Perennial Cycle

I can be a bit foolish. I really thought that when Derek and I finished the January Century of our 1 century per month challenge we were on easy street. Ha! One and a half days before our last minute run at a February century (yes, we scheduled it for the 28th) we happened to get 6 inches of snow. I took the bus home rather than struggle through a ride home on Thursday night (the ride was scheduled for Saturday morning).

Derek e-mailed me Thursday late afternoon that he'd contact me Friday to work on a plan of attack. My response to him (Thursday night) was:

Leave early and stay late.
Yes we can.

Derek immediately responded to me:

we are on the same page.
-D

Wow! I think I'd be hard-pressed to find a more stubborn individual that was able to stick to the task. Derek didn't even hesitate. Our nordic heritage may be playing a role here (yes, we are in Lake Wobegon).

On Friday we discussed routes and because of the quantity of snow we were grasping for a route (with no agreement or argument), but then late Friday afternoon it was sunny enough that the roads were clearing fairly well despite the cold temperatures (around 16º). Thank goodness for that. We were able to plan on heading out of town 50 miles, have lunch and head back.

It was a difficult century for sure. Start temp at 4º with unknown road conditions, but the roads turned out to be pretty decent and the sun shined brightly enough that the afternoon was pretty speedy riding.

Mentally it was my biggest challenge yet, but we pulled it off and had fun throughout the ride. Good times.

This past December I was asked to jury The St. Paul Prize Design Competition 2008. A somewhat unusual role for me as I'm not an architect, a designer, nor a member of the St. Paul Chapter of the American Institute of Architects who sponsored the event. However, I do own a bike shop that's dedicated to cycling as transportation. As luck would have it, architect Eric Lagerquist (Smithgroup) was in the shop to pick up a copy of VeloVision, and asked if I would participate.

The judges included six designers/architects, myself and my friend who is car-free and a Minneapolis city bus driver. The entries were presentation boards as well as written explanation of the designers intent. All of the entries were exciting and well done. Everyone did a nice job of making it look fun and easy to commute via bike and bus.

Participants in the competition were local architectural interns. The programmatic requirements were minimal in order to allow a more free hand for the aspiring designers. They were given two real locations with a few constraints for each:

White Bear Location
• Storage for 50 Bicycles
• Two single occupant toilet rooms, ADA compliant - 80 s.f.
• Coffee Hut – 50 s.f.
• Work Space for attendant/repair man – 100 s.f.
• Ticket Sales Kiosk
• Integrated Renewable Energy Element

Como Location
• Storage for 20 Bicycles
• Ticket Sales Kiosk
• Integrated Renewable Energy Element

Typically the simpler designs faired better than more complex ones. (It's true, less is more.) Not only were they cleaner solutions, but they would be easier to maintain, less expensive to build and more portable. One of the more complex designs was made of hexagonal glass sheets put together in a honeycomb style. It was inspired by the designers own carbon fiber bike frame. Everyone agreed it was spectacular, but the cost of building and maintaining it would most likely keep it on the drawing board, particularly in this economy.

One of my friends once commented that Curt Goodrich is the best frame builder you've never heard of. Be enlightened friends, that is changing. Curt has always built a few bikes on the side, but until recently he's spent most of his time building all the U.S. Rivendell bicycles. But now he's broke away from Riv so he can concentrate on Curt Goodrich Bicycles. Lucky for us, Curt's right here in Minneapolis. In fact, Perennial Cycle has partnered with CG for nearly 10 years now. He does our S & S coupler installations as well as our more involved frame repairs.

Well, this weekend Curt Goodrich Bicycles will be displaying some beautiful work at the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show (NAHBS). In the past few weeks, Curt's been by the shop several times so we've had a chance to see the progress on his pieces for the NAHBS. Wow! He has some beautiful bikes. His studio is just a couple blocks from our warehouse space in NE Minneapolis, so I stopped by the other day to snap a few pics for you. Here's an All-Rounder frame in the paint booth. Sweet bike. NAHBS is a pretty awesome show. While I've not attended yet, I have seen many awesome and inspiring bikes through various galleries online. The event starts today, so in the next few days we'll see a lot of spectacular stuff in the blogosphere -- and Curt's frames will be among the best.

Lucky for us, the largest distributor of cycling parts and accessories in the country is located in the 'burbs just south of Minneapolis. Every day we see the advantages of getting speedy delivery of bits from Quality Bike Products (QBP) for our customers. On Sunday, we saw the true beauty of QBP being in our back yard was so we could ride our bikes to their annual trade event, Frostbike.

Thanks to a late start, the temperature was up to 5º when we hit the road at 10am. (They do call it Frostbike, afterall.) The roads were mostly clear and the Sunday morning traffic was fairly light. I realize not everyone would have enjoyed this, but we're all native midwesterners. It rocked.

The event was packed with dealers, vendors and famous industry types from all over the world (Greg Lemond walked past at one point). Being that Surly is owned by QBP, the Surly booth was a happening place. Civia and Salsa (also Q brands) were showing off their shiny new product lines. We got to see the new QBP brand for '09,  All-City Cycles. This brand is built around a steel frame that is track legal, but is designed to be sold as a hip city bike. The Minneapolis skyline is in the All-City logo as well as lasercut from the rear dropouts. Too cool.

After geeking out on the bike goods and having an awesome lunch (thanks, Steve) we jumped back on the bikes for the 16 mile ride back to the shop. Today, I love my job.

Here's a little video of the gang at Frostbike '09:

Ride details:
-Departing Temp: 5º
-Bikes: 1 Pugsley, 1 Bauer fixed gear road bike,1 Raleigh fixed commuter, one mountain bike and my handmade steel recumbent commuter
-Technical Issues: 1 flat tire (Sara!)
-Mileage: 32 round trip
-Best Schwag: Sigma Hiro Taillight