Tiny Fix Ace Race: Memorial Day Weekend
Tiny Fix is proud to announce our first alleycat, the Tiny Fix Ace Race. It’ll be going to be a packed day of racing, drinking, sweating, mashing, prize-winning, dancing, and partying over Memorial Day weekIt’s open to everyone, and we’ve taken great pains to make sure that it will be fun and accessible to everyone, no matter how many races you’ve done before.
3PM: Meet at the North/Kedzie corner of Humboldt Park. Bring $5 for registration, a pen, a bike, a u-lock and your game face.
4PM: Race begins.
6PM: Every manifest must be turned in at a local bike shop.
8PM: Awards and after party at Bonny’s (2417 N Milwaukee) If you won something (and we have an insane amount of prizes so you probably did) you’re going want to be here and find out. Whether you won, lost, or couldn’t make the race, come out and make the most of Chicago’s best dancefloor open to obscenely early in the morning.
Because we want the race to be just as much fun if you’ve never done a race before or if you’re an Alleycat Gold Champion, there will be two simultaneous races:
POKER RUN: A poker run is a race where cyclists move between checkpoints collecting five playing cards. The winner of the race isn’t the first to the finish line; it’s the person with the best hand. The route will be around 10 miles with 5 checkpoints: super easy and relaxed and unintimidating, even if you’ve never done a race before.
SPEED RACE: This is the longer (~25 miles) race with a slew of checkpoints to complete in addition to the Poker Run route. Go hella fast, win sick prizes.
If you’re an out of towner thinking of coming to Chicago for this event, do it! You have the whole Memorial Day weekend, you’ll be in the running for the First Out of Towner, and if you email lorenarama (at) gmail.com we’ll even help you find a place to stay.
A huge part of why we started Tiny Fix is our sincere love for the Chicago bike scene. There’s always something rad going down; races, bar nights, trick jams, festivals, raffles, fundraisers, parties, and general mayhem. It’s time for us to give something back. We’re putting a ton of effort into making sure our first race is incredibly fun to participate in, and it would be so meaningful to us if we had a good turn out.
SPONSORS: Urban Velo, Retrogression, D’emploi, Cards Against Humanity, Smart Bike Parts, Bike Lane, Bonny’s, Scofflaw, Trash Bags
Read MoreUrban Velo || I Love Riding in the City
Urban Velo is looking for submissions to their feature I Love Riding in the City, especially from women. I was featured about a year ago and I highly recommend it. I can personally vouch that you’ll get recognized in bike shops and hit on shamelessly by mechanics for at least a month.
Just fill out the questionnaire here, or answer the questions below the cut and send them with a high-res photo to Jeff@urbanvelo.org.
Read MoreBeerster: Saturday April 7th
Check out Beerster this weekend. Meet at Chrome at noon, ride around and collect fancifully painted beer cans, and trade them in for full beers at the afterparty. It’s not a race, just a fun time and fundraiser. Get out there, kids.
Read MoreAs inspired by true events in Philadelphia, we are hosting a fundraiser for CMWC 2012 on Easter weekend!
This will be a ride with a generous amount of time to complete the route. Neighborhood businesses will be opening their doors as checkpoints to you and me to hold an Easter egg hunt, but for festively-painted empty beer cans! You can either compete for efficiency, or take it at a leisurely pace, we welcome you all. If you want to just go to one place and get day drunk and mess with everyone else as they come to you, you can do that too.
Each stop will have a Golden Can, as well as an assortment of other cans to collect and bring to the after-party spot (limit one can per person per checkpoint.) Each empty will be redeemable for tickets worth a whole new can – WITH BEER IN IT! Some festive cans will even be special prize cans so if you bring one of those in, you’ll be eligible for some goodies. Whoever has the most Golden Cans will also get a lil sumthin, sumthin…
To support our local bike shops, we will also be exchanging receipts from certain shops in exchange for tickets (limit one per person per stop.)
AFTER PARTY INFO: The afterparty will be at Multi Kulti, 4th flr 1000 N Milwaukee Ave, 4pm-9pm. This is where you get your full beers and your prizes! Be there! bring your friends that couldn’t get out of bed for the daytime festivities!
So be sure you can clear your Saturday, April 7, cuz this is going to be great!
*this event is a 21 + event. sorry young ones.
**ride within your ability and drink within reason. we can’t tell you what that means for you. you’re over 21, hopefully you’re good on that by now.
Save The Garden!
The Garden is under attack and needs your help. The city wants to build a huge boat warehouse and parking facility. A declared butterfly and bird sanctuary will be covered in concrete. Natural forest and gardens of native plants will be razed. And the epicenter of Chicago’s BMX community will be destroyed.
Gallons of sweat, hundreds of pounds of dirt, grubby knuckles and shovel calluses, erased. The Garden is the only place within 40 miles to ride sanctioned dirtjumps as Chicago, and a ton of volunteer work is put into maintaining and improving the lines. The courses range from a pump track a child could ride to a pro-level BMX jumps.
It exists at zero cost to tax payers and provides a welcome respite from city congestion to everyone, free. I breathe differently when I’m in Clark Park, listening to the river and sitting on tree trunks. I don’t even have a BMX or MTB (….yet) and I still ride out there to hang out with my friends and enjoy being one with the earth for a minute. It would break my heart if this gorgeous pocket of nature was wiped out from Chicago.
Please sign this petition to save The Garden. It only takes a moment and you’ll be helping save a really important, wonderful aspect of Chicago that’s incredibly dear to many people.
Clark Park is a pristine river front park which contains acres of green space and a half mile river front trail, soccer fields, native gardens and a state-of-the-art BMX trail. Also, it has a public canoe/kayak launch and is a recognized butterfly sanctuary and bird watching habitat. We oppose constructing a 2 acre sized boat warehouse/crewing facility which will negatively impact the park – it will be too large for Clark Park and introduce a 3 story building, surrounded by concrete, increased vehicle traffic, and will interrupt existing activities at the park. The public demands a period of public review to investigate moving the facility to a larger park or a different location. A much smaller boathouse facility could be constructed at Clark Park, containing canoes/kayak, badly needed washrooms and a public water source, concessios and possible bike rental. Green Space is the most valuable resource in the parks, especially in this one-of-a-kind riverfront park – it must be protected for future generations.
All photos via TheGardenJumps.com
Read MoreTiny Fix Ace Race: Memorial Day Weekend
Tiny Fix is proud to announce our first alleycat, the Tiny Fix Ace Race. It’ll be going to be a packed day of racing, drinking, sweating, mashing, prize-winning, dancing, and partying over Memorial Day weekIt’s open to everyone, and we’ve taken great pains to make sure that it will be fun and accessible to everyone, no matter how many races you’ve done before.
3PM: Meet at the North/Kedzie corner of Humboldt Park. Bring $5 for registration, a pen, a bike, a u-lock and your game face.
4PM: Race begins.
6PM: Every manifest must be turned in at a local bike shop.
8PM: Awards and after party at Bonny’s (2417 N Milwaukee) If you won something (and we have an insane amount of prizes so you probably did) you’re going want to be here and find out. Whether you won, lost, or couldn’t make the race, come out and make the most of Chicago’s best dancefloor open to obscenely early in the morning.
Because we want the race to be just as much fun if you’ve never done a race before or if you’re an Alleycat Gold Champion, there will be two simultaneous races:
POKER RUN: A poker run is a race where cyclists move between checkpoints collecting five playing cards. The winner of the race isn’t the first to the finish line; it’s the person with the best hand. The route will be around 10 miles with 5 checkpoints: super easy and relaxed and unintimidating, even if you’ve never done a race before.
SPEED RACE: This is the longer (~25 miles) race with a slew of checkpoints to complete in addition to the Poker Run route. Go hella fast, win sick prizes.
If you’re an out of towner thinking of coming to Chicago for this event, do it! You have the whole Memorial Day weekend, you’ll be in the running for the First Out of Towner, and if you email lorenarama (at) gmail.com we’ll even help you find a place to stay.
A huge part of why we started Tiny Fix is our sincere love for the Chicago bike scene. There’s always something rad going down; races, bar nights, trick jams, festivals, raffles, fundraisers, parties, and general mayhem. It’s time for us to give something back. We’re putting a ton of effort into making sure our first race is incredibly fun to participate in, and it would be so meaningful to us if we had a good turn out.
SPONSORS: Urban Velo, Retrogression, D’emploi, Cards Against Humanity, Smart Bike Parts, Bike Lane, Bonny’s, Scofflaw, Trash Bags
Read MoreIf The Bike Fits…
Hello! I am a not-so-tiny lady who doesn’t ride a fixed-gear bike, but I’m here to tell you a few things about making your bike fit!
Here is my bike. Not pictured: me on the bike, screwed-up posture and all.
If you’ve ever bought a new bike, you probably already know some of the basics, like making sure you have an inch or so of clearance between the top tube of your frame and your crotch, or that you’re not overextending your leg when you’re pedaling. There are plenty of websites that will give you more pointers. This is just a quick handful of things to consider when choosing or adjusting your bike that I want to evangelize as efficiently as possible to everyone now that I know them. (I have yelled — in a loving way! I promise! — at at least one friend for riding a bike that doesn’t fit her. I am becoming a Bike Mom.)
I learned my bike fit basics this past weekend, when I finally decided that the ferocious tightness in my shoulders every time I ride was a problem best solved by a skilled professional. So I made an appointment with a very friendly and patient dude named Steve at Iron Cycles. I showed up with my bike, Steve set it up in the trainer, and I pedaled my bike in a stationary fashion for the first time ever. (This is at once surreal and really boring. Stationary biking! What’s up with that?!)
Read MoreMavic Gennaio Jacket Review
I first heard about this jacket because Krys Blakemore mentioned it on Twitter. If you’re not familiar with Krys, she’s a dame on the petite side who rides bikes, a category we’re obviously pretty partial to here at Tiny Fix. She also is a sponsored rider for Eighth Inch, a mechanic who builds true wheels in her sleep, and she can draw like a motherfucker. Obviously, I have a huge nerdy girlcrush on her.
She gave her black Mavic Gennaio jacket all kinds of props as a serious winter softshell, and I fell in love with it. It was legit cycling gear that actually fit in with the rest of my wardrobe. It came in tiny sizes. It came in pink. And I really didn’t want to spend another winter alternately sweltering and freezing in cold-sweat-soaked layers of merino sweaters and hoodies.
Photograph by Christopher Dilts.
Because I have the best friends in the entire world, some of them pooled together and bought me the jacket for my recent 25th birthday(PS THANK YOU FOREVER YOU AMAZING FUCKING SWEETHEARTS). And it is rad. Let me tell you about it.
Read MoreTwo Last Chances to See Kaz with Hair
So, I’m shaving my head in less than two weeks. If you already follow me on twitter, you know this, because I can’t stop talking about it. Partly because I’m fucking terrified, and partly because the whole point is to badger my friends and family into donating money for a really good cause. St. Baldrick’s Foundation raises money to fund research to cure childhood cancers. Their biggest fundraising method is to get people like me to shave their heads in solidarity with kids fighting cancer, and for people like you to donate money because, well, I’m shaving my head so it’s the least you can do.
This Wednesday, March 6 I’ll be guest bartending with my teammates (all three of us lady cyclists) and a team of motorcycle dudes at Grafton Pub, 4530 N. Lincoln Ave., from 6pm to 9pm. Stop by, buy some PBR or Jaymo (they’ll be on special), and let your alcoholic tendencies go towards a good cause for once.
The actual head shaving is a big spectacle with ~100 other shavees on Friday, March 16 at Fado Irish Pub, 100 W. Grand Avenue. The event starts at noon, but yours truly will be up on stage getting her locks shorn at about 5:15pm. Come, heckle, cheer, drink, donate, watch me cry, take pictures and video and post it on the internet. All in good fun.
Donate to me or my team (it all goes to the same place), and come on by!
Read MoreIntroducing “Sup, QT,” A Way for Tiny Fix to Get You Laid
I have some super-hot friends, and it amazes me that any of them are ever single at all. If I could date them all I could, but A) I’m already dating a insanely sexy bike messenger, and no one can really compete with that and B) we’d have to move to this polyamorous cult compound in the mountains and it’d be a real pain in the ass.
While drunk at a keg party, I vowed to get one of my friends laid, and the idea for this column was born.
“Sup, QT” will be a regular feature on Tiny Fix where we showcase single bike kids from Chicago looking to meet some new people and maybe get a little action.
I think a lot of us have gotten to the point where we realize that in order to date someone, they really have to be someone who rides bikes. It’s not this snobby, elitist, anti-gas-guzzler holier-than-thou stance; it’s a lifestyle thing. I feel weird about someone who drives a car everywhere in Chicago, and fuck if I’m taking three busses with you to go on a date to a restaurant a 20 minute bike ride away.
So, are you a eligible bachelor/ette? Let’s see!
-Must live in Chicago proper. None of this Glen Ellyn shit.
-Must ride bikezzz.
-Must answer at least some of the following questions and send a decently sized photo of themselves to lorenarama {at} gmail dot com.
-Tiny Fix is totally queer, polyamorous, and/or trans friendly. That might be something you want to talk about in your feature!
Click through to see the questions you should answer. This is just a prompt to get you started. You don’t have to answer all of them. I may post your answers to the question verbatim, interview style, or I might use them to create a short write-up about you. Feel free to include any other information you want to include.
Read MorePol-Cat 3 is this Saturday
Photo from Pol-Cat 2011 by Steven Vance of Steven Can Plan
This Saturday, March 3 the third annual Pol-Cat alleycat takes place in Chicago. It takes place from 2:00pm until 5:00pm. Show up at The Polish Triangle with your bag, a bike, your trusty lock, and a crumpled $10 to throw in the pot to benefit Chicago Cycle Messenger World Championship 2012. You can get a run down here at the Facebook event page.
The top 3 women will receive free entry to the 4 days of the Gaper’s Block Crits at the end of May, though have to have done less than 5 sanctioned races as a Cat 5. Godspeed to y’all ladies and good luck.
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