Will The Government Bike?

A few interesting updates from the governmental side of things:

From the City of Minneapolis, "As of this Monday, March 22, Nicollet Mall has reopened for bicycling 24/7. Since 1997 the Mall has been restricted to bicyclists Monday through Friday, 6am to 6pm. As part of the City’s effort to express buses are moving off Nicollet Mall to the new bus lanes on Marquette and Avenues. This paves the way for elimination of the Nicollet Mall bicycle restriction."

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced his new Policy Statement on Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodation Regulations and Recommendations. The LAB thinks "It is simply the strongest statement of support for prioritizing bicycling and walking ever to come from a sitting secretary of transportation." While it doesn't have concrete proposals in it, this is good language to start with. Reactions have spanned from people cheering in the streets to predictions that this new policy will cause “economic catastrophe"(quote from The National Association of Manufacturers).

Winter Carnival Pugsley Demo Rides FREE!!!!

This Saturday January 30th in conjunction with the St Paul Winter Carnival the Hub will be hosting the Surly Pugsley Demo Fleet for your test riding pleasure. Come to the Lake Phalen boat house, and experience a joy of humongous tire snow flotation. Demo will run from 10am to 4pm. Rides are free, but we will need to hold on to a State issued ID and a credit card during the demo.

Really we're piggy backing on the main event which is the Lake Phalen Ice Boat races. The Winter Carnival says these boats on skates will do up to 60mph. So come out for a Pugsley ride and watch the fast boats too.

A description of things Pugsley straight from the Surly web site follows. "Who should ride Pugsley? Hunters of all types (animal, mineral, or vegetable), beach/desert riders, snow/ice riders, wilderness explorers, and anybody else in need of a bike that will provide extra stability, traction, and floatation when the terrain gets loose and unpredictable. If you fall into any one of those categories, you should ride a Pugsley. The premise behind Pugsley’s design is the allowance of tires with a larger-than-average footprint. It was created to go where other bikes may flounder. Our frame and fork will accept 4" tires on 26" rims. The flotation and traction gained by using large volume, low-pressure tires (we highly recommend the Surly Endomorph 3.7 tires) can get you over and through otherwise unrideable terrain: ice, snow, sand, mud, wet rocks and roots. In many conditions, bigger is better."

no half steppin' on the big block

All I have to say about the All-City Big Block complete is that it may be the best complete to come down the pipe in a long time. I mean that, I’ve been a long time fan of the venerable Surly Steamroller but the Big Block is a whole lot of bike and is my new favorite complete, hands down. As I type this, a legion of beer-sodden demon monkeys have been loosed from the bowels of Surly HQ to hunt me down but it’s a risk I had to take.

Let’s start at the bottom, the frame, double-butted chromoly tubing, a straight-blade lugged fork and stainless steel investment-cast dropouts with integrated chain tensioners. Did I mention the dropout has the silhouette of the Hennepin Ave bridge? Or that the frame clears a 700x32c tire easily? Or that the bottom bracket height is track-legal? The folks over at AC topped it off with a simple, classy paint job too, a subtle red metal-flake with white fork tips, nice. Oh yeah, it’ll barspin with a 25 in it too if that’s your thing.

The heart of a track bike is the drive train and there’s no half-steeping here either. A TH Industries cartridge bottom bracket with real steel cups, no Shimano plastic crap here, nice bearings and 100g lighter than other square taper bottom brackets in its class. From there we step out to the cranks, All-City 612’s with a 46 tooth, 1/8” chainring. You want stiff, here you go, the stiffest 3 piece I’ve found under $200. An All-City 17 tooth cog and a KMC chain round out the package nicely.

Next up we have wheels, a bike can’t roll without something to roll on, right? All-City standard track hubs laced 3x to Alex R540 rims, a fixed/free rear, cartridge bearings, a shouldered axle, triple section rims, these are ready for some beating on. They even threw in a pair 700x25c Vittoria Zaffiros to ice the cake.

You’ve got to have something to hold on to right? Right, how’s about a pair of 30mm rise bars a nice 9 degrees of sweep (my personal sweep of choice) on a 4 bolt stem for you? Not enough you say, well that’s cool, the kids over at AC tossed in a Cane Creek S-3 headset to sweeten the deal. Why throw such a nice headset into a factory complete? Because it makes the bike ride better, it’s a subtle thing. Bars, grips and stem length are all very personal but if you’ve already got a nice headset to roll on you’re more than halfway there. The last little touch is that they give you a pair of cyclocross levers and mid-reach brakes, want to run it as a freewheeling singlespeed? No worries, just strap a nice bmx freewheel on that rear wheel and you’re ready to rock.

All in all it’s a sweet ride, sharp handling, smooth ride, stiff in a sprint and it goes where you point it. A lot of track bikes feel really squirrelly on the street, lots of toe-overlap, oversteer at low speeds but the brain trust over at AC have managed to get around all of that and make a killer bike for everything from gunning for your local alleycat crown to running to the grocery store. Nice work guys.
All images stolen from All City site and blog.

Limited Edition Chrome Bag

This unique collaboration with Upper Playground features embroidered artwork by Jeremy Fish and Sam Flores. Very Limited Run.

Available at both locations of The Hub Bike Co-op

Retail price $195.00

The Hub Bike Co-op's everyday price $185.00

Z.I.T. Zombie Interval Training

Starting Monday December 14th the Hub's spin training nights will resume at the Hub's 3020 Minnehaha Ave S location. We are changing things up this year by offering spinning two nights a week. Monday nights we will be suffering to performance training videos. On Mondays we will try and get what ever type of training regimens that the attendees would like to watch. Wednesday nights will be Z.I.T. or Zombie Interval Training. Z.I.T. involves watching movies from the extensive zombie genre and cranking up the RPMs when ever the still living on the screen are running from or fighting zombies. We will begin, December 16th where it all began with George Romero's classic "Night of the Living Dead",from there who knows.
We will have 8 trainers available for attendees to use with your own bike, and 8 storage spots for spinning bikes. Call the Hub to reserve your space 612-729-0437. If you are not at the Hub at 7pm the night of your class your reserved spot will be forfeited to Spinees who are waiting. Please bring your own trainer if you own one so more people can participate.

Solar Powered Bike Lights!!!!!

The popular Blackburn Flea lights are now available with a solar panel recharge option as well as the versatile USB recharge kit.

The Solar Powered Flea Lights come in both a front and rear option; $39.99 each

These lights also come in a USB only option for $29.99, and the front lights come in a variety of colors.

Solar recharge kits will be available for previously purchased Flea lights in 2010.

Winter Service Special

Those of you who ride through the winter months (we love you) may not want to invest $65-$80 for a complete/deluxe Tune-Up for your winter ride, but still want to get it running as good as possible before the snow flies.

Have we got the perfect deal for you.

Our Quick Tune (which includes full adjustments with special consideration to bottom brackets and drivetrains) is now at the special price of $35!
Just what you need, and a great price.
Quick turn-arounds are available at both Hub Bike Co-op locations.
And all our service staff are bona-fide Superheros