ChiWhoBike #74
This is my second year with my bike - I love it, and I love the pink. It’s really hard to find girly, feminine, stylish bikes sometimes. A lot of them are charcoal or black, and so finding a frame like this, I was very excited. This thing has probably had hundreds and hundreds of miles on it, and up until recently it was my commuter bike, my training bike, and my everything bike. But I realized that I should probably get something cheaper and not so fancy, especially because getting it fixed is not fun, because it’s a little expensive. But I’ve taken it on three centuries now, and everyday riding.
One thing I like about biking in Chicago is that you’re never alone. Even in the winter when I’ve biked, even in bad weather, there’s always at least one other cyclist I encounter on my route. Whether it’s the lakefront trail or taking the streets, I love just seeing other people. Like we’re in it together, you’re out in the elements, and I feel like you’re more engrossed in the space, operating through the city on a human scale instead of like a vehicle. You get to see everything, feel everything, get the wind in your hair. It’s really incredible. And I think Chicago has a really unique and special bike culture, and, especially in the last five years or so, I’ve noticed myself and others just biking more and more community. Whether it’s group rides, social stuff, or activism rides. I think it’s just really incredible to be a part of the momentum that’s in the city.
Sometimes it’s hard for me to decide whether I want to risk life and limb to go where I want to go. I broke my arm last summer on my bike, and I’ve always said getting injured, getting hit on my bike was not an if, but a when. I think the saddest part of it was not being able to bike or go places for like the two months that it took for my arm to heal. But I think that you just deal with a lot of adrenaline and stress sometimes, biking. I’ve had drivers yell all sorts of things to me, I’ve had people actively be aggressive, I’ve had other cyclists be aggressive. And so it’s really hard to exist in the space where you are a vulnerable road user and you’re so aware of that vulnerability.
