127 bicyclists (and one jerkface)

Random anecdote

2008-08-29T17:39:46Z

So riding down Milwaukee near the six corners of hell (North/Damen) I had to stop short or I would have gotten doored.

The woman gets out of the car, extremely apologetic. Says she's not used to driving in the city, asks if I'm okay. I just ask her to be more careful in the future.

As I start to pull away I realize she's wearing a T-shirt for a bike shop in the 'burbs.

Heh.

Some friendly reminders, as one biker to another...

2008-08-29T14:19:31Z

1) Please don't run the red lights*.

2) Please ride single file when you're on a major street at rush hour. Seriously, I saw a couple riding side by side this morning on State Street, then again on Wabash at the river, holding up everyone (cars and bikes alike). I hope they didn't die.

3) Please don't run the red lights**.

4) At least slow down for stop signs and look both ways. If there are cars already there, yield the right of way.

5) Ferluvofgod, don't run the red lights.

6) Don't get in front of other bikers who are waiting at an intersection, especially ones who have already passed you. If you're faster than them, you can pass them once you're both moving.

7) DON'T RUN THE DAMN RED LIGHTS. Seriously, I saw a guy with a "I'M TRAFFIC TOO" sticker on his helmet RUN A RED LIGHT. You wanna be traffic? Then you gotta act like traffic!

* Okay okay, I understand if it's like, 7am on Saturday and nobody's around. But 8am on a weekday, on Clark Street, is not that time.

** Except for that useless light at Clark and Dickens, 'cause if you wait for that one, you wind up waiting for like the next five lights too. Man, fuck that.

chicago_bike @ 2008-08-27T13:11:00

2008-08-27T18:15:10Z

biking instead of taking the el?

here's the backstory--i work in oak brook, i live in uptown. i've been driving this week while my sister's in town visiting, but it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there. i could take PT there in--according to the CTA trip planner--an hour and a half but i'd have to take the red line to the blue line and then the blue line to the pace bus. to cut down on the waiting/riding time i was thinking about biking to the blue line at clark.

anyone know roughly how long it would take to bike from about broadway/montrose to the clark blue line? would it be faster than just taking the red line? thanks!

Better learn where your brake handles are.

2008-08-22T02:03:29Z

City to step up enforcement of bike laws

from Fail Blog

2008-08-19T12:44:14Z

Big thanks to bike valet!

2008-08-03T04:41:48Z

I just wanted to say thanks to all the people who've been working the bike valet at Lolla. Pretty thankless job, but a great service to those of us who rode down!

Ride, but ride safe! Look out for each other out there. :)

curious...

2008-08-01T04:40:29Z

this story aired briefly on the 5 o clock news when they apparently didn't have much info... it was initially reported as a collision between a cyclist and a pickup truck, and there was obviously a very damaged bicycle in the arial shot i saw... but the article just refers to him as a "pedestrian" and suggests he was trying to run across the drive. anyone hear what actually happened?

Great video!

2008-08-01T03:12:24Z

From the July 2008 Critical Mass bike ride in New York City.

I'd have run him down and chewed him out if I'd though of it a minute sooner

2008-07-29T00:33:40Z

To the male bicyclist, eastbound on Devon, who thought it would be hilarious to yell "BOOO!" at me as I patiently waited on Ravenswood for traffic to clear this evening, possibly because I ignored you in favor of watching the cars still coming behind you:

You, sir, are the biggest douchebag I have yet encountered on Chicago's roads.

It's no wonder drivers hate us.

Flippy Guy!

2008-07-28T14:55:53Z

My friends Chuck and Heather got married yesterday, and their buddy the "flippy bike guy" came to the ceremony and reception at the Skylark.... I didn't catch his name b/c I am a drunk asshole. He is super nice, though, and talented! Check out this 18 sec vid of him flipping on the bike on S. Halsted:

L.A.T.E. Ride this weekend

2008-07-10T17:55:07Z

Hi All,

It's my first time posting to this group. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

I am wondering if anyone is going to the Late Ride this weekend.

www.lateride.org

A group of people from my work will be there with me. I saw this thing last year and it was massive. Bigger than any critical mass I've been part of. I'm pretty stoked on it.

introduction and a request

2008-07-07T18:41:14Z

hi. my name is caitlin and i build and ride bicycles in the great city of nashville, though i wish i lived in chicago because then i could ride a whole lot more bicycles a whole lot more often.

anyways, what i need help with today is finding a reference image for a tattoo i want to get done. you see, my favorite ilk of bicycle are pixies and my favorite pixie is my green schwinn stingray which i love dearly and ride everywhere. anyways, i want to get a stingray tattoo, but i don't have a good drawing of one to take into a tattoo parlor. i've looked all over the internet and i can't seem to find a good one. i'd draw it myself, but i'm shit at drawing bicycles that actually exist.

so if anybody has a book or anything that might have a drawing like this in it, i'd be glad if they'd scan the image or even just tell me where i could find a copy of said book.

cool, thanks.

From Rogers Park to....

2008-07-07T06:42:32Z

I've been getting to know my way around the north side by bike, and just felt like sharing a few of my findings. Much of this is based on trying to find routes that aren't major streets, since sometimes I'm just too tired or otherwise not in the mood to battle my way through traffic.

I live in Rogers Park. To reach Evanston (previously discussed in this post), the preferred route is supposed to be Clark Street, which then morphs into Chicago Street at some point. BUT, half-way through a gargantuan superblock defined by a cemetery on one side and the Metra embankment on the other, the bike lane just QUITS. Ends. Terminates. No warning. Sorry, kid, you're on your own! This is really bad if you're southbound, because suddenly you're pinched by two lanes of traffic with nowhere to go.

To get around this, I've been dallying with side street routes to the west. (East is no good -- there's nothing but the Sheridan Road death trap winding its way between the cemetery and the lake. DAMMIT WHY DOESN'T THE LAKESHORE BIKE PATH GO ALL THE WAY TO EVANSTON?!) In particular, Custer Avenue (which becomes a southbound Damen) offers a good, long, quiet, peaceful, relatively low-traffic route on a generously broad roadway. You might have to zig and zag a bit around Touhy if you're north bound, but from Howard onward it's a straight shot most of the way to downtown Evanston.

Going south from Rogers Park via side streets is a little trickier. In general, you can take Hermitage and/or Paulina southbound, but neither goes all the way, so you have to cut back and forth. Hermitage dies out at Bryn Mawr, but from there you can easily cut over to the lakefront trail. The only trick is getting past the insane intersection of Ridge and Peterson, which is a death trap.

Northbound, Ravenswood is the ticket; it runs alongside the Metra embankment for miles. Again, it's cut off where Ridge and Peterson come barging through, if you cross with the light and go up on the sidewalk, a little dirt path will let you keep going north to where the road picks up again.

East of Clark, Glenview and Greenwood offer good north/south side street routes for a while, but they both die off eventually without quite getting you where you need to be. It's incredibly frustrating that almost NO side streets in this supposedly gridded city actually go all the way through without interruption!

indie bike repairs

2008-07-03T18:44:31Z

Hi all. I am in need of some summer tune ups, and would prefer to seek the services of an independent bike mechanic. Does anyone here do this, or know of someone who does?

I will consider going to a bike shop if its cheap, but I prefer to support the little guys. Big plus if its accessible by the red/brown lines or not too far from uptown. (I hate going to bucktown/logan square ect whenever I need something bike related)

The Carpoon: Chicago Menace

2008-07-03T17:58:53Z

This Carpoon was tested in Houston recently. Let me know if need instructions on a DIY model. One Less Bike.

Intentional!

2008-07-02T16:45:29Z

Yesterday, I was heading south on Milwaukee Ave, and at the Division intersection some stupid girl in the passenger side of a car thought it would be HILARIOUS to yell "BOO" as they passed me. I was a little startled, but not so much that I didn't have the presence of mind to yell back "hahaha funny" when I passed them in traffic after the intersection.

As they passed me AGAIN the dipshit did it AGAIN to which I replied "whore". I should have kept my cool. I TRY to smile and play nice, at least. Don't give them ammo.

I saw that they had pulled over to park right before the intersection of Milwaukee and Noble, and knew what was coming next. At this point, there is now a guy ahead of me in the bike lane. I yell to him to watch out, that the driver is probably gonna open her door. I ride WIDE in the lane.

And sure enough, just as I'm about to pass? The bitch of a driver smiles at me and swings her door open.

I should have stopped and called the cops. I should have called the cops and reported their license plate as a suspected drunk driver. Hell, I should net have engaged the assholes in the first place.

Be careful out there. Bunch of douchewaffles. Trying to run over a girl on a bike in a dress, even. Heh. I even stopped at stoplights.

Bikes Are Their Own Traffic

2008-07-02T15:39:02Z

Cops on bike patrol collide

Okay, one can make all the funny comments one can (I did), but it occurs to me that I've had to yell "Look UP!" a little too often at other riders recently (the guy riding against traffic on the street being a prime example).

Let's be careful out there.

chicago_bike @ 2008-06-24T07:09:00

2008-06-24T12:09:14Z

http://www.suntimes.com/news/transportation/1019518,CST-NWS-ride23a.article

Chicago Cyclists for Obama

2008-06-23T00:19:27Z

Hi! I started a group over at my.barackobama.com. Please come join!!

http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/ChicagoCyclistsforObama

Also, I had the pleasure of hanging out with bibliogrrl today for the first time in person .... the livejournal chicago_bike community, bringing people together :)

cheapies

2008-06-13T16:07:22Z

Soooooo.

I need to pick up some extra brake cables and an extra tire, cheaply.

Preferably locally.

Ideas?

I do mean cheaply, too.

Thank you muchly!

Bike accident

2008-06-13T02:19:03Z

2000 block, N Milwaukee. No name, no status. Just mentioned on WBBM.

More info as I find it.

EDIT: CBS 2:

http://tinyurl.com/44olm9

(ignore the death in the URL, no status as of yet)

Did anyone else read this?

2008-06-11T03:58:02Z

The Slow Bicycle Movement

Great blog, great post. Pretty much my philosophy anyway. Awesome.

bama

2008-06-11T01:34:20Z

i think we should totally put together like a bike for obama event, and see if he'll bike with us.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5isOFwdbq0tsqatW6vJpkDRTI1gMgD9162UB80

2 more riders down

2008-06-11T00:12:20Z

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-bicyclist-dead-web-jun11,0,1344357.story

1 killed yesterday
1 injured today

Ride safe out there people.

World Naked Bike Ride

2008-06-10T22:40:10Z

Someone must have been busy this morning. At lunch, I walked past where my bike is parked, and all the bicycles had fliers for the World Naked Bike ride.

It's this Saturday. Is anyone going to be there? Are you the person who left me this flier? because I want to thank you!

I know it will probably be old hippies and grody men who just want to check out nude ladies, but i love riding bikes and i love bing naked! i think it will be fun to combine them. i will be going sloooooow. i don't want to fall and skin anything. ouch.