Very noice, Steeker.

also, lol@ that link vainglorious

hmm thanks for the suggestions...... .
Quite a nice ride in this morning despite the grey.

Agreed, the sky looked like ass but heading north this morning was much much nicer (read: easier :p) with barely any wind to kick me down.

Might venture east across Wilson and York Mills again tonight, last week felt epic climbing a couple of those hills (especially the one on York Mills just east of Yonge).

There seems to be no good way to traverse the city from when I'm at the client site. My buddy is at Greenwood/Danforth, I'm at Keele/Steeles so I either go south to Eglinton and head west to around Spadina, then meander down (Davenport/Church type route) and cross the valley at Bloor, or as I tried last week and head across Wilson/York Mills to wherever and head south - probably either Don Mills Rd. or take Victoria Park and cut back down O'Connor - not going too far east would be ideal but I'm keen to hit Eglinton no further west than Leslie - I'm stubborn (paranoid?) on not taking that area/intersection of Eglinton. Ideas?

Hmm, just thought maybe Bayview south to Eg, then south on Laird and into East York that way. Anyone know of Bayview ride conditions?

I am curious about East-West routes up at that latitude as well. The last time I rode from UTSc to the Rotman Research Institute I tried to take Lawrence all the way across and ended up lost in the Don Valley by the York Glendon campus. There must be a better way that doesn't involve a huge detour!

I ride to Bathurst/Wilson all the time and from my place at Pape/Danforth I take Pape north to Millwood all the way to Mt. Pleasant. North to Bythwood, left to Yonge, north to Yonge Blvd, left on Yonge Blvd to Wilson. When I went to York I would continue on Wilson to Faywood which go north to Sheppard where it becomes Wilmington and stay on that until Finch, then left. Best way imo to go further north is to cross Dufferin and take Alness to Steeles. The trip from my place to Bathurst and Wilson takes me 35 -40 minutes.

I stay away from Bayview. North of Eglinton when traffic is moving people hit 80 and south of Eglinton people are stupid. Bayview has fewer lights than most strees and people tend to drive really fast/stupid on it. I used to work north of Bayview and Lawrence and alwys avoided Bayview.

Not really, only other choice is to go north to Yorkmills or south to Eglinton. And Yorkmills/Yonge is sooo much fun to ride. Going west take the Bridle Path, 1st right after Leslie to Post Rd, and left to Bayview which at least has the bike lane from the Granite Club to Lawrence.

I've never liked Bayview. It's narrow in many spots and generally unpleasant. And it's the only road in Toronto I've been hit on :D. If you do decide to take it, I'd recommend turning left into the CNIB from the left turn lane just south of SunnyBrook, through to Toronto rehab, turn right and south and out to Broadway, east to Laird then down to cross the Donlands bridge. The descent past Broadway on Bayview is a pain. It's steep, has crappy pavement and you have traffic coming from every which way: turning out of the gas station and Loblaws, turning north from Roehampton, settin up for the right turn onto Eglinton etc. If there's not much traffic its okay, but not a place I like to be much.

Instead of crossing Yonge and climbing the York Mills hill (!!!), you could jut down Old Yonge, to Jederburgh then south on Duplex until you hit Broadway then east to Laird. I've only ridden the area occasionally, so I'm not sure what the best route is much north of the 401. I seem to recall Avenue road being not too bad.

Pyze has been riding up that way for a bit and may have a good suggestion. (and he beat me to it!)

Avenue Rd north from St.Clair is fine. Jedburough/Duplex is sloooow. I believe from Davisville to Old Yonge there is a stop sign on every side street. Literally.

I aslo used to take Don Mills to Finch last year and found it to be a decent north/south route. Most people followed to bus/taxi/bike lane rule and I never had any problems riding Don Mills at 7:30am and 3:30pm. Not much scenery though.

That's right, I forgot about all the stop signs :p

wholly crap, i live around here, climbing yonge going south of york mills is already pretty crazy..

going east on york mills tho? u have the legs of an olympian!! i think my heart/bike/knees would explode.

*mental note: must train more.

Thanks guys - had I read the forum before I left I would've been wiser off perhaps... I went across Wilson and decided to take Avenue south to Eglinton - wasn't so bad, traffic was still fairly busy (6:30-6:45 ish) and not so fast. I was thinking Bathurst, but remember that the road surface is pretty bad between at least Finch and Lawrence so I skipped that and chose Bayview - originally had wondered just embracing the York Mills hill and going down Bayview/Don Mills. Once I'd hit Millwood, I took Donlands to O'Connor then down Greenwood.

Edit: Does Broadway have lights at Yonge? My concern with crossing Yonge on the minors was wasting time sitting at intersections gap-waiting, but I'd much prefer that route across to Laird my ex. used to work at Bloorview off Rumsey so I'm familiar and enjoy that neighbourhood scenery.

Strain wise it wasn't so bad which is what I was hoping for, heading south and then east on Eglinton to Laird was a nice jaunt.

I've spent a bunch of time around those little side streets (didn't realise Blythwood goes across to Lytton) and I might use those in the future, I don't find Jederburgh/Duplex too bad but I'm usually always heading north on them.

The ride from Keele/Steeles (CanArctic Dr) to Greenwood/Danforth took an hour bar a couple of minutes. I ended up doing a 30km detour for a 50k ride home.

Heh... I didn't bother with that route yesterday. Riding fixed gives me three choices for hills - ramp up so I'm in a decent "powerband" for my legs to work OK, sag down and mash it out (which ends up tiring me out more) or walking. I've only walked my bike uphill due to inability once, that was in a valley area off of the Humber valley near Steeles. No, I've not been down to the Bluffs yet... :p (I should test my mettle on that, though :) - nothing like hills for stress relief)

Whenever I've been up at our client site I go up Lansdowne to St. Clair which has a couple of nice little 'warm up' hills for me, so I've been hitting those every day for the past 3 weeks which I guess is helping.

I find because of the valley/hill awkwardness, coming from Whitby is easier to manage than coming across the city - despite the distance difference (it's actually only another 6 miles or so from Whitby to the east end where my buddies are).

Not sure if it'll help anyone, but I figure I'll post it up - found a couple of usable nice shortcuts around some of the cruddy intersections on my commute to North York.

My route is Lansdowne north to St. Clair, west to Old Weston Rd to Keele and north all the way up.

Northbound avoidance of St Clair W/Old Weston Rd:

St. Clair W/Old Weston Rd has had some horrible surface issues, tracks and recently finished construction right on the junction, and is generally a bit of a craphole - to avoid, just west of Caledonia past (under) the railway bridge is Prescott on your right, take that which turns into Rockwell, you can then hit Old Weston Rd from Rockwell.

Northbound avoidance of Old Weston Rd(Rogers)/Keele:

After crossing where Old Weston Rd. merges into Rogers Rd., take Scott Rd on your right, then take the second left (Dunraven) which leads you to Keele (you can go much further north then cut back to Keele around Ypres to then get to Keele/Eglinton)

Southbound to avoid Old Weston Rd (Rogers?)/Keele and St Clair W/Old Weston Rd (horrid to deal with south-east bound):

Heading south on Keele from Eglinton, look for Aileen on your left (one way eastbound, it's the first left before Dunraven you see going north on Scott in above shortcut), take Aileen over to Silverthorn - you can take Silverthorn right down to St. Clair W which will bring you out with enough leadup to get up the hill toward Caledonia again.

I've not tried this one yet, so I don't know how turning left onto St. Clair W is going to be, I'll be testing it tonight - there are lights on some of the side streets I just can't remember which ones off hand, tonight will remind me :)


I can also skip the corner of Lansdowne/St. Clair heading home by taking Caledonia Park Rd to Davenport then hitting Lansdowne from there, but I like the Lansdowne hill, and Earls Court park is nice to stop at if I have time/desire.

Figured it's cool to share this kind of crap once in a while for those riding in the area.

Yes there's lights at Broadway at Yonge. You can always turn south and then east on Roehampton, the next street south. You can nip back up to Broadway at Redpath or wherever. Like most streets in that area excepting Broadway, Roehampton has tons of stop signs and also has lights at Mt. Pleasant.

any shops in the city have a lockring wrench in stock? more teeth the better. (i have six-notch miche lockrings)

Urbane (and others?) has the Hozan wrench for ~30$. It has only one notch. I don't think wrenched with more notches exists (those for BB tend to be too large)

yeah you only need 1 notch

the filzer hook bottom bracket tool from MEC works fine, and is less than $15

I don't know who stocks em but anyone should be able to order you in a Hozan Lockring plier. Opposing notches for tons o torque. All other lockring wrenches are lame by comparison. Single notch are ok in a pinch but if you want to be able to really crank em buy the pliers. They usually retail for $40-50.

went to Canada Computers to pick up a bunch of wifi cards today, and on my way west along College, I spotted a TARCK'd out Argon18 track bike. It must just be me, but what a shame to waste that kind of ride on the street. :(

The Hozan 1-notch tools work very well on my Miche 5-notch lockring. Can't imagine needing to apply more torque, but no crazy skids either...

I've decided on picking up a surly cross-check as a do-all bike.
Grocery, commuting, winter, light touring! And they come in a super ugly 'beef gravy brown' this year. yum. Too bad I have to wait till mid-dec. for the 09's to come in.
<side note>
Anyone interested in a 54cm GT GTB?
</side note>

Girl riding it and black and white bar tape right. I`ve seen that bike, I *think* the rider is a messenger based on seeing her riding around all day with what appears to be a ton of ****

I'd avoid Bayiew too. Between Lawrence and York mills at least the road surface is horrible. I actually had to take the sidewalk, it was that bad.

GTB price? More for curiousity.

thanks . I getting green rims and gold hubs instead of the white and red

I was set on $275 as a fair price, just put on a new steel straight blade fork from urbane.