Thanks for the saddle ideas everyone! I've always been partial to the selle italias, and I really love the SLR but although it doesn't seem to hurt lycra, since I put it on my daily bike I'm killing all my pants. I've spent plenty of full days on that saddle and it's never let me down.

Dan- which SLR has the cutout AND no stitching? I can't find it on their website and I know mine definitely does!

Jeremy- I like my brooks, but it just doesn't work for me after 50kms or so.

Has anyone tried the selle smp strike saddles?

Just the regular SLR no gel infusion or ass heater or shoe polisher or whatever. It doesn't have a cut out like you mean (which I think is a gimmick that lets your ass get wet), but it does have an indent there. In the indent, there is a little "window" that supposedly lets you see the carbon under the cover. It's a joke because it's a fake weave and if you've ever seen one of these saddles with the padding off, the weave is much too fine to see with the naked eye, it just looks straight black/charcoal. There is stitching around the "window" thingy but it is down in that indent thing and doesn't touch your pants in my experience. I was worried that it would from looking at it, but in practice I think it is fine.

i hear you brad - i have a selle italia that does nothing to flimsy spandex but tore through the taint of my carhartts.

I used one of the Specialized Body Geometry seats. I really like it. But, there is stitching on the top of it, so it might hurt your pants.

I dont remember the exact name of the one I have. I'll put up a pic as soon as I find my camera. Looks like this one, without anything on the saddle cover.

T-minus three weeks.

ARRRENNNBEEEEEERG! [Don't even think about not all-caps'ing that, BF.net]

That looks pretty comfy.

Almost as rough as Toronto's side streets!

Just wanted to pop in and see if anyone here has ordered through bicyclewheels.com?

if they don't ship through USPS, can anyone suggest an online retailer for a formula/mavic cxp-22 wheelset that won't kill my roommate with brokerage fees?

This seems to be the biggest collection of canadian cyclists i've seen online so I bow to your collective wisdome.

Just got in from a solid ride w/Benway....it's getting nice out there kids, group rides and sprints coming up!

Brad, the SMPs are kinda weird, tried one and it felt like I only had one position on the saddle. I really like the Fizik Aliante. No stitching and was comfortable enough on my road bike and mountain bike. Sadly I sold both. Doh!

And on another note, Keith is 100% right about Matt and that IS his bike. Insanely light and if you catch up to him on the street is really willing to show it off and talk about the different parts and how they are engineered to work with so little material..cool guy indeed.

Where did y'all ride? We were out on the spit for awhile. Seems like it was only pros, hobos and hippies out today!

Mike and I rode up to around Royal York and Dixon this morning. Lovely day. I totally overdressed since I heard something about a cold advisory... I guess I needed to take the sun/physical-activity into account better. My lobster-gloves were more than a little swampy.

Also: the Humber trail is absolutely horrendous. Think rutted, solid ice.

Hey! I was out on the spit today...

Did you shave your beard off. I thought I saw someone who might have been you and Tam

Yeah, the beard is gone. We were out there around 3ish?

I was riding my orange miele.

i should have gone out of a ride - instead i stuffed my face with indian food. maybe tomrrow morning...

Could well have been you then. I was out walking with Sandra and we would have been out about then.

We rode from Dundas Square south on Victoria to Wellington to Spadina to College (Manic) and showed the bike off to Toby Then north on Bathurst to Dupont and east on Dupont to Davenport/Church to Bloor and Bloor/Danforth to Pape down to Queen and back home. Trying to figure out routes for group rides is good times. Insanely deep pot hole about half way down Pape though, thing almost swallowed me whole.

I think this is about right: https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1724017

Ya, fun day. The weather was pretty friendly once you got moving. Getting lost in the neighbourhoods around the river valley could certainly lead to a quick death from some of those hills. I think next weekend I may try that route again and just skip all the crap in the burbs - just take Bloor to Royal York and try a simpler route. Once spring has taken care of the Humber trail I'll think about checking that again.

Walking is SO pedestrian.

I ride the humber a lot in the summer. It's a nice tour and you can go all the way to steeles. I remember one day last summer when it was crazy hot I decided to "get out of the city" and rode up the humber to steeles and then continued Northward to king road hoping to catch some country. There's some nice hills up there, but the continuous line of trucks and cars was annoying since when I left I'd pictured nothing but me and the grass blowing in the wind. Turns out the most peaceful part of the ride was along the humber.

If anyone is up for a ride earlyish tomorrow I'd be interested.

I put in a solid hour on the bike today thought i was dressed well but no match for the cold!

Nice ride . I find it hard too to find a ride without too many annoying junctions, yet avoiding major motor roads. What other rides do you guys like?
Going on Lakeshore from Humber Park westbound is nice and quiet (some traffic though) at least until Port credit (the farthest I've been). Otherwise Commissioner st. is ok for loops but boring.

T Minus two weeks!

the stretch along the lake from port credit to Oakville is pretty nice, then you're stuck on lakeshore until burlington. Around the bay in hamilton is fun and there's some neat sightseeing points along the way. Grimsby is as far West as I've been so far.

Going east, my favourite stretch of the lake is from Newcastle to Port hope. If you take the GO train East to Oshawa, then oshawa to port hope and back is a reasonable Sunday ride.