minneapolis is golden for biking, all year round. you don't need anything special to ride the snow, but you do have to clean the salt off every couple days unless you want a large lump of rust for a cassette. i rode with 700x23 and 27"x1 1/4 last winter, but apparantly some people like fatty tires for the snow.

and yet...
here i am...
in mpls...
on a fixie...
with a singlespeed in the garage...
drinkin' beer...
in high heels.

I suppose I could dig some heels out of the closet.
Have any of that beer left for me?

only girl i've seen in mpls riding fixed was this chick on a gunnar frame on the way to the bike festival race downtown. must have been you.

Someone isn't looking hard enough ;)

nope.
i'm on the little blue zebrakenko that could.
if you see a girl in heels
with ridiculously large gearing
almost always riding with a boy
who would be on a black peugeot fixie
with even more ridiculously large gearing
that
would be me.

don't you people get tired of riding downtown with all the stoplights on your huge gearing? when grandma beats you across the intersection cause you have to grind on your 52x15 isnt that a bad feeling?

heck no! i don't seem to have trouble flying past grandma,
because she's invariably in the highest gear possible,
so her wrinkly lil' legs are spinning nearly out of control,
and i glide past silently.
you underestimate my strength!

no offence, but no me gusta uptown.
i like south east, nord east, powderhorn, elliot, whitter is as close to uptown as i will get to live......
but it is all opinion and we all have the rt to our opinion.

oh, and yeah there are a lot of people here who ride a bike. a lot. welcome! lake has really good winter gear for those jan. days. just my humble opinion. my fingers have not fell off yet! i still have my ears too.

in st. paul i like these bars

half time wreck
ogaras
the muddy pig (i have been there with 4 groups of people and have never tried to find it on my own)
you can always carry a flask too. it helps in the winter.

1/2 time rec is awesome. Make sure you play bocce ball in the basement.

Muddy pig is at Dale and Selby iirc....good selection on tap.

All this makes me thirsty. Let's say we get in a St. Paul bar ride before you leave us for L.A.? And that would be two weeks from now, right ; )
p.s. Lebanon Saturday afternoon, after the velodrome in the morning, provided the last party at 1009 Friday night doesn't do us in? Trails for sure though, hangover included.

Critical Mass is always a good time. I've been slowly upgrading my bike bit by bit since the start of the summer and haven't had a chance to take it to critical mass yet. I'd say about half the bikes I see people actually riding on campus are fixed gears or ss freewheels. Seems that Bianchi has garnered a good deal of the marketshare around here. I live over on Como Avenue just off campus and my roommate and I go on pretty long bike rides fairly often. We had quite the adventure last Thursday. I'm a recent freewheel convert and am looking to buy a fixie when I get the cash. The bike culture is what you make of it. If you're proactive about it you can find quite a bit going on. If you don't look very hard it may not seem like there's anything going on. I know I didn't really do much outside of critical mass before I became interested in fixies. Get on the listserv for critical mass and you'll get a little bit of info about the goings on. I'd check in at some bike shops to see what things they might know about if you really want to get active. Good luck with the move.

You guys have really eased my mind about MPLS/ST Paul cycling.
Continuing riding as motive engine to the lifestyle was huge.
Seattle and the Twin Cities sound similar enough to make for an easy transition.

Any seriously good coffeeshops out there? Anyone been to Seattle that can compare the coffee?

I'm talking: (also my cafe-fix route aka Hunting the Dark Goddess)

Difficulty: 5-10 espressos, good amount of hills dunno mileage roughly 20. at 42x16
Zeitgeist (Pioneer Sqr) -> D'arte (Downtown) -> Bauhaus (Pine, Cap Hill) -> Caffe Vita (Broadway, Cap Hill) -> Volunteer Park ->Victrola (15th, Cap Hill) finish 1 Canterbury for pitchers-> finish 2 Allegro (U.Dist) pitchers at Flower's, or Dante's or Monkey Pub.

Coffee may be a silly concern, but a concern nonetheless.

Beer me?
Dive Bar recommedations? I'm too old or out of patience for trendy/danceclub bars.
Pabst Blue Ribbon, some imports bottled and draft, some local brews bottle/and tap)
Darts, shuffleboard, pin-ball, juke-box with local acts, local sports in season. Bar food. probably hasn't been changed in decades. diverse patronage. maybe sometime venue.

biedankt

Dive Bar = Palmers. Go there. Have fun. Real stiff Jameson w/ back is $3.75. No food, no credit cards, no checks. But HardTimes is a stumble away, with greasy food coop style and espresso until 4am... There are a lot of others, but that's my choice.

People look at you funny when you ask for 6 shots of espresso in a large glass. I still don't know why. If you want funny stuff with whipped cream and chocolate, well, I've got no idea.

Maurice Garin 1903
http://www.kb.nl/uitgelicht/vitrine/...garin_1903.jpg
I'm wearing the hat on the right.

So there is good espresso? Do they know ristretto from a hole in the wall? Mofo gotta make me sing!

Price for?:
Carbomb
Pitcher/pint Pabst Blue Ribbon
Knob Creek
Basil Hayden, etc.

1 good Irish pub with the Pogues on the jukebox, and EPL /Rugby on TV.

smoke in bars y/n?

Smoke in bars = N

Law just went into effect. Can't answer the others.

If you're going to school at the U of MN, I recommend you contact Parking and Transportation Services to reserve a bike locker ASAP... those spaces fill up. It would suck to have to park your bike on the other side of the river in winter. :)

http://www1.umn.edu/pts/biking.htm

KEYBOard broken, so pAY NO attention to the rANDOM CaPitALIZation.
smoke, in st.pAUL, NOT IN MPLS.
DRINK WHEREVER YOU YOU Want.
ride your bike ALL OVER.
Park your bike in my bACK Yard, or AT SCHOOL. IT'S NOT THat difficult.
i suppose i hAVE TO RIDE MINE TO THE Mall tomorrow to buy A NEW KEYBOard, yA THINK?
SPEaking of which, i hAVE a greAT Back yARD, and we hAVE a "moving to L.A." friend, perhAPS a "welcome-to-slASH-GOODBYE-mpls" Party is in order?

Coffee near MacAlester? Old School hipsters rave about Dunn Brother's (across the street).
Dive Bar? The closest to Macalester is "the spot bar" on Randolph and Victoria. It has no shuffleboard and no live bands (yet).

Hmm, you got a BBQ in that back yard? I'd be down.

BBQ and beer, you know it.

I'd bring a sackful of beer. Left the chicken in Seattle.

I'm bringing 2-3 bikes along with me. Problem is I can't do any bike repair where I'll be living. I'd be doing a SS or Fixed conversion to an old beater mtb and gear it for snow riding.
Are there any bike shops in St Paul that would let me pay a nominal fee to do work on my bikes in their shop? Do you generally find good access and supply of parts for SS and fixed?

I'm so pumped to be moving to a bike friendly city.

Danke

http://www.bikeped.org/Depot.html $25 annual fee. Parts cost extra. Express bike shop will likely be closer to you, but you have to get to know the folks there before they'll let you at their shop.