David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries

A great read for any city cyclist. On Tuesday, September 28th, the audiobook will be released. From davidbyrne.com:

In addition to music and narration by David Byrne, it also features location sounds, creating an atmosphere more akin to a radio show than a simple reading of the book.

 You can download the Introduction for free. Here is an excerpt:

Cities, it occurred to me, are physical manifestations of our deepest beliefs and our often unconscious thoughts, not so much as individuals, but as the social animals we are. A cognitive scientist need only look at what we have made—the hives we have created—to know what we think and what we believe to be important, as well as how we structure those thoughts and beliefs. It’s all there, in plain view, right out in the open; you don’t need CAT scans and cultural anthropologists to show you what’s going on inside the human mind; its inner workings are manifested in three dimensions, all around us. Our values and hopes are sometimes awfully embarrassingly easy to read. They’re right there—in the storefronts, museums, temples, shops, and offi ce buildings and in how these structures interrelate, or sometimes don’t. They say, in their unique visual language, “This is what we think matters, this is how we live and how we play.” Riding a bike through all this is like navigating the collective neural pathways of some vast global mind. It really is a trip inside the collective psyche of a compacted group of people. 

Dismantling The Michigan Avenue Bomb

Hi! My name is Zach, and I am a 25 year old Chicago bike rider.

I love Chicago, and I love riding, and every day I get to spend outside on the streets brings me a step closer to nirvana.

For the beginning of the season I have been working on a nice, easy at times/treacherous at others, 24 mile bike ride that takes me North to Foster & Damen, using Winnemac Park as one anchor, and South to Roosevelt & Lake Shore, using Adler Planetarium as another, hitting up several primo neighborhoods in between, such as Roscoe Village, Wrigleyville, Ravenswood, Old Town, and the Loop, just to name a few.

Part of the ride through the Loop incorporates a slightly insane, mostly harrowing, and somewhat reckless bomb up Michigan Avenue, heading North. Riding alongside the gawking rental cars, slicing taxi cabs, and impatient bus drivers who seem to transform into ferocious tribal warriors atop twelve ton metal elephants that are purposely trying to crush you and your bike below, you start to understand that you are now in the machine: you are the city. As I go barreling down the hill between Ohio street and the Hancock building, survival rests on comprehension. Rapt with heightened awareness, I rise up from under the brick and steel shade and navigate from above: the streets, the sidewalks, the people, the traffic lights, the crosswalks, the cars, the turn signals, the potholes, the more people! All a flash of a moment and a blur through my eyes, but all worthy opponents and dangerous obstacles that become even more real when riding alongside them.

Atop my bike, these become my most lucid moments, and this is when I love my city the most. Riding on Michigan Avenue is one of the best adrenaline rushes you will find around here. And after being thrust out of the Loop and finding the winds at your back, when you finally get to Mariano Park where Rush and State meet, it's like you've stumbled upon a slice of heaven that lay completely unaware of the madness below.

And that's the Michigan Avenue Bomb.
Cheers!
@thegratefulone

ISO: One Charismatic Solar Deity

6th ride of the season so far. That season being Springter (or Winting as some prefer, though most have trouble with the pronunciation). A rough mash up of almost all four seasons, March can provide quite the sensory experience while riding through the city. The sun warm and new, inviting; after months of hibernation it only takes seconds to remember. I bow. The moving air still crisp, remnants of Autumn and reminders that this isn't California, this is Chicago: a city of four seasons, today we get to see them all. People in shorts wearing sandals, people in scarfs and wool jackets; squirrels searching through dirty snow mounds, a bit confused... but happy nonetheless.

Shortened my ride today in favor for a slower pace: we're supposed to get some good old cold rain and snow this weekend, so I went zen. Mental health is just as important as physical health.

One part of this ride I would like to point out really quickly is a section of brick houses near Wrigley Field called Alta Vista Terrace. The district was built in 1904 in imitation of the rowhouse style of London (this sentence was copy & pasted directly from Wikipedia). It is an awesome street with a super homey feel, probably one of my favorite blocks in the Northside neighborhoods, and definitely worth checking out. There are pillars on both entrances to the street that point it out.

And here is the route I took today, pretty spot on to my old school, and I guess new school, half route.  12.5 miles.

I only took one photo on the go today. The photo I did take, however, is from the exact same spot at which I took a photo during ride number 3, which you can find in this blog, from March 10th. The photo was taken from a walking path behind The Nature Museum off of Fullerton and Lake Shore. In the 8 days since the 1st photo the small lake has thawed. I'm going to try to document the spot over the year.

Alright, that is all for now.
I'm ready for the snowstorm: go springter!
Cheers!
@thegratefulone