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SKaiser writesLearn Your City’s Streets with Tour de Fat’s Car For Bike Challenge

Chicago has over 200 miles of on-street bike lanes and routes. It gets a wee bit easier each passing year for riders as the Department of Transportation works to grow the network of bike facilities.

CHIRP Radio supports our bike-friendly city's efforts and is partnered with New Belgium Brewery for the Tour de Fat celebration in Palmer Square on Saturday, July 11. Click here for details on entering the 2015 Car Trader challenge. Entries are due by Wednesday, July 8.

Dave Pabellon, Car Trader of 2011, knew of Tour de Fat's car-for-bike swap and thought, "Why not me?" The time spent commuting by bike made him more in tune with Chicago and the city's strides in building a strong bike culture.

CHIRP: Where do you currently live and what are you doing these days?

Pabellon: Still residing in Chicago, but have moved out of Humboldt Park further North, past Lincoln Square. Also, I'm still employed as a senior designer at a wonderful studio, Faust but soon I will be transitioning into a new position at Dominican University as a professor in design.

CHIRP: Why did you take the challenge to give up your car?

Pabellon: Well, in 2011 I had this Saab that kept dying on me and at the time I thought it was a necessity because the Faust studio was located in Riverside IL (now we are in Pilsen). But after doing some google mapping and talking to some friends about going car-less I decided to go for it. I've loved attending the Tour de Fat's in the past and thought, "why not me?"

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Share June 29, 2015 • https://chrp.at/4fuW • Share on Facebook • Tweet This!

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SKaiser writesAre You the 2015 Car For Bike Trader?

You won't regret it or fear it. That's the repeat message thus far from the featured Car Traders of New Belgium's Tour de Fat car-for-bike challenge.

CHIRP Radio is partnered with New Belgium Brewery for the 2015 Tour de Fat celebration in Palmer Square on Saturday, July 11. If the experiences shared by these guys motivates you to step up and throw your hat in the ring, click here for more details. Entries are due by Wednesday, July 8.

Five years ago Iggy Igz accepted the challenge and last winter was the first he hadn't commuted by bike. What happened over those five years? Read on and find out.

CHIRP: Where do you currently live and what are you doing these days?

Igz: I currently live in the River West / West Town area. Currently, I am doing facility management downtown and just recently started a painting company.

CHIRP: Why did you take the challenge to give up your car?

Igz: I took the challenge because I believed I could. Honestly, I probably wasn't the best candidate in the sense of "revolutionizing" someone to delve deep into bike commuting and culture. I was already kind of there. I was driving at the time, but largely because I was dealing with a new dog that had severe separation anxiety and I had take him to work with me. It was also time to stop doing that. I took the challenge last minute and didnt get an opportunity to make a video.

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Share June 26, 2015 • https://chrp.at/4i4R • Share on Facebook • Tweet This!

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SKaiser writesWill You Take the Year-Long Car For Bike Challenge?

This is the moment we bring you Bill Bushnell: 2012 Tour de Fat winner of the Car Trader challenge. He sat down with CHIRP Radio to share his experience of trading horsepower for legpower and biking the mean streets of Chicago.

Read on to see how Bill's challenge lasted over a year and what it really means to show up to work with an icy beard and smile on your face.

Stay tuned over the next couple weeks as we feature Car Traders of Tour de Fat past. CHIRP Radio is partnered with New Belgium Brewery for the 2015 Tour de Fat celebration in Palmer Square on Saturday, July 11.

CHIRP: Where do you currently live and what are you doing these days?

Bushnell: I'm living in the suburb of Elmhurst and I'm working as a web developer for a company in Glenview

CHIRP: Why did you take the challenge to give up your car?

Bushnell: A few years ago, gas prices were spiking and as I was standing at a gas pump watching hours of my life tick away with each gallon going into the car, I thought that there must be a better way. It sparked me to think about my commute differently, not driving my commute as a necessary, but a choice I was making everything morning. I saved up a bit, bought a relatively inexpensive bike since that's all I could afford at the time, and started commuting by bike. After a couple months of intermittent bike commuting, I was loving it, but my bike wasn't up to the challenge. I decided that the commuting by bike was something that I really wanted to do, but it was going to be all or nothing for me. So I threw my hat in the ring for the car trade, and was lucky enough to be selected. I traded the car, bought a new, more durable bike, and some accessories to make the commute easier and more feasible despite whatever weather may come out way. The rest is, shall we say, history.

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Share June 23, 2015 • https://chrp.at/4gmi • Share on Facebook • Tweet This!

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SKaiser writesWould You Give Up Your Car and Bike Year Round in Chicago?

Get the scoop of what it's really like commuting by bike everywhere from the brave souls who've experieced it firsthand: past Car for Bike Traders of the annual New Belgium Brewery Tour de Fat celebration of all things bicylce, man's greatest invention.

Over the next couple weeks CHIRP Radio is taking some time to honor past Car for Bike Traders with a little Q&A. CHIRP Radio is partnered with New Belgium Brewery for the 2015 Tour de Fat celebration in Palmer Square on Saturday, July 11.

This week we bring you Adam Wonak, challenge winner of 2014.

CHIRP: Where do you currently live and what are you doing these days?

Wonak: I'm living in the West Loop/Noble Square area. I moved here from Logan Square earlier this year. I'm working as a Software Engineer.

CHIRP: Why did you take the challenge to give up your car?

Wonak: I'd been interested in the car-for-bike trade for a number of years. I'd had the same car since college but had been using it less and less--my bike had become my primary mode of transportation a while back. The idea of living car free was very appealing to me, and the chance to ceremoniously trade in my car for a bike in exchange for a year of car-free living seemed like a fitting way to finally make that happen.

Adam Wonak's entry video

CHIRP: What kinds of adjustments did you have to make to your life and daily routines?

Wonak: The transition was not difficult at all because even before I gave up my car I rarely drove. I commute to work mostly via bike, and I have several grocery stores within walking or biking distance and my neighborhood has a lot of fun bars and restaurants, so I don't typically venture too far.

My employers have all valued and supported bike commuting. Although it wouldn't be a problem locking my bike outside during the workday, being able to store my bike indoors and keep it clean helps preserve the longevity of my bike, especially in the winter. At my current office (I changed jobs last fall) there is space to keep my bike indoors, and my previous office even built an indoor bike storage room for its employees.

The biggest adjustment was making the occasional trip to one of my doctors, whose office is in Park Ridge. Instead of driving to those appointments, as I'd usually done, I now bike the 16-mile commute up Milwaukee Avenue to Northwest Highway--and it's a delightful trip!

Another adjustment I made was to ramp up my bicycle safety. Since I'm totally reliant on my bike for transportation now, I wanted to make sure safety was intentional and not an afterthought. Part of the bike shop credit I received went toward upgrading a lot of my safety gear, such as a new helmet with powerful lights attached, for nighttime riding.

CHIRP: How has living without a car changed you?

Wonak: One thing I miss about my car was the massive bike rack. The Explorer had a trailer hitch with a 4-bike rack. On one bike trip to Wisconsin I took with my friends, we were able to transport 4 bikes on the rack and 2 bikes in the trunk! Without that car, I am no longer the bike mule when we leave town for bike excursions, and we've had to find alternate solutions for how to carry everything.

CHIRP: What do you feel are the biggest benefits of the lifestyle change you made?

Wonak: To be completely honest, I don't feel like much has changed. I had been planning on getting rid of my car for a while and was distancing myself from it further and further, so when it was finally gone I really didn't notice much of a change. That having been said, reflecting on the benefits of this lifestyle, I like to joke about the fact that my active lifestyle supports my eating habits: I like to eat a lot of rich food and sweets, so being active and biking regularly helps me burn all those extra calories!

CHIRP: How can your town, your state, and/or society in general make bicycling more attractive to other people?

Wonak: I really love the work that the Active Transportation Alliance is doing in Chicago. The work they're doing with CDOT on the Chicago Complete Streets campaign is great. The number of Chicagoans that choose to bike to work is large and growing, and it's important to make sure everyone can be on the road safely and comfortably. In fact, when the first protected bike lanes were installed on Kinzie I loved them as both a cyclist and a motorist. Dedicating space for bikes and for cars makes the streets safer for everyone.

CHIRP: What would be your advice for the next person who is going to take up New Belgium's offer?

Wonak: If you live and work in the city, Chicago has some great infrastructure to get around by bike, and it's getting better every year. If you live within about 5 miles from where you work, the daily commute will be totally doable--even in winter. Take the time to experiment and figure out the gear that works for you (warm boots in the winter are a must) and you can handle anything!

If you're inspired to take the Car For Bike challenge, click here for more details!

Share June 18, 2015 • https://chrp.at/4jtV • Share on Facebook • Tweet This!

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SKaiser writesGrowing Home Farm Open House: Tomorrow and Free

Kick off your Saturday with a visit to Growing Home's Open House at the Wood Street Urban Farm and Training Center (5814 S Wood St). The hours are 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM, it's free ($5 suggested donation) and you can take part in tours of the farm, watch cooking demonstrations, keep the kiddos busy with face painting, and then take delicious produce home from the farm stand.

Growing Home is Chicago's leading expert in farm-based training for people with employment barriers. By providing 25 hours per week of paid on-the-job experience and job-readiness training at the farms, plus the support to conquer issues like criminal records, medical needs, child-care, and housing, Growing Home has changed the lives of hundreds of workers, and thousands of their family members.

"The thing that continues to impress me about Growing Home is how hard our participants work to change their lives," said Rebekah Silverman, Chief Operating Officer at Growing Home. "We offer the framework that gives our participants the time, and space, and support to work on themselves, but it wouldn't happen without their efforts and desire to try new things and make big changes in their own lives and in the lives of their family members."

The Open House is food and fun while supporting the mission of Growing Home. Take part in helping transform your community because everyone deserves to have a good job and everyone deserves to eat well.