Ah that was awesome, I wussed out and took the transit the entire way back. 115km total. Fun riding with you guys, we should do it again sometime!

So what route did you guys ride???

well..........we went all over the place. first to center island by ferry, drank beer went around (???) then took the ferry to lakeshore.....biked to a park. smoked a fatty - then went east on the harbour front......what can i say? IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOO FUN

definately want to do it again sometime - email me at mattgale@gmail.com if you want to organize another ride

Yeah, that was cool. Good meeting you all. I was out riding all day Sunday as well, my legs are smoked.

ditto, yesterday I was out from 10 till 4 as well, totally wiped out and sunburned....

I saw on the news yesterday morning that dukes cycle was completely sold out of all bike locks by mid afternoon on saturday because of the transit strike.... a profitable time to be a bike shop owner I guess...

no ****! I assume a profitable time for bike thieves too...

I want to take out my bike so f'n back right now but i have an assignment for wednesday i haven't started :eek: and two exams coming up ! i guess I'll have to make up for it by commuting to school as fast as i can

Funny. Reminds me of that Y2K B.S. Everyone bought all kinds of bottled water and camping stoves-what a joke.

damn.. that sounded like a good ride. i was busy on the weekend and had to work sunday but still got some biking done. could it have been any more gorgeous on sunday**********!!!!!!!

kinda off-topic but.......... what are people's experiences with duke's? any problems? it seems like they're always getting some kinda publicity or other. now magazine award for best bike store, eye award for best bike store.. blah blah blah... is it all deserved? their prices are ok on components, and i've experience the full spectrum of customer service there...
on another note, strike averted at last second. wow, big surprise. they like to keeps us in suspense though.

[QUOTE=what are people's experiences with duke's? any problems? it seems like they're always getting some kinda publicity or other. now magazine award for best bike store, eye award for best bike store.. blah blah blah... .[/QUOTE]


I'm not a huge fan of Dukes. There are worse stores, to be sure, but I generally have to go in there and stand around for half an hour waiting for the resident crack head to help me. I prefer Urbane Cycles, it's in the same 'hood. Much better service, and more knoledgable staff.

way more track stuff at urbane too

Actually the last Now I read gave that honour to Cycle Therapy, Carlaw & Dundas East. They don't sell bikes, just a really really good wrench named Sherri and lots of parts, accesories but it is worth going to see how a bike store could be. Comfy chairs and a couch, nice decor & carpet, magazines & books, videos & dvds on cycling to rent, water to sip and generally a great ambience. If you commute east you ought or are just going that way check them out.

They also sell bike trailers that range from useful to incredibly huge. A friend of ours rented the largest one to haul all her artwork to a show at City Hall last summer. It held a large canopy, lots of easels over a dozen huge finished canvasses, a few chairs and a table and lots of odds and ends. Big trailer.

Yay ... another bike shop to check out!

yeah, i think i'll definitely check out cycle therapy. i needed my track fork drilled for a front brake and was shopping around. someone recommended bicycle specialties (st.clair area) to me but mike barry (owner) told me they were swamped with work on their own mariposa frames and recommended biseagal (carlaw area as well). milen munro at biseagal got back to me and was really helpful. i ultimately bought another fork from keith at cavern that was pre-drilled since my stock fork probably would not handle the stresses of braking.

anyways... lots of good bike options in toronto! the best places are often tucked away.

depends on how well they know you.
Ask for Mark at the counter, Hes the best.

Sounds like I have to check that out. Never seen that one. The guy on Queen east is cool too. Reasonable prices for fixie stuff, and friendly.

edit: nm
You need to come out for a ride. I wanna see your bike. Looks sweet

shiz, are you still at u of t? aren't you guys smack dab in the middle of exams?? how about a lunch ride today? i know this is short notice... but let me know if you can get back to me before 2pm. we can zip around, grab a bite.. then back to work for me. anyone else interested in a quickie?

no man, I'm super lucky and I don't have any exams at all. I'm done done done.

I'd love to go out a for a ride. I'm in the bathurst&bloor area. where are you at?

[QUOTE=darkmother][QUOTE=what are people's experiences with duke's? any problems? it seems like they're always getting some kinda publicity or other. now magazine award for best bike store, eye award for best bike store.. blah blah blah... .


I'm not a huge fan of Dukes. There are worse stores, to be sure, but I generally have to go in there and stand around for half an hour waiting for the resident crack head to help me. I prefer Urbane Cycles, it's in the same 'hood. Much better service, and more knoledgable staff.[/QUOTE]

i definately got that feeling when i first started going there too...once you get to know the guys that work there it's a great place to go. urbane cyclist though - they're great EXCEPT for Eugene. He is so f'n rude it's not funny, which is weird cause everyone else at the store is almost too friendly.

yeah eugene has said some pretty harsh stuff to me about my rides, my ideas for projects and pretty much everything else I've said to him. He could have cared less about my campy crank dustcaps that they lost. The other guys and girls at the store felt really bad about losing them though, so I guess it evens out.

i work close to king/bathurst. anyone else in the area want to meet up for a bite/ride? where should we meet? honest ed's? anyone have lunch yet? what's the name of that fleshy thing at the back of my throat????

hot diggity... i've talked with him a few times and never noticed any attitude.. or maybe i'm just too thick skinned. keith at cavern's got my "cool dude, and overall nice guy" vote.

I'm just eating some harvest crunch right now, but I could meet anywhere. I guess it depends on where we want to ride; north or south. I could just meet you outside the wheat sheaf or something (Toronto's oldest drinking etablishment)

the sheaf is good. i'm up for riding anywhere... mount pleasant? just kidding.. let's meet at the sheaf and decide from there. kensington is close by if you want to stop for a bite. is 145pm good?

yeah, I can be there at 1:45pm. just a few more mins to get ready and I'll be down there

in case anyone else in interested... the wheat sheaf is at the southwest corner of king/bathurst, across from the mcdonalds. i'm the one with the red bike!

This is what I get for living 30k from the start point.

I'm in for anymore afternoon quickie rides you want to do, just give me about 2 hours notice :D

good thing you didn't bike down. shiznaz snapped his chainring and it ended before it started (luckily no injuries) and we ended up sipping coffee and chatting with a homeless guy with a suitcase and a dude with a crazy-assed chopper bike. checked out urbane for some parts.. i had to get back to work and shiz decided to walk to cavern. damn.. probably did more walking than biking, but it's nice to put a face on some of the people on this board. better luck next time!

yeah, and I came home without luck. Nobody really stocks track cranks except urbane and they are all like $280+. Looks like I'll be going the ebay route! Anyways, it was nice meeting you and it turned out to be a beautiful day

cavern didn't have anything used? hmm.. maybe you could try calling up a bunch of stores before plonking down dough on ebay. it was funny though.. service at urbane was a bit icy. how was keith?