New to the Forum....

[Vince Lupo]

I found your site while wandering around looking for more cafe/ton-up sites, and nice to see a Canadian contribution. I'm originally from Don Mills, Ontario and was raised with Race Line Cycle (Rick Sutcliffe) in Scarborough and later Ontario Honda on Queen Street East (I still use an original Ontario Honda key fob for one of my current rides) in the post Shox Johnson era (for you old timers who remember!). I'm presently living near Baltimore, Maryland and got back into bikes after a 12 year hiatus - you know, school, career and all that.

Here are a few photos of a past creation, and a couple of current ones. '81 CB900F was the first money pit that took me all over North America, including Alaska in '89, and was featured in Cycle Canada's "Showcase" in June 1989. The other bikes are a fairly stock 1966 Honda CA78 Dream (305cc), and my 1966 Honda SuperHawk Special (305cc), both of which I presently have. The full drama of the SuperHawk is in the 'Show 'n' Shine' section of the Forum, if you're interested.

Thanks very much for having this Forum available to us!

 

[DrJ]

Vince, I grew up in Don Mills from 1980-1997. Things have changed, the mall is gone, to be replaced with a box store. Ontario Cycle is long gone, along with McBride's and CycleWorld. You probably left for the best. Along with sky high insurance and draconian speeding laws, Toronto is becoming very motorcycle unfriendly. Except now we can park for free downtown.

 

[Vince Lupo]

Thanks for the reply. I was there in November visiting my family and yeah, Don Mills Centre is flattened. Interesting how it started out as an outdoor shopping plaza, then they made it indoors, now they've knocked it to make it outdoor again (along with obligatory condos, etc etc). I know that area residents are not happy about it.

I know that Rick Andrews (Ontario Honda) died a number of years ago, along with Steve Wilcox (Shox Johnson), and Race Line is long gone (does anyone know if Rick Sutcliffe is still around????). My brother in law has a bicycle shop near McBride's on Dundas West, and he got an uptick in business after they closed. Didn't know that CycleWorld went too though....so what's left???? And who is there working on classic bikes? Is Leitner and Bush (Thornhill) still in business? They did some work on my 900F back in the day....

 

[DrJ]

There's not much in Toronto that caters to vintage riders and that's part of the reason this site/club/support group was formed. We share info and ideas to keep our bikes running since few shop mechanics deal with old bikes. There's still T.O. Cycle and a new shop, Cyclewerx that can handle old bikes. Zdeno Toronto is gone (they're still in Kitchener). Snow City, Motorcycle Superstore and Toronto Harley are the only major shops still within the city, everyone else is in the 905 area. Leitner and Bush split up with Leitner forming Concept on Wheels specializing in sport compact tuner cars and Gord Bush went on his own. I get my cylinder and heads done by Concept. If you're up here in the spring or summer let us know.