Wrap up part 2: sweet bike, yo!

  ...Well, this might end up being a slightly myopic post, since most of it comes from Minneapolis, the city of  way sweet bikes; but, that shouldn't preclude its existence!  I saw some pretty inspiring bikes on this trip, and though most of them were in Minneapolis, there were probably some in some other places too (I'll just hope that I'll be able to find them in among my photos).  Actually, maybe this will just be a MPLS-centric post, because there was plenty there to warrant a post.
  I was surprised to find such beautiful bikes in a place with such a harsh winter, but most of the people to whom I posed the winter riding question said they did ride in the winter, but that in order to do so, you had to be fastidious in your bike-cleaning.  I think a lot of them also had winter bikes and summer bikes.  Luckily, I got to see the summer bikes!
  This first one was a hard one to get in full view, so I just took close-ups.  The details were lovely, though:  centerpull bosses, beautifully executed mixte frame, luscious paint job, and just plain 'ol clean lines.  Not sure who made it, but whoever they are, they sure do make a fine bike!

Centerpull mounts.  May have been a custom bike.

Some more details on the brown bike.  mm-mm!

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Looks kind of like the bike may have just been built up.  And funny choice of rear ders.

Note cool bike next to cool bike.  Way too many cool bikes here.

This second bike was apparently a one-off.  It was built around a white industries group, which was really wild.  The shifters use two cables, a-la Rohloff, and the rear derailleur doesn't use a traditional parallelogram, but instead has two rods that the cage slides up and down.  It seems like it would be horrible in the mud, but the owner said that while it's a bitch to set up, it works great.  Sorry about the lousy picture: it was dark.

IF with full White Industries group.

What is this, breaking away, or something?  I hadn't realized that anyone had actually made Little 500-specific bikes; but, apparently they have.  I thought of Phil, and his appreciation of that movie, but couldn't manage to get a single decent photo!  Domage.

Well, this was a pain to photograph.  A Roadmaster little 500 bike in One On One's packed basement.  One piece cranks, coaster brake.  Fully awesome.

  Well, I need to go through my photos a bit more, so this will be the first of two posts about bikes in Minneapolis.  I've been trying to get around to finishing this minuscule post for a while, and now, I'm determined to get it on here, even if it's not really finished.  How's that for shoddy posting, eh?