Gitane

            After the food bank on Saturday I had time to go home and put my groceries away. Then I got out a measuring tape to measure my inseam and found out it was about 87 centimetres. The reason I needed that information was so I could find out online what size bicycle frame I need. There was a chart that calculates the proper bike frame in relation to inseam and height. My proper frame height turns out to be 59 centimetres. I went over to Bike Pirates with that measurement and I went down to the basement with Ted while he tried to find the right frame for me. There was nothing close to the right height there, so Ted tried to come up with some alternative places for me to look. He mentioned Bike Sauce at Broadview and Gerrard, Bike Chain on Spadina Crescent and Parts Unknown, the location of which is literally unknown. I recall several years ago when it was in Kensington Market. Ted said that it had since that been in Liberty Village.

            I went home and checked some of those places out online. Bike Chain was closed on weekends, Bike Sauce didn’t have a phone and the last Parts Unknown activity was a sale they had down at 7 Fraser Avenue last year. Since 7 Fraser was nearby I rode down there but when I asked a woman who was entering the building about the bike place she said that they’d moved out last year.

            I pedaled back up to King and headed east to John, then up to Queen and took that to Broadview where I took a left. Bike Sauce was just below Gerrard in Toronto’s original Chinatown. The shop was a flurry of activity and packed, with a younger crowd than Bike Pirates tends to attract. The young volunteer behind the counter called out “Welcome!” in a very friendly manner and as soon as I told him what I wanted led me down to the basement to look at frames. The tallest frame that caught his eye was one for a road bike that had been hand painted yellow. I had brought my measuring tape with me and found it was 60 centimetres. He looked it over and considered it to be in pretty good shape. Showing faintly through under the paint job was the name “Gitane”, which is the French word for a female Gypsy. I knew there was a cigarette brand with that title but I hadn’t heard of the line of bikes. My helper told me that it’s a good brand of cycles.

            When I asked about the price he told me that the way Bike Sauce does the pricing for a part is that two volunteers each quote a price and then the customer is charged the average between the two. I warned him that all I’d brought with me was fifty dollars. Upstairs he had a newer volunteer looked at it and name a price. The guy declared, “I hate this game!” My helper assured him that he’d get better at it over time. The guy shrugged and blurted out, “$60.00” and my helper said, “I was gonna say $35.00, so let’s say $45.00”. I told him that I’d take it.

            The frame was light but slightly awkward to ride with. I balanced it most of the time on my left handlebar as I rolled back down Broadview to Queen. The Broadview Hotel is still on the corner but it doesn’t look like Jilly’s strip club is there anymore. Later research shows that it was taken over by other owners and renovations began in 2014, only to finish last fall. It’s now a boutique hotel, I guess in the style of the Gladstone and the Drake.

            At Parliament and Queen a tough looking husky woman crossed the street wearing a jacket that said, “Git’er Done!” on the back. From Yonge Street on the Saturday traffic was pretty thick and so I had to be careful not to hit any vehicles with the bike frame I was wielding. At Bathurst there seemed to be a broken down bus that was stalling traffic so I got off and walked my bike around the other cyclists that were waiting behind it. I crossed Bathurst and climbed back on with no one in front of me. Under the Dufferin railroad bridge a guy walking with his girlfriend in the opposite direction called out to me, “Now that’s what I’m talking about! That is a jacket, bother!” he declared, referring to my motorcycle jacket.

            When I got home I left the frame under the mailboxes just inside the door of my building, then I took my bike upstairs. I went back down and carried the frame over to Bike Pirates to show it to Ted. He took a moment from the guy he was helping to give it a look. The main problem he found was that the big hole where the bottom bracket for the crank arm would be screwed in had damaged threads and he said that they don’t have the tapping tool at Bike Pirates, so I would have to go to Bike Chain for that. I went home and checked the Bike Chain website and found that they are still on winter hours and so they are also closed on Mondays. I wouldn’t be able to go there until Tuesday.

            There was a message from Nick Cushing that had been posted about an hour before I got home, telling me that he was in town and could drop over. I called him and he told me he’d be here in a few minutes. I decided that was a good excuse to clean my sink, my toilet, my bathroom floor and the part of my tub that’s visible with the curtain closed. Then I felt sleepy and dozed on the couch for a few minutes. Nick didn’t come by after all but apparently he was spending the night in town and said he’d visit on Sunday.