Like NASCAR without the fumes and the noise

One of our favorite summer rites commences tomorrow: the Nature Valley Grand Prix. It's a five-day bike festival featuring pro bike racing on the streets of downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. (There are also stages in Stillwater, Mankato, and Cannon Falls).

Tomorrow's opening stage is a newly added criterium in the Capitol City. Criterium racing is fan friendly, because it's conducted in a small circular course. That means rather than just passing you by in a single flurry of particolored lycra, the racers keep coming back, for more than an hour.

The most important implication being that you can find a comfortable watering hole to sit at and drink a nice glass of wine or a cold mug of beer, and enjoy the festivities of a fine summer evening. For Minneapolis's Friday night hoopla--the peak of the excitement--we highly recommend a curbside position like Brit's Pub or The Local, where you could literally pass a beer over the barriers to the peloton (but you might lose your arm).

Great River Energy Bicycle Festival/Nature Valley Grand Prix, http://www.minnbikefestival.com/

Circle of Trust

For months now, we've been rattling on about bikes and bike culture here in the Twin Cities. We never quite knew if it was just because we were watching the world from our own little bicycle perch, but it sure seemed like lots more Twin Citizens were hitting the bike trails to train or play or go to work.

Now we have proof that cycling is the new punk rock: Mpls Bike Love is a relatively new online forum that celebrates all things two-wheeled in our fair cities, and it's quickly bridging up to MNSpeak as the area's most active and engaging online community blog.

Even if you're not into fixies and singlespeeds and alleycats, MBL is a good anthropological snapshot of what 20- and 30-something Twin Citizens are up to these days; it's a great place to lurk if you want to watch an honest-to-god, old-fashioned subculture as it emerges and matures.

Plus, they've got a supercool logo that pays homage to our most garish civic symbol, Nicollet Island's Grain Belt billboard. Watch for this symbol in the spokes of bikes around town, and then go online and compliment that cutie on her pink ten-speed, or that hunkahunka on his Italian fixie.

Don't tell them we sent you, though. We don't rate in these rarified circles.

Mpls Bike Love, http://www.mplsbikelove.com

Hopped up on crank

What may have been the biggest event on the calendar for Twin Cities bicycle freaks happened last Saturday. 'Twas the Art Crank Poster Show for Bike People, at One on One Bike Studio.

We tend to shy away from crowds, and this was a doozy: 500 Minnesota cyclists in their courier drag managed to drink 5 kegs of donated beer. And they lined up right out the door for the chance to buy one of about 45 limited edition prints created by Twin Cities artists with special bike love.

But the opportunity to buy fantastic local art at pavé-level prices continues for two more weeks: Many of these terrific posters by artists like Ken Avidor, Amy Rice, and Nicki McCracken are still available for purchase for around $10-15.

Biking is the new punk rock, and you can't have punk rock without a uniform, a badge, and poster art.

Art Crank Poster Show for Bike People, http://www.artcrankpostershow.com/

Bikes and coffee and punk rock

Seattle and San Francisco are frequently cited as the most bike-friendly towns in the U.S. But the Twin Cities would certainly rank higher, if winter weren't such an impediment. Or is it? Even with -30 windchills, it's amazing to see how many people are still commuting to work these days, and you can chalk it down to the cities' great bike paths, bike lanes, and bike inclusivity.

It's not just Minneapolis' yuppie mayor who's behind all this. The Twin Cities have been a hub of bike industry and bike culture for many years. Two of the nation's largest wholesalers of bike parts are headquartered here. Park Bicycle tools are made here, and World Cycling Productions is based in St. Paul. Rivendell bike frames—to the cycling crowd what Bradleys are to the motoring crowd—are constructed here.

And our favorite local bike industry? The coffeeshop/bike galleries that are springing up around town, like Cars-R-Coffins. Actually, Hurl Everstone's little java shop on South Lyndale is the come-to-life avatar of his bike/punk rock 'zine of the same name. You've been seeing CRC tee-shirts, socks, and waterbottles for at least a decade now (we've spotted them as far away as the Catskills in New York), but Hurl struck upon the idea of opening his own coffee shop last year.

If biking really is the new punk rock, CRC is its 7th Street Entry.

CRC Coffee, http://crccoffeebar.blogspot.com/, 3346 Lyndale Avenue South Minneapolis, 612-822-4130
CRC 'zine, http://www.carsrcoffins.com/welcome.php

Two wheels good, four wheels bad

Have you noticed the proliferation of people on bikes all over our fair city? Even in the dead of winter? OK, so the globe is warming up and one of the upsides is year 'round cycling... well, some of us ride even when we get the weather we actually deserve here in Minnesota.

Biking is the new punk rock (with the added bonus of being cool no matter who you are, what you ride, or how you look). And if that's the case, then One On One is the New Punk Rock's Longhorn & Duff's rolled into one. Awesome vintage touring bikes line the walls next to the latest carbon-unobtainium euro-racers; boutique steel singlespeeds stand proudly next to Italian track bikes. Indie Fabs live harmoniously with Colnagos, commuters cohabit with free riders.

In the front at the bar, rumor suggests it may be the best cup of coffee in the city. In the rear is the gear and the full-service shop.

One on One is owned by Gene and Jennifer Oberpriller who--to carry on the punk rock metaphor-- are the Beej Chaney and Lori Barberri of the cycling world. But you don't have to be a chain-smoking, hard-drinking courier on a fixie to get treated like a regular respectable human being in this bike shop. One of our favorite things to do is hang out at the coffee bar and watch the steady stream of empty-nesters who have moved into the Warehouse district and haven't bought a bike in 20 years. The staff is never too cool for school, and serious bike activists and aficionados will know right away that One On One carries some of the most affordable, soulful bicycles you're likely to find anywhere.

One On One, 117 N. Washington, Minneapolis (Around the corner from Sex World), 612.371.9565