Saturday Coffee Ride

We went on one of our favorite rides last Saturday. Minnetonka to the J&S Bean Factory in St. Paul. It was a 43 mile round trip, for an incredible Café Cubano.

The plan was to ride my 1973 Fuji, The Finest. My current favorite bicycle.

That plan changed when Ryan Cate, author of FitWell Bicycle Company, brought a couple of his new bikes to the shop for testing. The Idea of the FitWell Bicycles is to offer riders of all shapes, sizes, fitness and flexibility a bicycle that will fit them.

I grabbed a Fahrlander II that Ryan brought in my size. This is their double butted chrome molybdenum frame bicycle with Shimano 105 derailleurs and shifters.They put Tektro Lyra disc brakes front and rear. Nice Novatec hubs, 32, 3 cross stainless spokes that hold up Weinman XC180 24mm wide rims, plus 700×32 smooth  Maxxis Columbiere tires. Retail price, $1250. A very good price point. If your checkbook is a bit thin, the Fahrlander is available in a lower priced version using Shimano Sora drivetrain at $930.

This would now be my ride to coffee and beyond.

My Workout Wife (WOW) and I left an undisclosed location in Minnetonka eager to make our way East to that Mecca of roasted beans in Saint Paul. (Funny to put Mecca and Saint Paul in the same sentence. At least we were facing East)

We took the anti clockwise route. My WOW deemed it necessary so she would not be bored by the ride. As I said earlier we made two stops. We both needed coffee and a nosh in order to make it to Saint Paul. Rustica Bakery by Lake Calhoun was good for an excellent half of chocolate croissant, half of a kouign amann and a small coffee.

At  Rustica my WOW decided we should ride around the lakes too. Being it was Saturday, fear and common sense dictated that one might avoid the lakes. We rode around them anyway and popped onto the trail to Saint Paul without incident.  I lied earlier. We made short stop at Minnehaha Falls for a photo to prove that I am not making this all up.

It was just a short blast on the River Road, and East on Randolph that brought us to Mecca. 2 Cubanos were ordered, plus a poppy seed kolache and a not very tall in-bread cookie.

We sat outside and enjoyed our coffee and treats in the warm sun. We each took turns doing a little dance on the table while removing our arm warmers as the other sang. This was only the second time we made this ride this year. It is well worth the 20 plus miles to get there.

The wind was coming briskly from the South West on the way home. I guess we didn’t notice or care heading East. It mattered not. We both rode our ride.

The Fahrlander II proved its mettle. I was called an idiot by some, for pumping the 32mm tires to 100psi. Sure, 90psi would have been OK with my fat butt on the Fahrlander, but this was a test.

The Fahrlander rode smoothly on crushed limestone, broken pavement, and the bumps on the trails. It faired equally well on the awful roads that we used on our Cubano Quest. I would not need to venture out at a lower psi for comfort. The frame and fork took care of that.

When I got out of the saddle to pretend to sprint the bottom bracket held true. No chain-stay rub was detected. This was impressive for such a comfortable bicycle.

Fender and rack braze-ons abound on the Fahrlander. There is also room for 28mm tires with fenders.

This is a good stead at a reasonable price for urban and suburban dwellers who ride the trail system. They could commute and then do any of the many organized and charity rides on the same comfortable bicycle that fit them.