And now a word from our sponsors...

Thank you, generous cashier at Au Bon Pain (Capella Tower) for providing me with two plastic bags with which to cover my beloved sneakers. The skies opened up on Wednesday right as I prepared to ride the bike home, and I didn't want to ruin a perfectly good pair of Adidas. I promise I will patronize your skyway level pastries and/or coffee soon.

Twin Cities Bike Walk Week came and went (June 4-12) without much fanfare here. After two years of setting up a work team, I've learned that most people in public accounting aren't interested in these kinds of activities, so I didn't even bother signing us up. I did participate in Bike-Walk Day (Thursday the 9th) but arrived somewhat late so most of the excitement had faded by that time.

If anyone hasn't heard of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, it's a great freebie spectator event to take in. I made it to the Crit races in both St. Paul and Minneapolis this year and enjoyed every second of it. You can check out some video highlights at the website, and here are a few teaser pics from St. Paul and Uptown, respectively:

Watching this race almost makes me want to drop a few grand on a high end racing bike, some tight fitting expensive clothes, and some clipless pedals. Almost.

Whoomp! (There it isn't)

I wanted to title this post in the present tense when I rode past the Ace of Base themed pillar this morning. But by the evening commute, the graffiti police had already cleaned it up:

I'm continuing to tack on the miles from commuting and other rides. Last week was pretty good:

Monday - No commute (Memorial Day)
Tuesday & Thursday - Bicycle
Wednesday & Friday - Carpool

On Thursday after work I rode almost 20 miles, then logged a 55 miler on Sunday morning to finish the week right at 95 miles.

YTD Mileage
The last confirmed reading I have on my odometer is 613 miles at 11/1/2010 which was about the time I switched over to the winter steed. So my estimate for year to date mileage is 483 miles.

How many miles are in a fortnight?

Well, the fortnight ending May 29th had about 120 miles. Most of this (80 miles) was spent riding to rural Zimmerman, MN, then back to the Elk River North Star station where I caught the 5:15 train back to Minneapolis. The rest was from some recreational rides and commutes.

The miles should start building up now as I'm getting ready for a full week of RAGBRAI this summer. Other things on the summer bike agenda: complete a ride from the twin cities to Iowa and get rid of a few bicycles in the garage/basement.

Consider this a five day warning

You absolutely HAVE to go check out the Nice Ride MN website and sign yourself up for a membership. As I've mentioned before, it's only $40 through May 31 and it's pretty easy for this thing to pay for itself with the money it saves:

Want to bike to work but don't want your bike to get stolen? Find a Nice Ride station near you and save yourself the $40+ you would have dropped on a Kryptonite lock.

Live in the suburbs and don't have a station close to you? Park for free on the fringes of downtown near a NR station, and ride on in to the office. In a week it will have paid for itself.

Even if you don't do either of those, a membership still comes with a TON of good coupons for bike shops and restaurants so you can probably get your $40 back through purchases at these locales. Not to mention that a membership comes with two complimentary 24 hour subscriptions for a friend ($10 value).

Seriously, this is a great deal, so go get yourself signed up PRONTO!

Wednesday's Commute - Early 90s Flashback Edition

Today's round trip to the office provided both morning and afternoon stimuli which sent me immediately back to the days of hyper-color t-shirts:

AM - Ace of Base lyrics splashed across a supporting pillar of my favorite underpass

PM - A pack of rollerbladers gliding down the Hiawatha trail

I logged more hours both rollerblading and listening to Ace of Base in the 90s, but I'm not certain what compels someone to risk criminal charges by announcing "All that she wants is another baby" in the public arena.

Anybody remember what you were doing in the early 90s?

Toward another disequilibrium?

In a perfect world, my commuting miles would match my work hours:

4 miles to the office + 4 miles from the office = 8 miles/day

8 miles/day x 5 days = 40 = 40 hour work week

I have spent the past few months working a lot more than 40 hours, and riding a lot fewer than 40 miles each week. Hopefully that starts to flip very soon since busy season is over, and the weather is making for more ideal riding conditions. I don't think I'll be having much of a problem getting closer to a 1:1 ratio as long as the weather cooperates, and hopefully I"m closer to 2:1 or 3:1.

I did keep the "consecutive months with at least one bike commute" streak going by riding to the office on a Saturday, plus to the client site last Monday the 25th.

In other news, the NiceRideMN bikeshare is operational again, and I've already logged a few rides. Through May you can score an annual membership at a reduced price ($40) and they also throw in two vouchers for 24 hour passes you can use to let a friend tag along. Get yours here!

March Madness

It's almost over. One more game to see if the Huskies or Bulldogs reign as champs this year in NCAA basketball. I'm pulling for Butler, though I admit I was too busy this year to even complete a bracket since my own (January through) March madness overwhelmed me. Thankfully, it's also coming to an end soon.

Looking back at March, I did have one good week of riding (March 14 - 18) when I covered half of the week's commutes on bicycle. Since then, the weather has been spotty and I haven't wanted to ride the the Long Haul Trucker until conditions improve a bit, but the coming week looks good, especially if rain washes the winter sand and grime off the streets and trails.

Saturday was one of the first truly bike-able days of the year, and it marked two milestones: the first time I have broken two chains in one day, and the first ride on the Drifter in 2011. I rode my Dunelt 3-speed to the closest bike shop (the Hub) to grab a new chain for the Trucker, but the chain snapped only blocks from my destination. This was caused more by the significant corrosion that had accumulated on the chain than my massive leg strength overpowering the steel rivets. To add to the irony, the shop was out of the size of chain I needed for the Dunelt so I "scootered" home on the bike.

After a few botched attempts to install the new chain on the Drifter (more on that later), I met up with a friend to wheel over to the opening of 2011 Minneapolis Artcrank, and break in the Drifter. This was my second time checking out the Artcrank event, and I actually thought this year featured a stronger selection of posters than the 2009 event. I walked away empty handed, yet again, primarily a function of the posters I liked not fitting any color schemes in our house. Here are my top three:

"Neighborhoods" - Adam Turman

"Twin Cities Cycling: Stone Arch Bridge" - Tim Kramer

"Twinfinite Cities" - Todd Zerger

Don't worry if you wanted to check out Artcrank but couldn't make it to opening night, it continues through May 22 but moves on to One on One Bike and then Art-a-Whirl. Check the website for details.

So how did the other chain break? On the return leg of the ride, the chain snapped right as I crossed Lake Street on Minnehaha Avenue, this time only one block from the Hub (which had been closed for an hour). As I mentioned before, I experienced a few mishaps installing it initially and forgot to properly weave it through both the front and rear derailleurs (not once, but twice). The final time breaking and reconnecting the chain was a little sloppy, and I wondered how well it would hold up. Not well it turns out. Two bikes, two rides, two broken chains.

I figured I needed a few minutes to simmer down, so I walked the bike home.