The Minnesota Noices

Category: Bikes

  • Cykeläventyr: Tirups Herb Garden

    The weather has been so nice lately, and I can only hope that Autumn continues this way! Erin and Melissa rode their bikes from Malmö to Lund, where Carole and I joined them for a cycling adventure! I am still not confident about biking except under the most perfect of conditions, so it was a…

  • Bryant’s Birthday

    The dark chocolate raspberry layer cake from Lily’s birthday was a favorite, and making Bryant’s was a bit easier since I’d already found all the ingredients. I’m getting used to the oven and other differences and that also helps. I think it was improved by cutting some sugar. The cargo bike arrived just in time…

  • Day 3.5

    I’m still really unclear on bikes here … Also, totally un-related, there’s a really interesting quote in this Kottke article. He says “America is a rich country that feels like a poor country”, based on the way individual wealth is valued over everything else. A few days living in a different part of the world…

  • Day 2

    Well, this day isn’t as filled with naturalization accomplishments. I did, however, get the application filed at the tax office. That will get me my Swedish personnumer which is basically the ticket to everything. I also got the green-light to open a bank account – the visit yesterday was just to fill out the forms…

  • Still in search of civilized commuting

    I wasn’t wholly satisfied with Birchwoods morning pastries – they are more a restaurant. So I’m trying Blue Moon cafe. So far so good. The mocha is as I like (not too sweet with a decent feather instead of whip cream) and the pastries are pretty good. 

  • Civilized commuting again?

    Ever since I moved to St Paul, I’ve missed a key part of my routine – stopping at Canteen coffee on the way in to work on the bike. The new route is almost all trail, which is nice for the ride, but there’s basically no coffee along the way. So after a lot of…

  • Some Bike Updates

    As I mentioned, I swapped the Soma for a Velo Orange Piolet. It’s been doing some winter duty with the riser bars and studded tires. But, climate change is happening, and it’s basically Spring here now. So, I swapped out the bars for drops and the suds for some Schwalbe Super Moto tires. Those tires…

  • Le Piolet est pret …

    I was inspired by Marcus’ Soma Wolverine to step up the frame game. So I went with a Velo Orange Piolet. Here it is mostly built-up with parts from the Soma Double-cross (which will shortly be for sale). The cassette was deeply gunked-up and required a deep cleaning with parts cleaner and a scraper.  I’m not…

  • Selling the Madsen – SOLD

    Update – sold the Madsen.  My youngest cried when I told them I was selling it, cried when she found out that somebody was going to buy it, and cried when they came to pick it up.  🙁 === Well, the kids are big enough that they ride their own bikes, and we’re not hauling anything big…

  • Wow

    Despite having my butt in a saddle nearly every day, I hadn’t realized there was such a thing “bicycle gymnastics”. Holy cow!