modernjess

Consider this,

Here are 50 reasons why my town is the best bike town in the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcc06ilJZ94

fietsbob

Its Not a City. (its not Flat either) my town stays above zero through out the winter ,

but for an occasional week or so of Ice on the road,

but that is occasional not as regular as the inland upper mid west.

squegeeboo

Ha, the bike tacos bit got me.

"My business partner and I were drunk, and we really wanted tacos"

As well as the older guy "I'm not anti-car, there's just to many ****** cars"

bovine

Yeah, I was this close to going to law school there but, being from Texas, I just couldn't get past the average yearly temperature being 46 degrees (or thereabout). Austin is decent, but it's nowhere close to the Minneapolis. You should be proud of your city. Just don't be an ass to the rest of us not so fortunate souls.

tjspiel

The older guy is known as "Hurl" and was one early members of the Surly team at QBP. I've got one of his old cyclocross bars on my winter bike. There are several other Minneapolis cycling "luminaries" in the video including Geno Oberpriller in his bicycle graveyard at One on One bike shop. I've spent many hours in that basement scrounging for parts. If you walk down the stairs near the back entrance you're likely to encounter a pile of beer bottle caps. Not sure if they've been collecting there for years or if it's just from the night before.

One winter day I brought my bike on the train headed downtown and put it in the rack. A guy standing nearby looked at my badly rusting chain and said, "I work at One on One bike shop on Washington Ave. If you bring that bike in, I'll clean and lube that chain for free". He was that offended by it. I also had a chance encounter with the "Satanic Mechanic" (also employed there) on the street outside my office. The guy will talk forever.

It's a gritty bunch that you'd never find gracing the pages of "Copenhagen Cycle Chic".

gregjones

I haven't read the previous replies. All that I have to say is that the Minn/St. Paul area must have an effective public info system. Make that a damn effective system.

OK...........I have never been on a two wheel vehicle in the SP/MN area. I have, however, driven a big truck along every road in the area that it is legal (???) to do. In Atlanta, GA and most of California, you'd best not use your turn signals. They will know what you need to do and cut you off.

In SP/MN if a big truck lights up a signal the "four wheelers" scatter like roaches in a no-tell-motel. I loved driving there and have nothing but fond memories.

no motor?

I think most cities besides Portland would fit that description, at least here in the U.S.
Fat guy on a bike moved there for the riding, and then moved away because of the weather.

CrankyOne

They missed a few: Dero Bike Racks, World Cycling Productions (produces videos of Pro races and major importer of all things bicycle), streets.mn, St Paul Women On Bikes, GreaseRag (since @tjspiel mentioned people who are gritty), home of cartoonists (who often feature bikes) Andy Singer and Ken Avidor, and StrongTowns network. Location for the 2016 World Winter Cycling Congress.

Fun video though.

velocity

**** I live that every day in Portland. We got the new better bridge too. But I do like the Taco thang So you may have old Greg LaMond we have Chris Horner in the state- Hell we have Chris King so suck it d o u c hebag!
V

RidingMatthew

wouldnt it be cool if they could make a video similar to this for most major cities. If biking was that much a part of the culture in most major cities... sorry dreaming

loky1179

WOw . . I need to get out more! 3000 miles a year in the heart of the city, and somehow I missed much of this. Thanks for sharing!

InTheRain

I count myself fortunate not to live in any big city. Biking in Olympia, WA / Thurston county is PRIMO! However, we do lack a velodrome... oh well.

fietsbob

An Indoor One . Real Track Racing is done in the Winter.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Days_of_Ghent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-day_racing

alan s 

All we get is a bunch of whiners and complainers forming a "human shield."

Cyclists create human shield in push for safer bike lanes in D.C. - WTOP

spare_wheel

bicycle mode share in minneapolis has stagnated for years. i think a better topic would be to question what is wrong with cycling in minneapolis and what can be done to fix it. these are the questions i am asking in portland also, btw.

rmfnla

L.A. is such a big place you have to break it down into sections.

I am fortunate enough to live near the water so I enjoy clean air, beautiful scenery (photo is part of my daily commute), and almost perfect weather an obscene % of the year (it's 68 and sunny outside right now), so to me commuting in L.A. does not suck...

tjspiel

sub $3.00 gas

FanaticMN

I believe the data says otherwise. https://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/gro...s1p-135319.pdf

spare_wheel

bike counts in a few discrete locations say virtually nothing about mode share.

ACS census mode share:
[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD="align: left"][/TD]
[TD="align: left"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: left"][/TD]
[TD="align: left"]Minneapolis[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2000[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]1.9%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2005[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]2.4%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2006[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]2.5%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2007[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]3.8%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2008[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]4.3%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2009[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]3.9%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2010[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]3.5%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2011[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]3.4%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2012[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]4.5%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2013[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]3.7%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

CrankyOne

Both data methods have a lot of problems. ACS asks people only what mode they used most often traveling to work. Someone who rides 2 days per week but drives 3 should honestly answer drive so ACS will not capture that they ride their bicycle 40% of the time. It also fails to capture data for anything other than commuting to work. Our suburb has about 7% bicycle mode share for kids riding to school (18% for middle school). It's not unusual for 10-15% of people eating dinner in local cafe's to have arrived by bicycle. Many stay/work-at-home parents live car-free with a bicycle as their primary mode of transport but none of this is captured.

OTOH ACS does somewhat indicate trends up or down though you do need to do something like a 3-year running average to eliminate single-year errors.

SHBR

As a Minneapolis refugee, I have to say, its still a dreadfully boring city. No amount of bike tacos and bike bread will ever change this.

EricL

Great video, made me feel good and I've never been anywhere near Minneapolis. I think my city is getting there quickly, lots of good stuff going on. Plus we're right next to Boulder (or Boulder is right next to us).

Minnesota Expat

Chris King? Not sure who that is, but if you want state-of-the-art rims, you'll find them at HED Cycling in Roseville. And if you need any tools to build those rims, go to Park Tool in St Paul. So take a long lick on that one...

spare_wheel

which shows stagnation in minneapolis and portland but not so much in new orleans and dc.

CrankyOne

Curios why?