Chicago Bike Blog

The Dignity of Bikes

This ad, found in a weekly circular of major home improvement center, is frankly insulting.

It is insulting to bicycle riders, bicycle advocates, bicycle shops, bicycle manufacturers, and all of us who have worked relentlessly to raise the profile of urban cycling. This ad undermines the very notion of the bicycle being a legitimate human-powered vehicle worthy of being used on the road.

Unfortunately, the people the above ad insults the most are those consumers who get lured into buying one of the items being advertised. It cheats them into thinking they're getting the real thing. It turns the noble Bicycle into yet another cheap and disposable thing, that brings only superficial smiles at Christmas, and can be discarded along with the heap of other unnecessary stuff before the wrappers have even made it to the recycling bin.

Now, it is true that a Bicycle, a real Bicycle, with a capital B, such as the Kona Makena pictured below, may cost as much as ten times the item being peddled in the ad above.

But you get so much more than an item to be shoved under the tree! A quality, professionally assembled Bicycle is a piece of finely tuned mechanical artistry that is powerful, reliable, durable and safe. And, there are many ways in which a real Bike can make your child a better human and better citizen.

1. It will teach your child independence. It is the first vehicle many children ever ride on their own. Don't treat it like a toy. Let your child learn about the freedom and responsibility associated with controlling a vehicle.
2. It will teach her autonomy. It offers a way to get from point A to point B without relying on the automobile. Children from a very early age can appreciate the difference, and older children can actually use the bike to chauffeur themselves around.
3. You can help your child learn the rules of the road using your Bikes on quiet streets around the neighborhood
4. You can sign up for a bike repair class with an older child to learn practical skills, and further boost the sense of responsibility and autonomy in your kid.
5. You can use the Bike to illustrate some principles of physics (many online resources are available).
6. A Bicycle is a vehicle for social change. You can discuss how Bikes are used around the world to alleviate poverty and and offer mobility solutions in developing countries (for some ideas, click here).
7. A Bike will help your child build awareness. Unlike a car, which isolates us from our surroundings and fellow humans, the Bicycle puts us in touch with the environment & people around us. It's hard to space out on a Bike. You have to pay attention. And when you are not looking out at the world through a smoked glass window, you notice things like prowling cats, sparring squirrels, dragonflies, homeless people under a bridge, the weather, nasty smells exuded by cars, and other interesting things you might otherwise miss.
8. It will teach your child about health and fitness. He will learn how using his own body, and the food he has consumed to fuel it, can produce the energy to propel him efficiently from one place to another. We would all enjoy better health if we committed some of our daily travel to a Bicycle.
9. The Bicycle can teach your child economy. The cost of a Bicycle and its maintenance, spread over the number of years the owner will enjoy it, adds up to a very affordable annual expense. If we use a Bicycle in place of a car or bus, the savings increase dramatically.
10. The Bicycle can teach your child the value of unstructured exploration, and how to unwind and relax. 

And, as Christmas gifts, Bikes are unbeatable. A bike doesn't need batteries. A couple of strong legs, and a little air and oil once in a while. That's all. It won't scatter small parts all over your house. And it is the most fun your kid will have without being plugged in.

For most kids, it is simply THE BEST gift you can give. A Bicycle, especially The First Bicycle, is different from any other gift. It represents a coming of age, a new independence, a right of passage. Owning a Bicycle creates new transportation options, and your child will instantly recognize the new independence. Because of this, a Bike is a gift that will keep on giving. It will not be discarded or forgotten. Your child will use it enjoy it for a long time to come.

But, you say, it's winter. SO? Your child will actually WANT to go outside in the cold. Trust me, I've been there. So a Bike is really a gift for your whole family. Now you can enjoy cycling outings together. Or you can walk or jog, while your child cycles along.

It is a fancy gift that's worth it's price. Think of a price of a popular doll with a couple outfits, a fancy box of Legos , or a video game system, and you will see that the price of a quality child's Bicycle is actually quite reasonable. Plus, it makes a very effective presentation. Imagine this giant package under the tree!... Or rolling it with great fanfare from the garage... wow!

And that's the best reason for putting a Bike under the Christmas tree: the expression on your child's face. As they say: priceless.

FREE Roadside Maintenance Class at Rapid Transit

Rapid Transit Cycleshop will be kicking off the new maintenance class series with a FREE class this month!

What: Roadside Maintenance Class
When: Rapid Transit Cycleshop, 1900 W. North Avenue in Chicago
When: Sunday, October 25 at 5pm
How: Call 773-227-2288 to register and for other class details.

As the chill takes hold of Chicago once again, we will be helping the intrepid cyclists to gear up for the winter riding by offering a range of maintenance classes. So keep checking our website for the newest details.

It's time again for the Winter Tune-Up

This year, we have revamped our Winter Tune-Up a bit. The new Winterbike 2010 is a complete, season-long maintenance program for your bike. When you join for a one-time fee of $155, you will receive:

Our Deluxe Tune-Up

• Full adjustment of braking system,
• Full adjustment of shifting system.
• External adjustment of both hubs.
• External adjustment of headset.
• External adjustment of bottom bracket.
• Complete wheel dishing  & truing.
• Complete drivetrain cleaning or replacement (as needed).
• Chain lubrication.
• Inner tube replacement (if needed.)
• Tires inflated to correct pressure.
• Full check of parts and accessories to ensure safety.
• Free installation on additional accessories purchased from us.

INCLUDED ongoing maintenance through March 31, 2010

• Full bike wash and lube, as often as you wish
• Adjustments and tuning whenever needed
• Free labor on fixing flats
• Free labor installation of parts and accessories purchased at Rapid Transit.

Since we and our staff need to eat, all rubber, parts & accessories are extra, however, this year, as a Winterbike 2010 member, you will also receive a 10% discount on any merchandise purchased through March 31, 2010.

If you are planning to ride this winter, you really can't afford not to get this service. It is the best thing going in Chicago for winter bikers. And, the earlier you sign up for the program, the longer you get to enjoy its fabulous benefits.

Navigating the suburban wasteland with my son

My son, who is 12, recently asked if he could ride his bike alone to Games Workshop, where he could indulge his passion for playing Warhammer, without the inconvenience of having me wait for him and tap my foot.

The Games Workshop is located in a suburban shopping center, perhaps three miles from our house. There are several major arteries that have to be crossed, as well as an interstate, but there are also plenty of signaled crosswalks, a bridge over the highway, and a number of small neighborhoods streets that I imagined could conveniently be used. So, I thought that with a couple of trial runs with me, he could handle it on his own.

I decided to follow a route along residential streets that we sometimes take to our martial arts class. With a light at Peterson and a push-button light at Devon, this route would take us about half-way there. Then, I was planning to show him the special shortcut I like through suburban Lincolnwood.

Like others, I look back with longing and nostalgia on the days when kids could easily go off on their own with little or no parental supervision, but these romantic visions don't seem to find any reflection in modern day reality that I see before me from the saddle of my bicycle. And, what I thought was going to be a fairly simple undertaking turned out to be much more complex and fraught with difficulties, partly having to do with my own nervousness, partly with my son's inexperience, and hugely with the inconsistent, unpredictable, haphazard traffic patterns, city planning, street signals and bicycle/pedestrian facilities in place on the border between Chicago and its neighboring suburbs of Lincolnwood, Skokie and Niles.

Although I have ridden the first part of the route with my son many times previously, my nervousness kicked into high gear when I realized that I was now prepping him to ride without me, to make his own decisions and rely on his own judgment. It was one thing to have him ride on the pavement behind me, and quite another to imagine him trying it on his own. Suddenly, things that I do through force of habit acquired over 20 years of street-riding experience were not so obvious. After all, he doesn't have that experience to guide him.

The frustration with the urban-planning aspect of the ride began as soon as we got to Devon. A bicyclist riding on the street is too light to activate the green light. The push-button activator for the green light was placed with pedestrians in mind. If I was riding alone, I would simply wait for the gap in traffic, and ride through regardless of the traffic signal (gulp!). But with my son, I insisted we cross with the light. Thus, we had to duck-walk our bikes onto the sidewalk to push the button to get the light to change.

Things got even worse when we turned onto Devon. With two lanes of curb-to-curb each traffic way, I had already planned to ride a few blocks on the sidewalk, thinking we would again use the push-button crosswalk signal at Cicero. Well, I am here to tell you that that is the most poorly designed set of signals in the city, and while the right-turning vehicles get their own special green arrow for the entire duration of the green light, pedestrians have to wait out a full light cycle to deserve their own signal. My nervousness increased as I was having visions of my son getting impatient, and running the light while traveling on his own, with all those right-turning cars just waiting to run him over.

We proceeded along the sidewalk on Devon over the Edens Expressway, and arrived at the very pleasant street called Sauganash just on the other side. A broad, quiet, tree-lined residential street runs on a soft diagonal through the posh Lincolwood suburb. The kind of street bicyclists dream about. If the route consisted of only streets like this, I would have absolutely no qualms about my son riding alone. Alas, after several blocks of this paradise, the street ends abruptly at Central, with no bicycle or pedestrian crossing to make things easier. There is a light half a block down at Pratt, but there is no sidewalk, and not enough shoulder for a young bicyclist to safely reach it. So, we make a run through a gap in traffic for the sidewalk on the other side of Central. But I can't have my son do this when he's riding without me!

Now, we're pretty much home-free. The sidewalk continues down toward Touhy, and curves around the shopping center to deposit my son safely at the Games Workshop. Because we are riding on the sidewalk, I still admonish him to look over his left shoulders for any cars who may be turning right out of the parking lots.

By the time my son is done playing games, and I have scoured the shelves of the local second-hand book store, I have completely revised my riding strategy. Although I have always believed that cyclists should ride with traffic and behave like traffic, I find that my convictions do not hold when the safely of my child is at stake. Sidewalks in this part of town are rarely used by pedestrians, and they might as well be used by budding cyclists. On the way back, we forget all shortcuts and finesse. We ride in straight lines on sidewalks to major intersections with dependable pedestrian signals, we make only right-angle turns, and we arrive home safely, in one piece, and with little stress.

Sam & Sarah's bicycle wedding

These are Sarah and Sam, back when they both worked here at Rapid Transit. Sarah has gone on to get her law degree. Sam has stayed on with us to manage our service department.

Last Sunday, they got married in a bicycle-centered ceremony that took guests on a two-wheeled procession through Douglas Park, and culminated in a reception at the HUB cooperative, that the happy couple call their home.

Light rain gave way to hazy sunshine as guests arrived at the ceremony site in Douglas Park on Chicago's south side.

Members of the families arrived by rickshaw.

Wedding guest (and former Rapid Transit employee) Christopher Wallace and his guest arrived by tandem recumbent.

The happy couple dispensed with some traditional elements, but kept others. Rather than walking alone down the aisle to the tune of Here Comes The Bride, Sarah arrived hand-in-hand with Sam, accompanied by the joyous ringing of bicycle bells, and the two ducked under the chuppah.

She eyed the gatherding clouds with some dimay, and indeed, more than a few raindrops fell on the guests assembled in the park.

 

Rain or no rain, they both looked terrific, and their wedding promises brought tears to my eyes, and those of many other guests.

Ceremony over, they are off to the party in their special limo.

Congratulations!

What happened to July?

Perhaps I should have thought a little harder when I came up with the name for this here blog. Chicago Bike Blog implies that every day, every post will be about biking. Biking in Chicago. And after a certain number of years being a bike retailer in Chicago, you'd think I'd never run out of having things to say about biking in the Windy City.
And yet.... writing about biking is hard. It's a little different than working in the bike shop.
On the one hand, working in the bike shop involves a lot of repetition. You've changed one flat, you've changed them all; you've carried so many bikes down the stairs, you don't count the steps anymore, you simply know when you're at the bottom; with customers, you ask the same questions a thousand times a day, and you provide answers to the same question asked a thousand times.

And yet.... every flat has a different history, every bike tells a different story, and every question is an opening to a new relationship. Life in the bike shop defies routine, because of the life that people breathe into it every hour of the day.
A couple years into this blog, I have already written about most of the things I had to say about biking. I've shared my fundamental philosophy of biking and of bike retailing, imparted tips, advice and product information. Some of that stuff bears occasional repeating. But, unlike the human interactions in the bike shop, the stories don't get any richer from the retelling.
I sometimes find myself at gatherings of cyclists, and feel oddly out of place, a bit like a fraud. Cycling isn't to me what it is to them.
As a bike shop owner, without bicycles, my life would have to be radically redefined. Yet, I don't really see cycling as being the center of my life. It is not any more the center of my life than the very idea of being self-employed, which is perhaps the most defining choice I have made in my life. It is also not any more central than the unschooling lifestyle we have chosen for ourselves and our kids. Nor is it any more central than the free-form garden that surrounds our house, which dismays some of our neighbors and delights others, and from which we freely pluck edibles for our kitchen and flowers for the vase. In short, cycling is just one of the many manifestations of a life of autonomy and self-determination to which we aspire.
That's why writing about biking it hard. It's hard to confine yourself to biking, when, together with a group of unschooled children, you are trying to figure out how many kernels of popcorn will fill a minivan. Or, when you've discovered that you really enjoy baking bread at home. Or making yogurt. Or when the garden needs weeding (when doesn't it?), or watering, or the produce is ripening so fast that you can barely keep pace with it. And who wants to write about biking, when you are actually doing it: biking on a lazy Sunday morning to a farmers market, or helping a 12-year-old negotiate traffic on his own?
And yet.... I will continue to build my life around bike retailing because, along with our backyard vegetable patch, that is what puts the food on the table. New stories will emerge: customers walking in the door, workers busting their butts, assholes on the road, inspiration during a ride, our search for a new home for the shop. But these stories don't come every day. And between them, life goes on.
I hope you'll forgive me if it finds its way into this here blog...

Where the heck is the Weber Spur Bike Trail?!

In the last twelve years, we have walked down this abandoned trail track virtually every week. When we first moved int our house near the corner of Bryn Mawr and Kostner, there was an occasional rail maintenance car that went along the track. For many years, there has been nothing. We, and many of our neighbors use the right of way for walking, jogging, skiing, and as an access route to the adjacent LaBagh Woods Forest Preserve and Chicago River.

I have conducted nature walks with my kids along this track, spying on wildlife large and small, and picking out the native plants from the invasives.

Deer like to hang out in the clearing in the woods visible from the train track.


We have found praying mantises and their coccoons along the tracks.

Goldenrods, milkweed and native asters grow abundantly here, along with attractive but terribly invasive teasels.


A dilapidated rail bridge offers glimpses of the Chicago River.

This quiet and somewhat forgotten corridor is hardly a place of pristine and undisturbed beauty. It's strewn with broken glass, beer cans, discarded car tires and other debris that people frequently leave in places that no one seems to own. But with a little work, this route would make one heck of a bike path.

Imagine our surprise, when one day we came home to the sound of heavy machinery working, accompanied by loud metallic clanking. We went out to the track to see what was going on, and discovered that the track was being ripped out. The workmen said something about rails-to-trails, but were unable to provide any more information. They were simply hired by Union Pacific to rip out the track.

A call to alderman Margaret Laurino's office also produced no immediate insights. The person we spoke with was unaware of any plans for the railway corridor. However, she took down the information, and the next day we received a call from a representative from the Pulaski Industrial Corridor and explained that Union Pacific has lease the land it owns to be converted to a recreational trail.

I sent an email to Randy Neufeld of Active Transportation Alliance asking if he knew what was being planned. He wasn't sure, but forwarded my email to Keith Privett at the City of Chicago. Usually, bike projects create a buzz in the Chicago cycling community and among the neighbors. The proposed Bloomingdale Trail in Bucktown even has its own website, and last year, a short, one mile section of trail along the old Valley Line Rail was inaugurated with great fanfare. So, although what the lady from the Industrial Corridor said sounded really good, we were skeptical.

However, after a couple of days Keith Privett sent an email back, confirming the plans. He stated that a trail is being planned for the Weber Spur, which will run through Lincolnwood from approximately Touhy Avenue south toward Elston. He explained that Ald. Laurino herself is familiar with, and has long supported the trail project, but her office may not have known that the Union Pacific crew would be out there removing track metal already.

This is approximately where the new bike trail would be. It would give southbound suburban and northwest side cyclists access to downtown via the Elston bike lane, and northbound riders from the city access to the Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park trail.

Exciting stuff. Why aren't more people talking about it?

If you thought you knew what we do...

Many years ago, perhaps at the very dawn of mountain biking, a friend from college an I were on a hiking trail on Pike's Peak in Colorado. We didn't have very ambitious hiking plans, and we stopped frequently along the way to observe, take photos, and eat snacks. During one such stopover, we were passed by a cyclist struggling up a steep section of trail. We remarked penetratingly that it must be very difficult pedaling up like this. He replied that he would not have undertaken the climb on foot, because he was an amputee. He lifted up his pant leg to demonstrate the prosthesis.

If I knew little about life without a limb then, I do not know any more today. But I know that as a bike repair shop, we are sometimes called upon to modify existing bikes to suit folks living with artificial limbs. One of our earliest customers, who has since passed away, had been a competitive bike racer, but lost his legs to diabetes. We adapted a Raleigh step-through bike for him to ride around the neighborhood. He explained that there are few local and reasonably priced resources for people who have lost a limb, but wish to stay strong, active and independent.

Like Sean Plomann. A couple of  months ago, I asked Ronnie at the shop to come and help me deliver a bike to him. I asked Ronnie to come along, because I knew the bike would need some modifications, and I didn't know if I could handle it myself. As it turned out, I would have been way out of my league. Sean greeted us at the door with a cane and no left leg.

He spent a little time putting on his prosthesis, while Ronnie and I set the bike in the trainer we had brought along. Even with the trainer, Sean had a little trouble balancing the bike when he first got on. He explained that once he started riding, he could learn to make appropriate adjustments to his balance without the weight of his left leg.

The bigger problem was that the thickness of the artificial foot with the shoe on it prevented it from staying securely in the pedal. We had anticipated that Sean' foot might need some retaining device, but the Powerstraps we brought along pushed his foot too close to the crank arm, so that every time he pedaled, the crank arm actually rubbed against his foot.

I was at a loss, but Ronnie seemed confident that the pedal could be modified to do the job properly. We left Sean with the bike and the trainer to practice what he could, while Ronnie set to work at the shop on creating the pedal adaptation.

Sean was 12 when he developed cancer. He went through chemotherapy for a year and a half, but continued to suffer for about 17 years. He walked with a cane, and eventually developed nerve damage which caused him extreme pain. He had the leg amputated 3 years ago, relieved to end the pain he endured. After going through physical therapy for about a year, he is now ready to move forward. And to ride his bike, despite being told it couldn't be done. Speaking for myself, having seen Sean fight for balance that first day on a trainer, it took a leap of faith to believe he could ride on his own.

But Sean knew what he was talking about. With the modified pedal being the only alteration to his otherwise stock Dahon bike, he participated in Bike the Drive last month. Although this year, after a mere couple of months on his new bike, he was only able to complete half of the ride, he doesn't see any reason why he should not be able to do the whole thing next year. He hopes that this undertaking will help encourage other persons with disabilities to pursue physical challenges, by showing that it can be done; and demonstrate to those in the non-disabled community who think otherwise, that persons with disabilities can accomplish such challenges.

Outside of cycling, Sean is Master's student in Disability Studies and Human Development in the field of Applied Health Sciences. He also has a graduate assistantship at UIC working for the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities (CCSPD). He hopes to finish his Master's degree and then go on to earn a PhD so that eventually he can teach. Meanwhile, he's is trying to become more involved with organizations that promote disability rights, such as Access Living and Chicago ADAPT.  He hopes that through activism and advocacy he can contribute to creating a vibrant community of persons with disabilities as well as trying to help build better communication and relations with the non-disabled.

The T-shirt Sean is wearing in these photos was created by his friend, Annie Hopkins, who is now deceased. The back of the T-shirt says "Embrace. Educate. Empower": embrace diversity, educate your community, empower each other.' It's distributed by www.3elove.com.

It's been very gratifying for us at Rapid Transit to work with Sean, and playing a small part in helping him achieve his dream of independent travel.

Brrr...

My earlier comments about the weather notwithstanding, I think the powers that be are just messin' with us. On top  of the doom and gloom economic news, the weather we've been experiencing in Chicago this spring seems designed to test the limits of all Chicago cyclists (and rent-paying bike shop owners in particular!).

Still, riding to get groceries this morning, white knuckles, and all, I delighted in the noise my tires made on the wet pavement, and waved with satisfaction to the drivers who gave me the right of way at every stop sign.

Off road

Robby, Jimbo, Sam, Jason & Ronnie at Palos (Chris wielding the camera)

In the spirit of exploring various cycling styles, members of the Rapid Transit crew recently found themselves riding off-road in Palos Hills in the southwest suburbs. Back when we opened our shop 15 year ago, virtually all we could get was mountain bikes. Finding city tires for your bike was a challenge, let alone a whole urban bike.

Things are a little different today. It's been many years since we've stocked more than a couple of models of mountain bikes, and we put in a lot more miles on asphalt than on singletrack. So, to shake things up a bit, a few brave souls went out last weekend to explore the best in Chicago-area off-road trails.

In case you are wondering if these trails are challenging, here are some strategies that our strong urban cyclists utilized in conquering them:

Grinding and bike-assisted hiking.

Just hiking.

Vocalizing.

Triumphant cyclocross-style trotting.

Stay tuned for this weekend's shop recumbent ride!