The city life is tough | GTAMotorcycle.com

The city life is tough

ZOMGdonuts

ZOMGdonuts

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I got married in November, which was awesome. But with my wife being a proper GTA girl, and with all of my family still here, we decided to move back here from Kingston (where I lived and rode blissfully for 4.5 of my 28 years)

I think Kingston might be one of the best cities/areas for motorcyclists in Ontario. Surely Toronto must be one of the worst, but I figured I can't make important life decisions based off my hobby (maybe I really should though, eh?)

It's a hard knock life though. I had a lovely little house with a spacious garage in Kingston. Now I'm here, staying at my parent's while we try to find our feet, and looking at house prices. We could afford a condo, sure. But how am I meant to find a place where I can keep my bike(s)??

The commute is killing me too. I think my new job is definitely a step up career wise. But going from a 5 minute ride along the lake to a minimum 45 min trudge through traffic - it's a hard adjustment.

But still, I long for spring and the open road. More trips this year, that's the only way I can think to maintain sanity. And yet this weather!!

Anyways, rant over. Hope I can hang out with you guys some day now that I'm close!
 
Congrats! I'm t-minus 4 months to my own wedding.

also, all the good roads are up north, keep an eye open for rides!
 
zbahmer said:
I got married in November, which was awesome. But with my wife being a proper GTA girl, and with all of my family still here, we decided to move back here from Kingston (where I lived and rode blissfully for 4.5 of my 28 years)

I think Kingston might be one of the best cities/areas for motorcyclists in Ontario. Surely Toronto must be one of the worst, but I figured I can't make important life decisions based off my hobby (maybe I really should though, eh?)

It's a hard knock life though. I had a lovely little house with a spacious garage in Kingston. Now I'm here, staying at my parent's while we try to find our feet, and looking at house prices. We could afford a condo, sure. But how am I meant to find a place where I can keep my bike(s)??

The commute is killing me too. I think my new job is definitely a step up career wise. But going from a 5 minute ride along the lake to a minimum 45 min trudge through traffic - it's a hard adjustment.

But still, I long for spring and the open road. More trips this year, that's the only way I can think to maintain sanity. And yet this weather!!

Anyways, rant over. Hope I can hang out with you guys some day now that I'm close!
Click to expand...

If its anywhere in toronto proper, transit is better

You can keep a bike in the condo garage, there are risks, but you can do things to mitigate said risk, you always have theft insurance, and if youre really paranoid, you can always keep it at a storage unit?

A lot of bonuses to not living in the sticks too though, career growth(as you pointed out) ,all the good restaurants are there, tons of entertainment, concerts, raptors games, etc etc etc


I've lived outside the city and in the GTA, and anywhere else is just too darn slow, feels like retirement
But I also grew up in delhi so 🤷‍♂️
 
bigpoppa said:
If its anywhere in toronto proper, transit is better

You can keep a bike in the condo garage, there are risks, but you can do things to mitigate said risk, you always have theft insurance, and if youre really paranoid, you can always keep it at a storage unit?

A lot of bonuses to not living in the sticks too though, career growth(as you pointed out) ,all the good restaurants are there, tons of entertainment, concerts, raptors games, etc etc etc


I've lived outside the city and in the GTA, and anywhere else is just too darn slow, feels like retirement
But I also grew up in delhi so
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“….anywhere else feels too darn slow…”

I commute past Mennonites in horse and carriages every day and pass by fields that are still plowed and harvested by horse teams. So if you want to talk about slow….LOL
 
Katatonic said:
“….anywhere else feels too darn slow…”

I commute past Mennonites in horse and carriages every day and pass by fields that are still plowed and harvested by horse teams. So if you want to talk about slow….LOL
Click to expand...
lol the No Frills by my work has tie offs for horses. Its always a treat when you see a horse and buggy tied off out front
 
zbahmer said:
I got married in November, which was awesome. But with my wife being a proper GTA girl, and with all of my family still here, we decided to move back here from Kingston (where I lived and rode blissfully for 4.5 of my 28 years)

I think Kingston might be one of the best cities/areas for motorcyclists in Ontario. Surely Toronto must be one of the worst, but I figured I can't make important life decisions based off my hobby (maybe I really should though, eh?)

It's a hard knock life though. I had a lovely little house with a spacious garage in Kingston. Now I'm here, staying at my parent's while we try to find our feet, and looking at house prices. We could afford a condo, sure. But how am I meant to find a place where I can keep my bike(s)??

The commute is killing me too. I think my new job is definitely a step up career wise. But going from a 5 minute ride along the lake to a minimum 45 min trudge through traffic - it's a hard adjustment.

But still, I long for spring and the open road. More trips this year, that's the only way I can think to maintain sanity. And yet this weather!!

Anyways, rant over. Hope I can hang out with you guys some day now that I'm close!
Click to expand...
You'll be fine...


Until..


You become a father longing to go on a long, long ride..
 
zbahmer said:
I got married in November, which was awesome. But with my wife being a proper GTA girl, and with all of my family still here, we decided to move back here from Kingston (where I lived and rode blissfully for 4.5 of my 28 years)

I think Kingston might be one of the best cities/areas for motorcyclists in Ontario. Surely Toronto must be one of the worst, but I figured I can't make important life decisions based off my hobby (maybe I really should though, eh?)

It's a hard knock life though. I had a lovely little house with a spacious garage in Kingston. Now I'm here, staying at my parent's while we try to find our feet, and looking at house prices. We could afford a condo, sure. But how am I meant to find a place where I can keep my bike(s)??

The commute is killing me too. I think my new job is definitely a step up career wise. But going from a 5 minute ride along the lake to a minimum 45 min trudge through traffic - it's a hard adjustment.

But still, I long for spring and the open road. More trips this year, that's the only way I can think to maintain sanity. And yet this weather!!

Anyways, rant over. Hope I can hang out with you guys some day now that I'm close!
Click to expand...
Agreed. If I could have the life I have here, but with the riding options of living in Kingston with all those great roads so close, that would be such a win. Especially with the border crossing right there to get into the Adirondacks and so much more.

There will be lots of rides coming up this season, but most importantly, now you can come out to the burger meets where we can all whine in unison about high costs of living, gridlocked roads and amazing food options. And now your ride to work is 45 minutes! At least your bike will finally reach operating temperature.
 
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Kingston sure beats SWO. Once you cross west of the 400 roads get pretty straight. A buddy refers to this as "the curse of the British surveyor"
That said I'd rather be near straight roads than live in TO.
 
Also dont forget side chicks, your tinder options are directly correlated to population density.
 
Thanks for the comforting replies guys 😅

I was wondering though, how many of ya'all live in condos with underground parking? It's hard to find a place with more than one parking spot - do they usually allow you to park your bike + car in the same spot? Or is there usually somewhere else in the garage you can keep the bike?
 
48Connor said:
lol the No Frills by my work has tie offs for horses. Its always a treat when you see a horse and buggy tied off out front
Click to expand...

Elmira has that

@zahmer - I got mixed answers from my real estate guy about parking a motorcycle behind my car in a condo. Please let me know how you work out!!
 
Georg3__ said:
Elmira has that

@zahmer - I got mixed answers from my real estate guy about parking a motorcycle behind my car in a condo. Please let me know how you work out!!
Click to expand...
I can tell youre not married because youre not familiar with the old adage
"better to beg forgiveness than ask permission"
 
zbahmer said:
Thanks for the comforting replies guys 😅

I was wondering though, how many of ya'all live in condos with underground parking? It's hard to find a place with more than one parking spot - do they usually allow you to park your bike + car in the same spot? Or is there usually somewhere else in the garage you can keep the bike?
Click to expand...
The condo we own & rent out in the Fort York area is great for this. They don't care and a great many people who live there have multiple bikes or cars and bikes in one spot. I used to park my bike behind my wifes car when we lived there. I would also park my bike in the "No Parking" yellow triangles at the edges of the parking lanes, as did a few other riders and we never got any grief for it. For whatever reason, it seems that bikes are rarely get stolen from this building. The security team is good too.

I used to live in a condo at Windermere and Lakeshore and was forever fighting with the property management about having my bike and car in the same spot, or two bikes in one spot. Ironically, this condo had a number of bikes stolen from it in the 3 years I lived there - all nicer sport bikes.

My advice to you is to go and talk to residents for any building you are considering. Property management or real estate agents might be obliged to tell you the rules, but the reality on the ground might demonstrate that it's a rule which is never enforced. Many condo building have Facebook pages for residents to converse, so you could ask a question specific to that building if it's one you are seriously considering. I use the one for our Fort York condo and it's a very helpful resource.

edit: also forgot that if you are buying a condo and got a place with only one parking spot, you could always find a spot to rent in the building, however that can be a little problematic if the parking spot owner has to stop renting it to you for some reason. Our tenant doesn't drive, se we rent our spot out separately to a long term tenant in the building, who needs two spots but only has one assigned to them. Speaking from the vantage of the Fort York condo we have - there are always spots coming up for around $120-$175/month if that works within your budget.
 
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Riding in Toronto has definitely gotten worse. I live in the west end and the number of condos going up adding more density and so many new god damn stop lights everywhere is just irritating. Add all the new slowed down 30km/h limit roads and you’re just crawling all the time now.

Most of my riding was commuting but now we’re all working from home lol. I’m no longer at a stage in my life where I can do multi day rides or even full day ones. It takes too long to get out of the city and I can only do the usual pottery road/rosedale/Bayview/lakeshore etc loops so many times.

I’m paying insurance/maintenance for 3 bikes and am questioning whether it’s even worth it anymore.


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