ChiWhoBike #21

Published January 1, 2024
An older man stands in front of his white Surly long-tail ebike in a plaza with a few other people and bikes behind him and white lights on the trees behind them. The man is wearing black sneakers with orange bottoms, a black jacket and packets, a baseball cap, and black glasses, and has short white hair and light skin.

I think people who don’t bike think, ‘oh, biking, it’s exercise’. Which, you know, some people don’t want to do that. A lot of Americans, once they turned 16, they never touched a bicycle again. My sister’s the same way. She didn’t wanna ride and exercise, but a couple years ago she came to Chicago and got on an electric Divvy, and it was a whole new world. So she can still dress for a show or for dinner and zip downtown without even breaking a sweat. She loved it. I think e-bikes are really gonna change things.

I bike in the winter, and I’m kind of a gear guy. I’m a skier from way back, and I’m not out there in a bathing suit when it’s 20 degrees. So obviously the gear is key. Quite honestly, anything under 20 degrees, I wear goggles, and I’m very comfortable. The rain is an issue, though. I mean, in a complete downpour, nothing is truly waterproof, you know, but that’s so rare.

I was racing BMX with the Amish in Indiana, 1974 maybe, moved to Colorado, raced mountain bikes, track, velodrome and a little bit of road racing. So I’ve been in the game a while. And, you know, 40 years on, it’s still the first 30 seconds you get on that bike, it’s like flying. Freedom. I forget who said it, I think it was one of the frame builders, but think of the bicycle as kinetic sculpture that can just about save the world.

A close-up of the same man standing smiling in front of his bike.
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