the rise of
the vélosphère

A major facet of my
nostalgie de décennie in
The Windy City has been comparing my life in 1999 to that of 2010; especially the differences. Perhaps the biggest is the subtle change in the bike community here. When I did my first
Critical Mass in May 06 I was aware of only a few bike groups. There were organized clubs like
UIC's
College of Cycling and the
Chicago Cycling Club. More underground groups included
The Rat Patrol and our city's chapter of
the Scallywags. Then there were the more informal groupings, organized around regular monthly or annual rides. The
Midnight Marauders and
Santa Cycle Rampage come to mind. All were supported by a diverse range of bike shops and co-ops; the most famous being
Working Bikes.

I even tried my hand at organizing
The Square Wheelmen. My efforts, beyond a nifty graphic and some bike caps given to friends, didn't get that far. It didn't fail as much as sputter because nobody but me got the connection between
Lincoln SQUARE (my 'hood) and a none-to-subtle anti-hipster dig. Also, it may've had something to do with the lack of a proper website. Blogs I could do in 06 - HTML was still a mystery. Perhaps things would've been different if I'd had a social networking platform like the one that appeared a year ago:
The Chainlink. Since its inception, nearly 3,000 bikers have started and joined over 100 groups. And like in 06, they're spread along a wide spectrum of
themes,
rides,
issues,
self-help, and the just plain
silly...

What really fascinates me is that I'm not all that sure if
The Chainlink promoted this blossoming of
Bike Community 2.0 or is merely a reflection of it. Either way, it's definitely a fact that the city is a far richer place for our idiosyncratic bikers than when I first moved here!
Labels: Chicago, history, velotariat
1 Comments:
It would be lovely if bicycle critical mass organizers share their experiences, so we can have it organized for all city cyclists.
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