Goodbye Four Star Commuter, Hello Bus.

Today is most likely one of the last days that I will have the opportunity to ride my bike home from work. Sad. Molly and I (the two Wicker Park CME Group employees who commute together sporting really cool outfits from Dailey Method to CME Group on a three-time-per-week basis) had the ride of our lives today. And by "ride of our lives," I mean that I was literally eating snow flurries and had a chapped face when I showed up to the salon to get some highlights after work. It looked like I was sun burnt. Totally awesome. The worst part of the ride was the Milwaukee and Erie intersection near Galleria Marchetti (biggest let down when I went to see it for a potential wedding venue). I felt as though I should be looking for Helen Hunt in the movie "Twister" because I swear the wind was 50 miles per hour. Terrible. I couldn't even fight the resistance and just kept swearing (since that apparently helped, or at least I felt like it helped).

I bought my bike at Roscoe Village Bike Store, and Doug picked it out for me (since he's obviously more knowledgeable when it comes to bike riding of the two of us). It is an adorable shop not too far from Lincoln Park nor Wicker Park and across from a fantastic sandwich shop. The staff is extremely warm and helpful. They allow you to try on a bike for size, and take a ride around the block. That's what did it for me, for sure. It was so much smoother of a ride than any other bike I'd owned before (including the mountain bikes my mom won in a New Years Eve raffle in Evanston when I was in High School, cool...mom...).

I'd say that this is a good time to reflect on how much I actually love riding my bike to work. I feel as though I have made strides (or pedals, teehee, bad joke--sorry) in my bike riding this past "commuting season." A fearful city biker to the core, I decided to take a chance and buy a bike I felt safe on, so that I'd take a try at the riding to work thing. I absolutely love riding. It's literally and figuratively a breath of fresh air (that is, of course, when I avoid freezing 10 degree wind burn). Also, since I have what I like to call a reverse eating disorder (where I spontaneously burst into hunger streaks and consume hundreds of calories randomly), this is a really nice way to keep active, and burn some extra calories here and there.

Dear Four Star Commuter (the name of my bike),

I'll miss you this winter! Thank you for saving me money and time in my commute over the summer. You rock. See you in the spring.

Many mazels,
Mish

Bike Description: The Roscoe Village Bikes' Four Star commuter bike is designed specifically for the Chicago cyclist. It features a Reynolds 520 steel frame, 700cm wheels with Maxxis Overdrive kevlar belted reflective tires, SRAM X5 shifters and rear derailleur and full coverage fenders. It's a fast, comfortable and durable bike for recreation and commuting. Limited quantities are available and the bikes sells for $575. The bikes are sized small, medium, large and extra large. For geometry specifics please see the KHS Urban X-Press. Test rides are encouraged.