligated to back each other up. Obviously once one cop decides to ticket/charge someone the crowd gets pissed off and then the police get more aggressive, etc. etc. and you get a cascade effect like last night. That was caused because of all the disorder on the part of the riders. There was no consistency with how we were acting and eventually one of the cops made a (****ty) call that started things going from bad to worse.

HOWEVER: if the riders can act consistently so there's a bit more order to the situation then the police are willing to overlook the letter of the law in some cases if doing so will maintain a better state of order and safety for everyone. It's pretty simple, make an announcement at the beginning of the mass and lay down how it works: if the light's red or yellow when the front of the pack gets to it, they wait. Once it goes green, the intersection gets corked and the whole pack rolls through (for as long as it takes). This will get all the riders through the city much more efficiently than having multiple packs split up by lights etc. If we can keep the aggro behaviour at the front of the pack to a minimum (and make it clear to the police what we're going to do so they can back off a bit and let things run smoothly) mass should run a lot better next time around.

Here's hoping the Halloween CM is fun (as usual) and not another SNAFU.

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Did the crowd try to engage the cops in any friendly way, or were they treated with hostility from the beginning?

It was the typical mix from pro to neutral to anti-police. The problem is the antagonistic people are always much louder than those who don't want to escalate the situation.

I have a big problem with the politicising of CM to begin with and people tacking on announcements about their own personal agendas before/after the ride. I also don't appreciate it when something happens during the ride and some people take it upon themselves to go through their lists of "Protest Rally's Greatest Chants" like it's actually meaningful in some way.