New Pedals and Bureau of Mines

Old pedals bent.

New pedals not bent. New pedals shiny too.

This is the second set of bent pedals I've replaced this year. I'll attribute it to bad luck and crappy, used parts.

This is the abondoned Bureau of Mines facility in Minneapolis, near Ft. Snelling. It has always fascinated me that this dump is allowed to exist. I bet the cops spend too much time out there running off partying kids and ne'r-do-wells.

This is Coldwater Spring. It's located within the Bureau of Mines facility.

Found Items

I found a Surly beer cooler sleeve on yesterday's ride. If it's yours let me know and then I can think of you when I drink a beer.

A few weeks ago, I found this Park tool kit.

I also found a fire hydrant.

Weekend Photos

We went to a farmers market on Sunday morning. What would you do with all these habeneros? Lots of vendors had baskets of these. I'd take a few, but I don't need a basket of them.

I went on a ride with my wife on Sunday afternoon. It was the best ride I've had in a long time. Here's the fixed gear next to a newish fountain at the Wabun Picnic area near Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis.

I did not crash and felt more at home on the fixed-gear bike. It needs fenders.

Murphy Ride

This photo didn't do the job I expected. So I'll tell my side of the story. Today turned out to be a beautiful day in many ways. One of which is that the local off-road trails dried out and I rode my favorite -- Murphy Hanrehan in Savage, MN.

This trail is mostly a woodsey sexperience. The trail throws you into a prairie or two and the contrast between woods and prairie is breathtaking. The prairie portions are short and that makes them especially striking.

The only thing that could have improved on the ride was if I had planned ahead and found someone to ride with.



I accidentally type "sexperience" when I meant "experience." I started to correct my error and decided to leave it as a fun malaprop.

Minneapolis Diagonal Trail

I like this view, but I don't take the time to stop and enjoy. I ride through it almost every time I ride my bike to work. I have to watch out as I take the left-hand curve at this intersection -- it's a blind turn and often I see other cyclists coming around corner. If someone is not paying attention, we'll have some bike-on-bike action.

Weekend Things

This is a photo of Jim (Hiawatha Cycles) riding his very specialized tandem. He's got a kiddie crank setup on the stoker position, an Xtracycle installed with a seat for a kid, and he's pulling a baby trailer. He doesn't get going very fast, but it allows him to bring all his kids on the ride. I hope his wife appreciates what gem he is.


This is a photo of an over-the-top cupcake/birthday cake thing. What is that? A snail with legs or a caterpillar carrying a rock on its back?


We ate it anyway.

Newest Misc. Photos from Bike Rides

I've been taking photos with a new cell phone camera. If I remember to respect the light, it takes pretty good photos. The video is good too, but it's tough to hold such a small device still.

Here's my single-speed bike with a broken freewheel. I discovered this in the first mile of Saturday's Hiawatha ride.

If you look closely at the photo, you will see the freewheel hanging loose. Later in the day, I converted it to a fixed gear and then crashed. Maybe fixed gear riding isn't for me. How can I unlearn 40 some years of coasting whenever I want? If you have some experience with this subject, let me know what you think. I'm not sure it's possible to unlearn very old habits, but I enjoy riding the fixed gear bike and want to make it work for me.

Dramatic skies make better photos. Look at the plants blowing in the strong wind.

This was a sunrise shot with the sun at my back (long shadow).

I turned around and looked into the sun for this photo. Can you see the people down the path? They were kissing when I passed them a couple minutes later. It was about 7 AM.

This was another windy day. I saw quite a few riders on the Minneapolis Light Rail bike path so I pulled out the phone and caught a couple of them then the train rolled by. You can see the riders struggling against the north wind. It was a fun ride in the other direction.