Mulad

Did you know that you can get just about anywhere in the Twin Cities via bike path? The following list features three of our favorite trails in the metro area, plus two paths essential for escaping the big-city bustle.

See also:
Top 10 bike shops in the Twin Cities
30 Days of Biking kicks off Saturday, March 31
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ARTCRANK

Since being founded in Minneapolis in 2007, ARTCRANK has spread across the country and the world. At first, the show's specific angle -- posters inspired by biking -- might seem like a gimmicky way of capitalizing on the recent resurgence of cycling. But after spending a little time with the artists and organizers who make it happen, it soon becomes clear that the "art" and "crank" of ARTCRANK are linked together by more than just a name.

See also:
ARTCRANK at Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art [slideshow, 2012]
Top 10 bike shops in the Twin Cities
30 Days of Biking kicks off Saturday, March 31

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The Hub Bike Co-Op

Knowing the choice bike shops during 30 Days of Biking is like knowing where the emergency exits are on an airplane. In order to get the most out of your bike, you need to know where to get repairs, where to get a beautiful dose of espresso, and, most importantly, where to party. Here are the Twin Cities' 10 best bike shops. More »

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Photo by Kendra Sundvall

Two wild and crazy riders at Cirque du So Gay

What does it mean to be a cyclist in Minneapolis, one of the nation's top cities for bicycling?

It can mean you party in the alleyway outside One on One and play bike polo at Corcoran. It can mean you shotgun gel packs and obsess on your cadence. It can mean you pedal to class in a U-branded hoodie and sweats, or rhapsodize about shredding Theo Wirth dirt in your nylon knickers. It can mean you simply  throw on a wool bodysuit when you want to take a snowstorm ride. It can mean you're a Dad who leads his brood around Lake Calhoun on Saturday. It can mean you're a rugged individualist who rides, but refuses to align with any cyclist genre because you just like bikes.

This year kept Minnie cyclists entertained in multitudinous ways, and I've compiled a list of my favorite memories from 2012. This list is subjective, and, admittedly, not comprehensive. (Unfortunately, I missed All-City, wimped out on Almanzo, and didn't show up to Nature Valley Grand Prix until the cleanup crew had descended on the granola wrappers.) However, what follows are some of the greatest 2012 Minnesota happenings on two wheels.

Related stories:
2012 in review: Top five Twin Cities comedy moments
The year in theater, part one: 13 favorites
Ten 2012 visual arts moments to remember
Paul Bunyan's Rolling Bike Party brings chill riders, beards
Bill Murray Dance Party goes mobile, even without Bill Murray
Freedom from Pants Ride: Patriotic nudity at its best

More »

Photo by Joe Sullivan

A rider at last year's event

This Saturday marks the return of Cirque du SoGay. For those not in the know, this bike scavenger hunt is in it's fourth year. It's put together by the Queer Bike Gang, an advocacy cycling group with a naughty sense of humor. The event is reminiscent of an "alleycat" race, as riders receive a list of checkpoints where they stop to do something quirky and fun in order to get their cards stamped.

Last year, the event was S&M themed. This year's ride is plotted around health and wellness. "There's so many organizations working on queer health around the Twin Cities, but I'm not going to name all of them because then it will just give everything away!" says SoGay coordinator EG Nelson.

Related articles:

Cirque du SoGay: Alleycat racing, scavenger hunts, and mistletoe costumes [2011]
Babes in Bikeland alleycat brings female cyclists to the streets of Minneapolis


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Some brave ladies rode in heels. Photo by Eric Shoultz

Related stories:
Paul Bunyan's Rolling Bike Party brings chill riders, beards
Bill Murray Dance Party goes mobile, even without Bill Murray
Freedom from Pants Ride: Patriotic nudity at its best

Babes in Bikeland is an annual WTF (women, trans, femme) alleycat where participants receive a list of stops and then determine their own route to the finish line with a pen and a map before taking off. Alleycats, a product of messenger culture, are often male-dominated events, but Babes in Bikeland is a celebration of female cyclists. Men can volunteer for stops and attend the dance after party, but they can't race.

For the 2012 ride, I joined in as a volunteer while my girlfriend Nola Gradzielewski rode as a Babe with faux flowers crowning her white Bern helmet. More »

Photo by Eric Shoultz

Related stories:
Bill Murray Dance Party goes mobile, even without Bill Murray
Freedom from Pants Ride: Patriotic nudity at its best

As Paul Bunyan's Rolling Bike Party threaded the Loring Greenway Saturday evening, I felt fall nearing.

Co-organized by Thinkjar.com and Tomahawk Tassels, riders met beneath a grove of trees with just-turning leaves in Loring Park's picnic zone. Thirty to forty participants, costumed in get-ups inspired by Minnesota folklore, roasted marshmallows and whipped up flapjacks on Thinkjar head honcho Mason Meisch's MOAB wünder-bikes. The sky had poured rain much of Saturday, but the storms subsided before the ride. Paul Bunyan and the Jolly Green Giant must have been looking down on us approvingly.

The ride departed at 7:30 p.m., with Young MC's "Bust a Move" pumping. We busted brilliant moves, and headed for the heart of Minneapolis on bikes, not blue oxen.

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Patrick Stephenson

Alley Cat wants to be "a space where people are happy to get their bikes built and repaired while learning a little at the same time," says co-owner Cali Jirsa

It's a chilly, late August evening in Minneapolis, with the sun nearly set and a ragweed haze in the air. I'm seated beside Cali Jirsa, co-owner of Loring Park's
Alley Cat Cycles, at a metal bistro table on the store's loading dock.

We're talking bikes.

Around us sits Alley Cat's bike armada: a silver Destroyer with a B&W checkered seat; a black-framed Pake fixie with red tires, red flat bars, and red saddle; and a pretty road bike whose antique-looking saddle complements its leather handlebar grips. The dock is like a porch, looking out onto both Loring Alley and the posterior of Joe's Garage. A few hundred yards before us, cyclists coast past a Nice Ride station on the Loring Greenway. In the cobblestone alley beside us, three painters work on canvases I can't see while a white-shorted Bar Lurcat valet smokes and a photographer snaps a dolled-up high school student. This alley, with its vintage looks, is senior-photo ground zero, a classy location for a scrappy new bike shop, founded 2011.

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Kendra Sundvall

Bill Murray's appearance may have been a hoax, but any excuse for a party

See also:
Bill Murray Mobile Dance Party slideshow
Bill Murray Mobile Dance Party: Will it feature Bill Murray?

Let's get this out of the way: Bill Murray, object of our love, star of 60-some Hollywood movies and TV series, did not show at Tuesday night's Bill Murray Mobile Dance Party.

Or, if he did, he did not make it known. Who knows, he might've bicycled beside us in disguise, Venkman himself incognito on a bright blue Schwinn Traveler III with handlebar streamers and a hamburger bell. Maybe he had Wayfarers on, despite the late-summer-evening dark. Maybe he smoked a thin cigarette and spouted witty remarks to the cyclists around him. But he was quiet about it. He did not fly into Gold Medal Park on angelic wings amidst a burst of heavenly light, like many hoped and--after a few shots of whiskey--sadly imagined. Bummer, dude. We still love you, Bill Murray. And the party went on anyway.

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