Odd and Ends

On Thursday, I met up with a friend for a beer and some mandatory appetizer's ("we're not a bar and we're in South MPLS so you need to order food, too") before going to the grand opening of Full Cycle.

Publicly available information on Full Cycle is spotty, at best. I know that it gas some affiliation with Pillsbury

House, and that QBP is a sponsor.  The phone number of the place is visible in the photo of the front of the shop. It's on Chicago Ave. between 35th and 36th Streets.

The mission is good - they work with

disadvantaged and homeless youth to put them on bikes and give them some skills around bike repair. That's something I support, so I headed over to mark the occasion and place a few bids on the silent auction fund raiser. We'll see if I win anything...

This would be a good place to hit if you are looking for a used bike or a frame for a fixed gear project. Some decent Cannondale and Trek frames, and a crazy number of Fuji's for some reason. No hidden treasures that I saw, and I even prowled the basement.

On to the intrigue...

I responded to a mysterious solicitation on MBL the other day and plan to participate in a cycling focus group. It's apparently being led by a market research firm to get feedback on some sort of new cycling technique. We'll get a review of a new book covering these techniques, try them out for ourselves, and get a gift for participating (sweet - another water bottle).

For the life of me, I can't imagine what these techniques could be. "Spinning" was discovered back in the early 1980's. Aerodynamics shortly after that. What could this Next Big Thing possibly be? If it's really innovative, I look forward to having the inside scoop and dancing away from everyone else as early as a week from today. I am really intrigued to find out what this is all about, but I am also bringing my Kryptonite in case things get weird and little U-lock protection becomes necessary (just kidding, Mom). I plan to bring my camera and will take some photos if that's allowed, and will report back next week with the details.

Lastly, I quit Facebook last week after giving it about 5 months or so. It was kind of fun at first, and I liked being able to make "friends" with people on MBL or that sometimes read this blog, but for the most part, I'd rather spend my screen time on this site and monitoring friends blogs. Nothing against Facebook - after trying it I can see that it serves a purpose, it's just not quite for me.

Summer arrives tomorrow. Balmy fragrant mornings are totally the fruit at the bottom of my yogurt parfait. Get out and enjoy it before it's gone.