ChiWhoBike #37
I use my bike for everything - transportation, going to concerts, like mostly transportation. I do have different bikes for different things. So I have a gravel bike that has a rack on it that I use for more like bike packing trips. This is my city bike, like my anywhere bike. So like yesterday I was on the train taking it up the stairs, like it can get banged up. I don’t really care. It’s my whatever bike, but that’s what makes it so special to me ‘cause it is so versatile. It’s the bike I hold the most dearly.
I love going biking through the city. My favorite part of the city to go through is the Loop, because the traffic gets so heavy that you can just kind of weave. And I describe it as being like a red blood cell, when you think of the platelets in your head, and they’re all flowing. That’s how I feel in traffic. Just kind of flowing through. My favorite thing is the sense of freedom. Like not only is your bike yours, it’s paid off, you’re not making payments on it, but it’s all powered by you. So it’s powered by the amount of food you eat. It’s powered by the mood you’re feeling that day. It’s powered by the fitness level in your legs. It’s very freeing ‘cause everything’s under your own support.
I feel like kindness can go a long way. Cars will do things to me that aren’t the nicest, but I still do my best to be kind to them because I know they see cyclists as a monolith. So it’s like, oh this cyclist was super aggressive to me this one time, so I’m just gonna treat the rest like this. So I try to take that and sort of spin it into well how many positive interactions have they had with a cyclist? So maybe their view of us isn’t the best. So the things I dislike are are the lack of infrastructure and then aggressive drivers. But that’s also something I feel like as humans we create. So as humans we can make better.
