ChiWhoBike #75
This is my bike, and it is originally a 2017 Surly Straggler with 650B wheels. I’ve done races on it. I’ve ridden down Highway One in California on it, I’ve ridden it through the Badlands, I’ve taken it across the country for work. The only things on this bike that are original are the frame and the brakes, they’re the only thing left. Everything else has been replaced, has been given to me, and it’s survived so much. So here’s hoping it survives.
I love biking in Chicago. I’ve ridden a lot of places and for my money I think Chicago is great, we are really lucky in a lot of ways. And I think my favorite part is that Chicago is so big and there’s so many different areas and different people that, if you just say, I’m just gonna ride, I’m gonna go in a direction, you will just see and experience so many different things. I know, we’re not backed up to mountains, but there is a lot of incredible nature here. I’m a huge fan and booster of Big Marsh Park, and I live here, where there’s a brewery and Bubbly Creek and trucks, but Big Marsh is one of those places you’ll never be anywhere like that. I’ve been all over the country doing bike stuff and you’ll never see anything like it.
In Chicago, the reality is, like most other places, that people who live in disenfranchised places don’t get the same things as other people who do, and that’s really hard. People want better for themselves, and I understand that, but we live in a really big city and your neighbors are not just people like you and people who live near you. Transit justice is about equity. The reality is, lots of the North Side could be better, I understand that. But the infrastructure there, if I took you riding my favorite route from here ot Dan Ryan Woods, where the Major Taylor Trail starts, it’s a lot harder, and that’s really sad. I wish more people rode around on the South and the West sides and I wish that they would advocate for the same things that they have for themselves because we’re all neighbors, and kids and adults and everyone everywhere deserves the same thing as people in other places.
