Chris Bednarek

Riding the Chicago burbs

## I'm just an average Jake, riding my bike through life...

Retired career firefighter, now I work for the State Fire Marshal's Office, part time bike mechanic, full time father & husband. Those are the biggies.

I ride a mix of road, gravel, and dirt.  I can hold my own on the tarmac, I do ok on gravel, and I'm trying to learn this whole off-raod/single track, dirt thing.  I enjoy heading out for long rides on the road and/or paved trails in the area, as well as taking some short trips by car to bring my bike to other trails for the afternoon.

Working at [GoodSpeed Cycles](http://www.goodspeedcycles.com) in Homewood, IL has offered me the opportunity to learn how to not only be a better rider, but to learn how to fix most of the things I break along the way. The shop is family owned and employs only local riders who know the area and can give awesome tips on the local riding scene.

I've been a brand advocate for [Saris](http://www.saris.com) for a few years which has been pretty awesome. Saris has re-branded to include not only Saris bike racks & storage, but [Power Tap](http://https://www.powertap.com) power meters, [Bike Fixation](https://www.bikefixation.com), and [Cycleops](http://https://www.cycleops.com) trainers as well. When I just can't make it outside for a ride, my Cycleops Hammer and some [Zwift](http://www.zwift.com) are the next best thing.

I "maintain" a blog over at [Bike Shop Guy](https://bikeshopguy.wordpress.com).  I try to get something out every month or so, but I've been slacking a little as of late.  Hope to get some more great content out there soon!

I think being an ambassador for Ride With GPS will be a fun way to share some of my favorite routes with others and maybe, just maybe, get s few more folks out there pushing their pedals.  We have been using RWGPS pretty extensively through the bike shop to plan and promote not only the rides we do as a group, but other interesting rides some of our customers have shared with us too!