Vincent Sterne is a cider rider, a guy who bills himself as "a cidermaker with a cycling habit."

He owns Two Rivers Cider Co., headquartered in Sacramento's south area, and makes local deliveries – mostly to midtown restaurants, coffee shops and bars – by bicycle.

"I'm a bike fanatic," he said. "I've had Two Rivers for 15 years this summer, and we're self-distributed. I will make deliveries rain or shine."

Sterne has three delivery bikes. The lightest-duty transport is a modern-day Electra cruiser, usually ridden by employee Nick Vellanoweth. A case of cider will fit perfectly into its basket.

Sterne rides either a 1950s Ross cycle truck (the basket holds three cases; an added custom-made rack carries two 5-gallon kegs) or a nine-speed Dutch-style delivery bike built by Sacramento cycle-maker Whit Brooks. It's the company's workhorse.

"It's an extended bike with an extended bed in front of the rider. The challenge is when you put 600 pounds of kegs and a rider on it. I ride slowly."

He uses a truck for Bay Area deliveries and a 1958 Volkswagen Microbus for both deliveries and special events. "The VW has tap handles on the side, so we can drive up and start serving cider," he said.

Sterne, who started Two Rivers Cider Co. in 1996, makes hard cider with a blend of fresh-pressed apple juice from fruit grown at Barsotti Ranch in the Apple Hill region.

He hosts an annual Thanksgiving Day charity fundraiser called the Appetite-Enhancement Fat-Tire Bike Ride, which includes food, drink and a big party. Each year, the ride gets shorter and the party earlier, he said.

The 2010 route was from the Towe Auto Museum to the state Capitol and back to the museum through Old Sacramento, a distance of just a few blocks.

"The idea was to do the ride first and eat and drink afterward," he said, "but it didn't work out that way. People showed up at 8 in the morning, hungry."

Sterne, 53, said he fell in love with cycling and bicycles as a kid delivering The Bee. He has collected bikes for years and now has 60 balloon-tire specimens stored in his basement and nearly a dozen hanging in his garage. He calls those his "daily drivers."

"The hardest decision I have to make is which bike to ride," he said.

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