Chance Meeting in the Bike Lane

On my way to work Friday morning, I met another woman with an Azor Oma just like mine.  I was coming into the loop and stopped at a red light when she meandered past me, looking oh so stylish in a long black coat with a fluff-lined hood covering her helmet.  I was shy about speaking [...]

Winter Critical Mass

Yesterday I rode in the monthly Chicago Critical Mass ride. There’s a lot of strong opinions on whether Critical Mass is a positive event.  I think so!  My first exposure to Critical Mass was before I started riding, in June 2007, soon after moving to Chicago from Nashville. Coincidentally, Trisha was visiting at the time. [...]

Lunch in Midtown, or Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

Yesterday I rode my bike from the office to lunch for the first time (I don’t go out for lunch a lot, and when I do, it’s often within walking distance). A 1.7-mile ride isn’t far, and though temps were only in the high 30s it was nice to get out in the middle of [...]

Link List

Today Elisa of Bike Skirt linked to an interesting article on cyclists and traffic laws. Should they always be obeyed to the letter? Check out the post and add your opinion to the comments (I shared mine).
And if you’re in Nashville and are interested in making our city more walkable and bike-friendly, take this survey [...]

Back to Nature

Riding through neighborhoods, I don’t usually deal with the same sort of traffic hazards that a lot of cyclists do. But we small-city folks face other dangers, as I discovered just last weekend. While riding home from our tune up, Pinkie and I were accosted by a horrible, slavering beast. I couldn’t take a picture [...]

Finally CAR-FREE!

My tendency to anthropomorphize everything makes looking at this picture hard. Amos the Prius looks so sad and I genuinely feel a little remorseful. However, I console myself with the thought that he is now roaming freely around the Michigan countryside, no longer locked by himself in a cold city garage, never let out to [...]

Precipitation

It’s been an exciting two days weather-wise here in Nashville. Yesterday I was all suited up and ready to ride, when I walked out my door to realize that…it was pouring down rain (one of the drawbacks to living in a first-floor condo is that you can’t hear rain on the roof!).
Today I woke up [...]

Elevated Train and Elevators

Tonight I took the Oma on the el for the first time. Bikes are allowed on the el train any time except rush hour, with a max of two bikes per car.
A friend and I saw Spamalot at a theatre downtown and she did not have a bike, so I rode the el home with [...]

Is that a burrito in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

A guest ditty from Mr. Dottie (aka Greg). Sadly, no pictures of burrito-stuffed pockets.
I rode 20 miles today.  While taking the lake front bike path home at 6pm I decide I’m hungry, so I hit the streets. I walk out of Chipotle fifteen minutes later with a huge burrito in my left jacket pocket and [...]

Shared Lanes, Buses, and Creepy Trees

This is a random picture from my ride home, an example of a “marked shared lane” in Chicago. They put these where the road is pretty wide, but not wide enough for an actual bike lane. This sharrow is from Lincoln Avenue, which is a long diagonal street that cuts northwest from downtown. This avenue [...]