In preparation of President Obama’s visit to New York a couple weeks ago, the police with no friends in the scheduling department on the force pulled the duty of driving up and down Houston Street, cutting locks, and carting the bikes away. Why? It seems that some genius military strategist believes that bikes could be used as improvised ‘pipe bombs.’ Fast forward one week, and look to Times Square on a busy theater night. Some jackass parks a car loaded with non-explosive fertilizer and fireworks on the sidewalk and evades police for nearly three days.

It sounds like one of terror suspects being interrogated in one of our secret camps offered some valuable intelligence, but the translator (who likely has never been to New York) confused ‘Houston St.” with “Time Square” and “bike” with “car.” Poor guy. I know the military is stretched thin for translators, but what happened to all those bikes?

meeting-the-nations-bioenergy-goals
Listen here to learn more about electric bikes.

A man in Jeep Grand Cherokee began yelling at a cyclist for ‘riding his bike on the road’ in Colorado Springs. Things escalated when the duo stopped at an intersection to exchange words, and the driver eventually pulled a gun on the biker. At least the cyclist in Colorado didn’t get shot like this poor guy in North Carolina.

This is where the story gets crazy – in spite of the driver waving a gun in his face, the biker gets out his phone and snaps a photo of the enraged motorist’s license plate. Both take off, but the driver is later arrested hiding in the backyard of his house. Would have been a better ending to the story if the driver was shot down in a halo of gunfire from a squad of bike police.

The time is upon us, here is a link with info on the event, get crazy in the race, or if you are not up to it, get crazier at the after party…. there is a cool video as well, see you there!

Varsity Bike & Transit will host a very special Bike Meets Art event with local artist Adam Turman on Friday, Oct. 16 from 4:30-7:30pm. Turman is doing a special, limited-edition “Pedal Less Oil” poster for the event. The event will include a meet-and-greet with Turman from 5:30-6:30 pm and he will showcase his other bicycle-inspired work in the shop during the event at Varsity Bike & Transit on 1316 SE 4th Street in Dinkytown (Minneapolis). Varsity Bike & Transit will host pizza and refreshments, as well as other goodies and give-aways.

www.varsitybike.com
www.adamturman.com

The below sales* will take place from Friday, Oct. 16 to Sunday, Oct 18

Overall
• A limited-edition Adam Turman/Varsity Bike “Pedal Less Oil” print for $15
• $10 off any purchase of $50

Bike Sales
• Upwards of 33 percent off electric bikes (savings totaling more than $1,000)
• Fuji Palisade commute bike now $300 (was $440)
• Marin Portifino road bike now $600 (was $750)

Bike Parts
• $20 off any colored wheel set
• U locks less than $10

Bike Service
• $10 off any winter tune-up good (good from 12/1-2/28)

Bike Storage
• Buy a pro tune-up at $59.99 at get up to four months of free bike storage

*while supplies last

After being in Dinkytown for 13 years, Varsity Bike has moved down the street three doors.   As with all change there has been the expected changes, as well as the unintended ones.  During our time in business we have always had bikes on the sidewalk, a public tool block (which is 12 basic bike tools like allen wrenches, tire levers,  axel wrenches, chain tool, etc.) and an airhose for  anybody’s use.  This April, after an anonymous complaint, we were forced to remove the bikes and the public tool block (which was attached to an Metro Transit bus bike rack for people to learn how to take their bike on the bus) from the sidewalk.  We also had cargo bikes, like the Bakfiet, on the side of our retail space in the private common space in our building’s common entryway.  We were required to remove them as well. 

We have been working with the city of Minneapolis Planning, Zoning and Development Review to allow us to put out bike racks on the sidewalk for more parking and trying to find a new way to put out the public tool block.  We have been allowed to put out the bike racks for customer and employee bike parking as well as an air hose for public use.  We have not been able to come up with an appropriate way to have our tool block outside.  We need to have the tools retract when they are not in use so they do not block the sidewalk.  Unfortunately, our first experiment with retracting key fobs did not work because they were constantly being broken as they were not strong enough for rigorous use.  We are looking for a new long-term solution.

We at Varsity Bike are applying for an Outdoor Display and Sales variance to use the private space in our buildings entryway.  This variance is for the use of displaying our large cargo bikes like the Bakfiet, the Yuba Mundo or other traditional for sale bikes.  This space is dead space in an alcove and is not useful for anything else. The current zoning rules allow for hardware stores to display lawn and garden items such as lawn mowers in spaces similar to this.  The display of bikes would seem to fit into this same exception to allow a seasonal business to display large items outside during the peak selling season.  Without specific mention in the zoning laws, bikes are not allowed currently.

There will be a public hearing in late July to determine if this variance will be approved by the city. We have received support from the Marcy Holmes Neighborhood Association, the Dinkytown Business Association and our Minneapolis Council Member Diane Hofstede.  We believe this variance will not be an issue for anybody and hope that all our neighbors support it or at least do not contest it.

Varsity Bike & Transit has gone greener. We have purchased wind credits for our electrical consumption through X-Cel energy. Wind credits are a promise by the consumer to support financing wind power that goes into the national grid, which of course for now is more expensive to produce than conventional “brown” energy. Our power consumption increased when we moved to our new space down the street. This is because it is larger space, recharging the batteries for the electric bikes that we now sell( though it is only 5-10 cents per charge) and because of the grow light we have for our green wall( it is working and the plants are growing like crazy). We felt a need to offset the increased power usage and decided to purchase wind credits to go with an environmentally sound and renewable power source. It was very easy and is only going to increase our monthly bill by about $20. The only odd thing is that you must sign up for a 3 year term with X-Cel energy. This is ok with us because we are planning to try and go green for the long term no matter what happens. This is not just a response to a trend but a change in our outlook and business model. We are always looking for other ways to make Varsity Bike & Transit greener. Currently we recycle tubes and aluminum. We would like to do tires and steel but have not found an effective way to yet. Suggestions are welcome.

Bikers,

We’ve been getting a lot of requests for several colored parts. -just wanted to let you all know that we have them in stock to buy or have installed, or both. Happy riding!

-Kingston

Check out the Varsity Bike video. Watch Rob and Jameson talk about what makes Varsity Bike special and their move to the new locations.

Read the rest of this entry »

August 29, 2008. The move to a bigger location for Varsity Bike & Transit was highlighted by the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal. With more space comes more customers. Head over to the Business Journals website for the story.

August 29, 2008. Writer Emma Carew highlights Rob and the exploding popularity of electric bikes in her article titled The bike buzz around the Twin Cities for the Star Tribune. Read the full article online at the Star Tribune.

July 31, 2008. WCCO’s shopping correspondent, Scott Schneweis, mentions the Varsity Bike Human Bike Chain event for Varsity’s big move to it’s new location. See the video at wcco.com

August 13, 2008. Minnesota Daily features Varsity Bike online, talking about the new location and a healthy competition between Varsity and their neighbors at the new location. Read the whole article here, at mndaily.com

August 15, 2008. CNN dives into the subject of electric bikes, why they are gaining popularity and discusses some of the new technology behind them. With several examples, statistics and a few quotes CNN describes the trend that is following in the wake of high gas prices and global climate change. Read the whole article at cnn.com

In early July Kare11 talks about electric bikes with the help of Rob Dehoff. Rob shows a few examples and explains the benefits of electric bikes with the help of his family. Check out the article and video at kare11.com

On Thursday, July 31, Varsity Bike Shop will be officially moving to its new location (just a few doors down) and will be hosting a “human bike chain” with volunteers hand-walking each bike. The volunteers will receive coupons and one lucky participant will receive a prize pack.

The “Small but Smart” Varsity Bike Shop is expanding from its current retail space to a new location just a few doors down in Dinkytown (on 1316 SE 4th Street, Minneapolis) between the Loring Pasta Bar and Varsity Theater.

The new shop size will be three times larger and will offer more than 150 bikes, in addition parts and accessories.

The shop has found its success by customer service – both understanding how to help customers (the shop offers a free air pump/tools and is hands-on with buying decisions, for example) and by knowing what the customer will want next, like electric bikes. Varsity Bike has helped hundreds of thousands of customers satisfy their biking needs over its 13 years. The shop has a bike and air tube recycling program, and has a strong eco-friendly stance. Varsity Bike Shop offers the best variety of electric bikes in Minneapolis – more than 6 different varieties.