The Chicago Bike

I’ve always wanted a bike in Chicago. The Windy City is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the US. They have the Lakefront Trail, which is 18 miles of road along Lake Michigan that’s dedicated for cyclists, runners and whatever you call those guys on blades (bladers?). They have bike racks in major commercial areas (and in every corner downtown) where you can park and lock your bike to. They also have bike lanes but more importantly, cyclists have traffic rights on the road, which means they can have the right of way and basically, unlike San Andreas, cars can’t just run them over.

With summer peaking and me not cleared to do any running yet, it made sense for me to start looking for a bike. The bike search started horribly (most bikes were too pricey or had too many bad reviews) but thanks to tips from Gwen and Tito, I learned that Wal-Mart carried cheap but decent bikes. I hopped on a bus one afternoon and headed West of Chicago to the nearest Wal-Mart. They had one that matched all my requirements:

1) Must be below 80 dollars.
This is almost close to impossible considering the next cheapest thing is a half rusted fourth hand bike with no brakes that “Mike B.” from Naperville is selling on Craigslist for 70 dollars. There’s also another bike that went for 65 dollars from a guy named "Shark" from Elk Grove but, who wants to buy a bike from someone named "Shark"?

2) Must have Shimano gears
So I could say “well, at least it has Shimano gears!”.

3) Must have a very low frame.
It’s actually Jaye’s requirement because she cannot ride a bike where she cannot stand up while sitting on the seat. I hope it doesn't apply for cars.

4) Must not look too flashy.
Our Tagalog term for it? “Pampalengke”. I don’t want it to be flashy so it won’t be the target of thieves and so I can park it anywhere. If you get a scratch on it, who cares? If it gets toppled over by the wind and the paint gets chipped, who would notice?

5) Must pass the “Amazon Test”.
The online reviews must be decent. It doesn’t have to be five stars but as long as there are no stories like “I was riding this bike when the wheels fell off and I dove into a big pile of horse poo”, I’m ok with it.

I can live with the quick cons I noticed about the bike:

- It only had 24 inch wheels. An adult sized bike has 26 inch wheels. That’s ok, I don’t think I’ve reached adulthood yet.
- It was as heavy as a tank.
- It only had front suspensions (no frame suspensions).
- The rear brakes need adjustment.
- The seat was as hard as a rock.



Now for the next step, riding the bike home. This is a huge challenge because it was a couple of miles away from home, it was really really hot and I was in a very scary neighborhood. In every other block, there’s a group of young people smoking and hanging out on the street. They hear you as you pedal by them, they all look at you at the same time, and the only thing I can do is put my head down and pray I don’t get cramps.

Eventually I was out of that scary neighborhood and my legs started to feel like rubber. That wasn’t the worst part though, because the seat was extremely hard and I had no tools to adjust the angle, I had a bad case of the “saddle sore”. I arrived at our place all red and sweaty and I smelled like I crawled home through a sewer. My hair looked like I stuck my finger through an outlet and I was walking around like a penguin.



Why did I go out to buy a bike again?!