I rode Coco to work Monday, before Tuesday's snowfall sent me back to Oma and her studded tires. I was so giddy to have a new bike, I decided to take Coco on a spin to the lakefront during lunch with my camera and a roll of film.
I haven't ridden Coco enough yet to provide in-depth opinions on how she performs, but I'll offer some initial thoughts. She feels great! The ride is similar to Oma's and nothing like Betty Foy's. She weighs a bit less than Oma and is a bit more sprightly, but spee...
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Drum roll, please...
After a teaser several weeks ago, I'm happy to report that a new bike has finally joined the Dottie household: A Velorbis Studine Balloon: designed in Denmark, made in Germany and sold in Chicago at Copenhagen Cyclery.
Rust-colored Schwalbe Fat Frank balloon tires, creamy white steel frame...
Integrated rear rack with briefcase hook...
Wheel lock, double kick stand, chain case...
Bell, comfy rubber grips...
3-speed Sturmey Archer internal hub...
...
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On Saturday morning, I participated in a group ride along the Lakefront Trail, Go Green Go Dutch Go Bike, put on by Active Trans and the Dutch Consulate in Chicago. The event did not attract a huge amount of people outside the Dutch bike community, possibly because of the threatening skies and mid 40's temperature, but the fact that we have a Dutch bike community is pretty cool. Socializing among ourselves was fun, including groups from each of the city's three Dutch/Danish bike shops, Copenhagen Cyclery, De Fiets...
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Here is a secret to winter bike commuting: it's not that bad. If you look closely at the individual days that make up winter, you'll see that most of them are pretty nice. Sure, sometimes the windchill is -20 and sometimes a foot of snow falls, but the time between the extreme days is perfectly fine for bike commuting.
This week served as a good example. After Monday's light rain, the temperatures fell but stayed above 0. On Wednesday morning my commute temperature was 7 degrees. Sounds cold, right? I wor...
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When I visited Copenhagen Cyclery this weekend, I also test rode the Velorbis Mobii Trike. Yay, trike! I've been wanting to test ride a three-wheeled beast for some time now. When I wrote about the WorkCycles Bakfiets a couple of months ago, I mentioned that I could not know for sure how I felt about it without riding a trike for comparison.
The Mobii (love the name!) comes in one size and two powder-coated colors: orange and gray. Designed and handmade in Denmark, this thoroughly modern, steel-framed stunner ...
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The best part of blogging is meeting (virtually and in real life) so many cool people who share my passion for cycling. A community of like-minded folks is invaluable: I may have been the only bike commuter at my office, but I was never alone. This weekend was packed full of visitors from the online cycling community, and I had a great time.
There's so much for me to cover, including the people I met, the cocktail party ride, new Gazelles at Dutch Bike Chicago, and the temperature dropping into the 30's. I'll sta...
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Though we'd altered Oma, she still wasn't a perfect fit for long rides with lots of stops and starts--so for the cocktail ride, the nice folks at Copenhagen Cyclery in Wicker Park agreed to give me a loaner. The shop's manager, Phil, and owner, Brent (who was on the Cocktail Ride with us looking quite dapper) set me up with the elegant red Abici Granturismo Donna.
This sexy red single-speed with a rear coaster brake and a front handbrake was easily the most attention-getting bike I'd ever ridden, so it was lucky I...
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