The mean streets of downtown Toronto. Streets that had their entire repair
and resurfacing budget for 5 years diverted to a fat bloated grossly
inefficient Public Transit system. As of now the Transit Authority has
ripped up 5 miles of street to replace streetcar tracks. This idiot move has
shifted all the cyclists onto an already car crowded street with another
street car line down the middle of it.

In a 2 week period I toasted one right front axle and both front hubs. In
Toronto there are 1 million cyclists using the streets daily alongside very
frustrated car and truck drivers. I have spoken to dozens of car owners who
have had their suspension systems torn out by the roads cyclists also ride
on. In my area of Toronto there are 24 bicycle repair shops charging on
average $30.00 per hour and they are backlogged several weeks for road
damage related repairs to MTBs. These are MTBs designed to survive jumping
logs and mounting rocks on trails...yet they are being wrecked on Toronto
streets.
It is almost a running joke in Toronto did you hear about the Pothole
that ate the car. I have seen Potholes that in Florida they call Sinkholes.
Holes you ride into on a bent and dissappear below the road surface....I
suspect soon homeless families will be living in these Potholes.

Funny as hell, one street I ride on has a designated Bicycle lane and last
week all the way down that street one wheel was missing from the painting of
the bike on the pavement. I see this as an Omen and the message is move out
of Toronto...or at least get out of the city core. I hear the burbs ain't so
bad except out there people drive like idiots because there are so few cops
around to nail them.
You need suspension in Toronto to survive and lately even suspension isn't
enough. One of my relatives is the Mayor of Toronto and he won't ride a
bicycle in the city he rules. Luckily he is retiring and the woman most feel
will replace him IS an avid cyclist. Hopefully she will get the roads fixed
before anymore cyclists have to die.
********************
wrote in message
...
Joshua Goldberg wrote:
: Having NO suspension on a Tadpole is a waste of a Tadpole, your frame
won't
: ssurvive the abuse from the roads and Rail Trails.

Are tadpoles very fragile because of their geometry then? I'd
guess frames on bicycles (upstraight and bent) often last decades
and hundreds of thousands of kilos.

What kind of roads do you ride? :-)

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html
varis at no spam please iki fi