Strange, Stand-Up bike man

my favorite strange person in Downtown Minneapolis.

Caught him again.

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Comments

y entonces says:

My nephew just told me about this guy a couple of weeks ago. He said he sees him on the U campus all the time, riding that bike around.
Posted 47 months ago. ( permalink )

if you want strange come to santa cruz. This guy would rate a 1 out of 10 on the wierd scale here. Our favorite weird guy is a cross dressing middle age man all in pink, with a pink umbrella with the inside lined with foil. We have a whole campaign of bumper stickers and t-shirts that say "keep Santa Cruz Weird".
You should visit the next time you go to SF. Its only an hour south.
Posted 47 months ago. ( permalink )

EricGjerde says:

Well, it's not that he's so weird himself, it's his behavior... he drives around all day, every day, showing off his "patent pending" bike trying to find someone to buy it.

Here's my previous capture of him:

He's been doing this as long as I've been working downtown- the last 7 years or so.
Posted 47 months ago. ( permalink )

ceo says:

i wonder how much his patent is going for.
Posted 47 months ago. ( permalink )

alida saxon says:

So this bike you have to stand up on to "ride"? Kind of like a Flinstones Segway.
Posted 47 months ago. ( permalink )

EricGjerde says:

Yeah, I haven't seen him ever riding it, though. Apparently I'm in the wrong locations or something.

He definitely would merit a brief write-up in Make: Magazine, though, if he somehow appealed to all those hipsters over there.
Posted 47 months ago. ( permalink )

frosti1 says:

I've been working downtown for 9 years, and he's been there as long as I can remember.

The bike is like a stair-stepper, stepping down on the "stair" part makes the bike go somehow.
Posted 47 months ago. ( permalink )

Tim McDonough says:

...showing off his "patent pending" bike trying to find someone to buy it.

I'd be more inclined to buy that stylin' Caprice!
Posted 47 months ago. ( permalink )

EricGjerde says:

It's funny that you mention that, Tim- this is a new car for him, sometime in the last year.

Previously it was a wood-panel sided station wagon, which had significantly more room for advertisements and other proclamations of his inventing prowess.

Someday when I find him when he's not in his car, I'll get the whole story on it.
Posted 47 months ago. ( permalink )

system33 [deleted] says:

We call him "Crazy Bike Guy". CBG for short.

CBG isn't confined to downtown Minneapolis. Those of us who work in the SW metro (494 and France) have followed him for years. I have pictures of him dating back to 2000 but I've never posted them anywhere (except the office cubicle).

This is the first thread we've ever seen about him on the web in spite of monthly "googles". Is his story starting to take hold? I predict we'll see him in City Pages soon, then on Perk at Play, then on the Tonight Show.

His bike and cars have changed through the years. He lives in Richfield (I won't say exactly where to protect his privacy and keep the mystery alive). He'll stand by Bobby & Steve's or the Perkin's. If you stare too long, he suspiciously leers back at you.

If we bought his patent, what would he do? Anyone ever talked to him?
Posted 46 months ago. ( permalink )

EricGjerde says:

Yes, when he caught me photographing him the first time around, he gave me a pretty suspicious stare. Like I was trying to steal his ideas, or something...

Most certainly if I win a lottery or something like that, I would buy his patent, bike, and car for some rediculous sum, just so I could keep it all in a museum lobby on display.

I've never talked to him but believe me, if I see him out of the car on the bike I'm going to ask a lot of questions...
Posted 46 months ago. ( permalink )

EricGjerde says:

Whoa- system33, I just realized...

if he opened a bike store, and called it "Crazy Bike Guy's Bikes"....

then it could be called CBGBs!

that would make my day.
Posted 46 months ago. ( permalink )

Lerxst_2112 says:

I have been seeing this guy in the south metro for 8 years now. I've seen him at 169&494, on France and 70th, up and down Penn Ave, and mostly at the corner of France and 78th or so, in front of Bobby & Steve's, standing out there with his bizarre contraption. If you make eye contact with him, it feels like you are staring into The Eye of Deepest Insanity itself.

This past winter I went up icefishing at Lake Minnetonka. As I was driving in front of that little row of shops just north of Wayzata Bay, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw him behind me! He certainly gets around.

Does he work? Does he spend the entire day driving and 'posing' with his device? How does he eat? I've never seen him ride it, I've never seen anyone talking to him.

The other day he was in front of me on my way to work. I love observing all the other drivers at an intersection as they contemplate his bike, car, and the curious collection of skewed placards and images affixed to it. On the driver's side there are two-inch block letters, like the kind you might put on your mailbox, that spell out "Pumping System For Sale" - is the pumping system the bike, or some other Rube Goldberg contraption his fevered brain has devised?

So many questions...
Posted 46 months ago. ( permalink )

EricGjerde says:

Oh yes, I really want to do an interview with this guy- or read one in City Pages, or something similar.

I always see him driving around downtown around 4pm, endlessly circling the blocks around the central part of downtown.

Now that I'm hearing he hits up other high-traffic areas, I'm ever-so-much-more curious to know what's going on inside his mind.

I'm hearing you loud and clear on the "Eye of Deepest Insanity", for sure.

w/r/t the Minnetonka link, I've heard he rides the bike around up there in the summertime... this is the first I've heard of a winter link. intriguing.

I've also heard stories of him riding it around the U, and on Nicollet Mall in the summertime.

I miss his old station wagon, that was the best "Ski-lift" vehicle out of all of them, so far. The current Caprice-looking vehicle is quite tame in comparison.

(the bike is a pumping system- it's pedaled like a stair master, using pumping action instead of pedaling.)

I've easily seen this guy 300 times so far, in my 6 years of working in downtown minneapolis.

Anyone else want to chip in some details? please?
Posted 46 months ago. ( permalink )

Lerxst_2112 says:

When he 'displays' the bike at the Bobby & Steve's station on France & 494, he parks his car in the adjacent Perkin's parking lot. Someday I hope to be able to get some close-up looks at those placards attached to his car while he is away. One of them seems to be a picture of a weird bike with wings.

There is even something to read that is attached to the grill on the front.
Posted 46 months ago. ( permalink )

MrHighSide says:

Lance hits on some hard times after 7 Tour De France wins.

You ever take it off any sweet jumps?

Maybe, if I pretend to be a news paper maybe they won't see me.
Posted 35 months ago. ( permalink )

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Strange, Stand-Up bike man

Comments

y entonces says:

freeflyfrog77 says:

EricGjerde says:

ceo says:

alida saxon says:

EricGjerde says:

frosti1 says:

Tim McDonough says:

EricGjerde says:

system33 [deleted] says:

EricGjerde says:

EricGjerde says:

Lerxst_2112 says:

EricGjerde says:

Lerxst_2112 says:

MrHighSide says:

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