BRAIN Editors, along with riders from Giant, Pedro's, Michelin and Ergon—sponsors of the Twin Cities Dealer Tour—and QBP visited four bike shops in the metro area on Tuesday. The route led cyclists from downtown Minneapolis across the Mississippi River to St. Paul and back with jaunts along the city's Greenway bike path and over a new $5 million bike/pedestrian bridge. The group enjoyed sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s for the first day of the tour. Scroll to the bottom to see video of Giant's Patrick VanHorn breaking down day 1.
Apparently BRAIN makes for some pretty good bathroom reading material. A stack of back issues awaits visitors to the porcelain throne at Grand Performance.
Grand Performance owner Dan Casebeer talks about his experience setting the hour record in Indianapolis in 1983. Casebeer, a former racer well-known in the Twin Cities area, set the record at 27.63 miles. Casebeer rode the white frame in the background, which hangs in the basement of his shop, on the record-setting day.
Tempting. Really. Cousin Monique or not, Mavericks in Roseville, Minnesota makes a mean pulled pork sandwich.
Giant's Patrick Van Horn fixes his flat tire in under five minutes. BRAIN's Robert Roman and Marc Sani are so impressed with his skills they don't even bother to get off their bikes!
The group pauses at the Sabo Bridge, a stunning $5 million bike/pedestrian bridge that extends the midtown greenway to the Mississippi River.
While the Twin Cities are certainly bicycle friendly, a ghost bike spotted on Tuesday's ride is a somber reminder of fellow cyclists lost while out on the road.
