Anyone know the best route to Centennial Park from Bloor/Ossington-ish? I've got to get to the race via bike tomorrow and I'd like to keep that bit as stress-free as possible.

yea I know it's Mikeee I'm just playing with him , post pic's of the bike

Ditto.. great bikes, excellent staff. One of the few shops with high end road bikes without the pretentious roadie atmosphere.

okies I'll shout back

ya last night was wierd for me ,most of the time I was slowly putzing along all over the city cause I did'nt want to go home , I did danforth three times china town twice kensington market a few times too. maybe I should start smoking pot again

For all you gear-inch people checkout this chart in a book titled Bicycle Gearing by Dick Marr that I picked up years ago. BTW I ride on the street 47/17 or 75 gear inches; lots of pull and lots of smooth spin. Hopefully this gif chart loads; if not PM me with your email address for a direct copy.

I have 44x16 but I feel the need for a little more cause I spin out all the time on the bloor bridge

someone should make a quick reference chart like that for "skid patches" hahaha Is anyone doing the ride for cancer?? I think i'm gonna try it with my fixed build up...

So as a rule of thumb for street riding , i'd wanna shoot for some thing between 75 and 90 GI? maybe a 52x16 or 15??

I ride 42x14(16 in the winter/snow) and 45x15 on another bike, both fixed mtbs and like both. Personally I think 52x15/16 would be horrible to ride in the city, trying to stop and start up all the time would take all the fun out of it for me.

pulled off a goggle search

lucky for you he's opening a restaurant in toronto...

riding 90GI on the street would seem to me an excersise in torture. personally i'd shoot for anything between 60 and 75. it also helps that this is a pragmatic choice when you're building up your bike: a 16 tooth track cog is probably the most common (in dura ace anyway) and it's easy to find either a 39 or a 42 tooth inner chainring from a 130bcd double kicking around somewhere...

three in a row baby!

Anyone know of? or could suggest a place that could order a Mercier Kilo frameset? I know bikesdirect.com has them, but in their FAQ they do not do international shipping. I would need a 47 cm frame and Mercier is one of the companies that produce frames smaller than a 50 cm (thats if the 47 cm is measured c-c accurately) besides the IRO Heidi but that runs 650 cc which doesn't help because I have a set of 700 cc that i plan on using. Bareknucles have a 48 cm but apparently they run larger. Marinoni is not in the budget but they also have a 48 cm. Smaller frames to accomidate people shorter in statuer are really hard to come by in the T.O.
Thanks for any imput that maybe posted here.

last time i was at bikes on wheels i saw a 46cm(i didn't even know they made 'em that small) iro frame hanging from the ceiling. not sure if it was a heidi or not though. who knows, take the heidi for a ridey. maybe you likey?

wouldn't you get a crazy amount of toe overlap running 700c wheels on a 47cm frame anyways?

Mercier is owned by BikesDirect so they are the only people to order from. I think that they ship via UPS so, perhaps you could ship it to a UPS store in Buffalo or Niagara Falls and then drive down and pick it up. It might be worth it for you since a 47cm frame is so hard to come by and the Kilo TT is a pretty good bike.

You really believe in those BD, bikes, eh? I guess the ones with Reynolds 520 seem more legit, but it still bothers me that BD resurrects dead brands.

Well, for the price, they can't be beat. My understanding is that the companies just had no further interest in the North American market so let their trademarks lapse. Some of them might have gone belly up in the years since but the Botecchia bikes made in Italy (Taiwan) are really really nice and I think Windsor is still around in the U.K.

mmm... fair enough. I figure if the company gets large enough, they can spawn a "core" brand which is based on BD itself, not on lapsed trademarks.

Lots of manufacturers have pulled out of North America: Ciocc, ALAN, etc...

Ride for cancer requires a large number in donations to qualify, which is what put me off. I can't see me being able to raise the funds to do it, the ride to Niagara Falls itself I've done before a couple of times and I'd love to go again.

I'd say stay well south of 90 - I'm pushing 80GI right now, after running ~70 the rest of the year and it's pretty tough going (one day in ) - 90 will be hellish in the city, IMO. Go with what the others say and stick to no more than around 75, 80 if you absolutely MUST push a tall gear. I'm actually considering a 16 to make my jump less extreme, 70->80 is a big step 46/17 (70ish) was a perfect town gear, great acceleration, not too bad for brakeless stopping once in a while, and can get it going to reasonable speeds without too much crazy spin.

In the winter I used 42/17 which was just awesome - still felt fast, but had a bit more low-end for the trickier conditions - though I ran that on bikes with platforms, so that was another factor (lower speed/lower spin/hopefully less chance of cracking a shin bone)

Enjoy. I'll be off the bike until Monday night as I have my wee one. Didn't realise the race this weekend was Centennial, I'll try to come to Riverdale as that's the one I'd had in mind.

thanks guys, i have a 42 ring i'll try out with a 16 cog... after looking at the chart, it seems like a solid GI with lots of SP's... then if i wanna push on a serious ride i can always slap in the 52 ring, and just have a pre measure chain for each

I bought a bikeisland Motobecane frame and wheels for a great price. So far the wheels have been much better than expected, and the frame is really nice. Of course I had to go to Buffalo to get it, but well worth it for the money saved.

Did you ship it to a UPS store or some person you know down there? Also, how did you get around needing an American CC?

I have a friend there. The credit card and billing address weren't a problem, the shipping to Can was so I emailed them and Jeff took care of it the same day, shipped and delivered in less than 10.

Well, off to watch the CX race for awhile. Spending the rest of the day with the wee one.