Snow Biking, and other events

Newstip Date: 02-06-2008

There's a bike ride planned for tonight -- but only if it snows enough.

There's a standing "snow biking" ride planned for any day when it snows more than two inches -- leaving at 7 p.m. from the bike-friendly Handlebar, 2311 W. North -- listed at Chicago Bike Winter's very full schedule of events.

Chicago bike advocates don't go south for the winter, and this weekend has several events scheduled.

Friday, February 8, Break The Gridlock hosts a Show and Tell at the Bloom Inn, 2418 W. Bloomington, from 7 p.m. to midnight, a forum for advocates of "appropriate transportation" to share news and views.

Bikers brave the elements

January 9, 2008

By MARK LAWTON Staff Writer

While most riders consider winter a good time to store their bicycles in garages or back rooms, the activists of Critical Mass hope to change that conception.

From Jan. 11 to Feb. 29 the group is putting on a series of events under the heading of "Critical Mass Art Show: Autogedden Revisited." Some are indoor events such as networking for cycling advocates, though others involve braving the cold on bikes.

Bikers goof off at the Auto Show
Demonstrators playfully protest Chicago Auto Show

By Alison Shipley, Staff Writer

Although the 100-year-old Chicago Auto Show has been generating excitement for many of its visitors, others aren’t sharing the same sentiments.

About 20 people participated in a protest they called Shutdown Festival at the Chicago Auto Show.

by Elizabeth Simone
Published on February 18, 2007

On February 11, the Chicago Tribune chose to cover what they described as a "Pedaling protest" against the Chicago Auto Show. The show is a long-standing tradition in Chicago, 99 years in fact, with the "elite" of the city scrambling to make an appearance opening night. You can bet the Tribune was there, holding their wives in floor-length gowns and joking into a glass of wine.

Bicyclists protest Chicago Auto Show
CHICAGO, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Bicyclists gathered in protest over the weekend outside Chicago's McCormick Place, where the 99th Chicago Auto Show was taking place.

Protesters dressed as polar bears and held up signs that said "True Patriots Don't Burn Oil" and "Be a Hero: Drive Less," the Chicago Tribune reported.

Pedaling protest takes on car show
Bicyclists use satire to drive home point

By Lolly Bowean
Tribune staff reporter
Published February 11, 2007

Dressed as polar bears and Santa Claus and towing signs that read "True Patriots Don't Burn Oil" and "Be a Hero: Drive Less," a group of bicyclists gathered Saturday in front of McCormick Place to protest the Chicago Auto Show.

Pedal to the People: Bike Art as Activism
Extra News
Posted on 02-08-2007
(En Español)

People across Chicagoland are asking themselves, “How can I lighten my impact on the planet and help stop global warming?” The answer: Cut down your reliance on your automobile and start bicycling more. The benefits of bicycling and the damage automobiles do to our society will be explored at the tenth annual Critical Mass Art Show, to be held at Mercury Cafe, 1505 W. Chicago Ave., from Feb. 9 to Feb. 23.

Curse ye motorheads
Chicago Journal, February 15, 2006

Scrappy protest delivers on the car-alarm symphony but not, alas, the auto show shutdown

By MAX BROOKS, Contributing Writer

The 2007 Toyota Tundra, which will boast five tons of towing power and nudge aside the Dodge Ram, the Ford F-150, and General Motors’ new GMT-900 as the biggest truck in its class, will also have a fairly standard feature that might have come in handy for those huddling outside the Chicago Auto Show this past Saturday: heat.

Some groups soft-pedal Auto Show
Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune
February 9, 2004

This is probably the most difficult week of the year for the Chicago area's diehard bicyclists, the folks among us who see pedaling as not only an alternative way to get around or to stay fit, but also as a path to a better life for humankind.

The sense of an endlessly uphill trek has nothing to do with the dangers of navigating ice-rutted streets or knowing that it's still months away from what non-gear heads would consider true biking weather.

Trying to hit the Auto Show with a bike mentality
Chris Wiersema
New City, February 17, 2000

Though it's shaping up to be one of those cold-yet-sunny Midwestern winter days, some thirty people -- and their bikes -- commune in the abstruse Picasso shadow of the Daley Plaza and begin making plans. The group, a diverse pack of messengers, working stiffs, a tricycle-riding freak flag flyer, and one chain-smoking, anarchist Brit, isn't exactly who you'd expect to see mounting bikes in the early hours of a Saturday morning.