ChiWhoBike #32
This is my pedal cafe, and I’ve been riding it for just under four months. It’s definitely not your average bike - we have everything from the taps, the tanks inside, to the tank in the back, and it’s set to be a mobile bar serving beer or coffee. It’s a beautiful Patron green with a few aspects added to keep the bike manageable on the road, both in winter and summer here in Chicago. So I’ve tweaked the cassette in the back, added some different aspects for brakes just to try to keep it balanced and on the road.
I’m just somebody who loves to be outside, and biking is one way just to continue to try to get out of that rat race of the city. For me, where we are is a big part of how I see my daily routine. If I can take just the sliver of my time outside of that concrete jungle and find some space to really do what I call forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, taking my senses, getting them tied in and plugged into the nature around me, it’s just a great way to feed myself and feed my soul before I go to offer parts of my schedule to other people.
I think Chicago has a long way to go as far as infrastructure. One of my biggest critiques is just figuring out how to get more protected bike lanes. This bike was inspired by time we spent over in Denmark and seeing the infrastructure that’s set up for bikes to not only be an option, but to be a preferred option, makes me wonder what Chicago could do to make biking in the city, from South to North, all the way from Evanston to Steelworkers Park, just a little bit easier. Along the lake, it’s not super hard, but as soon as you go west you start to get into traffic that threatens the bike lane. You have people parked in the bike lanes because they’re not protected, as well as people running into the bike lanes during high traffic times. Those commuter moments could really be times where traffic is reduced and safety is increased if we had more space that was dedicated to bike lanes, not just as optional, but as required.
