If you have a one-of-a-kind bicycle, it may mean that no one has ever heard of it and/or nobody is looking for one. If you remember purchasing the bike you also know if it was a high-end racing model or a basic bike from Walmart. If you or a relative are the original owner you probably know when you bought it, so you have a good idea of the bicycleвЂ™s age. If you just bought a bike for $50, you have established the value of the bicycle (and you are not likely to be able to sell it for $2000 to somebody else). Jeanne OmelenchukВ won 16 national speed skating titles, five cycling national champion titles (the first women toВ win theВ national championship in two major sports), andВ competed on three Olympic teams.Д¬lose-ups of the parts tell a lot about your bikeД«y the way, you probably know more about your bike than we do. Together with coach Mike Walden and the Wolverine Sports Club in Detroit, the вЂњMichigan MafiaвЂќ took home countless nationalВ victories in cycling (and speed skating).

The Omelenchuks had quite an influence on athletics in the midwest. From handlebar stems to hubs toВ pedals, the Omelenchuk shop made their own equipment, and they made it well.

The spokes, having been soldered at the rim, are adjusted with little turnbuckles halfway down their length. Built with aВ specially extrudedВ rod rim,В with a tubelessВ tire casing glued directly to the aluminum. Up front we have a custom front hub and fork, built as wide as the rearВ end of the bike,В a designВ that must have beenВ quite a bitВ more rigidВ laterallyВ when riddenВ on bankedВ velodromes. Looks like the rider is headed for the beach, not snowвЂ¦ Now I have to admit that neither of these bikes were even close to being the first fat bikes.Д¬heck out this photo that Jeff unearthed from the 1940вЂ™s. Surly and some QBP employees must have come to the same conclusion too, as Surly was pretty blatant in copying many of ErikвЂ™s design elements for the first Surly Pugsley. That Peacock Groove bike was a hoot to ride around through the Minneapolis autumn leaves, and I understood what a game changer a bike like that would be for a cyclist who had to endure a midwest winter. I had the chance to ride the first snow bike that Erik ever made. It felt slow to me, but on top of hard-packed snow it just cruised.Д®rik Noren, the gifted artisan behind Peacock Groove custom bicycles once worked at QBP (the bicycle wholesaler behind Surly bikes) in Minneapolis. My friend Mike Madden raced the Iditabike a number of times, and he had a Fat Chance mountain bike fitted with double rims (two regular mountain bike rims, welded together so that a 26 x 2вЂќ tire would spread out and provide a bigger footprint in the snow). I thought that I had seen, and maybe even ridden, two of the very first bikes designed for riding on snow (that are now referred to as вЂњFat BikesвЂќ.

I also have a couple of friends that used to do the Alaskan Iditarod bike event back in the early 1990вЂ™s. IвЂ™m a Minnesotan and have competed in winter bike races.

Blue murray bike