ChiWhoBike #90

Published February 18, 2026
A man with a salt-and-pepper goatee and glasses kneels confidently next to a custom lowrider-style bicycle in front of a vibrant, geometric graffiti mural. He wears a black hoodie featuring a white Chicago skyline graphic, with black pants and black sneakers. His bicycle is a long, light blue cruiser with a sparkle finish and a low-slung, curved frame. The bike features high-rise black handlebars, a thick black fork, and black rims with thick tires, including a small orange card tucked into the front spokes.

I’ve ridden all over Chicago. We’re fortunate, we’re empty nesters, my wife and I, so we bike all over. We’ve biked in Las Vegas, and in New Mexico we did a bike ride to see hot air balloons take off. We’ve ridden in San Diego, LA, Toronto, Indianapolis, Detroit, Milwaukee, all the neighboring states.We bike everywhere. Anywhere there’s a ride, we like to go, and the whole bike life community, people you don’t even know, they take you in and they welcome us to just because we like to ride bikes or they host a ride. So we get to see it from that perspective.

I’ve been biking my whole life. I grew up around this area, Back of the Yards, Gage Park, Brighton Park, you know, all the south side. When I was 10 years old, we used to have a bicycle group, like 15 of us, and we would ride the bikes with the little wheels and the banana seat and we’d ride around all over here on the tracks everywhere. I went from the banana seat bikes, to the BMX bikes, to the mountain bike. On that one I had all three of my kids on the back and on a cart. And after that we started coaching my son’s baseball team when he was five. So I took a little 12 year break and then after they were all 18, 19, then I went back to biking and I just haven’t looked back. I’ve met so many people, lifelong friends now through the bicycle community and I love it.

I started hosting a Chicago tamale ride, and this will be our 12th year in May. 12 years ago, my wife said, ‘Hey, people are asking what you’re gonna do for your birthday, because they want to hang out.’ And I said, well, I’m gonna be on my bike, I’m doing a ride. If they want to come hang out with me, they can come. So that first year there were 12 of us, and we just rode around Pilsen looking at different graffiti pieces and stuff like that. The following year I started going to different, tamale vendors to support the neighborhood. And I’ve had so many people, new people come into my life to join me on that ride. My grandson, he’s ridden since he was a little baby. He was on the first ride with me when he was a year old, I had a seat, and now he rides his own bike.

A closer shot of the same man, sitting on his bike with his hands on the handlebars, smiling gently.
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