ChiWhoBike #76
I started riding when I was 15 in high school, and before that I’d never been on a bike, ever. And it was all thanks to this one PE teacher I had, who was a hardcore commuter. One day he’s like, ‘nah, we’re not going to the pool today, we’re gonna go ride bikes. And for some of you who’ve never ridden a bike, get a feel for the balance.’ And within 60 seconds, I was riding and I was like, what is happening? I’m in my mid thirties now, so I’ve been riding for a little over half my life and I’ve lived in various other cities for a while, but I’ve lived here for over two and a half years now. And once I got here I was like, I can’t stand CTA, let’s go riding. So that’s what started it, and then I went on an overnight ride and thought, oh, this is quite fun, I’d like to keep doing it, but this bike is not designed for this. So that’s why I have this one now.
A month ago, there was an Out Our Front Door volunteer training at Big Marsh, and I’ve only ridden there once because it’s very far south and hard to get to. But this time I was with people I’ve seen around, and then we did this whole group ride through the Lakefront Trail southbound and, in order to get to Big Marsh, there’s some treacherous crossings. But we did it all together and it made it really nice and safe, because we had numbers, in terms of a lot of people. And we made it back to Big Marsh, which is an island of restoration out there in the midst of a lot of industrial stuff. And it was so nice to be able to be there with people and see all these majestic birds that you don’t get to see anywhere else.
Someone told me about Critical Mass, I showed up, and it’s got big party vibes, the last Friday of every month. And it was such an experience to be in a party and a protest. And then someone told me about Femmes and Thems, and it felt like a different form of Critical Mass, of oh, this is what it’s like to be around people who also bike who are fem or non-binary. There’s just so many different spaces to cultivate in the cycling community in Chicago, whether it’s party pace, race pace, or everything in between. It feels quite magical.
