Today while riding Oma home, I started thinking about what a wonderful bike she is and how it must be close to our 2-year anniversary. I knew I got her sometime in October 2008. When I arrived home, I consulted the extensive Trisha-Dottie email archives to pinpoint the exact date: October 18! That is today, my friends.
As I've made very clear before, she's the best bicycle a woman could hope for and has changed my life by making biking so fun and easy.
Don't tell Ms. O that I almost forgot our anniversary; ...
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Hello very lovely Let’s Go Ride a Bike readers! This is Maria, of Lulu Letty, here to guest blog for Dottie and Trisha while they’re off exploring France. I am very honored to be chosen as a guest blogger and have the chance to chat about my lovely bike, Millicent. Dottie is a bit of a superhero to me – saving the planet while informing people about the joys of bicycling. Reading her posts and seeing that she could still wear her everyday (or even work) clothes while cycling, truly inspired me to finally bu...
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Today's beautiful guest post is from Velouria of Lovely Bicycle, who really needs no introduction.
Earlier this month I tried to sell one of my bicycles - a vintage mixte that I no longer need because a new one has been custom built for me. I say "tried," because in the end I could not go through with it and decided to keep it. There were just too many emotions tied to this bicycle, too many personal experiences associated with it.
If there is anything I have learned in my year and a half of cy...
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On Saturday Mr. Dottie and I had the privilege of spending the whole day with Miss Sarah of Girls & Bicycles and her husband Don. We showed them Chicago, local style. First they came to our place to get fitted on Oma and Sir Raleigh. Despite the height differences, the bikes worked out.
Then we rode a few miles to the Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood, where we had brunch at Toast and walked around. While Sarah scored at the BCBG sale and the thrift store, I finally found a good straw hat at Goorin Brother...
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Allow me to introduce you to the Kangaroo, the most sophisticated cargo bike I've met. The Kangaroo is a Danish bike, designed specifically - and wonderfully - to carry children. Although I was initially skeptical of a bike made of such modern materials and with such a narrow purpose, after my test ride the Kangaroo now ranks near the top of my bike list.
The frame is aluminum 6061, the cargo area is impact-resistent and UV-stabalized polyethylene, and the cover is nylon. Good old-fashioned wood and steel ...
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My commutes have been so lovely lately. Ever since I took the long way home for the Summer Games, I've continued taking the same relatively quiet route to and from work. Now I can't believe that I never discovered this route for over two years.
The route is all calm two-lane streets with bike lanes. Both the car and bike traffic are much lighter and more considerate. Trees line the way, shading me from the hot sun. Kids wait on the corner for school buses. People walk their dogs.
Bonus: I pass r...
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Congratulations again to Evie of the lovely blog, Now for Then. She will very soon be the owner of a shiny new Batavus BUB courtesy of Fourth Floor Distribution. Evie won the bike by completing two events for each of the three parts of the games. However, she went far above and beyond merely completing the events; she incorporated the challenges into her life with enthusiasm and wrote about it all so wonderfully. The fun radiates through her blog. Here are Evie's entries.
Bike date - ride with a friend an...
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The LGRAB Summer Games have come to an end and we're getting ready to announce the final winners tomorrow morning. Many thanks to everyone who played! We're not done with Summer Games fun here, though. Over the next week, we'll be posting entries that blog-less people emailed us and also putting together more recaps.
The first emailed entry comes from Kari in Minneapolis. This is such a fun story - enjoy!
From Kari:
Yesterday, during my commute home, I complimented a woman on her unique bicycle ...
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Chicago is the third-largest city in America. Skyscrapers, taxis, tourists, crime - it's all there. However, jump on your bike and ride a few miles south of downtown for this scenery.
The Chicago Countryside is closer than you think 
{I could not help posting more pictures from our Sunday ride.}
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Chances are good that you've already heard of Civia Cycles, the relatively new company in Minnesota making beautiful utilitarian bikes. Civia's motto is: Life's better by bike. We agree!
I recently test rode the Civia Loring. The Loring is the most relaxed of the company's five models. Civia markets the Loring for "tooling around town, cruising campus, or pedaling to the grocer." This seems to limit the Loring more than necessary, as it is a sturdy utility bike and they make it sound like a cruiser.
T...
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