Hey guys,

So... I've been using a small electric pump for my bikes and e-scooters over the last few years.

They are nice, but really aren't designed to be used as often as I do.

I'm a fan of low-tech gear, so I'm looking for a good quality floor pump that will last the next 20+ years. Obviously, it needs to be serviceable and have easily replaceable parts. And it needs to be accurate, for sure. LOL

I'm reading reviews from Wirecutter and various cycling sites, and they are all over the place with recommendations. I think a lot of their choices are driven by affiliate links, so there's that.

Does this unicorn exist?

There it is, folks, the Ford Government wants us dead.

I was never a hostile cyclist, but I guess I'll need to become one in order to fight against this war for personal safety.

Here's to hoping that DoFo and his cult get stuck in traffic for an eternity.

Absolutely heartbreaking. Seeing where this crash took place, I can only guess that the driver failed to stop and ran right through the cross-ride.

You guys make me so proud! Keep the pressure up!

Hey guys,

I'm looking to possibly upgrade the shifters on my 90s MTB from grip shifters to friction thumb shifters.

I'm currently eyeing the microSHIFT SL-M10 (https://www.microshift.com/models/sl-m10/), which is listed as being compatible with Shimano MTB 2/3×10.

Currently have a 7 cog cassette using an Alivio 7 speed derailleur. I also have a Deore LX M567 (8 speed) derailleur available, which would be a nice upgrade if compatible with the friction shifter.

Here are my questions:

1. Would that 10 speed shifter work with lower speed derailleurs?

2. What advantage, if any, would i get with a friction shifter listed for 8 or 9 speed derailleurs?

3. On the SLM10 shifter, it's got an indexed mode, too. Would that work with 7 speed, and if so, are limits set by the derailleur or do these things have hard stops built into them?

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE: I ended up spending a little (a lot...) more and getting a pair of Rivendell Silver2 shifters + thumbie mounts. Really nice quality and a beautiful ratcheting system. Loving friction shifters!

Forget the misleading bike use numbers, the low rate of people using their car is fascinating!

Ford makes it seem like 99% of the Toronto population are driving everywhere with their cars.

While traffic congestion makes it seem like everyone is driving, the reality is that fewer than 40% are in the areas that Ford wants bike lanes removed.

So why on earth do we allocate so many resources to car traffic?????

100% of the people living in the city suffer because of cars, parking lot space, noise pollution, air pollution, lack of safety for pedestrians, congestion causing all other forms of transportation to be slower.

Wouldn't it make more sense to give car traffic less priority, and other forms of transportation more? Between cycling and non-car users, car drivers are the minority, yet they demand every square inch to themselves!

Why do we continue to allow this entitlement?

So... I discovered that I can still get parts for my mid-90s MTB, which is the bike I use for everything hauling, winter, and off-road.

Initially, I was thinking of upgrading to more modern parts, but the components have been so good that I'd rather just refresh them.

I did order a "new old stock" crank/chainring, which I'm really excited about. Since I wax my chain, I don't see me ever having a need to replace it again.

But, I'd like to get a front and rear derailleur that are in better condition.

Both are the original Shimano Alivio RD-MC10 and FD-MC10, which I can still buy as used parts (which look like they are much better condition than the ones I've got).

But I'm curious to know if newer models in this series would be directly compatible with my existing cassette/chainrings and grip shifters. Things like the MC11, MC12, etc.

Does anyone have a clue? It's hard enough to find information about vintage bike parts, but I figure it's worth asking before I go with the same ones.

> Sarkaria (Ontario's transportation minister) said Friday that only 1.2 per cent of people use those bike lanes to commute to work, compared with 70 per cent who drive, and the lanes are taking away nearly half of the infrastructure on those roads, making commutes longer for drivers.

Why hasn't anyone challenged the use of that statistic?

Commuting isn't the only way to use transportation infrastructure and bike lanes, so it's incredibly dishonest to say that "only 1.2%" are using those particular bike lanes.

If I use bike lanes for 100% of my errands and 0% for commuting, does that invalidate those lanes?

By the same token, at what point would they consider removing sidewalks if people aren't using them specifically to walk to work?

Why would he stop at removing bike lanes?

The MTO is on his side, and when his plan to reduce and remove bike lanes fails to ease traffic congestion (hint: because they aren't causing it), why wouldn't he go after banning all cycling from major roads using the same reasoning (that cycling itself is the cause of all our traffic problems)?

I don't see any end to his overreach, and it'll be a matter of time before ebikes, then regular bikes, become highly restricted in Ontario.

Convince me otherwise.

Samsung has gone hard promoting AI in their phones, and now OnePlus has also announced some heavy AI-based features in their new Android OS. Pretty much every other brand is now doing the same, so you can't escape it.

I've been in the market to upgrade my nearly 6-year-old phone, but seeing all these AI features, especially when they rely on Google's Gemini (or other cloud AI), and it feels deflating.

Will privacy ultimately have to be sacrificed "from now on"?

By not using these AI features, you pay a lot for features you won't be using. And the usefulness of the device becomes limited as nearly all functions now have AI-based components to them.

I'm totally fine with on-device AI, but many features I'm seeing don't seem to be on-device, and I've spent years trying to stop sending my data to companies like Google. I don't want to go backwards for the sake of market trends.

What are your future plans when it comes to smartphones?

I wish I could have been there!

And 500+ people attended, at 5pm on a weekday? Imagine how many thousands would have turned up if this took place on a weekend!

Keep up the pressure, guys!

I'm totally happy to pay the fee associated with joining, but I'd like to have some idea of how many hosts might be available along certain routes.

Even knowing how many hosts might be in a particular city could be very helpful.

Does this exist?

We have bike routes all over, and they are signed with something as shown.

But most of these will have a bike lane or sharrows along with the Bike Route signs.

However, I ran into one road that doesn't, it's just signed.

What's the best way to tag these roads? I don't want to cause confusion, but these unpainted (but signed) roads do actually lead to/from better cycling infrastructure, so they should be known.

UPDATE: Thanks for all the input, guys. Having looked into this further, I'm comfortable using the designated tag, at least for this specific road.

My municipality is a bit bipolar with their application of these signs. Most are signed as bike routes with toad markings, but a few are signed only.

Because these "bike routes" connect to more significant cycling infrastructure, I think its more than valid to tag them as “designated” as opposed to "yes" (which would be pretty much every road).

To add even more confusion to the situation, the official Cycling infrastructure map for my municipality seems to not include several areas that have both bike route signs and road markings, so i will ask them if the data is just lagging or if it needs to be updated.

So, unless there's a critical reason why the "designated" tag shouldn't be used in this context, I will leave it at that.

So, when this plan inevitably results in MORE traffic congestion, who will Ford target next? Pedestrians and the removal of sidewalks?

And Transportation Minister Sarkaria should honestly be ashamed of himself for the way he blames and attacks cycling infrastructure. Is he the transportation minister or the cars-only minister?

I wanted to share my experience with waxing my bike chains.

I was resistant to waxing my chains because it seems that a lot of people felt it was "too much work".

But having to constantly clean black shit off my chains after every ride, then spend time degreasing and re-lubing, I figured I'd try waxing when I got my gravel bike.

Now, thousands of KM later and having converted all three bikes to waxed, there's no way I'd go back. The time saved could be measured in hours per month.

First, the biggest complaint is chain prep. Yeah, regardless if you're waxing or not, you'll need to prep a new chain by removing the factory grease. With waxed, you do this once, and no more worrying about degreasing ever again. Make like easy and get Silca's chain stripper, and it's a 10 minute, one-step process.

Ongoing chain maintenance couldn't be easier. After every ride, give the chain a quick wipe (or not). My chain stays clean, even after a 200 km ride.

And if you ride in wet or dirty conditions? Guess what, you're in for a LOT of work if you lube your chain. With waxed, keep a second (or third) chain ready to go, and you just swap it out (10 seconds of effort). Take the dirty chain, give it a wipe if it's only been wet, or pour boiled water onto it if you want to "reset" the chain to bare metal. Then drop it into the waxing pot for a re-wax. You don't have to stand at the pot, so there's no real time commitment here. I've spent more time completely dirtying large microfiber cloths trying to get my chain "clean" when lubed (hint: it's never clean if you use a wet lube, not without solvents and an ultrasonic cleaner).

For actual immersion wax, I do it every 1000 km (sooner than you need to), and use a drip wax every 200 - 250 km to keep things fresh.

Honestly, wax is easier, cleaner, and takes less time to maintain vs wet lube.

The only downsides? The initial cost to get started. But this is offset by not having to replace chains or other components prematurely. You actually save money in the long-term when using waxed chains.

Some might argue that "you can't run waxed chains in muddy or constantly rainy conditions". Well, at the same time, your wet lube isn't really helping matters in those situations, either. Waxed is still better, and you can swap chains much faster than you can clean the grinding paste from a wet lubed chain.

Who would I not recommend waxed chains to? Someone who rarely uses their bike. Drip lube will be "good enough" in those cases. But anyone else would benefit from waxing their chain.

... and they use YouTube to host their informational videos.

"Please allow us to interrupt your research with intrusive targeted ads, so you can have a superior browsing experience." 🤡

This store just opened up a few months back, and they had zero bike parking.

I emailed their head office, saying that I was planning to shop there, but not until they added a bike rack.

Went to check last night, and boom! Bike rack!

> “They are not safe. They are anything but for safety,” said a woman who added vehicles in the two-block section sometimes drive in the middle of Springbrook to avoid the bollards.

Oh, so drivers behind of the wheel of an automobile are the danger. Why remove the bike lanes rather than the car lanes?

I heard that Etobicoke's NIMBYs are insane, but this is a new level of stupidity from Richmond Hill.

Walking my grandkid to/from school, it absolutely floors me how many dangerous drivers there are around kids.

In a matter of maybe 10 minutes, I've witnessed:

• at least a dozen cars illegal parked. It's not the parking that bothers me, but the fact that these cars are often parked on turns or just before intersections, making it impossible for other drivers to see small kids.
• Several people not stopping at stop signs, including at the exit of the school parking lot.
• One car, who completely blew through a stop sign at the front of the school, made a left turn and nearly hit a guy walking his kid. The driver didn't even slow down.
• Super fucking huge pickup trucks parked in the school parking lot, but their long ass hangs well over the sidewalk near the kindergarden area, leaving very little space to use the sidewalk.
• Speeding. Obviously, you have to have speeding in school zones, right?

This happens every day, during drop off and pick up. I was told that bylaw were “cracking down”, but no, they aren't. If they were, our municipality would generate $5000 in fines each and every day at every school.

The other day, I rode my bike past another school as kids were getting out. Not only was their massive parking lot completely full, but they had blocked the bike trail (WITH PYLONS) to make space for more cars. Then as I entered onto the road, cars were illegally parked along the road and on a bridge for a like 100m. Making it extremely difficult and dangerous to cross because they blocked visibility for me and other drivers on the road.

I asked the cross guard if these students all lived out of town, requiring every parent to drive them home; he obviously didn't get my joke.

Seriously, fuck cars. All of them!

Been watching the Q&A with this guy... total clown. He evaded every question about bike lanes and keeps pounding the idea that "We will always be building! [more roads]".

I will tell you one thing, I'm not usually one to take the lane unless absolutely necessary, but I'd be happy to do so every time in protest of any Ontario's proposed actions to go backwards on sane, cycling infrastructure.

Also, the focus is always about reducing congestion and gridlock... guys, YOU ARE THE CONGESTION AND GRIDLOCK! Stop making cars the only way to travel, and you'll magically solve your problem.