Ask the Bike Maven | How to get your bike ready for the season

Everything you need to keep you–and your bike–happy: a pump, chain cleaner, degreaser fluid, chain lube, helmet, u-lock.

By The Maven | I was in Portugal 18 months ago for a cycle trip from Lisbon to the Algarve. We rented bikes from Portugal Bikes, a locally owned small cycle touring company–great people and good prices if you ever go.

Riding to Lisbon’s Belém Tower, built in 1515.

The shop owner asked our nationality before prepping us on basic bike maintenance. He was relieved to hear we were Canadian, mechanically competent people.  The Dutch, he said, were completely incapable of doing any maintenance work on their bikes. Since a cycle shop can be found on every corner in Holland, they can’t even fix a flat tire he told us.

So as Canadians we have an international standard to maintain, to wit, some advice.

1. Cleaning: Clean your bike. If it’s been in use in the salt and slush of winter, hose it down. If it sat outside or in the basement for the winter it still needs to be cleaned and lubricated.

Cleaning the chain is the most important for a smooth and happy ride. You can just hose it down, let it dry and then oil it.

Take the top off the bike chain cleaner, add de-greasing fluid, fit your chain in the cogs, snap on the top, and rotate your pedals backward about 100 revolutions.

But best to clean it properly. MEC sells a nice chain cleaner for only $5.50 and a bottle of citrus-based biodegradable degreaser for the same amount. Why degreaser? Because the oil on the chain picks up dirt and abrasive particles and this grit acts like sandpaper to wear down and destroy your chain, cogs, and chain rings. Shifting becomes  rougher and requires more force, you skip gears, ugliness–in the form of a repair bill to replace your drive chain–soon ensues.

With a chain cleaner you simple fill up the chamber with a degreaser, click it on to the chain and run the chain through it for a couple of minutes. The chamber will become black and disgusting while the chain will become shiny and silver again.

I also pour some degreaser directly on the derailleur and cogs and let it sit a while. You can then wipe all these parts down with a rag or rinse them with water. After everything has thoroughly dried (I like to do cleaning on a sunny day and let my bike sit in the sun for an hour to dry) you need to re-grease the chain. Do NOT use 3-in-1 or household oil. By oil specifically for a bike.

Or make a homebrew like I do. I mix one part light grade synthetic motor oil to three parts mineral spirits (pain thinner). I apply it liberally to my chain and all moving parts of my bike. The idea is that the mineral oil thins the oil and helps it penetrate and carry into metal parts. The mineral spirits then evaporates leaving behind the lubricating oil. About $10 worth of ingredients has lasted several years for me, and I maintain four bikes of my own and three of my son’s. I oil my road bike chain after every one or two rides. I will wipe down the chain and re-lube. I do a full clean ever few weeks.

Information about optimum inflation pressure is printed or embossed on the sideall of your tire.

2. Tire pressure:  Information about optimum inflation pressure is printed or embossed on the sidewall of your tire.

Tire pressure is crucial. The maximum inflation is on the tire side wall. If you are heavier go toward the higher end. Up to a point a higher pressure will aid efficiency but your ride may be a bit bumpier. Too little air can cause ‘pinch’ flats by pinching the sidewall of the tire between the road and the rim. And the bike won’t ride very nicely on half flat tires.

Tires lose air daily. The rubber tubes are not entirely air proof. There is some leakage. The higher the tire pressure (eg: road bikes) the faster the leakage. Pump your tires twice weekly at least. A good quality pump is worth the extra few bucks as it makes pumping so much easier.

I even use my bicycle pump to pump up my car tires (ok, I’m a little obsessive about these things).

3. Inspect your bike

Check your bike now and again to make sure the brakes aren’t rubbing, and that nothing is loose.

It’s a good idea to just walk around your bike and do an inspection now and again.

Check the brakes are not rubbing and that they stop a spinning wheel promptly. Check that the crank and headset have no play in them. If you are riding a single speed–particularly a fixie–the crank is your bread and butter. Keep it tight!

An Allen key set or hex wrench is all that is needed to adjust and tighten most parts on your bike.

You may not realize it but metal not only fatigues and breaks but also stretches. For instance, not only do your brake and gear cables needs tightening but your chain stretches. Not checking and replacing the chain when it needs it can wear the rear cogs and front chain rings, and then they too will need premature replacement…something that is much more expensive than a new chain.

If you aren’t confident enough or knowledgeable enough to do this stuff on your own, spend a few bucks at your local bike shop. Rob Bateman of Bateman’s Bicycle Company at 913 Bathurst just north or Barton is a great local guy and cycle enthusiast. He and his guys will look after your bike for a reasonable price.

A well tuned bike is a pleasure to ride.

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The Maven is a Serotta-certified bicycle fitter who lives, works, and cycles in the Annex. Visit his blog at www.TOmaven.wordpress.com.

For other cycling articles by the The Maven on the West Annex News, visit the Bike Maven archive.

Ask the Bike Maven: What are the best tires for winter cycling in the city?

Photo by Nikolas Masse

By The Bike Maven | Ah, the joys of winter cycling:  the slush, the salt, the snot; the unplowed bike lanes; the frozen fingers…and worse.

If you are thinking the Bike Maven does not enjoy riding his bike in the winter, you would be correct.  Once the snow flies, my steel single speed commuter and the carbon fibre road bike I ride for fitness and recreation are cleaned and lubed and put away until the spring.

Copenhagen Chic by Mikael Colville-Andersen

But that doesn’t mean you should put your bike away too. There are many reasons to cycle all four seasons. They do it in Copenhagen and all over Scandinavia, so why not Toronto? Cycling is still the fastest way to get around the traffic-choked streets.   It saves you money; it’s good for the planet.  And cycling’s health benefits, to relieve stress, maintain leg strength, and to build cardiovascular fitness know no season.

And  Toronto is blessed with many winter days with clear dry roads, which makes cycling a natural.  It’s when the streets aren’t clear and dry that you have to consider whether to leave the bike at home, or to invest in some winter cycling tires to help keep you safe and upright through the worst of winter road conditions.

But what kind of tire to buy?  For snow on top of pavement, a narrow tire with widely spaced treads are best.  The narrow width helps cut through the snow, and the tread gives you traction on snow’s uneven surface to stop you from spinning out.  The wide tread self clears of snow. For wet and/or icy conditions however, the recommendation is just the opposite:  a wide, untreaded slick tire is best to keep maximum amount of rubber in contact with the ice surface.

If money isn’t a concern and you own an extra set of rims and quick-release hubs, you can install a snow tire on one set of rims and an ice tire on the other, and swap them out as conditions demand.  But if you’re like most people, you don’t have the money or the space to keep multiple rims around, and you need a good compromise tire that will perform reasonably well in both snowy and icy conditions.

The inverted tread of the Continental Town & Country tire

When it comes to winter tires, my favourite multi-purpose tire is the Continental Town and Country, which sports a brilliant inverted tread design.  On dry pavement or ice, the tire runs like a slick on the continuous ring of rubber that runs down the centre of the tire (the “contact patch“).   In dirt, slush, or snow, the inverted tread provides added traction.   In my opinion, the Town and Country is the best all-season multi-purpose tire. What a shame it is available only in the 26 inch size most commonly used by mountain bikes and some hybrids.

A word here first about tire sizes.   You’ll see the size of a bike tire embossed into the rubber or printed on the tire’s sidewall, expressed as something like “26 x 1.9″ or “700 x 28″.   The first number refers to the diameter of your rim, and the second number refers to the tire’s width.  So in the first example above, the 26 x 1.9 means a tire is 26 inches in diameter and 1.9 inches wide.  Most mountain bikes and many hybrids take 26 inch tires.  The tire described as 700 x 28 means it is 700mm in diameter and 28mm wide. Most road bikes, including touring and cyclecross bikes, and some hybrids take 700mm tires.  But there are many exceptions to the general rule.

For road bikes, many turn to cyclecross tires, or a combination of tires for snowy roads. Generally, the choice is a knobby cyclecross tire up front and a slick tire at the rear.   The late Sheldon Brown was an advocate of mixing tire types this way.  His classic and comprehensive article on tire and tubes is worth a read.  But remember, this particular tire set up will help you in snow, but not ice.  In Toronto, where snow is cleared reasonably quickly from arterial roads at least, snow isn’t the main concern.  Because our weather goes through repeated cycles of thaws and freezes, ice is the biggest challenge to Toronto urban cyclists.  And for ice, many cyclists consider studded tires.

I haven’t ridden studded tires myself, but my friend Richard Fink has been riding them for almost 45 years.  Richard put together his first set of studded tires in 1967 by putting  industrial rivets into the 26 inch tires of  his CCM bike when he was just a boy. “Things worked great for 50 miles” Richard says.  With the hill formed by the old Lake Iroquois shoreline standing between Richard’s home in Cedarvale and his office at Bathurst and Dupont, Richard faces some daunting bike-handling challenges when the roads are icy.  He now runs 700mm Nokian studded tires from Finland on his winter ride, a Lightspeed touring bike.  But even with studded tires, an experienced winter cyclist like Richard still reports at least one fall every winter.

The website Peter White Cycles has one of the best run-downs about studded tires that I’ve read.  If you’re thinking of investing in studded tires, devote some time to giving the entire article a careful reading. “Riding on ice with studded tires is like walking on ice that’s been lightly covered with sand” says White. “It’s pretty safe. You’re not likely to fall unless you do something stupid. You’re not going to have the same traction you would have on dry pavement. But you’re going to have far more than you would with regular tires on ice. Keep in mind that there’s ice down there and you’ll be fine.  Try to be a hero, and you’ll probably pay a price.”  And keep in mind that on clear roads with no snow or ice, your studded tires will be noisy, slow, and won’t handle as well as a conventional tire.  The studs will wear fast on pavement.  Since these tires will run you upwards of $200 a  pair, you want to get as much mileage from them as possible.

Both Schwalbe and Nokian both make good quality carbide-studded tires for both 26inch and 700cm tires.  But the narrowest studded road tire that I’ve come across is the 700 x 32 Nokian A10.  That width will fit many cycle-cross, touring, and hybrid bikes, but not a pure racing road bike;  there won’t be adequate clearance in the front fork or at the rear brakes.

Nokian A10 700 x 32 studded tires from peterwhitecycles.com

Where to source your tires?  Your first choice should be to patronize your LBS: local bike shop.  Both Curbside Cycle and Sweet Pete’s carry the Schwalbes, and the obliging Rob Bateman is always willing to order in special items.   But if you can’t find what you want in our West Annex LBS’s, try Mountain Equipment Co-Op for Continental Town and Country and Schwalbe, Duke’s Cycles for Nokian, and Urbane Cyclist for slicks and cyclecross tires.   You can also try mail order with the aforesaid Peter White Cycles.  I’ve also had good luck with  probikekit.com, a mail order company based in the U.K. which offers good selection, great prices and prompt delivery on tires, parts and accessories. But if you’re going the mail order route, take care.  If in doubt, order the same size tire that you’re now running on your bike, or seek advice from your local bike shop. They’ll help you measure the clearance in your front fork and back brakes, to make sure you can handle a wider tire.

Schwalbe studded tires for sale at Curbside Cycle

A final word, and that’s about tire pressure. Automobile snow tires improve traction in two ways:  they have an aggressive tread design that grips and then self-clears of snow, and they are made with a special rubber compound that keeps the tire soft and pliable even in sub-zero conditions, helping adhesion to snow and ice.  Bicycle tires have no such special compounds.   For each degree below zero, your bike tire becomes harder and stiffer.  To compensate, many, including the City of Toronto cold weather cycling page recommend that you release some air pressure from your tire.   Release only a little air at a time, and try out how your bike handles, until you find what works for you.  But remember, don’t go below the minimum pressure marked on your tire’s sidewall, or you’ll risk a pinch flat.

These tips, together with a modicum of common sense should keep you out from under the streetcars this winter.  Enjoy your ride, and don’t forget to wave if you see Don Cherry.

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The Bike Maven is a Serotta-certified bicycle fitter who lives, works, and cycles in the Annex.

For other articles by this author, visit The Maven archive.

Visit Nikolas Masse‘s and Mikael Colville-Andersen‘s photostreams on Flickr.

The weekly wrap for December 17, 2010

“Does the Annex really need another budget-friendly Japanese restaurant?”  Apparently yes. Gizelle Lau loves the fresh ingredients and home made stock at Kenzo Ramen. [Toronto Life]

Kenzo Ramen | 372 Bloor Street West

“We wanted to bring in city bikes from Holland that are upright, fashionable, and can function as your car.” Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy profiles Eric Kamphof, manager of Curbside Cycle.  [torontoist]

“The Green Room . . . a place so dirty that a health inspector found even its license completely covered in cockroach feces.” David Topping calls out the Green Room as one of torontist’s Villains of 2010.  [torontoist]

Beer was still 15 cents a glass and big old homes yet to be gentrified were cheap rooming houses. Jim Henshaw recalls David French and the Annex theatre scene of the early 1970′s.  [Legion of Decency]

Still looking for the perfect gift for that left-wing bike-riding pinko kook in your life? Get your commemorative T-shirts from Biking Toronto and buttons from spacingtoronto.  The buttons are also available locally at the Outer Layer, Curbside Cycle, and Sweet Pete’s.

First came the stagecoach stop in 1876. Eric Murtrie explores Brunswick Avenue at Bloor, and environs. [spacingtoronto]

They tested Model Ts on the roof. Matt Bubbers uncovers the storied history of the Faema Building (and former Ford automobile plant) at the corner of Dupont and Christie.  [Sympatico.ca Autos]

“You get to the point when you see so much pain in people’s lives, you have to do something.” Eileen Donnelly profiles Harbord Collegiate Institute teacher Michael Ericson’s work to establish a shelter for Toronto’s homeless LBGTQ youth.  [The Toronto Observer]

“One of Toronto’s oldest cinemas has been nestled in the Annex for almost a century.” Tracey Chen recounts the history of the Bloor Cinema, AKA the Madison Picture Palace.  [Heritage Toronto]

The Madison Picture Palace, now the Bloor Cinema | Courtesy of City of Toronto Archives

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Every Friday, the Weekly Wrap collects articles from around the web about or of interest to residents of the West Annex.

Arrivals & Departures: David’s Tea and Sweet Pete’s Bicycle Shop

The last week saw two new arrivals on the Bloor-Annex commercial strip, David’s Tea, and Sweet Pete’s Bicycle Shop – the B-Side.

DavidsTea | 424 Bloor Street West

David’s Tea opened December 11th at 424 Bloor Street West, just east of Howland Avenue, in the premises formerly occupied by Alex Cuts (now re-located to the second floor of  386 Bloor Street West). This Canadian chain began as a single store in Montreal in 2008 and has since exploded into 41 locations, the Annex location being the fifth to open in Toronto in under two years.

The upscale store sports a slick, modern interior with halogen lighting throughout.  There is minimal seating — one table at the front and two at the back of the shop — but there is a long bar to stand and try samples of some of the over 120 different loose teas proffered by eager staff.   The tea selection ranges from black, green, and white teas to exotic pu’erh cakes.

The tea bar

Thirty-three of the teas are caffeine-free herbal or rooibos blends.

A tea shop seems a natural addition to java junction, the aggregation of coffee shops clustered around the intersection of Bloor Street West and Albany Avenue. But All Things Tea, an independent tea shop with a similar offering of teas and tea paraphernalia recently pulled the plug on their 476 Bloor Street West shop.  They too offered minimal seating and as a result never attracted the same crowds that flock to the local coffee shops to meet, talk, and surf.   Like All Things Tea, DavidsTea lacks a patio, much-desired in local coffee shop culture.

It will be interesting to see if this successful chain’s business model translates to the Annex.

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Sweet Pete’s Bicycle Shop — the B-Side

Sweet Pete's Bicycle Shop | 517 Bloor Street West

Sweet Pete’s opened on December 8, 2010 at 517 Bloor Street West, in the former premises of The Tap Bar and Grill. In this second Sweet Pete’s location, the shop is making a strong bid to go head-to-head with nearby Curbside Cycle for the city bike/urban commuter bicycle market.  But where Curbside features mostly European bikes from Batavus, Pashley, Biomega and others, Sweet Pete’s focuses on bikes from North American companies like Kona, Trek, and Opus who have of late jumped on the Euro-style commuter bicycle bandwagon.

The interior

The shop interior is sleek and welcoming, with exposed steel beams, bare brick walls, “eco-friendly wood flooring” (according to Sweet Pete’s website) and subtle lighting.  Classic jazz plays on the sound system.

Most welcome is the large workshop in the back, where Sweet Pete’s will offer bike tune-ups and repairs.  Since Curbside stopped providing repairs to all but the bikes they sell, ex-Curbside mechanic Rob Bateman’s Bicycle Co. has been the go-to place for tune-ups and repairs in the neighbourhood.  But in the busy summer months, Bateman is sometimes a victim of his own excellent reputation, and his 29A Barton Avenue shop can get overwhelmed with work.

Mechanics' work area

Sweet Pete’s has thoughtfully left The Tap’s signature sign, a neon beer stein with animated keg tap, intact above their own sign, in a nice tip of the hat to the memory of the long-time Annex institution.

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In Arrivals & Departures we document the changes in the commercial/retails strips of the West Annex on Bloor, Bathurst, and Dupont Streets, and think about these changes in the context of Jane Jacobs’ observation that popularity on retail strips can lead to commercial monocultures, and Max Fawcett’s thesis that the Annex is un-gentrifying.

Here’s Don Cherry’s new bike

Gillian Goerz, sales manager at Curbside Cycle shows off the pink Pashley bicycle intended for Don Cherry

Torontonians who were taken aback by Don Cherry’s bizarre, hate-filled screed against pinkos and cyclists during Mayor Ford’s investiture ceremony at City Hall on Tuesday, December 7 were cheered to read the open letter to Don Cherry penned by Curbside Cycle.  “We’d like to take a little egg off your face and allow you to (literally) do a bit of backpedalling” it said.  “We’d like to give you a bicycle, in a blushing shade of ironic pink.”

Curbside is giving the pugnacious hockey commentator a stylish Pashley Tube Rider — Double Scoop. Pashley is England’s longest established bicycle manufacturer, having produced sturdy, handsome bicycles for rural and urban commuters for over 80 years at their manufacturing facility in Stratford-on-Avon.

Custom bike painter Noah Rosen of Velocolour is donating a paint job* for the bike’s fenders in a suitably Cherryesque fashion.  An online poll will determine whether the fenders — now turquoise — will be painted in a pinstripe, pink floral or pink plaid design in tribute to the belligerent bigot’s sartorial excesses.  Earlier today Curbside reported that the plaid fenders are ahead in the voting. The poll closes Monday morning, December 13th so vote now.

Gillian Goerz, Curbside’s sales manager said this morning that the shop has yet to hear from Cherry to make arrangements to accept their gift.

Curbside Cycle | 412 Bloor Street West

Curbside Cycle is located at 412 Bloor Street West in the West Annex, the pinkest of the pink heart of Toronto.  The area is represented by NDP members in both the federal parliament and the provincial legislature, and its city counselor Adam Vaughan is considered Mayor Rob Ford’s number one nemesis and possible rival for mayor in 2014.

Started in a tent in front of the Brunswick House about fifteen years ago, Curbside Cycle draws a city-wide clientele with its extensive selection of bicycles, clothing and accessories geared to the needs of urban bicycle commuters.

Don Cherry is a former professional hockey player and coach.  He played a single game in the NHL, and despite coaching the Boston Bruins of the NHL during the heyday of Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito, never won a Stanley Cup.   Cherry parlayed this distinguished career into a now 30-year gig as the dominant hockey commentator with the national public broadcaster, the CBC.  Cherry lives in Mississauga, Ontario.

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12 Dec. ’10 | This article was revised  to add the recap of Don Cherry’s NHL career.

13 Dec. ’10 | * Noah Rosen has donated the custom paint job for the bike’s fenders.  Incorrect information appeared in the original version of this article.  Thanks to Gillian Goerz for the correction.

The weekly wrap for November 19, 2010

Tranzac Club | 292 Brunswick Avenue

“To me it’s hallowed ground” Polaris Prize winners Damian Abraham, Owen Pallet and others reminisce with Chris Bilton about the Tranzac Club on the eve of the beleaguered venue’s crucial fundraiser, in Eye Weekly.com.

Step aside sushi, it’s fro-yo’s turn to rule the Bloor/Annex retail strip. Steve Kupferman reports on the proliferation of frozen yogurt purveyors on Bloor between Howland Avenue and St. George Street, in Torontoist.

Jane Jacobs warned us urban renewal was tricky. Ann Mehler Paperny asks if Regent Park’s revitalization is crumbling in the Globe and Mail.

“Sharrows on Harbord do little more than remind me of where better bicycle infrastructure is needed” Duncan argues that the new bike sharrows on Harbord between Spadina and Bathurst miss the point in Duncan’s City Ride.

“Churchill had tea on the porch and went for a stroll through the grounds of St. Alban’s” David Wright recounts his mother’s memories of Winston Churchill’s wartime visit to 123 Howland in RSGC Archives.

“For the fourth time in two years, the popular Annex hangout failed its health inspection” David Topping investigates the demise of the Green Room in Torontoist.

And just when you thought it was safe to read again, Brian Fawcett offers up his two cents on why Toronto elected Rob Ford, and what it means in Dooney’s Cafe.

123 Howland, where Churchill had tea