Bikes and Hip-Hop: Two Reasons to Love Minneapolis

Bicycles and hip-hop. Sometimes two things you love about a place come together and create a smile as big as the Hennepin Avenue Bridge. I’ve been mentally composing a post about the confluence of the two in the Minneapolis for a while, but since Y.N.RichKids just released their newest video and it’s called “My Bike,” today seems like a good day. More about that in a few paragraphs.

1. First and foremost is Atmosphere’s “Sunshine.” This song is several years old now, and feels like an old friend that I only see in the summer (our radio stations know better than to taunt us in January). This live version won’t let me embed, so you’ll have to click the link. Some lyrics:

“Never really seen exercise as friendly/ but I think something’s telling me to ride that ten speed/ brakes are broken that’s alright* / tire’s got air and the chain seems tight/ hopped on and felt the summertime/ it reminds me of one of those Musab rhymes”

“Riding my bike around these lakes man/ feelin’ like I finally figured out my escape plan”

*It’s really NOT alright if your brakes are broken! Please don’t ride around the lakes without them. Some 3 year-old or puppy will dart in front of you and it won’t be pretty.

2. Another live video, my favorite version of one of my favorite songs, “The Bullpen” by Dessa:

In a brief but brilliant reference, Dessa describes sexism within the hip-hop industry, “They love me/ they love me not/ pulling pedals off my bike.”

3. Another fleeting bike reference in Brother Ali’s song “Star Quality”: “Battling me is like trying to bike in the sand.”

4. Doomtree’s video for Drumsticks features the Midtown Greenway and Stone Arch Bridge as well as the whole Doomtree crew.

I think Dessa is a genius, but it would be cooler if she were riding her own bike in this video.

5. Last but certainly not least, Y.N.RichKids (of Hot Cheetos and Takis fame) completely showed up Doomtree with their own bike-themed video, this time accompanying a bike-themed song.

Reasons why this is a better video:
a. The girls get their own bikes
b. They talked someone into letting them ride inside the Mall of America
c. T.C. Bear (the Minnesota Twins’ mascot) and Brother Ali make cameos

So now you know: Minneapolis is a good place to catch a hip-hop show and a good place to ride your bike. I’m sure there are a lot more examples I missed – leave a note in the comments!

Bike Trailer Errands

Today I borrowed this B.O.B. bicycle trailer from a friend and set off to haul heavy, awkward stuff around Minneapolis. I was pleasantly surprised at how simple it was! Sure, 30 pounds trailing behind my bike gave my legs a good workout, but the ride was smooth and uneventful. Connecting the trailer’s drop-outs to the fancy hub that goes with it was a snap. I felt very accomplished after successfully tackling the “hill” that is the Sabo Bridge, and fighting crosswinds on top of it.

Then I thought of Peace Coffee’s delivery people, who pull bigger, heavier trailers around the City of Lakes on a regular basis. Also friends who cart one or two children to day care via bike. All of this just proves that hauling stuff via bike is not generally very difficult for those whose leg muscles have been initiated (it does help if the bike has lots of gears). It was easy enough that I would do this regularly.

As you can see, there is an obscene amount of snow on the ground for April 19, even for Minneapolis. It was melting quickly and the streets were not icy, but I decided to ride my mountain bike with a studded tire. The Long Haul Trucker still needs four more parts before she will be a real bike, and the 10-speed Schwinn didn’t seem up to the task, especially given the slushy state of the roads.

This certainly isn’t a formal review of the B.O.B., but first impression was that it’s pretty sweet! The Trek 800 doesn’t corner tightly anyway, but I didn’t have to adjust the way I rode at all (maybe partly due to the single, central wheel). I would definitely check this trailer out if I were in the market and didn’t need to haul children.

30 Days of Biking – another year!

Like the image says, Monday, April 1st is the beginning of 30 Days of Biking. The name is pretty self-explanatory: bike somewhere – anywhere – every day for one month. This annual tradition started in Minneapolis, and has spread throughout the world. I participated last year and thought it was pretty sweet.

After a long, nasty Minnesota winter I’m feeling some inertia. Getting on my bike to get everywhere is less automatic than it was in October – the last few months have seen many days when the weather has made other transportation options more appealing, even more practical.

But it’s been nice this past weekend, nice enough to melt most of the snow. With it, viable excuses are melting away. So go sign up.

Need more incentive? Check out my post from 2012 about how 30 Days of Biking gave me a new riding experience.

Custom Long Haul Trucker – in progress

I’ve been wanting a nicer bike for a while. After saving up, I’m building up a Surly Long Haul Trucker frame. Here it is last week at the public shop space of Sunrise Cyclery, waiting for me to decide what tires, saddle and brake levers I want. Parts have been ordered! Stay tuned for the details.

Reflecting on Commuter Apparel

I have a complicated relationship with reflective clothing. I love how it makes me more visible and therefore safer while I’m riding my bicycle. I hate wearing flashy stuff (ha!) when I’m off the bike. Since I generally use my bike for transportation, there’s a fine balance to be struck.

Here are my top three picks for office-compatible reflective gear.

1. Beamer reflective saddle bag (on sale at Team Estrogen)

The best solution to this conundrum is to add reflective stuff to your bike – not your butt. The saddle bag I have on my main commuter has reflective trim that is highly visible from three sides. An all-reflective version would be even better.

2. Novara Edgewater Bike Jacket

classic short black trench

There’s a lot of bike commuter clothing with reflective material hidden behind a weird, otherwise inexplicable flap. I don’t own this jacket and can’t speak to other aspects of it’s bike-worthiness, but I love how simple REI’s design is. A classic trench with a reversible belt – brilliant! Now if only it came in cherry red, too.

3. Cole Haan Monroe Reflective Penny Loafer

These Cole Haan penny loafers are super flashy, but the unexpected use of reflective material in an office-worthy product makes the cut. In addition to silver, they come in black, purple, blue, green, red and yellow. The entire shoe is reflective and features Nike Air technology. I really want a pair! I’ve biked in loafers before without problems, but if you’re going to do it, make sure that you have enough traction on your pedals (or use toe straps), and that your shoes fit well enough that they can’t fall off while you’re riding.

Reaching out to New Cyclists: Downplay the Bad-Ass Factor

There are so many reasons why I ride my bike (for my finances, my physical and mental health, the environment, convenience, fun). It also makes me feel like a bad ass. Especially in the winter. Which is great – to a certain extent.

Last week I realized that sometimes I play up the difficulty of my commute to sound more bad ass or to impress people, which is pretty uncool. I was one of 5 women hanging out together: two of us were bike-committed, one was bike-casual, and two were non-cyclists. My bike-committed friend and I laid out our reasons for choosing two-wheeled transportation: convenience, speed, thrift, exercise.

And then I totally blew the bike evangelism pitch. One of the non-cyclists asked me if I worried about have mechanical problems and getting stuck. I said that I don’t, because I know how to fix most things on my bike and carry an extra tube, tire levers and hand pump at all times, and sometimes carry other tools. My new friends then concluded that I am definitely a bad ass, and that biking requires lots of knowledge and skills they don’t have and are not going to acquire any time soon.

I wish I could go back and answer that question again. I really do carry tools and know how to fix stuff, but when I first started bike commuting, a lack of tools and knowledge didn’t stop me. If you live in the Twin Cities (or lots of other cities), you’ve got options for dealing with unexpected mechanical trouble that require little or no mechanical skills.

- Catch a Metro Transit bus and put your bike on the rack.

- Go to a nearby bike shop. If your bike breaks down in Minneapolis, your odds of being within half a mile of a bike shop are pretty good. Don’t know where the nearest one is? Ask another cyclist.

- Lock the broken bike up, grab a Nice Ride, and come back for your own bike later (maybe not the preferred method for a valuable bike, but I like having options).

There are a lot of things that can make a commute easier or more enjoyable. Basic mechanical knowledge is one of them, but there’s no reason for anyone to think that she can’t bike commute because she doesn’t know the name of that thing that shifts gears (derailleurs).

As I’ve said before, we all benefit when more people bike. Yeah, the bike path might be a bit more crowded, but when more people bike, the rate of car-bike collisions decreases. Cycling becomes more mainstream. I can’t wait for the day when local new outlets stop writing stories about winter bike commuting as if it’s a fringe activity for adrenaline junkies. I now see that as cyclists, we sometimes encourage this perspective, maybe without being conscious of it.

Making bike commuting sound like the ultimate hard-core sport might appeal to a small group, but in my experience it alienates people. Portraying my commute as a dangerous, exciting activity is almost always wrong. I’m just another person headed to/from work.

Winter Bike!

Photo of my bike on the Sabo Bridge – I think this is a requisite for every Minneapolitan bike blog.

Winter biking in Minnesota does not necessitate a separate winter bike, but many people who ride year ’round here have them, either to save the wear and corrosion on their nicer bikes, or to better handle the winter road conditions (usually a bit of both).

I am happy to be one of those people. My winter ride is slow, relatively heavy, and feels pretty invincible in everything except loose snow (brown sugar in local cycling parlance). It’s a standard hard tail, steel frame mountain bike, with one crucial addition.

As soon as the roads get treacherous in the fall, I swap out the front tire for a 45NRTH Arcwelder. It’s over 2″ wide and has some serious tread and plenty of studs. I only put a studded tire on the front because studs are pricey, and I’ve been pretty successful in controlling the minor fishtailing that comes from having regular knobbies on the back. Maybe next year I’ll be able to spring for another stud. For the record, mountain bike knobby tires can pack up with loose snow pretty quickly.

The photos show my standard cycling water bottle. This is NOT a good idea. Not only will water freeze fast, the spout got covered with salt and ice melt chemicals.

Schwalbe has set the studded tire standard for a while now, but 45NRTH is an up-and-coming local company. I admit to being charmed by their references to Minneapolis culture, like the Heiruspecs pedals that name-check a local hip-hop group. I’m a sucker for a good name.

The bike itself was inherited from my younger brother, his main ride in his middle school days. Now he’s 6’2″, and this bike is not only way too small for him, it’s about one size too small for me.

This is not such a bad thing. Take, for example, the time I tried to see if my bike could handle 8″ of loose snow on top of a wood chip path. It couldn’t (not even a little bit) and so I just stepped off the bike. It’s easy to bail when the crossbar is nowhere near anything important.

There are lots of things I would change if I were building a winter bike from scratch (full fenders for starters) but I’ve been having a lot of fun riding this bike around this winter. There have been a few instances of plows working on hard, packed snow and ice here, leaving huge ridges of packed snow that make for a very bumpy ride. The mountain bike characteristics have handled it pretty well. If you’re thinking about a winter bike, converted mountain bikes are just one option. I’d love to build something like my friend Lowrah’s mixte.

Did I mention that this bike is slow? The mountain set up is pretty fun as long as you don’t have to go anywhere in a hurry. It takes so much energy to pedal that I warm up quickly, even when moderating my speed to deal with road conditions. One mile on this bike feels like at least three miles on a road bike with clear streets.

I hardly rode the winter bike last year. Between 2011′s weirdly mild, snowless landscape and the bike’s former, horribly uncomfortable saddle, my road bike made much more sense. This winter has called for a more stable steed, and I’m realizing that it also helps that I’m a stronger rider. Those hills, long rides, and one bike camping trip from last summer? The muscles built there are making this whole winter biking thing a lot more enjoyable.

I can’t claim that I bike everywhere in winter, or that I ride every day. I’m still working on convincing my boss that winter bike commuting is not an exercise in torture, but something that I generally enjoy. I’m biking to work at least once a week and trying to get in longer rides for errands or fun once a week. I know dozens of people who are much more hardcore than I am, but I’m pretty excited right now that I’m staying in solid cycling shape through the winter and having a ton of fun doing it.