Chicago or bust

On June 30th 2012 what had been known as "The Old Speed Shack" packed up its tools and started a 900+ mile journey from snowy Vermont to urban Chicago.   The particulars of said Uber Adventure can be found here, but the long and short of it is this:

•  Vehicle: 
• 1974 Toyota Pickup
• Contents: 
• 200lbs of house plants
• Our best friend Steve(He is a 90lb mystery dog by the way) 
• Our collection of records
• Tools  
• Route chosen for trip
• US 20
• Break downs
• 1
• Days on the Road
• 5
• Average temp
• 95+

So there ya go, long trip in an old truck with no AC.  Fun?  Yes, but by the end it was time for a change of pace.  Once we reached the promise land of Chicago we had a two step program to ween us off petrol powered locomotion. Step one, figure out the CTA. Step two, find a bike. 

Step one was pretty straight forward; look at CTA map to see where nearest stop was to point A, deduce if a bus or train would be the easiest/fastest/most enjoyable way to reach point B, and repeat.

Step two was a bit more complicated. See, bikes in Chicago are hoarded like your great aunt hoarded old new papers. People like to own multiple bikes. I'm not sure if we should blame this phenomenon on the poor poor hipsters, but might as well, they are leaders in bike hoarding. And there is nothing wrong with this if it is kept within reason, but this is often not the case.

There are a few different types of bike each true Chicago bike kid needs in her/his arsenal.  First we have your classic Fixie, and there is your band bike, oh and the bike you got so you could pressure your girlfriend(s)/boyfriend into riding whether they want to or not. And parts bikes out the wazoo, as you never know when you'll need that 1972 Shimano derailleur!!!  OK, perhaps we're being hard on the often oppressed hipsters, but in the not so distant past we were able to purchase a decent 1970/80s bicycle for a twenty spot!  Not no more, at least not in Chicago-land.  Any who, back to the subject at hand, lookin' for a good bike.

The main places used in this search were craigslist and garage sales.  Both can be fun, one just needs to keep in mind that they will be dealing with some scammers here and there, and that you will need to be patient to find the perfect rig.   And within a few weeks you to will have your new rig, just like team Drum.

Oh yeah! It was set up as a board track racer!  Neat but not really useful for commuting.