Freewheel Bike shop owner Kevin Ishaug isn't just selling bikes.

He wants to create bicycle riders. Hardy, dedicated, passionate riders, who commute year round, ride 150 miles for charity or pedal a couple hundred just because.

Ishaug, 40, was a University of Minnesota student when he first worked at the Minneapolis shop, doing maintenance and later sales and accounting.

After a few years as a corporate accountant, he returned to Freewheel in the late '90s as a consultant. He bought the shop, founded as a member-owned coop in 1974, in 2000.

"The foundation of our business has always been getting more people riding more bikes more often," Ishaug said.

That means doing a lot of advocacy and outreach work, Ishaug said. The Freewheel Midtown Bike Center, a "truck stop for bicyclists" that opened in May 2008 on the Midtown Greenway bike path, is largely the base for those efforts.

The center serves up to 2,000 riders a day during the busy summer season. It offers bike storage, sales and rentals, repair classes, a maintenance shop, cafe and public restrooms and showers.

"People found out how convenient it was, how healthy they felt," said Ishaug, who rides 45 to 70 miles a day both commuting and for recreation. "A lot of those people have stuck with it."

The Midtown Greenway. It's amazing that you can ride nine miles from the Mississippi River to Hopkins (connecting to the southwest trail system). You're cutting through some of the busiest neighborhoods of the Twin Cities and the different walks of life that you can see.

My favorite cycling events are the charity rides, the MS 150s, just getting several thousand people together to ride for a common cause. ... That creates a cyclist. By the time they're done, they probably are a passionate cyclist. Or they're never going to ride a bike again, their ass hurts so bad.

If you burn 3,000 or 4,000 calories on your bicycle, you can afford an extra heavy beer or two. The passion involved with craft brew, a lot of the same passion is in bicycling.

The longest ride I did was about 15 years ago, from Minneapolis to Tofte, which was 312 miles. That was a 17-hour day. (On July 8) I took the train from Minneapolis to Big Lake. From there, I rode up to Detroit Lakes, which is about 215 miles. That was about an 11 and a half hour tootle. You cover 125 miles of the Lake Woebegon Trail. It's 90 percent the most beautiful landscape you've seen and the other 10 percent, you can't wait to get back to the 90 percent.