In spring of 2025, I was going to be moving from the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis to the Wedge. I wanted to challenge myself to do it all by bike, so I started the lease on my new apartment a month before my old lease expired. Please enjoy this video diary of the whole process!
Attributions
Footage recorded by Ian R Buck, Sylvie Hyman, Stina Neel, & Brian Mitchell.
The songs in this video are “Impact Allegretto” and “Hot Pursuit” by Kevin MacLeod, licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Transcript
[00:00:12] Ian: All right, here we are in my new apartment. We’re really going for the “tote bin chic” look right now. And would you believe that I moved everything, everything that’s in this apartment, everything that I own; I moved it here by bicycle? You better believe it because you’re about to see it.
Footage of several trips on the Midtown Greenway with a Burley flatbed trailer behind a bike, usually loaded with tote bins. Upbeat music plays in the background. The trips start on March 9, 2026. Also a couple of shots in the old apartment showing the packing process and the complications of eating breakfast when most of the furniture is packed up.
On March 16, we see footage of several friends with ebikes, heavy duty trailers, and cargo bikes arriving at Ian’s old apartment to load the larger furniture items. Text on the screen says that they were prioritizing loading items that require two people to carry them up the stairs. Zack arrives on a Brompton folding bike, to which Ian says:
[00:01:25] Ian: We’re going to put a couch on that one, right?
[00:01:27] Zack: Oh yeah, load it right up!
Footage of the whole group making their way along the Greenway with all of the furniture loaded up. A bicyclist going the other way rings their bell and call out:
[00:02:09] Passerby: That’s a big haul!
[00:02:13] Ian: We’re legends!
Farther along the Greenway, the two lead bikes piloted by Regina and Ian got close enough together for the furniture on their trailers to touch.
[00:02:23] Sylvie: Oh careful, you’re close guys. You’re attached. Yeah, you’re touching.
They manage to separate the trailers without incident. The footage cuts to a clip from Star Wars where two TIE fighters chasing the Millenium Falcon collide with each other and explode.
Back on the Greenway, we see Ian have a very close pass by a concrete base.
[00:02:37] Sylvie: Woo Ian, you’re close.
The camera zooms in on Ian holding up the shaka sign in a “no worries” way.
[00:02:38] Stina: Oh my God.
The group gets to the Bryant Ave exit from the Greenway and has to climb the ramp with all of the furniture.
[00:03:13] Ian: Nothing to it.
The group gets to Ian’s new apartment building, and the couch on Ian’s trailer finally actually hits an obstacle and stops his slow momentum.
[00:03:23] Sylvie: Oh.
[00:03:25] Ian: That’s a good place to stop, I guess.
The group unloads furniture from the trailers. We see footage from Sylvie’s helmet camera of her carrying pillows into the apartment and throwing them onto a couch. A HUD from Team Fortress 2 is overlayed on top of the footage.
[00:04:21] Heavy: Put dispenser here! Yes!
[00:04:24] Engineer: Goin’ up!
Footage from the interior or Urban Skillet, with text saying, “as is tradition, pay your friends for helping you move!”
More shots of solo trips hauling tote bins.
On March 21, Ian takes his bike and trailer on the Orange Line to visit IKEA. A montage of goofy things you find at IKEA follows.
[00:04:49] Stina: [sliding beads around on a child’s abacus] I don’t know if we can afford it.
[00:04:53] Stina: [lays down on a mattress] Oh. Yeah.
[00:04:57] Ian: [typing frantically on a fake computer] I’m in.
Time lapse of Ian and Stina strapping a boxed mattress onto the bike trailer. Text on the screen says, “I only bought one mattress at IKEA, which in hindsight I could have done more easily at one of several mattress stores in the Uptown area. But I had never visited before, so it was a neat experience, I suppose.”
Footage of the mattress being towed behind the bike. It stretches out much farther than the trailer it is on. Text on the screen says, “the long load scraped one corner on the ground a few times, but no damage to the mattress inside!”
More montage of individual trips hauling stuff from the old apartment to the new.
On March 30, we see the old apartment, completely empty.
[00:06:08] Ian: Wow. That’s it, two years in Seward. It’s a weird feeling, but we’re done in here. Got everything, everything moved over except for one last chair and all the cleaning supplies. Here we go.
One last shot of a tote bin, chair, and broom being towed behind a bike. No background music, just the tires on the trail and a single siren in the distance.
Final stats:
24 trips hauling
196.9km total
12 days hauling, 22 days start to finish
Thanks Brian, Regina, Stina, Sylvie, and Zack for helping haul!