Last week, Trisha visited Chicago for her birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!). We were together again!
We biked down the lakefront and stopped by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
Coco and Oma got to be together, too, outside of the garage for once.
While there, we enjoyed a high-quality exhibit, called Bikes! The Green Revolution, that happens to be at the Nature Museum until September 9.
There was a display of cool vintage bikes.
Art work with the theme "bike monsters."
Photo ops with ...
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I didn't make it to this Sunday's bike brunch, but our little tradition carried on just the same, despite the large wet flakes of falling snow (first of the year here in Nashville) with a stalwart six meeting up at Whiskey Kitchen.
Kim gets street cred for biking through our little blizzard on her Raleigh.
Our next bike brunch will be Sunday, March 11, at Margot Café in East Nashville at 1 p.m. This is a later brunch than usual -- hopefully the weather will be warmer in the aftern...
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Today is the first day of fall - my favorite season for bicycling.
Fall cycling is lovely and requires little-to-no preparation. Jumping on your bike in slacks or tights and a sweater will work most days. Nevertheless, I notice a steep decline in bicyclists once the dreadfully hot days of summer are over, so obviously some people need convincing to continue riding their bikes. In light of this, we put together a How To Dress for Fall Cycling guide a couple of years ago and a quick Refresher Course last year.
...
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Last Sunday I rode the Four Star Bike Tour, a massive group ride organized by and benefitting the Active Transportation Alliance. I chose the 35-mile route through the west and south sides of Chicago and my total mileage for the day was a little over 50.
I enjoyed the ride a lot. The crowd was too packed together at the beginning and after rest stops, but most of the time I was alone or with a small group. Sunday morning traffic was light and we had the roads mostly to ourselves. The route was pretty easy to...
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Dottie and I had a great time at our first NYC cyclist's happy hour. Co-hosted with Adeline Adeline, the evening was filled with interesting people, beautiful bicycles and just a wee bit of vino. 
The summer heat had just broken, and it was a beautiful evening for test-riding bikes.
Meeting longtime commentators and fellow bike lovers and bloggers was such a blast (here's Julie's take on t...
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Before I get to the main point of this post, let me mention that I was thwarted from riding my bike today. Last night a severe storm knocked out power for about 18 hours. No electricity meant my garage door opener would not work and my bike was trapped inside (a detached garage). That's something I never considered before. I guess there's some sort of mechanical opener on the inside, but figuring all that out early in the morning was beyond me. So I took the L train instead. Boo.
And now for something ...
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Lately it seems I'm posting more about group rides and events than about my daily biking. While I continue to ride my bike to work and everywhere else, the high points of my biking life have been special events like Critical Lass, the Women-Who-Bike Brunch, my Cupcake Ride and the Tour de Fat. There is simply no better way to enjoy Chicago in the summer than outside, under the sun, on my bicycle, chatting with nice people.
Now I'm adding the Seersucker Ride to that list, which I joined last Sunday. The ri...
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Ride to eat cupcakes, eat cupcakes to ride.
On Saturday, that's exactly what a celebratory group of 18 bicyclists did, navigating 8 miles to visit 3 bakeries and consume countless cupcakes. All in the best summer finery, of course.
After setting off from Wicker Park, we stopped first at Alliance Bakery, my personal favorite of the day. Such delicious and beautiful confections!
The group got a little sidetracked by a very pink sidewalk sale at a boutique next door...
But...
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Last week was Bike to Work Week in Chicago. We celebrate it later than the rest of the country, waiting until June to make sure it does not snow.
I volunteered at an Active Transportation Alliance commuter pit stop one morning. The stop offered free coffee and Clif bars, various swag, tune-ups and general encouragement. I mostly just stood around chatting with friends, though.
This particular pit stop was co-hosted by The Chainlink and REI.
Julie of The Chainlink worked the megaphone with...
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Yesterday, while waiting at a red light on my bike, a woman with a baby on the back of her bike rolled up and stopped next to me. I waved and cooed to the baby until he smiled. Then his mother said, "Say hi," and he did, flapping his chubby little hand, eyes shining under his helmet. The light turned green, she told me to go ahead and I told her to have a good day.
In an ideal world, sweet meetings like that would happen all the time. In reality, I very rarely see anyone bicycling on Chicago streets with a...
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