if you want to do it cheaply, Macau at queen and landsdowne is very nice. you can bring them your own matting and they'll cut it for you for about $5. i've done that with some of my photos (self portrait erotics).

B&W makes anyone look sexy :eek:

http://toronto.craigslist.org/mis/257160396.html

Oh god, its a missed connection from Igor!

I just wandered past the living room and my gf was trashing talking three guys she'd just schooled at Uno on the 360.

Real topic:

It looks like we'll have 10 days in Europeland. I took at a the UCI Protour 2007 calendar and here's what's in our window:

BEL: Gent - Wevelgem ... April 11
FRA: Paris - Roubaix ... April 15
NED: Amstel Gold ... April 22

It looks like doing the first two would work better w/ the schedule, but does anyone have any "OMFG you absolutely have to go to the Nederlands or your life is incomplete," comments that we should know about?

I loved the Netherlands when I was there, for more than the obvious reasons. Beautiful country, awesome food and drink from what I recall. Belgium was kind of drab, but it was March and I was hungover alot. Brussels has some cool things to see, but if I was to choose one over the other it would be the Netherlands for sure. So many beautiful sights, places to visit, awesome little coffee shops that sell great beer and the most wicked weed I've ever smoked. Coffee with some hash oil and brownies is always a treat as well.

Also the prostitutes.

Ok so about going to London... Tovi you said that when you called Forest City they had booking available on the 3rd right? I'm up for that day, provided my knee holds up. Anyone else? If you guys talked about it over the weekend, sorry I was out of town, I looked back through the last few pages and didn't see anything sorry if I just missed it.

OMFG you absolutely have to go to the Nederlands or your life is incomplete

P.S Buy space cakes

Hehe. I went there on a school rugby tour. We took a few of the 15 year olds to a live sex show. I swear some of them creamed their jeans watching the show.

Perhaps it was the pre show cake that made it seem so funny.

who said anything about B&W? i want my downy white posterior to show in vivid technicolour.

Danger Will Smith Danger!!!

thanks for the visual.... please stop

i can't stop the forces of art. it is what it is...

Sorry I didn't say bye Cam, I didn't realize you were heading up Jones, it was nice having company on the way home.

My .02: 1)The Netherlands is a really cool place, and I had a super time there.
2)As far as spring classics, the two best ones to see are Tour of Flanders (Ronde van Vlaandren) on April 8 this year, and Paris-Roubaix the next sunday. If you're going to see some races, those are the ones, bar none. Everything else is secondary in importance/prestige/drama/etc.

Is something art just because you hang it on the wall?

Andrew, sorry I should have yelled louder. It is kind of nice doing a commute with another cyclist for a change...

Ya, Flanders would be "off the hook" as it were, but the Big Boss has work commitments that she can't get away from until the 9th at the earliest.

If you don't have any preference over the races, I'd say go for Belgium. I think the Belgians like their bike racing more than the Dutch, but correct me if I'm wrong. Having good fans around you might be more fun. And hell, there's nothing stopping you from visiting Amsterdam anyway, right? It's not like Belgium and the Netherlands are far from each other. Just spend 2-3 days in each country and you're good to go.

Personally, the #1 return visit for me would probably be Copenhagen, with Stockholm a very close second. I've never been to Netherlands/Belgium/France though, so those are also on the "next time" list. Not that this is related to your question at all. :)

For the bikes and racing Belgium is the better bet. For everything else the Netherlands rules. If you decide to stop in Amsterdam or Rotterdam let me know and I can hook you up with some of my friends there. Nothing like some locals to show you around and take you to the cool spots. The velodrome in Ghent is awesome and they always have old rental bikes for sale for cheap. There is also a track store around the corner from the Velo with all manner of track stuff. I found a bigger language gap in Belgium vs Netherlands also. Pretty much everyone speaks English in Holland.

Keith, I gotta say thanks again for your awesome attention to my ride, I swear it rides like a new machine.
I'm still spinnin' the 18, gettin' more and more used to it now.

I had a look at the UCI Continental calendar, and there are more options for you:
April 18th Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen, rated 1.HC by the UCI (that's the highest ranking a race can get) in BEL
April 21 Liege-Bastogne-Liege, also in BEL is rated 1.Ncup (not sure what that is), is actually the oldest one-day race ever.

Check out the last paragraph or so on phill wood hubs here:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/sealed-bearings.html

So in a nutshell Jobstd says: phil wood are teh suxx0rz.

I have Shimano 105 hubs on one of my road bikes and they've had to be re-packed once in 12 years, so I can agree with what is said here but I wonder if Phil has had any changes to their hubs since the article was written, over 9 years ago? I've always wondered why Phils were so damned expensive as well, is it really just hype? Who here runs Phils?

As of this writing (Nov 98) both Campagnolo and Shimano have stuck with cup-and-cone bearings for their hubs, while most third parties are manufacturing cartridge bearings, probably because cartridges are much easier to manufacture than cup or cone races.

Right now Shimano makes the best inexpensive hubs: they are sealed correctly (double contact or contact/labyrinth), are fairly durable, and are quite serviceable. Hubs such as Phil Wood's are much more expensive, but may be better in some respects.

If you read the entire article, you will find that he knocks cartridge bearings.
Why? because they aren't as easily servicable.

Sealed as well as cup and cone are never necessarily waterproof anyway.

I'd still stick with a cartridge BB it's just so much easier to deal with.

Wheel bearings I could go either way. It really depends on the cartridge bearing seal, teflon, whatever..

Everything is application specific.

Yeah, I like cartridge for a BB because my steelies all have cutaways in the BB shell so they can get pretty gnarly. However, I have one bike that has an old Shimano 600 open bearing cartridge in there with one of those plastic sleeves and it has been incredible for the last few years. Smooth as butter and I ride it year round too. Weird.

I've got one Shimano 600 crank because the non drive side's pedal threads got bruxed...

Anyone got a matching 170? :)

MMM oldschool ultegra

I think op might be biased though as he prefers threaded headsets. And the fact that Brandt didn't even come close to knocking phil woods, in fact I kind of read it as a compliment. any 'teh suxx0rz' sentiment is all op.

I have never had any problem at all with any kind of cartridge bearing. I have had alot of trouble with cup and cone bearings. In my experience cup and cone bearings can be made to run very smoothly, but cartidge bearings always roll smoothly. The difference is that I have to fiddle with the locknuts for ten minutes before I get cup and cone bearings dialed in properly. If a cup and cone bearing gets too tight you can ruin the whole component, on a cartridge bearing hub you just replace the cartridge once it wears out. Plus you can buy higher quality cartridge bearings than you could ever hope to find in loose format.

Senstionalist write ups create controversy and extended discussion.

Don't forget the more you ride the smoother they should get as long as they don't get mashed, pitted, flattened. I have skateboard bearings (ball in sealed cartridge) older than op, that will spin til I get tired of holding the darned thing.

The only skateboarding lingo I remember from back in the day was that 'Swedish bearings' were 'the sh*t'. I always prefered Swedish Berries myself...