My other bike is a Cruiser.

What do you get when you combine drinking and biking and gambling? A big fat knee thats what you get. The Cruiser Bike Poker Ride of 2002 was a memorable event. The weather was perfect, the bikes were beautiful and everything almost came off without a hitch.
For those not familiar with the concept of a Poker Ride I will elaborate. I think these events started in the motorcycle or snowmobiler world. Basically you ride from bar to bar and draw a card at each stop to form a Poker hand. Best hand wins the pot at the end of the ride. Bryn Jacobsen, owner of Boreal Bike Works and I have both taken part in the CAMBA trail Poker Rides in the past and had often dreamed of having a more urban ride here in Duluth.
The first "Ace's High Cruiser Bike Poker Ride" attracted 9 hardy souls. We started the ride at Bryn's shop on 8th St. and wound our way from the hillside, through the West End, the graffiti graveyard, Canal Park, Downtown, the Lakewalk and a planned end stop at Sir Benedicts. Everything was going great. We brought our bikes in to each bar and there was much merriment. Near the end of the ride I got in to a race with the infamous Dusty Olson on the Lakewalk. As we came to the hill near Leif Erickson Park I was pulling away and pedalling my bike harder then I ever had. Thats when it happened. My chain derailed and all the momentum of the race turned toward the ground and the first thing to hit the ground was my left knee. Ouch.
We continued on to Sir Benedict's, got a big bag of ice and only then did I pull up my pants to evalute the damage. The word Grapefruit was the first thing that came to mind. Nothing was broken but to this day that knee gets achy when the barometer drops.

We had a ride again this past fall. There were some new faces, a few less bar stops and no racing. We hope to have this event on both equinoxes in the future so stay tuned.

(click on small photos for bigger ones)