Bikes are the hottest thing in Minneapolis since Josh Hartnett.

​Have you heard that Minneapolitans have a crush on bikes?

The rumored love affair was confirmed yesterday by new Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Shaun Murphy during his presentation of the city's first-ever Bicycle Account, a summary of bicycle activity Murphy plans to make a biannual tradition.

If Murphy is to believed, it appears the city might be ready to go steady with its favorite two-wheeled mode of transportation.

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This kid left his brandy, but got a stolen bike.

​Frustrated that her 10-year-old's BMX bike was stolen, and likely gone for good, an Inver Grove Heights mom has taken to Youtube to vent her frustration -- and to show the faces of the two little punks who stole it.

Kathy Anderson is pretty ruthless toward her son's thieves, calling them "2 idiots" in the video's description, and noting that the hoodlums "left their half bottle of brandy on my neighbors [sic] patio before riding off."

"I'm sure we will never see the bike again," she wrote, "but I can only hope parents of these 2 morons see this."
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This is how the Australians imagine Minneapolis.

​Minneapolis has the well-earned reputation as the top biking spot in America. In fact, that rep has apparently spread all the way across the globe, and now the Australian media has come, like anthropologists studying some far-off tribe, to learn about our frigid little bicycling paradise.

Of course, the built-in trope was deflated a bit with the unseasonably warm October weather. But never mind that. Let's just pose -- helmets on! -- for the cameras as the amazed reporter asks, "Just how do you  do it?"

A feature in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald, entitled "Wintry city a wonderland for cyclists," examines our record as the premier spot for cycling Yanks.

There's even a poll for the best biking city in the world, which includes Minneapolis. We can probably live with getting crushed by fancy central European cities. But Portland? Come on Australia, we were nice to you!
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Minneapolis now trails Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco.

​What gives, Minneapolis?

One year we're creeping up on Portland for the most bike commuters in the country, and now we're barely even on the scoreboard.

From 2009 to 2010, Minneapolis dropped two spots to the fourth most-biked city in the United States, according to the American Community Survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau. That puts us behind Seattle and San Francisco.

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Photo by DVS, Flickr.

Police didn't give a description of the boxer shorts, but we imagine they looked something like this.

​An 18-year-old bicyclist says he was beaten unconscious earlier this week in St. Paul, and woke up missing everything but his boxers.

The unnamed cyclist got away without serious injuries, but the incident is yet another example that even the country's most bike-friendly communities have their issues.

According to St. Paul police, the cyclist was hit near the corner of Maryland Avenue east and Prosperity Avenue north around 11:00 p.m. Tuesday.

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The last leg of the Cedar Lake Trail is open.

​Twenty years after the Cedar Lake Park Association set the plan in motion, a two-lane bicycle freeway has finally opened to connect St. Louis Park with the Mississippi River.

The last mile was a $9 million pain in the neck, too. The Minnesota Twins plunked a new ballpark right in the way, the Federal Reserve called the route a truck bombers delight, and the Northstar commuter rail line proved to be a bit of a logistical challenge.

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Thirteen of Clubs

Time to pedal.

​On Monday, we were so on board with the whole Bike Walk Week thing. But then, a steam bath worthy of Mekong Delta melted the roads and turned our heads to mush. And now that Bike To Work Day is finally here, we have a different issue: It feels more like Portland outside.

But OK. We'll ride to work, and as we cross the Stone Arch Bridge, or round Lake Calhoun, or dodge the buses at Lyn-Lake, we'll keep telling our sweaty selves that this year is going to be the year we ditch the car until Labor Day, drop 10 pounds and learn to pity the commuter stuck in the Lowry Tunnel.

Then we'll stop at the coffee shop for a 3-billion-calorie latte and a donut.

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Get out of your car this week, but stay in the shade!

​Here's some unfortunate timing: Minneapolis Bike Walk Week just happens to coincide with this morning's Excessive Heat Warning. But at least Bike To Work Day comes Thursday, by which time the tropical heat should have abated.

Bike riders melting into little puddles of salty goo don't make for great PR -- or converts to pedal power when they're used to air conditioned cars and lattes.

But that shouldn't stop you from getting out there, because this is really just a great excuse to stop by the beaches, lakes, creeks and parks that always seem out of reach because you can't find anywhere close enough to them to park.

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Minneapolis wins the gold.

​We got a promotion.

The League of American Bicyclists has named Minneapolis its only gold medal winner in this year's Bicycle Friendly Community program, moving us up from silver, which we first won in 2008.

That's not bad way to start National Bike Month, especially for a place that spends a sizable chunk of the year in frostbitten darkness.

But then again, we're getting used to the accolades.

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Kimberly Hull was set graduate in a few weeks from the University of Minnesota.

​This rotten, cold, damp April was no match for more than 100 bike riders who turned out yesterday evening for a memorial ride through Dinkytown in honor of Kimberly Hull, the U of M student who died last week when her bike crashed into a dump truck.

Organized on Facebook by a man she never met named Kyle Torfin, the ride started in Van Cleeve park and ran right past the spot across from McDonald's at 15th and 4th where Hull fell on the morning of April 21.

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