Take me someplace warm.

The spots marked by the beer-toting garden gnomes would be nice.

As Matt was saying, the days of summer are over and seems like autumn is passing by quickly as well, I completed (more or less) my winter bike tonight and took it for it’s inaugural spin through rain then hail and then back through rain again.

First and foremost, the lockrings on formula hubs are basically made of the softest metal one could wish for, they are absolute trash, and I stripped the notches on the first tightening. Needless to say I’ll be picking up something a little more substantial in the next day or so along with a seat collar bolt. Outside of that, the bike rides surprisingly well seeing as the headset is an amalgam of parts from 3 different ones, and the frame actually weighs 8 pounds. Thanks to Nick, Matt, Toronto Solid Waste Management, and the parts bin for making this one come together.

- and yes, the Velo Plush saddle is as comfortable as it looks.

Old Fuckers Fucking

This ride happened a long time ago. Back when I still actually rode.

The worst picture of Toby. Ever.

Packing heat……….or a QP of trees.

Riding through the Eaton Center. We’re so bad. We’re so gay.

Point A to Point B

Last night was the first of Ryan and Toby’s Wednesday night sprints so the other Nick and I rolled over to Matt’s to meet up and go check it out. On the way Nick put the nail in the Sovos coffin, but Matt saved the day with some J-B Weld, with no intention of backpedaling we were off.

Click on Nick for more pictures from the night.

last min addition

Robin came by tonight to gab about work, that’s all that guy does (work). But fortunately he’s also working on this.

The story on this bike is that Ernesto Colnago got ahold of a few downed Russian migs and cobbled together twenty something unbranded pedal-powered fighter jets. I’m not totally convinced of it’s authenticity due to the absence of the little top-view cycling guy on the top tube, but I’ll take Nadir’s word for it that this bike comes from pedigree.

De Slow-sa

It’s taking a while, but I’m ok with that. Well not really. I wish I had money.

a long winter a gwan come.

It’s getting cold, I love Autumn and all but the last couple days are just a reminder that I’ll be spending a lot of time indoors very soon. Matt and I rolled around looking for bike parts and whatnot to try and resurrect Lazer Quest from it’s unfortunate run in (over) by someone’s bad (vindictive) driving. While on our adventure we saw a couple of things.

First and formost we saw the Google Street View car, here all the way from California. Matt was able to take out his camera quickfast and snap some pics of it, we chatted with the driver for a second and told him we were gonna put him on GSV.

After picking up a frame, a wheel and a number of other parts we swung by Cavern Cycles. Keith is moving on from the cycling shop thing and has some great deals right now, he’s a rad guy to talk to in general but now you don’t have a good reason not to go in.

Case in point.

After sherpa-ing bike stuffs around all day we made one last stop at MEC and then Pizzaiolo for a much needed slice. Pics of Jordan’s completed bike coming soon.

P.S. Good luck to Sam and Nick at the Barista Nationals today and tomorrow, you guys are going to kill it.

Maslow’s Lowerarchy of Shittiness

fig: 4.

Trashing someone’s bike is pretty much one of the lowest things someone can do to a person. If I woke up to this, I don’t even know what realm of psychotic rage it would catapult me into.

i can wear shoes again

I’ve finally given into the temptation of riding platforms again. My main concern has been that they just won’t be as great as clipless are for things like climbing and beating everyone in races [/sarcasm]. They probably still won’t be nearly as awesome as my clickity elf-shoes and eggbeaters, but they will allow me to wear normal shoes again, which will do my feet wonders when I’m standing at the top of the hill waiting for you guys.

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New Toy

Last night, Ben, Jacob and myself visited Brian Frank and his basement of cycling goodies. In short, Brian’s collection of bikes/parts and his stories of cycling yore is phenomenal.  Jacob walked away with a 1970’s Frejus sporting a wet-dream of parts ranging from SR to Campy to Wolber at a price that was unheard of (I’ve seen Supercycle’s on CL that were more expensive).

Myself? Well I took home a piece of cycling history. Not many people get to ride let alone own one of the big three so I was pretty excited when Brian said this frame was up for grabs. Needless to say, I’m pretty fucking stoked on this bike…track frame or not. Because no matter how you slice it, its still a De Rosa.

Shop ’till You Drop – of heat exhaustion.

Thanks to Toby for organizing a great event today, everyone had fun and fortunately everyone made it through safely.

the dapper Mr. Rennick made an appearance.

the dudes behind me are either a) talking about how narrow Nick’s bars are b) calling everyone posers or c) all of the above. fun to drink with.

Okapi has been here for four months, he’s staying for a year on a work visa. “Oshinto” = “Ossington” – sounds familliar. I’m so stoked on this guy.

all ace wanted was water.

this is how the trackstand comp was around the halfway mark, it was just the two in the middle near the end, then Erin touched down and it was over. He won the skid competition and the backwards circle comp (which Rennick could have taken had he showed up earlier), so all was not lost.

Erin gave one of his prizes away to Glenn who ate shit in the skid comp and got right back up like a champ. Price Chopper parking lot is uh… ‘Choppy’ to say the least.

See you all next time.