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As Chicago's annual hibernation continues with no thaw in sight, automobiles look positively sensible and bicycles seem more seasonal than ever.

So how could a small neighborhood bike shop survive the city's deep freeze 14  times, building a million-dollar business?

The answers, according to Chris Stodder and his wife Justyna Frank, co-founders and owners of Rapid Transit Cycle Shop, are simple: Don't plan on immediate success, and work for the loyalty of Chicago's small but growing number of year-round bikers.

"If you write a business plan then you probably won't start a business," Stodder said in the back of his 1900 W. North Ave. shop, which straddles Bucktown and Wicker Park. "Any business plan is going to show you how difficult it's going to be and how little financial sense it makes."

Stodder and Frank, without either a plan or management experience, nevertheless opened the shop in 1994, well aware of how risky the venture was. Winter tends to mock those with enough moxie to run a year-round bike shop. Days can pass without a single sale.

Rapid Transit's sales during winter months have usually dropped to one-fifth of those during peak summer months, Frank said. Since wages can't be adjusted, that translates into seasonal lay-offs or requests for voluntary leave. The current off-season has whittled last summer's full-time staff of 18 down to six, each guaranteed at least 30 hours of work per week through the winter, supplemented by part-timers.

"This time of year is pretty bleak," said Frank, 42. "Whatever resources we've accumulated by this time we've usually spent. The padding is gone."

So Rapid Transit survives by asking vendors to defer bills and by attracting cyclists to the shop with pre-season sales and service specials, said Stodder, a Hyde Park native. This winter the shop offers a "deluxe winter tuneup special" for $150.

An earlier effort to economize by shortening hours was reversed a few years ago, when Stodder realized consistent hours were crucial for maintaining the loyalty of year-round cyclists. That's the customer base the couple had in mind when they founded the business.

"I wanted to start a shop that would treat (commuter cyclists) like bread and butter," said Stodder, 42. "That's why the bike shop is in this neighborhood."

The couple's continuing focus on the shop's original mission seems to have finally paid off: Sales so far this winter are running two to three times above last winter's, he said.

Rob Sadowsky, who pedals through Rapid Transit's neighborhood everyday during his commute from Logan Square to the Loop, says he returns to the shop because of its unusual focus on recumbent and folding bikes.

"They treat bicycling as not just a sport. It's not about the gear to make you fast, it's about commuting," said Sadowsky, who's the executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

But the season's surge in sales may have less to do with Stodder's efforts to attract winter customers and more to do with the increasing number of year-round bikers in Chicago, according to Sadowsky. His organization does not have statistics detailing how many cyclists brave the city's cold, but he believes year-round bike commuting is growing rapidly as the trend becomes more visible.

Frank believes that although winter will always be tough for bike shops, Rapid Transit is well positioned to take advantage of the year-round riding trend.

"The fact that we've always been a commuter shop means that we get those customers in the winter," she said. "We get the loyalty of commuter bikers."

The shop's annual revenues have multiplied more than six times, from slightly above $200,000 in 1994 to about $1.25 million last year, the best ever. Annual revenue growth during the last two years has been 15 percent.

Changes in Wicker Park and Bucktown have helped.

The neighborhoods have gentrified heavily since Rapid Transit opened -- Stodder and his wife were priced out of the area and moved to Sauganash -- but, contrary to what Stodder expected, the area's increasing affluence has been good for business.

"There's plenty of middle- and upper-income people who choose for philosophical or practical or spiritual reasons to bike to work," he said. "It's not just lower-income people."

The mix of customer incomes has helped to stabilize the year-round business. In 2002 the shop doubled in size by knocking through its western wall to incorporate the ground floor of a neighboring building.

The expanded shop contains approximately 100 bicycles. Walls and ceiling are coated with touring, hybrid and mountain bikes, along with recumbent bikes priced from $950 to $3500 and compact folding models, $425 to $1200, which can be easily taken onto buses and trains. Attachable trailers and strollers are available for parents biking with small children, and the store also offers cyclists a full menu of spare parts and riding gear as well as repair services covering everything from flat tires to complete bike builds.

Despite this array of offerings, Stodder says the core mission of Rapid  Transit -- to serve the needs of commuting bikers -- has remained the same since it opened.

Chris Brunn, a year-round bike commuter who has patronized Rapid Transit since he moved to Wicker Park in 2004, said that although its prices are occasionally higher than other bike shops, Rapid Transit's customer orientation draws him back.

"It's important to support the local shop, because they're there for you," Brunn said, recalling how the store said he could return a new bike when it was unable to find special parts for it. "Their service really does it for me."

In fact, the business has become so stable that the owners now leave its day-to-day operations to the employees, while they mix management matters with home-schooling their two young children. Stodder manages cash flow and negotiates with vendors and bankers, while Frank deals with accounting and publicity, manages the shop's Web site and maintains an affiliated blog at www.chicagobikeblog.com.

Sam Van Dellen, a bike mechanic at Rapid Transit since 2004, said the Stodders cede an unusual degree of control over the shop to its staff.

"We have a lot of input into who gets hired," he said. "So it ends up that everyone's friends. It's like being in a family."

When Stodder does check on the business, he usually makes the eight-mile commute from Sauganash by bike. Even in winter.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Only two restaurant groups in Chicago are certified by the Green Restaurant Association, a nonprofit environmental certification organization -- Sopraffina, which has five downtown locations, and the Blue Water Grill, at 520 N. Dearborn St.Often, restaurant owners who make the most effective changes have personal reasons for wanting to go green.

"I learned the lesson from my mother," said Dan Rosenthal, president of The Rosenthal Group, which owns Sopraffina.Rosenthal's mother, who lives in Florida, works to save the loggerhead turtles. Rosenthal said that while he was visiting her, he saw a turtle try to eat a plastic bag, thinking it was a jellyfish. The experience made him realize the environmental impact of all the plastic bags his restaurants threw away, he said.

Many restaurants throughout the Chicago area have taken steps to become more environmentally friendly, but when a restaurant claims to be "green," that can mean any number of things.

For some, it is a public relations move, tapping into the fact that consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious. For others, it is a genuine effort to reduce human impact on the environment. But making that distinction can be difficult for a casual diner.

One way to check whether your favorite "green" restaurant is really green is to find out if it is certified, said Michael Oshman, executive director and founder of the Green Restaurant Association.

Since applying for certification last April, Sopraffina restaurants have become 90 percent waste-free. They installed faucet aerators to reduce water waste, implemented a complete recycling program and are switching to light bulbs that use less energy. In addition, all of their disposables - such as plastic bags and cups - have been converted to biodegradable corn-based replacements.

As a result of the change, Rosenthal says the trash bill for the 222 W. Adams St. location has dropped from $800 to about $200. While the higher cost of biodegradable products has offset some of the savings, he said there has been a net decrease in costs.

The Blue Water Grill likewise has a complete recycling program, faucet aerators and biodegradable products. Sixty percent of their wines are made using sustainable farming methods and about 22 percent are organic, according to Charles Przybylinski, director of operations. Also, their chicken and salmon are organic and a lot of the produce comes from local farmers and the Green City Market, he said.

The cleaning products Blue Water Grill uses now are often more expensive than their traditional counterparts, but the cost is coming down, Przybylinski said. The cost will continue to decline as more businesses switch to sustainable materials, he added.

In the meantime, he said it's worth the extra cost - both for customers and for businesses.

For certification, the GRA requires restaurants to sign a five-year contract, commit to being Styrofoam-free and start a comprehensive recycling program. They must also implement four changes per year to decrease their environmental impact.

"Every restaurant starts on board at a different level," Oshman said. "There's no cookie-cutter system." When helping restaurants toward certification, the GRA does a comprehensive review, looking at bills, interviewing employees and checking the product numbers of disposable packaging. This way, the GRA helps identify what needs to be done and then make the changes.

Certification is not the only way to tell if a restaurant is making an effort to be green. The Chicago-based Environmental Law Policy Center works with restaurants throughout the Midwest.

"When we started the project, we ordered take-out to see what kind of containers the food was put in and it was an outrageous amount of disposable products that came with it," said Jill Geiger, communications director for the center.

"If you choose biodegradable and you use fewer napkins and plates, that will have a huge impact on your budget and also on the environment," Geiger said.

All GRA certified restaurants are listed at www.dinegreen.com, and the ELPC keeps a partial list of other green restaurants at www.greenrestaurants.org.