Category Archives: Quality of life

Perhaps Cross Never Left

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We will be closed this Sunday the 28th for an important landmark in the Chicago cycling scene. After a wonderful summer of road biking, muggy commuting, and mountain biking we are welcoming the arrival of cyclocross season with its unofficial #crossishere race Relay Cross this Sunday (8/28/16) in Jackson Park! There are still a few weeks before the Chicago Cross Cup kicks into full swing but Relay Cross is an absolute blast and a fun way to shake off the cobwebs of this particular racing discipline with the help of a teammate.

We will be CLOSED ON SUNDAYS from now until March.

8/28- Relay Cross

9/11- LaBagh Woods CX

10/2- Hopkins Park CX (We throw this one!)

Thank you guys! If you have any questions about cyclocross, racing, or how to get started please don’t hesitate to ask us!

Bailey heads out for the Tour Divide 2016

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Bailey and his Tour Divide rig

It’s 9am on Saturday June 11th, and Bailey already has 150 miles of rugged Canadian terrain under his belt just 24 hours after starting the Tour Divide 2016 in wet and almost freezing conditions. But I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me back up.

The Tour Divide is a self supported mountain bike race spanning the full length of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, covering a total of 2768.4 miles with 200,000 feet of elevation gain. The route is the world’s longest off-pavement cycling route, mapped over the course of four years, and published in 1998 by the Adventure Cycling Association. Every year on the second Friday in June, a group of racers set off in the Grand Depart and attempts to complete the race as quickly as possible. The race is fully self supported, meaning there are no support vehicles for riders, no warm vans waiting at the end of the day to feed you and get your bike in shape for the following day. It is a test not only of speed and endurance, but of will and mental fortitude.

13443187_10208141723893064_1153209551234163978_oBailey set off yesterday on his single speed Salsa El Mariachi into the wilds of Canada for an epic and challenging adventure that will take him pedaling along the spine of our country’s continental divide. Watch his progress on the live tracking website trackleaders.com.  Read and hear a bit more from Bailey and his fellow riders at unlearnpavement.com.

 

 

May Day 2016

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Hello Comrades,

The shop will be closed Sunday May 1st for International Worker’s Day (May Day). Our regular hours will resume on Monday May 2nd.

If you wanted to celebrate the sacrifices workers have made for the 8 hour day, child labor restrictions, weekends, etc, in good company and support a wonderful non-for-profit we suggest swinging by the National Lawyers Guild‘s fundraiser party Saturday April 30th.

I’d also suggest stopping by the library in search of Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems. 1916. 

 

Quality of life! (shorter hours starting July 1st!)

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Here at Comrade Cycles we find ourselves in a unique position. We spent the past 28 months since opening the shop (and many more leading up to it) working long hours and eschewing rest & relaxation in favor of our dream of self-employment within a bicycle shop that empowers its workers through shared equity in the business and empowers its customers to go further on two wheels than they ever imagined. Be it cross country bicycle touring, cross town commuting, or getting on the podium in the Chi Cross Cup, we’ve been here to keep you rolling. In this time we’ve learned quite a bit about what it takes to make this ideal possible and sustainable for ourselves, our customers, and the cycling community. One of the most important things we’ve learned is that you can only burn the candle at both ends for so long. In order to ensure that we maintain the same quality of work and customer service, maintain our passion for bicycles by getting saddle time ourselves, and (most importantly) maintain relationships with our friends and loved ones, we will be cutting back our hours. Beginning tomorrow, July 1st, we will be open the following hours:

10am-8pm Monday
10am-7pm Tuesday through Thursday
10am-6pm Friday and Saturday
11-5 on Sunday

We will also continue to close as necessary for bike races and general quality of life time, though not without sufficient notice to you, our wonderful customers, whom we are eternally grateful towards for allowing us the ability to live a dream of ours. This coming holiday weekend we will be closed Friday and Saturday, the 4th and 5th. Additionally we will be closing the following weekend on Saturday and Sunday, the 12 and 13th, during West Fest on Chicago Ave. Once again, to anyone who this may reach, we thank you for your love and support over the past two years. We certainly would not be here today if it were not for each and every one of you.