The passion of the bike

The serial monogamist

When one relationship goes down in flames, Jamie Hetzel bounces back with a new love.

ALLEY CAT Hetzel enjoys solo rides, but wouldn’t mind going tandem sometimes, too.

Photo: Ben Reed

Jamie Hetzel admits her relationship with Frank wasn’t easy. Frank was a little slow; plus, his wheels wobbled. So, eight miles into her ride on the North Branch Trail last summer, Hetzel and Frank the bike came to a jarring, if inevitable, end.

“I kicked the back wheel in after it started rubbing against the brake,” says 28-year-old Hetzel, a housing coordinator at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “I ended up bending the wheel so much, I couldn’t ride back.”

The Florida native insists she’s not a pedal-hater: She puts nearly 100 miles a week on her bike, cycling to work in the Loop each weekday from her home in Humboldt Park, and to Glencoe’s Chicago Botanic Garden on weekends.

“I love doing long rides by myself—they’re my way to clear my head,” Hetzel says. “Sometimes,” she jokes, “I’d rather date bikes than people.”

That’s not to say she’s had it easy with bikes. Last summer, Hetzel survived two major bike crashes in the span of a week. The second one, on June 5, landed her in the hospital. It also gave her Frank.

“Since my bike was totaled [in the accident], my friend ended up making me a new bike out of cheap parts. We called it Frank, for Frankenstein,” she says. “It was not a very pretty bike.”

These days, Hetzel rides a bike you could bring home to meet your mom, a Jamis Satellite 2007, while Frank’s been relegated to the basement. But Hetzel says Frank may rise again—and her dating life might also pick up speed.

“I’d like someone to share my biking with,” Hetzel says. “A picnic along the Lakefront Trail [together] would be nice.”

—Tricia Parker

NEXT>>