It's happened... FINALLY!

Well sort of, actually.  My bike is back in riding condition and it's better than ever.  

• Handlebars have been risen to a good height, CHECK!
• My seat is comfortable, CHECK!
• My tire is holding air, CHECK!
• Breaks are working, NOPE!

Handle Bars: I've risen them so high, I almost sit straight up.  It's an odd feeling but a side effect is, that I can put some extra power into the pedal movement.

Seat: I've tried 4 different seats and I'm good with a fat back end gel seat.  I'll try the Brooks again sometime later.

Breaks: I went to the store, purchased what I thought was the correct break pads but when I got home, I found out they were not, so that's not to useful.  At the same time I was at the store, I picked up some degreaser, where when I got home, I removed the pads from my bike and drowned the pads in the stuff, cleaned off the disks and sanded the pads down with a file, the pads look almost new and I can now, somewhat stop but I think the disks and pads need to be replaced all together.

Tire: After much pain, the tire is holding air.  After three times at the bike shop, trying different styles and the bike guy looking at me "I don't know what else to do or try, you could try a car garage." which my response was "I have faith in your ability, you just have a little faith in yourself too." and then the tire finally inflated.

What was going on?

1. The rim tape wasn't done very well.  Sure works at a 5-10psi but 20-30psi is leaked badly;
2. Bike shop tried some Norco stuff instead of Stans;
3. Bike shop ended up trying a "split tube" which I think freaked out the bike shop guy.  Because he still had not trimmed the rubber off and the tire was sitting on the rubber, when he pumped it up, the rubber slipped and made a huge "BANG!" in the store.  I laughed.
4. So after that I offered the idea of trimming the rubber to cover the rim tape and then put Stans and then attempt to inflate it. 

With that said, I've finally got to drive the bike in to work and there was a significant difference in performance.  I was kind of surprised.

Giant Bike Rim (one that was sold with the bike): I would get an average of 22km per hour, which is fast enough as I was still getting exercise out of it.

Canadian Tire Rim: I was down to 18km an hour and felt like I was driving in mud all the time.

Rolling Daryl Surley Rim with a quick release 170mm Salsa hub: I was holding 26km easily and I still had two more gears to drop down to.  Since this was my first run, I decided to leave gear changing and raitos out of my test.  But wow, felt like I was riding on glass.