Bike Show

So today I played hookey and left work for a few hours to head down to the Toronto International Bike Show. There wasn’t anything particularly international about the show, but fortunately I was there for the bikes.

A blurry camera-phone shot taken by a self conscious attendee

It was a really nice and sunny afternoon outside. It was almost as if Nature was telling me, ‘wouldn’t today be a great day to buy a bicycle?’. I was in complete concordance with that thought and happily decided to invest in a road bike.

I picked up road cycling when I was in Durham. For those of you who know me from Durham, you may remember seeing me whizzing around town and countryside on my yellow steel Raleigh 12-speed in matching black and yellow cycle kit. (I was once referred to as a bumblebee!)

I decided to go up quite a few levels from the 20-year old, steel framed, used bicycle that got me into the sport and went into the deep-end of carbon fiber. I wasn’t planning on getting a CF frame, as I had had my eyes on the Cannondale CAAD10 for the last few months (it’s an aluminum frame), and almost purchased one today, but the deal was before me and I couldn’t refuse. (We’re talking $500 off for a 2011 model).

A Canadian bicycle with an appropriate colour scheme!
A Norco CRR3 with 105 components.

I was so excited about my purchase and couldn’t wait to ride it that I asked the dealer if he wouldn’t mind putting on some standard pedals as I hadn’t brought mine with me. So with cheap plastic pedals and a new helmet, I cycled through downtown Toronto back to work. It was such a great ride and I can’t wait to get out on the open road this spring!