Monday, February 15, 2010

I Wanna Tell You About Stan Beaver & The Big Pink...

you wear it well...
If you've spent any time around the single speed dirtbag scene, you've probably witnessed the high-powered, rocket-fueled shenanigans of one Dan Cheever/Stan Beaver. Dashing Rod Stewart döppleganger by day, liver product tester by night. Well approximately 8.5 years ago, during one of said Wednesday Night product testing sessions, ol' Stan Beaver decided to take a little nap. You no-nevermind that his chosen spot for respite was in the front yard of some unknown western Mpls suburban locale. When Stan woke up, his beloved pink (real) Salsa™ single speed was awol, and from that day onward we always wondered where it ended up. Well wonder no more, ye fans of bicycle recovery stories.

At yesterday's Twin Cities Bike Swap I was busy setting up my table of highly desirable bicycle detritus, when my retinas were assaulted by the unmistakeable Pepto Dismal® pink of Stan Beaver's Salsa, now just a frame+fork+stem. Wasting no time, I rushed over to the table, half carnival barking, half demanding "WHO'S GOT THIS PINK SALSA!?" A father and son team piped up. Their price tag said $500 obo, and the dad said he had bought it at a police auction, "10 years ago." "More like 8 years ago," I replied, and I told them that I know the original owner, giving them the run down on the "situation." While it was obvious that these two hadn't played any outright role in the Pink Lady's abduction all those years ago, I made a pact with myself that it was not going home today with anyone other than one of the Mpls Mafia. And certainly I was not going to shell out $500. A few twats, emails, and calls were put out trying to track down Cheever in Portland. Eventually we got connected and put the "seller" in contact with him. After some, uh, "negotiations" (involving Geno agreeing to give the young kid a deal on a frameset that he was essentially hoping to buy with any "pink proceeds,") I handed dad $200 cash, grabbed the frameset, plus the FSA crankset off his table which I recognized from the original build.