Wow, a pile of useful responses ... craziness!

Eggbeaters: I hear such polarizing responses about those, but you raise a good point. I've got a set of the GR-9's already and they're nice - might use those. I may also just tear the Suntour Cyclones off my current bike and replace the straps / cages. Who knows ...

Bottom Bracket: Isn't that Campagnolo one ~$85 more than the Miche? If you think it's worth the extra cash, I'll certainly go with the word of Keith over the word of Mike (Hi, I'm Mike).

Freewheel: They retail for ~$105 I think ...

Pursuit Bar Debacle: weird situation ... I won the auction, but the guy never responded to my request for a shipping charge. He just dropped off the face of the planet and no money ever changed hands. Weird situation, since he had close to 100 good feedback responses. *shrug*

Grips: The rest of the bike is going to be monochromatic with all the logos peeled off (no Mavic / IRO logos ... if I find out how to do it, I'll get the logo off the cranks too). I'll likely go completely overboard w/ the grips and get my sea foam green on.

Bike Works NYC: Were you thinking NYCBikes? I've heard bad things about them, but good reviews about Bike Works ...

Hey all. I just talked to the guy with all the beater frames. He has a whole crapload of bikes but only 15-20 of them are probably worthwhile for conversion duty. The price he quoted me, $20, was for the crappy department store bikes. For the road frames..and he has a few complete bikes as well, he wants between $40 and $100. There are a few Bianchi's..one with all old 600 parts...several Peugeot's...a couple of Miele's and some other ones I am not that familiar with. In any case the deal is whatever he sells em for you will get a tax receipt from the M.S. society. So a good deal and all the $ goes to a worthwhile charity. He told me he comes to TO. on a regular basis and would be willing to drop off a load here at the shop. If anyone is interested let me know what sizes you require and I will get him to bring the applicable sized frames by for your perusal. A small donation of beer or pork buns for this service would be appreciated :)

You can get an alloy cupped Campy B.B. for about $35. Most of the high zoot Campy B.B.'s are for use only with high end Campy cranks...it will not work with anything else as the spindle length is like 103 or something.

Sweet! I'm very interested, mark me down for a $40 - $100 road frame...56-60cm range.

Thank you, sir. You are smart in the head.

I'd also be interested - let's say 54-58cm for me ... what beer do you like?

Wow thats amazing!
I'm really interested in anything from a 53 - 56cm
and I'd def. bring over a crapload of bbq pork buns... if thats the kinda stuff your into!
and there's tons of other diff types of buns....
pinapple buns
red bean buns
.... and egg tarts... yum.

Isn't all beer good? Anything thats not lite or American.

Side note:

My girlfriend made me so proud last night. We're sitting there watching some show on the tube and a Bailey's commercial comes on (That one with all the pretty idiots dunking marshmallows in their booze). She scowls at the tv and yells, "Why do people drink that sh*t, anyway? It doesn't even get you drunk! F*ck that." *sigh* ... she's so dreamy.

the silver bullet it is then.
52-54cm for me please.

Yeah well my girlfriend told me that she thinks all my (incredibly dorky) bike gear looks hot, and has decided to start winter biking (presumably because of yours truly), even though she just got her full license and has access to cars. Also a few weeks I was riding her home and some jerk peels by us half way in the oncoming lane and she hollers out with incredible gusto "SHARE THE ****ING ROAD *******!" I was very proud to say the least. I'm only going to put her on a fixie if she asks though; I'd feel like some kind of perv if I just gave her one out of the blue

just out of curiousity...
do you guys drive?

Do I have a license? Yes.
Can I afford a car in this city? No.
Do I have any desire to own a car? No.
Do I rent cars for out of town trips and whenever I move? Yes.

I can drive, as in I have a licence. But I don't drive unless I go home to see my parents, and then I use their car. I don't really plan on owning a car as long as I'm living in the City. It's silly. You can't go down one way streets the wrong way, or through parks, run lights, drive drunk, snort coke, smack kids. What are the perks? :D

those two sold it for me.

My G2 expires on february 5th, which means that I have very little time to get my license before I have to start all over again. I had a test on november 30th, but I failed it on account of the roads in the north of the city being insane (ie. everything is road.. its just one big six lane wide wasteland full of interchanges and gigantic intersections), me living my entire life downtown, and also not having driven for about 3.5 years. I only made one (seriously, just one) mistake in the whole test, but it was enough to fail me. I'd just forget about it and not get a license, but for some reason my mother has this strange obsession with me getting a license and she actually deposits money in my bank account from overseas to pay for driving tests and a car for the day and stuff. So I do the good son thing and do what she asks me to do, but at this point I may not be able to even book another test before my license is expired. Who needs a license anyways? You just need friends with licenses, then you can never be the DD. Woot!

Dang, that sucks so hard.
at least you get more funds from your parents hoorah!

... or get a girlfriend, just kidding! :p

I regret getting my drivers license, $400 I could've better spent on a bike, or beer or strippers.

It (g2 license) expires in ilke 2009 or something like that. Can anyone actually afford insurance? Companies quoted me like 3-5g's. Wth.

Welcome to the wonderful world of private insurance. A nasty shock for me too when I came to Ontario from Saskatchewan (which has government insurance as well as private).

If you've had your licence for three years and don't want to fork out for a car, autoshare may be an option
http://www.autoshare.com/isit.html

Or ride your fixed gear (to stay on topic).

holy shiznit.
3000 for insurance in INSANE.
so Operator, how long does it take you to ride down from richmond hill to downtown?
yea my g2 also expires sometime in 2009.

well, my insurance is $500 for a year when listed as a second driver of my parents' 2 cars.
(partially because they both have spotless driving records)
But yea, driving in downtown is quite silly when you have you guys have such sweet bikes.
IMO I think its a different story when you live uptown where places aren't located quite so near to each other.
Unless your a hardcore biker, then in that case, a car is silly in any situation :p

Does anyone 'round here know if there is a Critical Mass ride going in Toronto this month? I'll be down visiting relatives and I might still be around on the Friday night. I figure if anyone comes out, it would be a fun way to kill an evening in a city I've never really biked in before.

It's about 29k from my house to UT campus. Takes 1hr 10-15min in good traffic down and 1hr 20-30min back up.

Thats good time :)
I was just wondering as I'm applying for Uni this year and just seeing if if it'd be manageable biking 3 - 4 times a week from Scarborough to U of T campus.
I guess 1hr and a bit its't too bad.
What route do you take op?
btw- any of you guys part of Toronto Fixed Group or take part in any planned group rides like the donut ride I keep on hearing about?

http://www.pathcom.com/~praxis/rides.html

I drive a fair bit, especially in the winter. I was only able to afford insurance because I have a university degree. I went through TD Meloche Monex. I just told them that I have a degree from U of T and they gave me a group rate of 1350$/year, which is a lot more than I am used to paying but much less than the 3500-5500$/year I was being quoted by other insurers. I hope this info can help someone here; and when you do drive, I know you will all be respectful of cyclists ;)

That's definitely doable, route choice, for me not much of one. Straight down Yonge st. to bloor and across. I live on Bayview so. Did that for a 2 months straight last year.

Shiznaz and I did the donut last year..... we got out asses kicked. I feel the need to go back to that ride though.

Did you guys do the "short" or the long version? There's a regular at Cycle Therapy who does it every week and I think it still kicks his ass on a regular basis.

yea....
me and my friend thought we were cool after we biked over to lake simcoe last summer.
So the same week we went to the donut ride ...
We were both on our garage sale road bikes
(I had a benotto which i scored for 20 bucks... but I had no clue what it was worth back then. Now its sold... and I totally regret it!)

We were wearing baseball caps, t-shirts and shorts
and it seemed that everyone else had their 1k road bikes and lyrca shorts + we were the only teens.
We got embarassed the hell out of and consequently got our asses kicked.
It was alright in the beginning when everyone was just going at 35km-ish but after that bridge section... we got SWOOPED.

I'm going to train all summer and my goal is to somehow keep up with those people, they are BEASTS!

Er, what is the donut? I don't see it in that link there.

We didn't get far enough to decide ... :D

Sr20det I could swear you were 25+. Donut ride is a regular ride fri/sat/sun starting from elginton & laird, uninsured every man for himself hammerfest once it goes north on Keele. Tempo up until there.

Friday night triva time, name that bike:

http://x11.putfile.com/12/35001520573.jpg

Jessica Alba ^

Thanks for the compliments. :p
Maby if I was legal drinking age then I could come and hang out with you guys.