Hard to keep up with reports on bike-related events we go to but here is a minor whack at that.

Tour of America’s Dairyland races are behind us. I hit Shorewood and Downer Ave. Good times at both. We had a few bikes at a house party on Lake Dr. for the Downer race where several people took Tony’s belt drive Smitty for a cruise, including me! It is a super ride. Can’t wait to get my own.

There are a few pix on the Flickr site here.

Coming up we will be at several Superweek races including Downer Ave. on July 24th. Look for us on Lake Dr. about a block and a half north of Bradford. We will have bikes to check out and possibly a cold one or two!

Just posted a Fat Tire Tour of Milwaukee XXVI Flickr Photoset.

Venues visited in no particular order were and not necessarily official:

• Cafe Hollander
• Best Place – the new pub in the old Pabst complex on Juneau.
• Long Wong’s
• Kelly’s Bleachers
• Haggerdy’s
• Valley Inn
• Kochanski’s Concertina Bar
• Liquor Store
• Holler House
• Times Square Pizza
• Lakefront Brewery
• Liquor Store
• Monica’s
• Rascal’s
• Cafe Hollander

Dave bowling at Kochanski’s while Greg pilots Tony’s Xtracycle.

Here’s looking forward to next year’s Fat Tire Tour of Milwaukee XXVII!

We will pay homage to the brew city’s bowling heritage and the movie The Big Lebowski on Saturday, June 12. We’ll be visiting legendary bowling alleys like the Holler House, the oldest lanes in the US. We’ll hit Long Wong’s too and they’ll play The Big Lebowski on the big screen.

Pix from the event may be posted as it happens! For sure after.

The country’s merriest festival of bikes, costumes and whimsy is coming to Milwaukee for the first time. Tour de Fat takes place at Milwaukee’s Humboldt Park from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 3.

New Belgium Brewery has been taking its whimsical Tour de Fat around the country for a number of years. Some of the unique features of this unusual event include a bicycle parade through the city in the morning, costumes, beer garden and various festivities.

During the festival one rider will trade in his or her car for a fully loaded commuter bike. To be eligible, participants must submit a 2 minute video to New Belgium Brewery explaining why they want to live car free.

Suggested donation for participants is $5, which goes to the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. Click here for a schedule.

The Bike Fed needs 100 volunteers to register participants, staff the beer tent, marshal the parade and conduct sundry other activities throughout the day. Volunteers who serve a minimum of two hours receive a Tour de Fat t-shirt and two beer tokens. For more information or to sign up, please contact the Bike Fed’s Jessica Binder.

On Saturday night, February 20^th Schlick Cycles was part of the 6^th annual Nut Factory Open House  Located in the historic Nut Factory building at 3720 N. Fratney St

The following artists had their studios to show their work and working environments: Christopher Poehlmann, Gregory Klassen, Michael Davidson, Schlick Cycles, Tom Jelinske, Shana McCaw + Brent Budsburg, Annoushka Peck, Will Pergl, along with some special guests Cody Frei, Alec Regan, Dan Lawton and several others.

Schlick Cycles was a pretty busy place! We had several versions of the Shark, Smitty, SuperFast and Simplified Bikes as well as Tom Teesdale’s Mountain Bikes.

In addition, Greg’s friend Tom displayed his art – really cool, LARGE pieces, accessible and somewhat ironic art. “Spokes Model” Dave’s metal pumpkins got a good reception.

This year there is a good website showing photos, artists and other pertinent info. Have a look at:

http://nutfactory.shutterfly.com/

Hope to see you at the next party!

Photo by our buddy Tracy Brown!

Join us on Saturday night, February 20^th for the 6^th annual Nut Factory Open House  Located in the historic Nut Factory building at 3720 N. Fratney St. in Milwaukee.

The following artists will open their studios to show their work and working environments: Christopher Poehlmann, Gregory Klassen, Michael Davidson, Schlick Cycles, Tom Jelinske, Shana McCaw + Brent Budsburg, Annoushka Peck, Will Pergl, along with some special guests Cody Frei, Alec Regan, Dan Lawton and others yet to be announced.

The Nut Factory is located in Riverwest on N Fratney Street 1 block west of Humboldt Ave between Keefe + Vienna.

We are in Unit 2B and it looks like it should be a pretty busy place.  Greg’s friend Tom will be displaying his art – really cool, LARGE pieces, accessible and somewhat ironic art. Dave should have some of his metal sculptures as well. We will have finger type food, cheese, veggies etc. and wine.

There may be more but that is what we know about for sure.

This year there is a good website showing photos, artists and other pertinent info. Have a look at:

http://nutfactory.shutterfly.com/

Hope to see you there!

John & Greg

Link to Google Map:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&ie=UTF8&om=0&msa=0&msid=116708516255797257381.000445a8496be7d563733&ll=43.087413,-87.906847&spn=0.013226,0.028925&z=15&iwloc=000445a85435ba89ba1b6

P.S.  We realize many of you are not from the Milwaukee area, but you may know someone that is or you may be traveling. Let someone know about Schlick Cycles – you are our best salespeople! Thanks.

Throughout the day we visited Cafe Hollander on Milwaukee’s Eastside, Lakefront Brewery along the Milwaukee River, just north of Downtown, Rehorst Distillery in the 5th Ward, Kochanski’s Concertina Bar where a live Polka Band and free food and the post-ride party at Cafe Centraal in Bayview.

There were also pre-ride meet ups at Fuel Cafe in Riverwest, the ‘Tosa Cafe Hollander and Anodyne Coffee in Bay View where riders met to travel together to start at the Downer Ave. Cafe Hollander.

My ride for the day was 18.75 miles, the actual route was approximately 13 miles the extra being travel back because the route did not end at the starting place. Other riders put in upwards of 30 miles and, while we were milling about at the post-ride party we met up with 3 guys who had just ridden in from Chicago putting about 90 miles on that day! Joe, Kendall and I also added in a stop at Cubanita’s on Milwaukee St. and Osteria del Mundo in the Knick on Juneau on the way home. I topped off the stops with a look in at Rascal’s bringing my Santa Stop total to 8.

The main highlight for me from the even was the camaraderie of 250 Santa Cyclists. I started out with a core group of friends but found myself riding with other groups most of the day meeting people and making friends along the way. More highlights included free Fat Tire beer, the excellent weather that had us biking in sunny 35 degree conditions most of the day, the Polka Band at Kochanski’s, more beer, the raffle and the Police escort (see more below!)

There was excellent beer to be had at each venue with some favorites including, Fat Tire, Riverwest Stein, Fat Squirrel, Wheat Monkey, Zywiec (Polish) as well as some great Vodkas at Rehorst and even a tasting of Absinthe at the distillery.

As we rode there was a tremendous outpouring of good will towards the Santa group. Hundreds if not thousands of people shouted, cheered, whistled, followed, photographed, shot movies and, in general, made the ride extra special. Being 250-plus strong the Santa procession often stretched over a city block. Motorists were, for the most part very courteous and allowed the procession to hold together. We did, on occasion split at a particularly busy intersection but usually caught up to the group and arrived at our destinations intact.

At the Rehorst Distillery stop we picked up a Police escort! The pair of officers in the squad were just awesome! They looked out for the group, herded it together when it began to stretch out and blocked intersections, errant motorists and random ill-willers so that we could travel safely and as a group. They broadcast our Santa Radio station on their PA, cajoled and rankled with us at stops and, even though they were not drinking, joined us at the post-ride party. Goodwill from the cops was the unexpected pleasure of the ride!

This was absolutely one of the biking event highlights of the year! I’ll be back next year with bells on!

I know the Bike Fed was a major sponsor. I don’t know all the others but South Shore Cyclery and Ben’s both gave raffle prizes.

flickr photoset: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gasmith/sets/72157622875749911/

Video at Rehorst Distillery: http://www.facebook.com/GreatLakesDistillery/posts/201540295674

An article I answered questions for at Draft Magazine for the Beer Runner: http://beerrunner.draftmag.com/2009/12/13/the-santa-cycle-rampage-just-came-to-town/

JSOnline Article: http://www.jsonline.com/multimedia/photos/62680607.html?index=1

Santa Cycle Rampage on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=183604592722

The morning looked kind of dismal early but by the time we were ready to go the sky was looking friendlier and when we arrived on the parking lot behind Benno’s several folks were getting ready to roll.

We headed in to the bar for a bit of AM fuel in the form of Riverwest Stein for me and a Spotted Cow for Dave and met the growing group of riders.

A bit after 10AM we hit the road with a group of close to 30 riders.

The route for the day took was all new to me but from what I remember it was a blast! We mostly headed along the Menomonee River either in the culvert or on some really nice off road trails with diversions to the Valley Inn, Leff’s Lucky Town, Bubba’s Cave, ‘Tosa Hollander and a nice stop in the woods with, you guessed it, beer! There is a partial route track from my iPhone here but since we started at 10AM and didn’t finish ’till about 6PM I ran out of juice for the p-hone. I’ll have to get an auxiliary battery for the next ride.

I rode my Teesdale Mountain bike and Dave had his new Teesdale MTB as well.

Check out more Metro Mountainbikers pix on Flickr.