Burley Time!

Spring is here, I think. All signs say it's supposed to be. Even the groundhog predicted an early spring (a very rare occurrence). Monday was the home opener for the Minnesota Twins, another sure sign of spring on the calendar. However, it was 19 degrees at departure Monday, yesterday the same, and 25 with a wicked crosswind today.





I don't know why I had already put away much of my winter gear, so I ended up looking a little makeshift in my layering while riding my bike the other day. And it was miserable. Yesterday and today I planned better, and it felt better but not great. So I will focus on Saturday's Burley ride with hope of a warmer day and another Burley ride tomorrow.

It was gorgeous out and 48 degrees on Saturday. It was the inaugural run of the Burley and the twins were so cute riding behind me, I am sure I was risking all of our lives with every peek behind. Sammy got to be the first to go on a test run, and I have a picture of him in my mind that unfortunately I can't share. A little bit of worry turned to wonder and then delight as we got underway.

When Anders was added, the world heard screams of delight (he is he more vocal of the two) as we rode down to the lake near our Minneapolis home. Combine that with the hum of my studded tires on pavement (used the winter bike) and I am sure we turned some heads/ears with the spectacle. The whole family had fun. Sarah hollered at me to ride safer periodically, and the twins were weary from the excitement by the time we got home. Sam even conked out on the way.

 

 

Dreaming of Spring

If you have been reading my posts, you know that I have been participating in the Zap Twin Cities program. For me, the calendar on their website provides a nice visual indicator of how often I am riding that helps me set goals and motivates me to keep going. It has definitely helped me stay on top of my goals through the winter months. There have been a few icy days where I have got in the saddle just to hear that beep as I pass by the Zap station. A nice bonus is that they have a monthly drawing for prizes for those that have been "zapped" eight times in a month.

I don't expect to win the drawing, but they have occasional bonus freebees that I have been able to get in on. For being consistent in riding through September and October, I scored tickets to a Timberwolves game. For riding on some of the coldest days in January, I received tickets to take my family to the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show, which we were able to attend a few weeks ago. It was so nice to get out of the house, take the twins to do something other than for a walk at the mall on a Saturday, and fantasize about summer gardening and other projects around the house. As the first day of spring has passed this week and winter's chill continues to hang on, I keep riding and waiting for warmer days and wearing fewer layers.

Can't imagine someone putting a Moai Easter Island statue
in their yard, but it was a fun feature at the garden show.

Saddle up!

The Minneapolis Convention Center has a spacey view, that was fascinating to our twins.

They also loved seeing the large crowds of people. I think we were like most of these folks, zombies from our wintery world trying to forget that all this green was contained in a climate controlled convention center.

 

Love the willows(Salix caprea).

Everybody needs big bundles of twigs.

Skyway Performers

Brown Sugar

Not sure what compelled me to go out riding my bike in a blizzard today. OK, “blizzard” might be a slight overstatement. But it was snowing with wind gusts of up to 35mph and a zero degree wind-chill, the combination of which makes it borderline justifiable to stay home from work in Minnesota, regardless of your form of transportation. It’s probably because I didn’t ride at all last week and I have been itching to get out, and partly in defiance of the wintery March we are experiencing that I made the goal on Friday to ride every day this week, even if it is not very far. That was before I heard that the weather would be dicey today. To add insult to injury, I remember St. Patrick’s Day being a record 80 degrees last year; it’s making this snowy March every bit harder to bear.

I thought it would be okay, that the studded tires I put on my bike would give me a little more push… and they do in certain terrains. I feel more confident on the partially plowed roads and on the more icy packed snow. But I am missing my fatter tires with the deep tread when I get into the “brown sugar” snow that I so love to ride in. It’s dense, wet snow mixed with road-sand and salt and it really does feel and look like you could be riding through real brown sugar. On another day I would go looking for the stuff just for the fun of plowing through it and feeling it kick up onto my back.

Took cover from the wind crossing I-94

Today it is plentiful though (no need to search), but the tires I’ve got on my bike now don’t like it as much. I’m having to ride slow and put my foot down to stabilize myself at times and to slow going down the big hills around the capitol building. Brown sugar likes to clog my breaks and make them less responsive.

But it was fun to get out. The best was hearing the zap as I passed the Dero Zap station on Capitol Hill. For some reason I get satisfaction from marking another day in the saddle. Last month, for riding on some of the coldest days of the year I received tickets to the Minnesota Home and Garden Show from St. Paul Smart Trips, which we were able to attend a couple of weeks ago. It was so nice to get out and do something different on a weekend and fantasize about summer gardening and other projects around the house.

I wonder if Smart Trips will have a reward for near-blizzard riders this month. We’ll see. It’s not that I don’t reap the rewards of riding on its own; It’s just good fun to ride. But the little extra incentive is always welcome on a day like today.

This is about what I looked like on my bike today.
Andy Singer does these fun illustrations about bike riding.
Got a booklet of them at the St. Paul Transportation Summit.

Was done snowing on the way home. Lots of wind though. Stopped off for a snowbank shot.

Summits

Nice Ride Minnesota

I had an opportunity to visit the St. Paul Transportation Summit over lunch the other day. They gave the scoop on the projects, programs and policies impacting commuters in St. Paul, and it was actually a very interesting event. I had been feeling a little envious of those that were attending the 2013 National Bike Summit and had even looked to see if there would be online webinar offerings of the national Summit. Unfortunately, there weren’t any that I could find. But it was nice to be able to attend a short local version during the same week. (My favorite moment was when the Frogtown Neighborhoods program was acknowledged; all of the staff from the program stood and started waving and pointing to audience members like they were rock stars walking up to receive a Grammy. It still gives me a smile thinking about it.)

 

Full parking at the St. Paul Transportation Summit

To be clear, the St. Paul Summit was not about biking. Biking is just one ("key cog") component of what is needed in an integrated transportation system. What struck me is that the importance of building a seamlessly integrated system was a theme through each short talk held over the lunch hour (St. Paul Smart Trips did a nice job of lining up the speakers and orchestrating the event and this message).

I think it mirrored nicely one of the highlights that I read from the National Bike Summit that bicycling should no longer be considered a fringe activity. Douglas Meyer, who spoke on the Perceptions of Biking on Capitol Hill suggested that bike advocates tone down the message that “cycling is going to save the world” and that this type of promotion risks becoming “the equivalent of selling snake-oil.” (If you read my blog from February 28 you would see that I agree with him.)

Overflow Parking

The final speaker from the St. Paul Summit, MNDOT Commissioner Charlie Zelle, underlined that transit and roads are not separate systems, and that we need to maximize our investment in roads for the use of all. Agreed.

But between the rah-rah of the first and last speaker, there was a lot of talk on ways to justify raising regional sales taxes to be able to pay for improvements to the system. There is proposed legislation at the State Capitol (different from the Governor’s current budget proposal) that audience members were asked to buy into. A few days removed from the event, I wonder what the culmination of possible raised taxes for each special interest (from education and health to transportation and the arts) will leave me with.

This is too much thinking for this blog. I think I will just get out and ride.

Minneapolis Bike Mecca

I have been thinking a lot about the bike culture in Minneapolis. Where I live in Nordeast, the “urban” cyclist projects a strong cultural identity. I was in a bike studio downtown the other day that even sells Levi's skinny jeans instead of spandex. You see bike messengers and artists mixing into a “bohemian” bicycle sub-culture around here. I like to check out these types of places because I like bikes, I like art, and I like the vibe when they mix. But I don’t fit in. I am the guy that these bohemian bicyclists never talk to because when I do stop by the elitist bike studios, I often stand out wearing a neck-tie and khakis (I would normally stop in during a break, and skinny jeans are not yet dress-code compliant at my job). But when I do get a listening ear, it is fun to swap stories. Homer, my brother-in-law, worked as a designer in Minneapolis across the street from One on One Bicycle Studio for several years, and I have heard him complain that they don’t have time for you there unless you are a Bike Messenger or the like.

You also see a bit of the Green movement claiming some serious turf in the Minneapolis bike scene. Mix reducing your carbon footprint, expanding green spaces, and limiting urban sprawl and you have some effective leveraging for bike legislation. Add in public health advocates and you bring in added weight to increasing the number who bike commute and ride for health. And it has paid off in the form of some nice bike lanes, trails, and bike share programs around town. So I thank them for that, and hope to contribute in a small way to the cause.

However, I am not one to say that the bicycle will solve our social ills, and I certainly don’t claim to bleed pedal grease when cut. As anyone reading this blog can see, I am a casual cyclist who just likes to get out and ride and talk about it on the side -- not that anyone is listening.

I suppose cycling takes me back to care-free summer as a kid, when biking was our primary mode of transportation. For my brothers and me and our neighborhood group of friends, an endurance race was riding our BMX bikes 3 miles to the Civic Center in Brooklyn Center and back on a sunny afternoon (probably not something I would allow my boys to do in those same neighborhoods these days; it is unfortunate how things have changed). I remember each summer, being one with my bike and riding all over the area for my baseball practices and games. I never owned a bike lock, and my bike was always there when I needed it.

I still have a scar and a small lump on my forehead, which I got popping a wheelie when the front tire of my older brother’s red Schwinn wasn’t correctly attached. I remember seeing the wheel rolling away while I was midair and then feeling the sting of my forehead as it hit the speedometer and handlebars when I came crashing to the ground. I shook it off, put the tire back on without the help of a wrench, and almost repeated the same blunder a block later (Riding wheelies was my favorite).

My point is, that I like to idolize the bike messengers for their grit, green folks for their passion, and competitive cyclists for their discipline and determination. But I really just wish I could pull out that old BMX and go for a sunny ride with my old buddies, ball gloves hanging from our handle bars and bats on our shoulders on our way to an empty lot. 

Crashed Ice

I have been biking up and down Cathedral Hill quite a bit lately, and
got the see the different stages of Red Bull Crashed Ice – St. Paul
that took place the last week of January this year, from building the
track to test runs to tare-down. My favorite was climbing the hill
during a sound check with Coldplay’s “Paradise” blaring in the
background. Coldplay should accompany those bitter cold rides more
often (it was for sure below zero on that day).

There were daredevils doing test runs of the ice course on their skates, which included a start ramp that dropped 4 stories at a 45 degree angle. As I was
riding by someone hollered out to me to try my luck on the course on my bike. I called back that it sounded like fun.

Well, I got a chance for my own version of crashed ice last Friday; it didn’t hold a candle to what those guys were doing on the track, and ended much more embarrassing for me. I took a nasty spill after hitting a patch of ice, cracked and bruised a few ribs, and spent part of the evening in urgent care assessing the damage and getting some meds to take the edge off the pain every time I breathed.



A friendly couple passing-by stopped to make sure I was okay while I lay collapsed in a snow bank. Through gritted teeth I thanked them for their thoughtfulness and assured them I was fine, just had the wind knocked out of me and some bruised pride. Few times have I felt more paint though… and I am sure I am a wimp compared to those crashed ice guys who love to slam into the boards at full speed. Riding the Red Bull Course doesn’t sound like so much fun anymore; I’ll remain content to watch from the sidelines.

I’m going to borrow and share some sage advice just received from
Freewheel Bike:

“This year the road ice has been playing peek-a-boo with our tires.
First you see the ice, then it's gone...then BAM! it's back again in a
place you never expected it!
Stay safe. Stay upright. Ride studded tires.”

I am taking this advice and am accepting pity from a friend who is donating some lightly used studded tires, telling me I should not be walking on, let alone riding on ice without that added safety measure. It is definitely not fun seeing the ice below your wheels, and then the wheels out from under you as you crash onto the ice.