Toronto Fixed Part 2
 

The old TF thread got too long to load easily...so here's the TF Part 2 thread.

Shiznaz 4tw!

Btw: F1r5t p0sT

Looks like philly is in the lead now...

Well, looks like we have some work to do! Let's schit this place up like there's no tomorrow!

Hopefully this time next week I'll be rolling my Chris King wheels. Tru balla 4 reelz.

http://www.killingfloorthegame.com/ buy that and play on steam with us kthx.

Ohhh way fast - although I was hoping for 50,000 posts.

Rob, there is no way I will play that. I like to sleep at night.

Also, Don't play hockey the day after an 8hr race. I stretched and had a long warm up, but on my first burst of speed... there go the quads... I was useless the whole game :(

Toronto Fixed Part 2: electric boogaloo

http://www.t-lay.com/images/breakin2.jpg

oh this 'ish is epic ;)

Nice, well done guys! Just stopping in to say 'hey' and check out the new digs.... hmmm... looks very much like the old digs.
now I'll go back into hibernation for another 10-12 months I guess.


do you play tf2 by any chance Rob?

Sweet, new thread!

This Jarvis thing seems to have people up in arms, I've not really read anything about it - but I do feel Jarvis is an odd street to choose, and yeah, why not just fix Sherbourne? That'd be a fantastic route if it weren't for the terrible road surfaces.

Got slick at times out there today, was strangely nice though - enjoyed it thoroughly (maybe the lack of harsh wind was part of this :))

B-17 out of the box, comfy ride.
Flyer, awesome right away.
Team Pro, like riding polished marble.

Well eff - I couldn't let the new joint stay all new car-ish for too long without stinking up the joint a bit with a visit from the Dr.

Hey all... back from the dead, (still) with a shaved head.

I'd trade losing the ****ty attitudes for more bike lanes any day. Maybe the next press conference can involve Miller just saying, "listen, if you can all just stop being dicks to each other and thinking you're the most specialist in the whole world - we can prolly all just get along an not have to draw fences around you to keep you separated. Cool?"

Although I have to admit I am partial to starting a counter war with cars claiming they eat babies.

When they kept arguing about Jarvis on the cbc in the morning I felt like calling in and suggesting they just fix Sherbourne, but then I thought "well I'd rather have two options so I'll just stfu.

**Does a happy new thread dance**
WTF is this Philly is in the lead ship?

If I see one more person riding along ... perfectly content to run over every curb sided manhole cover, practically pedal striking the curb with every revolution, all b/c they think that's where they should be. Not to compare it to anything much more important in our time, but it's beginning to feel like a civil rights/liberties issue. Make threatening someone with your car an automatic grievous assault holding a minimum 2 years less a day.

I think the original plan they had for that stretch was to widen the sidewalks and plant trees and such, removing one lane. IIRC an environmental assessment was done for this. The cycling advocacy folks got bike lanes on the agenda. Now the ire of drivers is focused squarely on cyclists, when in fact the road was going to get lose a lane anyway.

Takes some stones in this fiscal nightmare to talk up a 6+million dollar "Boulevard beautification " project

Seriously. Sometimes I think if people just stayed out of it things would be fine, rather than flaming up some kind of war, blaming us for ****ing up their commute, whatever else. I can get to work quick without getting hit by a car, I don't really want anything else.

i hear that! i've always found the pro and other models too narrow for undercarriage. no offence there.

on a related note i picked up a new brooks to replace the b17 that some crackhead stole off my road bike some time ago - urbane seems to be honouring the old pricing on any stock they still have around so i managed to pick up a b17 special for $130! i'm locking this one down well this time...

The recent brooks thefts prompted me to lock all 3 on last night. Old chain came in handy. PM sent.

Crap, has there been a rash of Brooks thefts again? Ah, summer in Toronto...

Are V-brake bosses on a frame in the same spot that canti bosses are? I have an old mountain bike that a friend wants but he doesn't like cantis (neither do I) and I was thinking of popping some old V-brakes on there....

It's like anything else, though: 99% of the biching is done by people that participate 1% of the time. People that commute throughout the year (most of us) just accept the situation and adjust. Additionally, people with more experience riding through downtown traffic tend to know the safe & fast routes and pick our way through traffic in a much more hawkish manner than those with less experience. We just anticipate where the cars will go and react accordingly. Additionally, we are more clear with what's expected of us: keep a good pace, ride in a straight line, etc...

While more bike lanes, placed in a coherent network would be nice, I haven't found myself in danger for lack of them. On the contrary, I tend to ride with much more trepidation when in a bike lane, because I never know if car drivers are checking their blind spots before making turns, or who will be riding in the lane with me (it's much sketchier to pass a slow cyclist in a bike lane than a regular lane). Furthermore, the lanes get outright abused by parking cars, joggers, and skateboarders.

If the city is really, honestly, and truly interested in placing bike lanes, they don't need public debate ad nausea: they have planning experts, traffic flow experts, and crews to lay the lines. Either schit or get off the pot. I'm sick of relentless and circuitous debate.

Have spray can .... will make bike lanes. Honestly I feel BL's are the purview of the unimaginative. I do, however, respect the need to be able to move the masses. With that in mind I propose the elevated, enclosed BL with the wind turbines at regular intervals, to provide 70kph tailwinds in all directions. Cost 500 million dollars, from Hamilton to Montreal. Lakeshore to Barrie.

It shouldn't be a problem, just make sure the levers are compatible (some of them are switchable from canti to v).

Careful with the chain stuff. My friend had his stolen even with it on. Might be better just to QR the post/seat and take it in with you.

Yup... bike lines create a false sense of security IMO, and they are generally too slow. They basically move the bikes out of the way of cars so they can forget us, and then right hook us. There was a study done in Copenhagen and accidents increase at intersections with bike lanes.

I don't know what's the solution. Basic courtesy and respect from cyclist and cars, education... The catch 22 is that nobody really gives a crap since what 1% of people in Toronto actually commute by bike everyday? It needs to be 10% before people realize it is an issue, but how to encourage people to ride their bike?

Yeah but people in copenhagen generally, well everyone learned to ride a bike on the road with cars BEFORE driving a car. Not so in Toronto.

I honestly get worried when you hear about initiatives that change the status quo for something that I personally see as being for the worse.

As it is right now, we have two entire lanes to work with. If we need to get out of the right curb, we can pull in behind a car in the right lane. We can split between lanes to move through stopped traffic. We can take the left lane if things are ugly in the right lane. As has been said, we have the knowhow to get around safely and if you know how to work traffic, you have a lot of room.

So when we start seeing things like the TCU discussing "protected bike lanes" which (in New York at least) are bike lanes on the inside of a row of parked cars, (so there would be the roadway, a barrier of parked cars, then the bike lane on the other side) I can't help but wish people would just leave well enough alone. Rather than having the entire roadway you're going to be fenced in between a sidewalk and parked cars, in a door zone with nowhere to go outside of it (unless you like riding the sidewalk), nowhere to go if there's an obstruction, and no room to give slow erratic cyclists space to pass if you're coming down on them at 40kph.

It's like when they started discussing rumble strips to seperate bike lanes. Half these ideas suck and will serve people who want to ride around at 10 kilometers per hour, but make it all but impossible to ride quickly in the city as the safest place is and always will be with traffic.