You've probably seen the Cars-R-Coffins logo — a black coffin on four wheels with the license plate 666.
It's on T-shirts, socks, jerseys, water bottles … you name it. It's the brainchild of Hurl Everstone, 38, a bicycle advocate in Minneapolis who published a newsletter by that name.
Earlier this month, Cars R Coffins got into the business of peddling coffee to cyclists. Everstone opened the coffee shop in a former deli at 3346 Lyndale Ave., South.
Richard Chin, a reporter at the St. Paul Pioneer Press writes about Everstone's coffee shop, and another one, in “Fueling the Bicycle Culture.”
A former BMXer, Everstone earned an English degree at the University of Minnesota then worked at the Twin Cities' Alternative Bike and Board and Quality Bicycle Products, the reporter writes. He started doing articles for Bike magazine then launched his own bike culture fanzine.
Cars-R-Coffins, the zine, got started in 1994 and is published irregularly at the local Kinko's. Everstone says he has produced 14 issues of the hand-stapled publication, with a circulation of about 500.
It was the logo for the magazine that really caught on big. … When Everstone put the image on a T-shirt, it became a best-seller in the Quality Bicycle Products catalog.
Next thing you know, Everstone is making a modest living selling shirts, socks, water bottles, patches, stickers, and bike bags with the logo.
“I'm not necessarily anti-car. I'm just anti so many cars,” said Everstone, who doesn't own an automobile but does have 14 rideable bikes.
The shop opened earlier this month. Its decor features vintage bikes hanging from walls as well as an X-ray viewer in the restroom where cyclists can display images of their biking injuries.
The coffee shop is one of two that cater to cyclists in the Twin Cities. The other is the One on One Bicycle Studio in the Minneapolis Warehouse District, owner run by Gene Oberpriller, a former pro bike racer. It grew from a one man bike repair outfit to a 2,400-square-foot retail shop where he and 10 employees sell and repair bikes, show art in a gallery, and sell coffee to cyclists wandering in off the street.
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