I want Robin's boots...they kick a** :lol:

Congrats! I was thinking about you today (aww) when I cut through camh to go get myself some lunch at the pakistani/indian place on spadina.

Your chain should be as tight as it can be without having any binding. Basically what I'd do is turn the bike upside down (or prop it's back wheel off the ground somehow) and find the tight spot by wiggling the chain up and down while turning the cranks. From what I understand you should still have an inch or so of play there. Also, try spinning the crank, letting go, and seeing if you can see it slowing down when it passes the tight spot. That's just my totally self-created technique however.. :P

Another option: is your chain dirty and/or not lubed enough? Mine gets pretty grindy if I don't clean/lube it regularly (especially after rainy weather).

ps. the kind of bike you use to deliver mail? wtf? what kind of bars do you have on there? or was that an ignorant victoria roadie's idea of what a messenger does? :P

I think that guy laid a burn down on you. You two should have raced to see who the real man is. And you should haver laid down the 'pink slips' to your bikes as a bet, like in Rob's favorite movie, The Fast and The Furious

I used to make my girlfriend watch that movie with me at least once a weekend.

and wes, right now i've got drops. i think he was referring to the handful of messengers here (there are about 5 of them)

burninated * 2!

http://www.newathens.org/journal/wp-content/Trogdor.jpg

edit: I'm surprised Rob hasn't mentioned that this is page 500. :)
edit2: I've actually seen a Canada Post dude delivering mail on a Lightspeed Ti mountain bike. :S

hahahahahahaha thats a good one!...yup I forgot to put my canada post logo on the frame :D

TROGDOOOOOOOOORRRRR!!!!

burninating the peasants.

TROGDOOOOOOOOORRRRR!!!!
:lol:

Where he was hit is a dirty stretch of road. You have trucks heading north on Leslie both East and Westbound. The spot under the bridge, there, is a usual speedtrap so you can believe traffic speeds get pretty high. I could easily see a collision there, buddy in the truck highballing westbound (there's not a lot of room on the curbside with two westbound lanes) and the need for a cyclist to shift left to avoid the northbound turnlane that turns off. Plus it's pothole/grating city. My whiteknuckle ride is eastbound on Eglinton and trying to cross the lanes to make a left onto Leslie. I've had busses/heavy trucks pass me within a few inches on that stretch. A big thanks to the city for not repairing the only alternate, sunnybrook park trails, and ensuring it's an unviable commute by requiring you to walk your bike out at Edwards Gardens.

While there's always a lot of noise about bike paths in the downtown, what's critically needed is a viable East/West and northbound corridor in this neighborhood.

I've stopped using track nuts. I've stripped two as well.

Lets not get onto bike lanes... I see my future as somehow very involved in them and don't want to spoil it for myself.

Any of you guys have any experience touring? I've been idly looking at touring bikes but I keep ending up looking at cyclocross bikes instead, which seem more versatile and race-friendly, but with essentially touring (slightly tighter) geometry and the whole glut of brazeons, rack and fender mounts. Soma doublecross comes to mind. Is this a good idea for a bike to cross canada, keeping in mind I will want to fart around on it in Toronto before and after?

The Doublecross is sweet. A real nice steel, reasonably priced, multi use bike. There were a few guys doing cross on em last year and they loved em. The IRD cross is quite nice also...Crossfire?...altho not sure about braze-ons. Slap on some 23 road tires and you can do road rides as well. Pure touring bikes are made a bit stouter in the construction for heavy loads.

keith, is there a link to the toronto global-gutz course? or is it hush-hush....? i checked the mess-media site, as well as the gg site but found nuthin'. is it not customary to make public alley-cat routes?

oh no you di-ent!

If I remember correctly, it was a mouth dropping occurance.
I was the starter of the event and thought I had set the skid line far enough away from Cherry St. that no way was anyone going to reach it. Surprise - Chris had just come back from a beer run, almost losing his start time, so when I called him he was stoke to move - and did he move - like a shot when he hit the line but so smooth, and kept on going, and going, and, and, and there was silence, then awe, then screaming.

He went around both barriers at Cherry and Mill to stop 6 inches short of the west curb of Cherry St. I paced off the distance to about 140 meters, then went back the next day with a tape measure - 146.5 meters. Unbelievable.

see'ing I can't ride my SingleSpeed I am very stoned and am enjoying it

Stop that

Yeah...I usually like to post alleycat courses in the public domain....this way the cops dont have to guess where to bust everyone. Is there a sarcasm italic?
But seriously....traditional alleycat courses are kept secret from the racers. You get the first checkpoint at the start....each subsequent one yields a new and exciting destination!
Oh yeah...results are at dirkdarko.com

my supposed water proof pants dont seem so waterproof today :(

lucky I didnt wear my workpants underneath.

One of the things to keep in mind if you are thinking of using a CX frame for touring is heel clearance for the rear paniers, especially since you have big feet. I haven't tried a rack and panniers on my CX frame yet, but I think it may be tight. I don't see why you couldn't use a touring specific frame for cross though, so maybe that's the most practical option.

Man O man did CANADA ever represent in the overall results!!!!!

Hey Shiz, I just got back from a huge tour of Europe (Belgium, France, Holland, Germany, Czech Rep., Austria, and Poland) on a self-built cyclocross/touring bike. So, I think I can say I know a fair bit about what you'll want and where to get it. I scrounged parts online and kept it below $1000 for the exact bike I wanted. PM/email me any questions.

Basically, I highly recomend going with a cyclocross frame vs. a pure touring bike, especially if you want to ride off-road for an extended period of time, unless you want to carry >50lbs. The big things to consider are the gearing you'll need (I found out the hard way that you'll probably need smaller gears than you think), how much you want to carry, and how you'll transport the bike.

I've done a little bit of touring - mostly some rides from London to Newmarket and in-between - and the cross-bike is not a bad choice, though the tighter geometry makes for not so smooth a ride as compared to a touring bke. I say go for it though, as cross-bikes do really well in urban areas, and are slightly less useful than touring bikes on long trips - thus, they average out better in the long-run. Plus, cross frames are super-strong and relatively light (at least moreso than touring bikes), so get one mutha-****a! :)

well I was looking at the trek 520 as the archetypical touring bike, but the geometry really isn't all that different from a cross bike. In fact its basically identical geometry, but the cross bike just seems more lively... Not that I can say much as I haven't really ridden either bike... I'm basically keeping my eye on a used double cross with chris king/ mavic wheels and ultegra components (38/46 with a big fat cassette). ***** stem, ergo bars, STI levers, cantis... For hauling I was sort of considering a BoB Yak, but realized that it would totally kill the drafting advantage my buddy and I could use from each other. Its also heavier, bulkier, smaller capacity and more expensive than high end racks/panniers. I like the MEC Aqua-not pannier group. I'll worry about that later though...

cavernmech: I know you're not really involved with the planning of it this year, but in past years has the halloween alleycat always been on the 31st? (ie. not on a weekend necessarily) I have a bunch of stuff happening around that time, so I'm just curious whether I'll be in town or not.

Right now I teach Hospitality/Tourism (food prep, baking, nutrition, safety/sanitation etc.) at Danforth Colligiate and Technical Institute. Basic program that leads into the grade 12 college prep classes. Fun stuff. Never knew that you could swear in class and basically get away with it. Nice to have bouncers..I mean hall monitors at school to escort those who have requested a trip to see the V.P.'s. Last place I worked in T.O was the Granite Club. Did the old G.B. appreticeship program like 10 years ago. Siegfrieds still open?

cam, are you back at u of t? nice one... you free for lunch sometime? roberator? lunch ride?

I have a repair/purchase question. I have this hub

http://www.johnhenrybikes.com/catalo...y=80&item=2039

and need to replace the axle, threads are stripping. I am going to assume that I need to buy a specific axle to fit this hub as when I popped it out I saw it has a metal sleave around tha axle on the inside that I can remove, and need to make that axle fit inside the hub. Any ideas where to buy?

me too! me too! :P

38/46? hmm...I've got 36/50 and sometimes I envy roadies who have a 53 on flats and downhills, but like Shiznaz says, while carrying a load you'll be thankful for the lower gearing.

Really? I've never really run out of juice on my road bike with a 52, even on downhills. I hit 65km/h and still could have spun a little faster. For the amount of time that I'm at those speeds I'd prefer to have lower gearing and coast the downhills, personally. Especially on a touring bike. I've never wished for HIGHER gearing, but there's been a number of times I've wished for slightly LOWER gearing. I think I'd consider going with a triple if I was building up a touring-specific bike.

ps. I've seen you whizzing by a few times lately. :) Each time I haven't had a chance to say hi though (going the opposite way, in my car, etc)