The Chicago Cruisers, a Puerto Rican bike club, celebrates the Schwinn

[flickr]photo:6000915602[/flickr]

[This article also ran in Kickstand magazine.]

Salsa music blasts from a sound system trailer with a big Puerto Rican flag attached, pulled by a guy in a traditional straw hat on a classic yellow Schwinn cruiser. Behind him ride a hundred men, women and kids wearing matching red t-shirts, blue shorts and white sneakers, the colors of the flag.

Most of them are rocking vintage Schwinns with gleaming chrome fenders, white-wall balloon tires, gas tanks, and springer forks. Many are decked out with rear-view mirrors, air horns, fox tails and small U.S., Puerto Rican and Chicago flags. It’s the Chicago Cruisers bicycle club, pedaling downtown to the Puerto Rican Day Parade on a hot summer morning.

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