Thursday, May 8, 2014

MPLS Bike to Work Day


Bike to Work Day 2014 was a soggy one.
It rained on the way to work, and absolutely poured on the way home.

Don't get me wrong, I love to bike in the rain. I love getting into a rhythm, hearing the echo of the rain on my helmet. Believe it or not, I enjoyed pouring the water out of the sleeves of my windbreaker at the stops. It was raining that hard.

Fortunately, the middle of the day was perfect, and I was able to take a walk to check out St. Paul's "Future of Fourth Street" event, which felt like St. Paul's contribution to Bike Week. It was a nice community event that brought people out to celebrate the new and coming updates to St. Paul's transportation infrastructure. 


Nice Ride was there doing some demos on their green bikes, and they were also teasing us Twin Cityans with their "prototype" orange commuter bike (#001), a hundred if which will be hitting campus at Bemidji State in Northern Minnesota this summer. 


I have to say, it looks a bit more my speed than the green ones, a bike that got my attention, one you could spend a little more time on. 

Maybe it appeals to the 10 year old in me, I've seen that styling before:



Assuming their pilot up north goes well, I wonder if they would consider mixing this type in with the yellow-green ones.

It turned out to be a gorgeous lunch hour to wander downtown. There were a bunch of other booths representing the community and local businesses; I'll post some pictures Here.




Thunderstorms rolled in as I started my commute home. Wind and heavy rain that I have seldom been out in on a bike actually made the ride a little fun, despite the tornado watch that was in effect. I found myself wondering what I would do if the warning sounded, and was thinking of potential places to take cover. 

As I neared home though and the rain started to let up, Dero's ice cream pit-stop beaconed and helped me to forget all of that. 


I'm going to miss these little perks once Bike Week is over, but for now I am enjoying meeting new folks that, like me, love to move on two wheels.







No comments:

Post a Comment