TT Bicycle Touring Club

“about three years ago i bought a bicycle. my friends all had these top-of-the-line roadies... titanium frames... you know the type. well i had one good friend that refused to run with me so i bought a bike so we could ride some of the bike trails in the area.

but i am not a roadie type person. well i did some research and bought a fuji touring bike... the kind that has a longer chainstay, fatter tires, and a mount for panniers on the front and back of the bike. i love the thing!

ok, so i got teased about this bike. it was heavy. it had fat tires. it had an absurd number of gears (for going up steep hills with a lot of weight), etc, etc. well frack 'em that's what i figured. it fit my personality.

well there was a method to my madness. see i bought this book at a bookstore called "cycling from chicago to milwaukee" many years ago and since i read it i have been dreaming of this weekend trip. i have no clue why. it captured my imagination i think because it fell between the road-racing events my friends engaged in and the "cycle across america" web sites i had been reading (super cool if you have ever read any). it seemed something i could actually do.

...anyhow... for some reason i have the bug again. it's a weekend trip with a shuttle ride back home once in milwaukee. it is NOT a race but will require a lot of time in the saddle.

anyone interested? this post and reading that book is the extent of the planning i have done.

...oh, and my friend? well we went cycling on this paved trail. he was racing ahead as he does (i might as well go riding alone) and he did some fancy thing where he leaned to the side while going straight and went to pluck out a water bottle. it looked cool and he totally wiped out. the rim on his front tire was mangled. as luck would have it we passed a bicycle shop 10 minutes prior so we walked it back there and a nice man repaired his rim as best he could. it was a long wait and when the job was done my friend didn't want to finish the ride so we went home. we had only been on the trail 20 minutes, perhaps a little less. he never rode with me again. the bike now only gets used a few times per year when i get the bug to ride out the the fox river on the great western trail here in the chicagoland 'burbs.
last edited: 3/30/08 9:15:51 AM”

“yogi, that sounds like a great idea. I bet dhutch would be for it. If I say that I am in something will come up to stop me. So I will say that I will see what happens.”

“I took the rail ferry across Lake Michigan many years ago and rode down from Milwaukee to Evanston. If memory serves it was a nice ride. When I was doing my undergrad work at Northwestern I used to ride the burb's quite a bit. Northbrook has an archaic velodrome, unless they have updated since and they may have. The biggest thing that sticks in my mine is emerging from rural Michigan and the train ferry into the smog and air pollution of Milwaukee gave me a few hours of uncomfortable adjustment. The roads along the lake used to be good and fairly flat. If I were in the area I would gladly join you.”

“birch: you and i still have a long-haul kayak tour on the deck... ;)”

“Yobi, you def. need to shoot dhutch an e-mail! she sent me something a few weeks ago about some 350 mile bike trip she was planning. I bet she'd be interested.

I have a hard enough time staying vertical while I'm walking, I better not try adding in the bicycle factor. Sounds fun though.”

“birch: you and i still have a long-haul kayak tour on the deck... ;)”
Yogisan

Yes we do sir, paddling season is almost here.”

“hey Yogi (and fyi, I posted the trike thing before I even looked at this - just cuz it seemed like a funny thing to do. Ya know me > funny!!

Would you want to look into some type of fund-raising ride? There's quite a few around. There's one that at least in the past went from Milwaukee up along the shoreline and ended at a state park by Sturgeon Bay (I think). It was a 150 miler over two days - and all supported. The overnight was in The Lorax's town! Griz (Spalpeen), Dr. Atomic and some of their friends did it.

I'm sure Chicago has some nice rides like that, also. I can't think if it's for MS? Or what....

Hey - and watch out for YogiJimiSanJimmyJohn when he gets outta his kayak and into another watercraft!
>8-O”

“it's only canoes!”

“Yogisan,
I'd be interested in the bike trip!! Heck yeah.

Here's a link to more info about the Grand Illinois Trail trip I'm planning the second week of June.

http://www.openlands.org/git/about/index.asp

I'll send you more detail via e-mail. In fact I sent it back in January ;-)”

“I had a dream last night about buying a serious bike :) a touring bike. I woke up and had the biggest urge to get the bike out and ready for the year so I did , got it all oiled up and fine tuned....took my ride for a spin...ahhhhh to my relief riding doesn't torment my shin splint at all :) and after, I always get this high feeling thats so great...Stupid winter!!! I hate having to stop riding for winter. :)”

“was it really a dream or an omen? :)”

“I've been riding 40-50 mile sections each weekend of my big trip this summer.

Hey Yogi, any more ideas about Milwaukee?”

“Make it official. Set a date and I might go with you guys.”

“If I could afford a decent bike, I would be in.

Then I would have a wedding to go to instead.”

“only ideas i have are big ones and that generally means i have bit off more than i can chew... i still want to do the trip. i'll dust off the book tonight.

http://www.trailresources.com/b042.html

”