Ride to Milwaukee

So, with the weather (hopefully) turning nice pretty soon I wanted to feel out if there would be anyone wanting to join up with a ride into Milwaukee.

Last time I did this it was in a freaking blizzard, but the route is pretty straightforward, and there's lots of really cool stuff to do in our neighbor to the north: palominos, art museums, cafes...

when: TBD but leave Chicago together early on a saturday, and take the amtrak back from milwaukee with our bikes in the PM (they charge you for a bike box to do this but it's not too bad)

ride will end at palominos but we can figure out some cool stuff to do after a deep fried meal before we bike to the amtrak station!



I say date TBD because it would have to be a relatively mild day (60s?) with hopefully not too bad of a headwind.

If you would be interested in joining up let me know. I treat these sorts of rides like roadtrips by bike so we would stop for food along the way and probably shoot for a somewhat decent speed (14-16 mph), but would take rest stops as needed. this would not be a "prove how fast you can finish a century" ride

I'm gonna ride it fixed gear this time and any other intrepid souls are encouraged to do the same!

Me in the middle of my last cold ride up there:

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Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on April 10, 2009 at 11:28am
ROOT BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!

See you Wednesday.


Chris said:
So, I just got back from NYC (biking in manhattan=awesome!), which explains the lengthy delay in posting route maps. I will get on that saturday.

Meantime, IF YOU PLAN ON COMING SHOOT ME AN EMAIL OR POST HERE THAT YOU'RE DEFINITELY IN. We need a final head count very soon.

Get acquainted ride wed (if it's not rainy). More this weekend.

Peace.

Also, I might use the afternoon we're in milwaukee to hit up sprecher brewery for a tour.
Permalink Reply by Smash on April 10, 2009 at 2:51pm
You may already know this, but Sprecher tours tend to fill up fast on the weekends. You might want to look into making a reservation.

There's also Lakefront Brewery as a brewery tour option. It's a small place but the beer is tasty.
Permalink Reply by flores on April 10, 2009 at 3:38pm
I'm in for the Milwaukee ride. What email address do we send you details to?
Permalink Reply by Sarah Lessem on April 11, 2009 at 10:33am
Sounds great. When are you thinking?
Permalink Reply by Chris on April 13, 2009 at 9:24am
Preliminary Map. I will update soon in Google maps with a few possible break/rest stops etc.


View Ride to Milwaukee in a larger map
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on April 13, 2009 at 10:46am
Ok. That's the Sheridan route. How's the map for the more rural route coming along?


Chris said:
Preliminary Map. I will update soon in Google maps with a few possible break/rest stops etc.


View Ride to Milwaukee in a larger map
Permalink Reply by Brett Ratner on April 13, 2009 at 12:04pm
Thanks for sending this!

I'm liking this route (Sheridan) personally. It's more direct and offers better access to convenience stores and whatnot along the way. Is there a compelling reason not to take this route, aside from a few miles of sketchiness in Waukeegan? I'm up for whatever the group wants to do, though.

Another possibility is to take one route up and another route back. That way, we get to see more stuff.

As a side note, mapquest is showing about 75 miles each way. I wonder why everyone was saying it's 110 miles? I've driven to Milwaukee a bunch o' times and I thought 110 miles seemed a bit long.

110 each way is totally doable, but 75 will give everyone a lot more time (and energy) for exploring Milwaukee when we get there...so I think that's a perfect distance.

Anyway, see you guys on Wednesday!

Chris said:
Preliminary Map. I will update soon in Google maps with a few possible break/rest stops etc.


View Ride to Milwaukee in a larger map
Permalink Reply by mike w. on April 13, 2009 at 12:59pm
Hey Chris, i think bikes are banned from Sheridan road in Lake Bluff. Damned shame, it's a good road and lightly travelled through there as i recall, but they want everyone to use the too-narrow Green Bay Trail at that point. It runs parallel to Sheridan.

Other than that quibble, the prelim route looks pretty good. Hope to join up with you all somewhere in the N. Shore if i'm free that day. Sounds like fun!



Chris said:
Preliminary Map. I will update soon in Google maps with a few possible break/rest stops etc.


View Ride to Milwaukee in a larger map
Permalink Reply by Bill G on April 13, 2009 at 4:13pm
Chris,

Although I cannot make the ride due to other ride commitments; I do have a couple of comments about your planned route through the North Shore portion.

Have you checked Sheridan through the Winnetka area? Some time last year they started a complete rebuild of the road, earlier this year (the last time I tried to get through there) it was still like a warzone.

Mike W is right about riding through Lake Bluff, bikes are not allowed on Sheridan or Green Bay roads, but it's early enough in the year that riding the bike trail along Sheridan is OK, get on it at Old Elm (contrary to the Google map the trail goes all the way to Old Elm), it's parallel to Sheridan on the west side between Sheridan and the railroad tracks, use it until just North of rt. 176, then back on the roads.

One more suggestion; when you get up to Lake-Cook road - instead of going all the way to Green Bay road, turn north about 1/2 mile earlier and use St. Johns (take Lincolnwood and Lambert Tree to get around Ravinia) it's a better biking route, I usually take it all the way to Walker where it ends and then cut back to Sheridan.
Permalink Reply by Brett Ratner on April 13, 2009 at 5:29pm
These are some good suggestions.

I routinely do a Sunday morning ride organized by Johnny Sprockets on Bryn Mawr. The ride takes Sheridan up to Highland Park and back.

The reason I bring this up is that I rode on Sheridan last Sunday, and the construction mentioned earlier is pretty much completed and no longer an issue. It's smooth sailing on Sheridan up until the bike detour just South of Highland Park.

The purpose of the bike detour is so we can't enjoy this awesome twisty section that's off limits for bikes. My assumption is that at some point in time, a hapless bicyclist got run over by an S Class Mercedes driven by an aging, tipsy, trophy wife traveling from her tennis lesson to her "mani/pedi" at the salon. I'm making a big assumption here, but regardless, it's a shame we can't ride on that stretch of road.

Anyway, because of the detour, the route gets a tad confusing for a few miles. But I've done the Johnny Sprockets ride enough times that I hopefully can guide us safely to downtown Highland Park...which come to think of it, may be a good place for a short rest stop. It's about 20 miles from the start of our ride and there's a nice coffee shop there.

Bill G said:
Chris,

Although I cannot make the ride due to other ride commitments; I do have a couple of comments about your planned route through the North Shore portion.

Have you checked Sheridan through the Winnetka area? Some time last year they started a complete rebuild of the road, earlier this year (the last time I tried to get through there) it was still like a warzone.

Mike W is right about riding through Lake Bluff, bikes are not allowed on Sheridan or Green Bay roads, but it's early enough in the year that riding the bike trail along Sheridan is OK, get on it at Old Elm (contrary to the Google map the trail goes all the way to Old Elm), it's parallel to Sheridan on the west side between Sheridan and the railroad tracks, use it until just North of rt. 176, then back on the roads.

One more suggestion; when you get up to Lake-Cook road - instead of going all the way to Green Bay road, turn north about 1/2 mile earlier and use St. Johns (take Lincolnwood and Lambert Tree to get around Ravinia) it's a better biking route, I usually take it all the way to Walker where it ends and then cut back to Sheridan.
Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on April 14, 2009 at 1:03am
seeya Wed

Chris said:
So, I just got back from NYC (biking in manhattan=awesome!), which explains the lengthy delay in posting route maps. I will get on that saturday.

Meantime, IF YOU PLAN ON COMING SHOOT ME AN EMAIL OR POST HERE THAT YOU'RE DEFINITELY IN. We need a final head count very soon.

Get acquainted ride wed (if it's not rainy). More this weekend.

Peace.

Also, I might use the afternoon we're in milwaukee to hit up sprecher brewery for a tour.
Permalink Reply by Chris on April 14, 2009 at 4:07am
Yeah, so I know it makes me a bad person, but I have ridden that stretch of twisty road more than once but yes, I shouldn't drag all of you down the dark road of bitterness and passive-aggressive cycling through rich communities that I am on, I just plumb forgot to change it in the map. (detouring around it is a fairly simple matter)

Good to know about the construction being mostly done though!

I agree that DT highland park (approx 20 mile mark from what I recall) is a great first stop.

Im gonna add our wed ride to the chainlink calendar, so keep your eyes peeled for details. rural route map and updated "sheridan map" to be posted today.

Also, this thread is starting to get kinda cluttered SO IF YOU HAVENT ALREADY DROP ME AN EMAIL, because we will finalize all details via email and any morning of changes will need to be via cell phone.

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