Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Jeannette, W Chicago Ave & N Sangamon St, Chicago, IL


Jeannette rides a single speed Murray Townie
What are you wearing?  
Minnetonka moccasins from a the 80s that I got from an antique store in Milwaukee, WI.
Pants that I ripped apart into shorts. My mom's African brocade top from her designer friend Koro in Burkina Faso (West Africa). H&M sunglasses I got in Bordeaux France. I love it when every piece of my clothing carries a story. 

Tell me about your bike, and where you got it?
Sparkly green single speed Murray townie. I found next to a dumpster underneath the California blue line stop 5 years ago. The wheels & the seat were missing but I fell in love with the sparkly handlebars & pinup girl stickers so I took it home & slapped on some wheels & found a matching bike seat. I also converted the bike to a back pedal brake which I absolutely adore.








Where are you going?
David Barton Gym for my weekly training. Gotta get back into shape after a busy school year finishing my Industrial Design degree.

Why ride?
I never learned to drive and never really gotten in the mood to ever try to and the exercise I get from biking helps me wake up every morning instead of drinking coffee. Plus I love weaving through cars and traveling faster than the bus.

Favorite ride?
Anywhere where there's a bike lane. lol

How can Chicago improve bike infrastructure or be more bike friendly?
Chicago really needs to fix their pothole issue, for some odd reason the potholes are always in the bike lanes. They also need to have a separate bike lane apart from cars. The lanes are between traffic and parked cars and my biggest fear is getting doored into traffic. When people get out of their cars they never pay attention to the bike traffic. I recently watched the film Urbanized (by the same producers as Objectified and Helvetica) and the Mayor of Bogota, Colombia fixed that issue by creating bike lanes on the opposite side of the parked cars, away from the car traffic. If we could address this issue in our city, it would make biking a lot safer and we would see a lot less ghost bikes around the city.
It would also be really cool if there were bike racks inside the L trains like they do in Portland with their Max light rail system. I was fascinated when I saw that. http://washcycle.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/bike_rack_in_nj.jpg

7 comments:

  1. What a gorgeous lady! I love the bike and the duds, and their stories.

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  2. Where on earth did she find the sparkly-seat to match the handle bars....LOVE IT!

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    1. I know! Love the seat handle bar combo. Makes me think I really need to step up my bike style.

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  3. Woooow, love the bike and the style :-)

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  4. This is my favorite entry on your blog. You can just feel Jeannette's love for cycling in her words. And the clothes and sparkly bike story are so cool.

    I really like how you are highlighting everyday cyclists, their style, and their passion for riding a bike through town. There's a lot of alignment with our little shop in Seattle, where we focus on cycling as transport, offering comfortable, stylish clothes and accessories to help people get around town on two wheels. I've added your blog to our links list on Wordpress, which you can check out here if you like: http://hubandbespoke.wordpress.com/

    Cheers and happy riding!

    Aldan
    Hub and Bespoke

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  5. So happy to find this blog. I'm a new rider in Chicago and was looking for some biking tips and style inspiration. You've got a new subscriber! I spent two years in Portland and I must say it is probably the most bike friendly city I've ever lived in. I'd love to see more bars, restaurants, dives and concert venues catering to bikers with bike racks and bike hubs downtown.

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