Celebrate Chicago's Bike Culture With CPR's Hubs & Spokes

By Jen Hazen in Arts & Entertainment on May 21, 2009 7:30PM

Hop on that bike saddle and crank your chain, bike likers. On Saturday, May 30 Chicago cyclists will trek to the Hyde Park Art Center for Chicago Public Radio Presents’ panel discussion, Hubs & Spokes: Threading the Wheels of Chicago’s Bike Culture. The event begins with a free bike ride from five city locations and then converges at the Art Center for a ticketed panel chat about the cycling community’s reclamation of the bike as a respectable, practical mode of everyday transport.

The panel, moderated by Zack Furness, author of "One Less Car: Bike Culture and the Politics of Cycling," includes several experts who will share their velo wisdom—Alex Wilson, founder of West Town Bikes and Ciclo Urbano, Chicago bicycle activist Kathy Schubert, and Adolfo Hernandez, director of advocacy for the Active Transportation Alliance. Of course, CPR realizes that starving pedal pushers need energy for the ride home, so GoPicnic boxed lunches with all-natural food items will be included in the admission fee. Fuel that's $0.00 per gallon? Nice.

P.S. Please be safe and wear your bicycle helmet because we love you.

Group bike rides start from the five locations at 3:30 p.m. Panel discussion begins at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave. at 5 p.m. $15 general admission for panel discussion; $12 for CPR members, Victory Gardens subscribers, Hyde Park Art Center members, Active Transportation Alliance members; $10 for students with ID. Purchase tickets online here.