Chicago Ghost Bikes Ride

Details

Time: November 7, 2010 from 2pm to 4pm
Location: Washington Park
Street: 881 N Clark
City/Town: Chicago IL
Website or Map: http://bedno.com/ghosts
Phone: 773-442-2386
Event Type: ghost, group, short, chicago, bikewinter
Organized By: Andrew Bedno
Latest Activity: Nov 7, 2010

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Description

Simple 13 mile ride passing all 10 Chicago area Ghost Bikes, taking a moment at each to give attention, tell stories, and leave a few white plastic flowers.

We'll start at the South end in Washington Park (near Chicago Ave RedLine stop), and end in about 2 hours at the North end near Montrose/Ashland.

Not to be confused with the great Ride of Silence which visits some on a spring evening, this is a casual fall daytime ride, intended simply to tour them all.

This is an updated version of the same ride this time last year which was quite pleasant.

See bedno.com/ghosts for photos of all and current Google map of planned route (and cross your fingers that there's no last minute additions!)

I hope this day works for anyone interested. No conflicts visible on TCL yet. Note that DST ends that wee morning. Also posted on Facebook.

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Comment by Robin Hoecker on November 7, 2010 at 6:15pm

Comment by Andrew Bedno on November 6, 2010 at 2:03pm: Cross-posting from Facebook. Some 2 dozen are confirmed there. Tell your friends!

Hey everyone! All is go for the Ghost Bikes tour tomorrow, Sunday 2-5pm, from Washington Square Park (off downtown, about 881 N. Clark).

The weather's predicting fabulous 50s with some wind.

I'm prepped to speak at least five minutes at each. If you're hungry for detail, I posted big additional info online.

By nature this ride passes many proven lethal spots to cyclists (such as under two expressways). And we'll be a big enough bunch to seriously annoy drivers. So bring your attention and lights and helmets and sobriety.

The route is published on http://massup.us and should be broadcast for catchups (text "where" to 773-33MASS8)

Northsiders, I'm leaving AVille after 1pm by the LFP. Come over early to caffeinate, or join us passing Foster.

Comment by Michele on November 6, 2010 at 1:49am: Start location is "Washington Square Park."
Thanks for all your work organizing and documenting.

Comment by Andrew Bedno on November 3, 2010 at 7:21pm: 1. I've renamed this to "The Chicago Ghost Bikes Tour" on Facebook and others. Leaving as is here so the URL stays put.

2. Pursuant to being tour guide prepped, I compiled a big dossier on all (27pg PDF). Includes backstories, photos of the people, etc. Too much copywritten copy/pasted stuff to publish, but if anyone here is real interested, email me for a URL.

3. I updated all my ghost bike content, adding GPS data for embedded maps. In doing so I found that FOUR are now visible in Google Street View! (Some only from certain angles. Last year I only found one.) The Google URLs are too long to paste here, but I linked them from the detail pages for Annis, Fabek, Miceli, Ocasio: http://bedno.com/body/ghostbikes/details

4. I've updated the planned route to better use bike lanes, add Livingston, and relocate Annis. PLEASE any knowledgeable, review for gross errors: http://bedno.com/body/ghostbikes/route

Comment by Andrew Bedno on November 3, 2010 at 7:27am: We just finished all the research, and even my high standards are impressed. Got full stories and photos and such on each, like a real tour guide! Expect to run a little long. We'll have someplace near end planned for optional dinner/drinks after.

Latecomers, I'll be broadcasting on http://MassUp.us so you should be able to get our current location en-route by texting "where" to 773-33-MASS-8 (or 773-336-2778 or ghosts@massup.us)

Comment by Kevin C Dormant on November 3, 2010 at 5:34am: Sunday Brunch starting at noon. May need to give a call to catch the ride shortly after 2:00...

Comment by Agata on November 3, 2010 at 2:38am: Hey, I would love to..but..Sadly, my bike was stolen about a week and a half ago. I've been attending flea markets in hopes of finding it, but have had no luck yet. Super bummed.

Comment by Andrew Bedno on November 2, 2010 at 7:28pm: This event got cross posted to the Ride of Silence, and the world GhostBikes.org site! :)

We put in a ton of work today collecting backstories, photos, etc. Still uncertain on a few installation dates. But no biggie.

Jerry Williams' story remains VERY unclear. Could someone write up something about that one? Please!

See y'all Sunday!

Comment by Andrew Bedno on October 17, 2010 at 1:30pm: Help fleshing out a story for each would be a soooooo appreciated.
See the detailed entry on each here:
http://bedno.com/body/bike/ghostbikes/details

For each I have a photo, and offsite links, name and dates. Previously I've held off saying more, arguing nothing could be enough. But...
For the ride, I want to have a few paragraphs about each to read. Not too hard, there's only ten. Varying levels of detail are offsite (usually linked to each). Some have little info, some have extensive offsite memorial detail, such as stories from families and lengthy write-ups in press. Some early ones are remembered in detail by participants in the installation (one was on a CCM?). Also join the old Yahoo group (http://bedno.com/body/bike/ghostbikes/links) and scour its archives.

If some of y'all could adopt one or more to write an article, I'll then add it to my detail page for that bike. I'll write them for the remainder, and we'll have a full set for the ride!
Search out a few sources, and put together a few paragraphs about a given bike. Use angles including about the person (photos?), words from family, the neighborhood's feelings, the incident, changes over time, installation details, etc. Worst case make some calls. Do copy past tons, just make sure to attribute.

Contact me directly about submissions, or stake claims here, forward to others who know please, etc. Thanx!