We moved to Alabama from Minnesota when I was a kid. It would have been less of a culture shock to move to Canada. Among the many things I found different about Alabama, aside from the sometimes incomprehensible accents and inability to call pop of any variety anything but "Coke," was the more formal way everyone dressed, especially for school and church. Mothers and grandmothers were always in full makeup, perfectly coiffed, with their daughters sporting huge hairbows and the equally huge bangs so popular during t...
read more
Fate has intervened to bring me a blue beauty.
Iciclebicycle found a bicycle at a dumpster while recycling, took it home, and blogged about it. I read about it, wanted it, and let him know. Voila, the vintage almost-mixte Bridgestone Kabuki will soon be mine, after he fixes it up a bit and ships it my way. Then I have plans to attach bells, baskets, racks and any other cute accessories I come up with. I still plan on acquiring another bike; this Kabuki will be a loved member of my growing brood. I have a fondne...
read more
In my imagination, my French mixte was a girl. Her name would be Simone,* and she would be the perfect thing to ride to cafes to sip coffee, or to bars to drink gin martinis or sidecars while discussing feminist theory, boys, bikes, existentialism, travel, politics and our cats (what do you talk about at happy hour?). On the off chance the bike was more scientific-minded, she could be a Marie (Curie); or, if she had a more artistic temperament, Camille (Claudel).
Imagine my surprise when Le Peug show...
read more
I really want this shirt (see at link). Also, this related news clip is definitely worth watching. The best local news story I've ever seen on bikes, except a bit spoiled at the end with the whole "dead right" angle. I need one of those camcorders on my bike. Drivers very rarely pass me so closely, though. Is this type of dangerous driving more common outside of cities, where drivers are not used to seeing cyclists?
read more
Love my bike, love Chicago.
That is all.
read more
I might be suffering from post-traumatic bike-theft stress syndrome. Every work day I park my bike at the McDonald's Cycle Center, a city bike garage complete with showers, lockers, maintenance, and secure parking. I pay $25 a month for use of the entire facility, but there's also free secure parking in the basement. (That's where I parked while on the wait list for membership last summer.)
Yesterday, I was running late for a meeting and did not have time to park my bike in the Cycle Center. Instead, I chained O...
read more
On Sunday, we borrowed a bike from the neighbor for me and set off down the Lakefront Path to go ice skating. I'd ridden the path in the summer before, but was eager to give Dottie's winter commute a try. It was below 20 degrees when we set out, but the day was clear, sunny and beautiful.
The path was pretty clear of ice and snow, and busy, if not crowded -- mostly joggers, but we saw a few other cyclists.
We did have to walk our bikes through a couple of icy patches.
And yes, in case you're curious, ...
read more
I've always loved sidewalk chalk. It would be fun to use these on a group ride as shown, but I also like the idea of putting one on for my commute. Unfortunately it looks like it's just a concept for the time being.
Via
read more
This bike only weighed a little less than Pinkie, so I figured it couldn't be *that* different...a bike is a bike, right? Not when one bike is a Retrovelo, apparently. The Paula was so fun to ride -- and fast! Biking seems so much easier in Chicago, and I can't quite put my finger on why. Is it the lack of hills? the company? the quality of the bikes I end up riding when I'm here? Could be all of the above. Since we don't have a Dutch Bike Shop in Nashville, I guess I will never know for sure, but you can tell I'm ha...
read more
What happens when you put two bike blogging friends together in the same city? Lots of bikey goodness. We visited Dutch Bike Chicago and tried out a couple of really cool bikes, the Retrovelo Paula and the Workcycles Bakfiets. The snow was falling pretty hard with already a few inches of accumulation, but that did not stop us.
Everything about the shop is so classy and being surrounded by all of those gorgeous bikes was a treat.
We were impressed by the Retrovelo - it was a lot of fun to ride. The Fat Fran...
read more
