More Minneapolis Stuff

In addition to working and visiting the LFOAB I had some other fun

Twinkies lose a close one to the A's at the Metrodome

Man is the metrodome terrible. Even half full it is deafening and the astroturf has mange. But it was still fun to go to a game and spend $6.50 on a watery beer.

Got to see A's wunderkid Brad Zeigler pitch. I had no idea he was a submariner, almost as fun as a knuckler:




I also visited Hurl at CarsRCoffins a few times. Hurl and I go way back to the old days of racing sting rays over top of fallen drunkards at bike events. His bike/coffee shop is really nice and filled with old bikes and good coffees and cookies.

Schwinn and Bianchi Goodness

and yes, I bought a carsrcoffins onesie.


Me and Hurl


Good stuff Hurl. Next time maybe we ride.

Also, lost in the last post was that I met Bob Brown finally. I think I have been in Email contact with him for about 10 years. It was great to meet him and ride with him. Too keep with the pointy photo theme:


image stolen from LFOAB, click for source

In addition to having geeky engineering discussions with Bob, I got a chance to check out his excellent handiwork on Scott and Amy's bikes as well as one of his sns coupled bike at One-on-one. He also told me the secret to the copper coated bike that he made for Amy. Its people! Its coated with People!

Copper and People coated BB frame:


It is hard to tell from the photo above, but Bob looks like freakily like my buddy Mark Bishop. I think they are related. Which one of you is the orphink?

Finally, I got a chance to swing by the One On One bike studio coffee bar on my way out of town. It is excellent. The bike shop/coffee shop is a hard trick to pull off, but they seem to have two gooduns in minneapolis.

One-on-one shop front with custom racks

Next to Sex World a block from the Mississippi.

Big Dummy-Bison-Elk

I think I saw at least 6 big dummys in MN. They are everywhere. You cannot escape them. One on one had perhaps the best taxidermied head collection I have ever seen in a bike shop. The studio was clean and displayed bikes with plenty of room to browse and drool. But then. There was the basement.

The basement starts organized

Used bikes galore stacked up and well labeled.

Then descends into bicycle madness


The further you go in the basement the more chaos reigns. I think I saw a CHUD lurking in a corner behind a rusted out Shelby Flyer. There was so much good stuff down there that I was unable to process, cooler heads would have grabbed the huge box of internally geared hubs and ran for the Canadian border, but my circuits fried pretty quick when I got in the basement.

All in all, Good show minneapolis, I hope I will be back.

A Visit with the Large Feller!

I was up there in Minneapolis for some work and got a chance to do some riding and visiting with the LFOAB©™® and his family. Good stuff!

Bob Brown, Scott aka LFOAB, Amy/Chloe, me over the missisippi


Scott and I are clearly operating on more or less the same wavelength. I blame too much time spent in New Jersey. After knowing him through the e-net for a couple of years and speaking to him once or twice a few years ago, it was great to actually meet him face to face. He is a good fucker. He also has a great story about the redemptive power of bicycling and vegetable based eating, if you are not, for some reason, aware of his dealy-o check out this article in the Star Tribune. Not to belabor things, but he looks great, is at something like 1 Tarik in weight and it is difficult to tell that he has not been a hard core urban cyclist for his whole life. Also he is a huge local bike celebrity and has at least one, possibly more creepy people who sort of stalk him! Much respect.


After my work duties were done, I rolled from bloomington strip mall hell uptown to the minnihaha greenway through some fine urban singletrack and past the hordes of post work cyclepath olympians to a nice bench where Scott met me on his El Dumbino met me and rode with me back up to his house.

I live for urban singletrack



There I met his wife Amy and daughter Chloe and The Most Productive Man Alive©™®: Bob Brown. We had some beers and delicious algae water from the fine minneapolis tap and then went for a ride about town. Hitting key sites such as the mighty river, the new stadium construction site and the Gehry Museum at the UM thingy.

Scott and Chloe on el Dumbino, BBBB patrolling the rear of the peleton


After riding, it was time for eating. We had some sort of delicious chickpea derived dinner that Scott and Amy whipped consisting of two courses, pickled chick peas and the hummus wrap of the gods. It was good. I got covered in glowing yellow mustard was well sated. Following was good conversation ranging from corrosion science to blogging to evil to frame building to bees, catheters and spiders. At some point I was fading fast and it was well after eleven and then Scott let me in on a little secret: He and his family are pretty much vampires, due to Amy's shifts they don't sleep at night to maximize family time, and the meal we just had was lunch for them. Wooooo! With this knowledge Bob and I had to beg off and head for home. Before I left I was generously gifted some new tires for my friday, some I Piss Excellence©™®stickers and a few BBKenwood waterbottles. Thanks Pals!

Bob graciously rode with me to back to where I could find my way home and I headed off on the Minnihaha Parkway home. After nearly getting killed by a few stealth cyclists and at least 6 different bunnies with murderous intent and getting nearly abducted by UFO's, I got back to the hotel and slept like the dead. Something like 35 miles on the day.

After working the next day, I rode uptown to say hi to old buddy Hurl at his CarsRCoffins Coffee Bar Cycle garage. He was busy working and getting ready for single speed worlds so we caught up a bit and he pointed me out front where the whole Cutshall family was sitting having some how stalked me in advanced. Well played. So I got me a spinach wrap and sat down for more conversions. While we talked, we watched Chloe, just recently riding without training wheels derby this guy into the ground. A short while later we rolled out for a stately family ride out to one of the lakes for some beach sitting conversing and rock hucking.


Derby Queen Chloe and a custom Snap Deck on a Big Dummy



Alas all good thing must end and I had to get some sleep before working the next day so I headed off into the sunset leaving the famiglia LFOAB behind. It was great meeting all you minnehapasotanhahas.



It was a pretty quick business trip,monday-thursday, but I did manage to get in three rides on the fixie friday, see the Cuttshall clan twice, meet up with Hurl again after many years, visit the CRC cyclegarage coffee shop, meet Bob Brown and sneak in a trip to One on One Bike studio on the long long way to the airport. Also: twins game in possibly one of the worst places to watch a baseball game ever. Minneapolis, good place in the summer at least. Did not see Prince. Perhaps more later. I am still pooped.
All the minneapolis pics
LFOAB's take on the evening

PS to Scott, check the new masthead tag line , thats "blog gold" with a "©™®"