“Momentum Wild” honors local cycling

[flickr]photo:6010825826[/flickr]Artist Brian Morgan with “Major Taylor”

Three friends cruise around the Humboldt Park lagoon on Schwinns, hauling freshly caught trout and a sixer of beer. Muscular messengers on fixies sprint down the street with jaws set in fierce resolve. Members of the Windy City Scorchers, an old-time racing team, zoom around a wooden track. An elderly tamale vendor pedals a box bike with ape hanger bars under a blazing sun.

[flickr]photo:6010816786[/flickr]

These are some of the icons of Chicago bicycling that artist Brian Morgan celebrates in his show Momentum Wild: The Art of Urban Cycling currently at Jackson Junge Gallery, 1389 N. Milwaukee. Many of the painting in the show were inspired by real people Morgan witnessed on the streets of our city. The artist says he wanted to capture a sense of desperation, but also determination, on the cyclists’ faces as they cope with the challenges of riding in the sometimes-hostile urban environment.

Continue reading “Momentum Wild” honors local cycling

Grid Bits: Tolls rising, BRT on Western, Andersonville needs bike parking

Grid Bits is a new series I’m experimenting with – it comes in the same vein as Grid Shots. While Shots features photos our Flickr group contributors take, Bits is a collection of abstracts on diverse topics around Chicagoland. Each paragraph is a new story.

[flickr]photo:5869972187[/flickr]

Photo of project advertisement in front of the future Oakton Street station.

Continue reading Grid Bits: Tolls rising, BRT on Western, Andersonville needs bike parking

Open discussion: What suggestions do you have for bikes on trains?

Update: Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) blogged a new report about this connection. I haven’t read it yet, though. 

I am passionate about the nexus of bicycling and transit, and I’ve written often on Steven Can Plan about how bikes are stored on trains in the United States and around the world. When I travel, I look at this relationship closely.

[flickr]photo:5795391916[/flickr]

Bikes on the subway in Seoul, South Korea. Photographer unknown. 

Recently I’ve had several discussions with people (the latest while volunteering at Pitchfork Festival in early July 2011) about getting bikes on the South Shore Line that goes to Indiana. What I’ve learned is that it will probably take an act of legislation to make this happen, as well as a reconfiguration of the trains. This is what forced Metra to change its policies, but they caved before the legislation passed. Continue reading Open discussion: What suggestions do you have for bikes on trains?

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.

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

Wicker Park(ing): Chicago debuts its first on-street bike corral

This is the first post co-written by both Grid Chicago bloggers. 

Last Friday’s ribbon cutting for the new on-street bicycle racks at Milwauke/North/Damen in Wicker Park, the first in the city, was a bittersweet occasion for John.

[flickr]photo:5991809480[/flickr]

A bus and cyclist pass by Chicago’s first on-street bike parking corral in Wicker Park on Friday, July 29, 2011. 

As many Grid Chicago readers know, both John Greenfield and Steven Vance are veterans of the Chicago Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) Bicycle Program who worked on parking projects. Around 2004 the owner of Andersonville’s Cheetah Gym, 5248 N Clark, approached John about getting a 12-bike rack, which the bike program had in stock, installed in a car parking space in front of his business and even offered to pay for planters to protect the bikes from cars. Continue reading Wicker Park(ing): Chicago debuts its first on-street bike corral

Grid Shots for the last day of July 2011

[flickr]photo:5992208196[/flickr]

Bicyclist under the shadows of the ‘L’ structure in Lakeview, at Roscoe and Clark Streets. Photo by hetrickm. 

[flickr]photo:5968896079[/flickr]

Bicyclists wait at the stoplight in the crotch of Milwaukee, North, and Damen Avenues. Photo by Mike Travis. 

[flickr]photo:5942198122[/flickr]

A passenger waits for the CTA train at the Roosevelt L station. Photo by Eric Rogers. 

Add your photos to the Grid Chicago pool.