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The Urizar Chronicles
By Paolo Urizar
February 2005
Welcome To Chicago
Chicago is a grand city. It has
been voted one of the most architecturally significant cities of the world. I look out my office window that sits eleven stories,
overlooking the Magnificent Mile and the Chicago River, and feel as I’ve been
trapped into one huge snow globe. It
is January and we are experiencing one of the first significant snowfalls of the
season, sending snow in every which direction around the cityscape.
Chicago may be unbelievably frigid to some and even more of a far cry to
be out cycling, but some folks just don’t understand ‘limitations’.
The west coast, in its natural beauty, has been blessed with the type of
landscape that huckers dream of; Chutes, drops, trails, and ramps all within
pedaling distance and year round at that. The
east coast also has its mountainous beauty and trails to bomb year in and out,
and despite the wintry weather touching the Adirondacks, there’s still a
mountain under that snow. The
Midwest definitely pales in comparison in terms of natural landscapes endowed to
serious mountain biking, however, there are a generous few who have the gumption
to ride the challenges even in winter: People
who do not stop riding because it is cold, people who don’t stop riding just
because there is snow on the ground.
In fact, the weather itself provides some very interesting challenges to those
who dare challenge it. Fending the
cold is as easy as a few smartly worn layers, but how about skiffing off a park
bench and sticking the landing on ice? The
challenges of urban free-riding are a plenty in ‘any’ city, but multiplied
with the ice factor. Chicago has a
free ride scene that has been relatively quiet but yet growing in number every
year it seems. In the warm weather,
the logic is understandable; jump off anything that you can fit your 2.5 inch
tire on. In the snow and ice, the
logic remains the same, however, add ‘if’ you can maintain your stance on
both tires. The mentality has not
changed for the rider looking for the free-ride urban experience; not when you
don’t always have to be in the muck of snow and ice all the time.
That’s right, despite what the weather is above ground, there is
always, the underground urban assault route.
Chicago was built upon tunnels. There
are a plethora of underground passageways that once ruled the shipping routes in
between the massive buildings all along the retailer’s corridors on State
Street and Michigan Avenue. These
tunnels have long been closed to the public and have been sealed off with the
building of the subways and passageways of the city’s internal sewer and
waterways. This provided the need
to build streets below ground to access existing docks and entrances to larger
buildings from their almost original level, hence, if you’ve been to Chicago,
you’d notice that there are many sections downtown that have the above ground,
inclement weather facing street level, and the below ground warm blasted lower
level. The heat is blasted from the
vents in the many large buildings who heat their dock areas and shipping yards.
Though it is still technically outside (most underground street levels
have an open side facing open air), it is warmer and more importantly, full of
obstacles!
The urban
free-ride scene is based on the principle that anything the rider sees can
become the object of the next trick. It’s
not simply about having a good ramp, but making anything you encounter into a
good ramp. The yellow street median
that has a quarter foot lip off of the road and then tapers up into ramp is fair
game, never-mind the oncoming traffic; or at least have your friends watch for
oncoming cars. There are loading
docks that are just the right height to pull your next pop off, and then stick
the landing before you hit the dumpster. Let us not forget the stairs; you have to get underground
somehow, and the stairs are not only fair game but are mandatory in earning
skills. The stairwells start at
street level and go down about a good two to three flights with one or maybe two
platforms at the most to break the levels.
If you are skilled enough (and there are many skilled riders in Chicago)
it is possible to literally jump from one street level to the next level landing
without hitting a stair and proceed down. The simultaneous unfortunate and fortunate aspect of
acquiring skills is that it takes practice and despite the sweet outcomes of
striking your landings, there are the inevitable miscalculations (which can
cause some serious detriment to one’s health).
On a positive note, or perhaps an excuse to continue a mad hopping city rampage
in the wintertime, the cold weather brings challenges that are quite acceptable.
It may be wet, it may be icy, it may be snowy, but it brings out the best
in skilled riders and enhances any skill level to be mandatory at perfecting
your craft on your bike. Why
subject yourself to waiting for spring?
Throughout the winter months, I hope to not
only bring you specific locales in Chicago but to introduce you to riders, their
rigs, and how they perform on them. If
I’m lucky, I just may be able to capture a few pictures to demonstrate the
scene in its true wonder. And despite the weather, they rage on.
Paolo Urizar
yobdlog@comcast.net
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