Entries Tagged as 'bike'

This Bicycle Appears to be Abandoned.

November 4th, 2011 · No Comments

You think!??!

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Kinzie Bike Lane

July 31st, 2011 · 2 Comments

Sometimes at night when it’s nice out and I want to get a bit of air and exercise I’ll walk across Kinzie and up Milwaukee for a while before catching the train or bus home. There are many many many bikers on Milwaukee Avenue. Probably more than I’ve seen on any other street. Well, maybe Lincoln has as many. It’s a toss up. Anyway, a lot of these bikers commute on Milwaukee Avenue as far as they can to downtown and then cut across on the Kinzie Street.

The awesome thing is that Kinzie now has Chicago’s first protected bike lane. The bike lane is next to the curb and next to it is a buffer area and sometimes an additional row of parking and then the car lane. All together there is up to 12 feet between bikers and car traffic. This lane on Kinzie only goes for about a half mile, but Mayor Emanuel has promised to install 100 miles of protected bike lanes in Chicago over the course of his 4-year term.

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Tour de Fat

July 20th, 2011 · 2 Comments


Slow Ride


Slow Ride


Slow Ride


Bike Pit


Rules of the Bike Pit


Handsome Little Devils: This guy juggles a chainsaw, raw egg, and bowling ball at the same time.


Crazy kaleidoscope.


Beer socks! Playing urban horseshoes.


Art Bike


Rows and rows of bike racks!

After the Tour de Fat bike parade, Jess and I headed over to Palmer Square for the Tour de Fat festival. We watched the end of the Handsome Little Devils vaudville-like show. In the finale, a man juggled a chainsaw, a raw egg and a 12-pound bowling ball all at the same time! We also watched the slow ride competition. This is a bike race where the loser is the winner. The goal is to ride the slowest and cross the finish line last, which is harder than you think. It’s hard to balance a bike while riding slow, and if you tip over or touch the ground, you’re out.

By this time it was about 12:45 p.m. and Jess and I were getting hungry. We walked all around the festival grounds, but there were NO food tents, as there were previous years. Finally I spotted two food trucks on the north side of the park. Gaztro Wagon was selling naanwiches but they were running out fast. The other truck was 5411 Empanadas. Both trucks had most of their menu crossed out and had a very limited selection. We went to stand in the empanada line. We were about 30 deep. Gaztro Wagon sold out while we were in the empanada line. I was SO hoping the empanadas didn’t sell out because then we’d have to leave to find food. Luckily, we were able to get our empanadas. They were tasty, but we only got 1 each, so as not to hog the limited supply, and they were tiny. Like 3 bites big. The truck sold out just after we ate our tiny bites. That was it. The fest was out of food by 1 p.m. NUTS.

When we were in the line, we saw Dallas, Kristin and Adam, so they came over and hung out by us. They were all expecting to eat too, but did not. Adam left to get some grub shortly after that. Jess and I went in the bike coral to ride some bikes but she was a bit too small for most of them. When we came out Todd and Kelly had joined our group, but they’d come expecting to eat and there was no food, so everyone wanted to leave to go eat somewhere. Everyone gave their beer tokens away (no one could drink all that beer on an empty stomach). It was Alden’s lucky day because just then he walked up and he got some of our beer tokens. By the way, Alden said later on there were more trucks, but really poor planning. Food trucks are awesome in theory, but if they are not abundant and the ones that are there run out of food right away? No bueno. How do you have a fest with a ton of kids and people drinking and not have food? This was obviously my biggest issue with the fest this year.

Other than that the fest was fun. It was HOT and sweaty, but that was ok. The thing is, all the acts are all exactly the same every year, though. And this is the 3rd year. They need to get some different things, because as much as I like it, I can only watch the slow ride and the same acts so many times!

Anyway, we headed to Revolution Brewing and ate lunch there. Then Jess and Kristin and I went to Heavenly for gelato. Then Ed met us there and he and Kristin went off for the night. Jess and I hung around Heavenly for a bit longer, then went to the Logan Theatre to see Kung Fu Panda 2. Back home, played some Wii and went to bed.

- Tour de Fat 2010
- Tour de Fat 2009: Festival, Costumes, Crazy Bikes

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Tour de Fat Bike Parade

July 19th, 2011 · No Comments

This is my third year in a row of watching the Tour de Fat bike parade from my front stoop. This year Jess was visiting so we watched it together. She tried to pretend like “no big whoop” but I did see her smile at some of the funnier costumes. Like last year, this was not as crazy as the 2009 parade. Not as many costumes. Mostly people just waved or shouted or rang their bike bell when they saw that they had spectators. Killian usually rides in the parade and gets off at our house, but this year he was doing the Race to Mackinac Island. Jess and I still had fun watching the parade. Well, I did. I’m not so sure about Jess!

- 2010 Tour de Fat Bike Parade
- 2009 Tour de Fat Bike Parade

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UPAF’s Ride for the Arts

June 11th, 2011 · 1 Comment

As I mentioned before, last weekend my brother, my dad and I did UPAF’s Ride for the Arts. One of the largest one-day recreational bike rides in the United States, UPAF’s Ride for the Arts has raised more than $7 million for the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF), which helps fund 34 performing arts groups throughout Southeast Wisconsin. So a big “thanks!” to everyone who sponsored us. We were able to raise over $100. And if you meant to sponsor us, but didn’t, you still can here.


UPAF Ride for the Arts start line.


Dad & Richard at the start.


Richard and Rachelle at the start.

We selected to do the 25-mile ride. There are also 5, 12, 50 and 75-mile bike routes. I think if it were up to my dad he’d go for the 75! But no way for Richard and I! Since the ride starts early Sunday morning, I drove down on Saturday night. Well, I attempted to. My car broke down on the way there, but that’s another story! On Saturday it was in the 80s or 90s and I was kind of scared for Sunday, but it really cooled down. Dad was complaining he was cold, even!

We got up early on Sunday, after only about 6 hours of sleep (See the part above about my car breaking down. Long story!) and just ate something very light. The grounds of Summerfest were the starting point, so we loaded the bikes onto my brother’s bike carrier thing-a-ma-jigy for the car and headed up. On the way there we stopped for air for the bike tires. I didn’t realize that my tires were very under inflated. When we got there, I took my bike off the rack and it tried it out. It felt so nice riding with inflated tires! haha.

The photos above are of us at the start line. There was a bit of confusion at the start of the race. Where to line up, which way to face. It ended up starting 20 minutes late. We didn’t know why at the time, but afterwards I read this article and found out that they were doing last-minute patches on the bridge route (see below). One thing that I did not mind is that in the confusion we totally missed all of the speeches by the big wigs welcoming us and what not. Let’s just go! Although last year I did like it when they announced we’d all be getting free hotdogs!


Hoan Bridge


Hoan Bridge


Hoan Bridge


Dad on the Hoan Bridge


Hoan Bridge


Don’t know why my brother is doing this.


Hoan Bridge


Hoan Bridge

This year there were two 25-mile routes. One went over the Hoan Bridge and one that stayed at ground level and went through the Historic Third Ward. Since we went through the Third Ward last year, we opted for the Hoan Bridge this year. Plus, who knows if they’ll ever cut off traffic and offer that option again! This was the first legal opportunity to ride on the bridge in nearly 30 years. This was our route.


First Oasis


Getting snacks.


Drummers

The first rest stop, ahem “oasis,” is at mile 5 at a church in St. Francis. Last year there was play acting for entertainment. This year was drumming. I liked the drumming better. We got refueled on fruit and granola and water and were back on the road.


Riding on from the first oasis.


Oasis Two


Dad at the second oasis.


Dad and Richard at the second oasis.


Big bike at the second oasis.

The next oasis didn’t come until the halfway point, down in Grant Park. There was a guy there with a big, old fashioned bike. I called BS on him riding it all the way through the ride. I thought he was just showing it off at the oasis… but just after we finished the ride we saw him pull in past the finish line!


They stole our matching costume idea!


Richard and my dad.


Belly dancers at the last oasis.

Riding back up towards Milwaukee.. the last oasis was at about mile 20 or 21 and was at the Coast Guard post. There were belly dancers for entertainment here.


At the finish line!

At the finish line. I was feeling pretty good. I was only winded a couple times on the ride and only for a few minutes. I was tired, but I felt a lot better than I did last year.


Beeeeeer


Free hotdogs and “cheese”

So, at the Summerfest grounds, on to the reward! We got ice-cold Miller beer. Always tastes like the best beer you ever had. There were also a ton of free Sun Chips, Kangaroo pita chips, Rold Gold pretzels, and granola bars. Like last year, we were also promised free hotdogs courtesy of Gahn Meat. We got our pathetic hot dogs and they were ok. Not the best, but hit the spot after the ride. This year we were also promised free cheese. Well, it turned out to be a pack of pretzel or cracker sticks with some processed cheese dip. Kind of a bummer. And ironic, since Sargento is always now advertising how they make such exceptional cheeses, not processed, with high-quality ingredients.


Fiat pace cars


These guys were so happy it was creepy.


The Love Monkeys. My brother said they’re a pretty popular local cover band.


More jugglers

At the Summerfest grounds there were a lot of entertainers. We walked around and checked out all of the displays, jugglers, musicians.


Summerfest Grounds

Until next year…. !


Jessica at Culver’s

Oh, one more photo. Later on we met up with Amanda, Jess, Steph and my mom and went to Culver’s. Compare this photo of Jess at Culver’s with my last photo of Jess at Culver’s. Crazy!

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