darkmother FFL ride Sat from Finch 126km, 8:45 am interested?

nevermind...

Thanks for the invite. I'm not sure if I'll be around on Saturday or not. Where are you guys riding to?

Route to Lake Simcoe and back.

Keith: any news on the wheelsize for that Gardin frame? Is it 700c? <- /me needs to purchase frame

Ha ha easy for you to say I’ve been trying & I’ll try some more after reading this, but so far no circus life for me.
Cheers

Hey guys, visit me.

From the "Fashion Notes" section in this week's NOW:

"Some of the city's swankiest fashion and design shops are showing off a collection of Dutch-designed city bikes by Vancouver's jorg&olif (www.jorgandolif.com) to mark the brand's arrival on Toronto's pedal-pushing scene.

Nienkamper (360 King East), Lileo (55 Mill, building #35), Klaxon Howl (877 Queen West) and Uncle Otis (26 Bellair) are displaying the Oma and Opa styles, featuring classic frames, fenders and built-in lighting and locking components available on one-, three- and eight-speed models. Prices range from $875 to $1,350. "

Favorite handlebar tape poll:
BIKE RIBBON
BROOKS
CINELLI
DEDA ELEMENTI
FIZIK
FSA
ITM
PROFILE DESIGN
SALSA
VELO

Frame branded tapes (probably the same tape w/ different logos)
COLNAGO
PINARELLO
DE ROSA
MERCKX
PEGORETTI

and of course:
NO NAME GENERIC BAR TAPE

I've probably missed a few but these are definitely the major ones.

I have used cinelli cork/foam tape, deda elementi foam tape and nashbar 'faux carbon' tape.

The cinelli looks and feels very nice; nice colours and bits of cork and a good texture to wrap your fingers around but its pretty fragile and can start getting chewed up very easily.

The deda doesn't have as nice a texture or colour as the cinelli tape but it is cushier and much tougher. Since its all foam though they aren't very breathable meaning your hands will get hotter and sweatier.

The nashbar 'carbon look' tape isn't all that comfortable and not breathable at all, but it looks cool on the right bike and is super duper tough. Its also the least deformable tape I hjave come across so if you want to rewrap the bars or even move the tape to another set of bars you won't have floppy edges to deal with.

My Polish housemate has used the profile design tape and it seems pretty nice but it didn't have any adhesive backing making it a harder wrap job and more likely to become unfurled later down the road (especially if you crash and the tape gets cut in half).


your turn!

I've used the Deda and Profile tape before. Deda wins it hands down. Waterproof, nearly indestructable, soft on the hands but not super cush and can be retaped a bajillion times. So in short:

Deda ftw

Dependent on price. If the Deda tape is $20 and Profile is $10 I would go with the Profile. Adhesive is nice but leaves a sticky mess on the bars. If you wrap it tightly you shouldn't have a prob with non-adhesive. Any time I have used the more expensive stuff, inevitably I either crash or the bike falls over and the tape gets ripped. Plus new bar tape makes even the crappiest bike look spiffy. 2 X $10 cork FTW.
Oh yeah...for Operator...the Gardin is 650 front AND back. FTL.

Finally got around to seeing the bike exhibit at St. Lawrence Gallery. It does not disappoint but leaves you wanting more, not to mention planting the seed for some projects that I wish I had the time to folllow through on. Those turn of the century ones have been restored with great care. The 1930 CCM Flyer with wood rims was............... too much.

Last year there was a wood rimmed bike at the Sunday market across the street that needed more than a little love. Restoring something like that is another world all together, but one that's got me interested. That was about the time when my in-laws started sending me these monthly volumes on the history of the bicycle. Each one comes with a miniature bike of significance in terms of the evolution from the velociped to the present.

my vote for bar tape is whatever i can get the cheapest that is black. and when it starts to rip, put a few wraps of electrical tape over top. i've also put cloth wrap on top of cork wrap and that felt pretty good on the hands and was plenty durable.

EDIT: i always thought that bar tape is one of those disposable things you have to buy and didn't think too much about like socks and underwear, or lightbulbs.

hahaha.. my thoughts exactly. I've been using profile stuff because it's cheap and the red matches my tires.

speaking of which.. Oury grips: where in Toronto?

As manager of lighting contracts at Scotiabank I can tell you that lightbulb choice is very important. Everything from base cost, to lamp-life, to colour temperature, to physical temperature, to lumens psf, to lumens per watt, to total wattage, to bulb shape. By changing your fat T-12 fluorescent bulbs and balasts to T8 bulbs and balasts with reflectors you can save 65% of the energy while attaining a similar light level. Compact fluorescents have a built-in electrical ballast and typically consume less than a third of the energy of a comparable incandescent, without needing any kind of retrofit. They can last over ten time as long too while keeping a low temperature. The same goes for socks and underwear.

I have to say though, my choice in bar tape is pretty much dictated by: colour -> price -> material -> brand. Anything fancy and italian sounding gets bonus points too. Curbside has a bunch of oury grips but they are about as costly as they get. MEC is the cheapest place and has them in every colour as long as you want black.

First rants about team kits and now an analogy using lightbulb design? Dude. What have you done with Charlie? Your avatar is doing the crotch floss for goodness sake.

I have to keep avatars and signatures off at work. I guess not seeing the little gif has allowed me to keep is a little less 'real' as it were. I really don't know why I cared about the team kit thing... I don't own any team gear nor do I plan to... I think someone presented a point against it and I felt it needed some defense

hahaha.. I should have seen the "devil's advocate" slant.

I just miss your constant presence here <3

hmm.. I think the weekly top artists thing in my sig these days if probably a good "sanity barometer" record for last week (it updates once a week.. normally on Sundays). Aphex Twin and Autechre in my top 3 artists, yikes. *brain goes pop*

I <3 That Dog.

sounds like you need a hug!

I've seen these things...It's the answer to the question: What do you get the hipster that has everything?

I usually use the Profile Design tape because it's cheap and it comes in pretty much every colour. I wear gloves so the cushiness isn't really issue for me. And the non-adhesive backing isn't really an issue if you wrap it nice and tight.

well, to defend the adhesive backing: My girlfriend locked her pinarello to one of those big garbage cans last week but decided that she didn't want garbage getting near her bike so it was sticking out into the street instead. Somebody drove into it (big surprise) and the rear wheel got out of true, some bad scracthes on the frame, damanged brake cables and the bar tape on one side of the bars had been cut in half and unfurled everywhere. Were the tape adhesive, it would still be sticking onto the bars and could be repaired with electrical tape, as it is though, it needs to be replaced. Then again I guess a set of bars freshly wrapped 10 dollar tape replacing damaged ten dollar tape is probably nicer than electrical taped 20 dollar bar tape.

i saw a few of the display models and thought they were mighty pricey. not a bad looking bike but damn $$$$. reminds me a lot of the kronans you see zipping around the city. all things being equal, i'd rather get a kronan.
on a separate note, does anyone know how to get into parts unknown?! the driveway is completely barred by a gate and a fence. a tried to search this thread (hahaha) for info but i keep getting server busy messages.

bad luck...i hope the car sustained as much damage. someone had locked their red track bike (italian i think) to one of those combo trash/bottle/newspaper silver bins at the NW corner of spadina and adelaide a few years ago. i swear i saw it every time i went to lunch in that area. it was locked behind the bin, parallel to the street. i just thought it was odd to see a bike that nice locked up to such a high traffic area. it prevents theft but probably not dings and scratches i only remember because it was such a nice bike but for the life of me, i can't remember the name.

PBK has various Deda tape for $10 and under shipped. Goki, you can just go through the little stand thing where they're selling pot accesories into parts unknnown. I tried dropping by today but they were closed.