Century Rides and Multi-day Rides

We have groups for RAGBRAI, beer exploration by bike, randonneuring, camping by bike and who knows what all else.  But what about just trying to hook up with someone or some ones who ride at a similar pace and might want to do all or part of a century or one of the many multi-day rides popping up on the calendar?

I am a slow-poke, but I want to do some longer distance riding this year.  Le Tour de Shore looks good; Amishland looks good.  I know there is the Apple Cider Century and I imagine there are many other multi-day rides out there that don't show up in our events but would be great fun!

Last summer a thread about the North Shore Century ended up being used to make connections between riders to ride together.  I am hoping this thread will start some connections for different rides.

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Permalink Reply by David of the North (David606xx) on March 29, 2013 at 7:21am

The terrain between here and Madison is aMAZing! someone clocked us at 40+mph on a downhill. I re-installed my smaller front ring just for this ride--had Chicago flatland gearing last year and had to walk up some of those hills.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on March 29, 2013 at 7:25am

well played sir!

James BlackHeron said:

I saw that it was a little slow for my tastes but I'm sure that others may not mind it, or the company. 

Duppie 13.5185km said:

You may want to carefully read the information on that Dark Lord Preview ride ;)


Permalink Reply by David of the North (David606xx) on March 29, 2013 at 7:26am

Ok, there's also the Chicago Perimeter Ride coming up in September.  We're going to continue to improve that one which last year included a brewery tour. This year, we want to arrange for food trucks to meet us along the way.  It's an ideal century for first-timers 'cause you've got multiple CTA bailout options along the route which roughly follows the perimeter of the city.  good stuff.

Permalink Reply by OLB 0.1 on March 29, 2013 at 7:52am

James

Sounds like a great trip. I spent a month in Nepal in 1999 and it is an amazing place. Natural beauty everywhere you look and kind, generous people. Unfortunately, they have a bigger bus-falls-off-cliff problem than Peru, but some of those risks are unavoidable. It has probably changed quite a bit since I was there. I recommend the rafting. There is no shortage of trekking options. Make sure to take lots of pictures.



James BlackHeron said:

 

I doubt we will be doing much riding.  We usually don't when we travel.  We will be covering a lot of ground trying to see all the sites in the time we are there.  I'd love to be able to rent bikes at some of the places but I really don't like driving myself on roads when traveling -even on a bike unless the roads are deserted.

The number one source of traveller injury/deaths is road accidents and trying to self-drive/ride in unfamiliar territory is a good recipe for disaster.  Our travel doc says that rental scooters are a real killer of tourists.  As much as we complain about the crazy driving here in Chicago and the USA, the rest of the world (with the exception of Europe where driver skill is much higher than the USA) is even crazier.  Even in places hat drive more sanely we are just not familiar with the driving/road conventions and that makes it even more dangerous for us to attempt to pilot any vehicle on their roads.  Just trying to perambulate on foot and crossing roads as a ped is stressful enough in these places.  We really don't realize how much worse it can be until we travel to the third world.   Our concepts of what is "safe roads" is not exactly what the rest of the world is comfortable with.

So I have a personal rule that I don't drive a motor vehicle when I travel, we take a cab, car for hire, or bus to get around.   I close my eyes and try not to look out and use the seatbelt as tightly fastened as I can make it (if they even have one) and pray even though I'm an atheist/agnostic.   I think of it as meditating.  Being light and limp in an accident is a good survival strategy.

When we were in Peru a couple of years ago I didn't even like looking out the window of the buses we took everywhere.  You would see quite a few burned-out buses down in bottom of the valleys far below as the roads picked their way through the mountains and they would look just like the ones we were riding in -often with the same operator names on the sides of them.   Just pull the shades and relax and try to sleep until you got to the next destination...

Those roads through the Andean Mountains are some of the most dangerous and deadly in the world. 

Permalink Reply by Len Krietz on March 29, 2013 at 9:12am

I've done the Door county century for the past few years and it's my favorite century ride.  Great scenery, organized really well, great food at the rest stops (beer cheese and strawberry shortcake are my favs) and a good party/dinner after (football games on big screens, pasta and fat tire beer).  Not a flat as you think.  The century gains about 2500ft with 2 cat 5 climbs - not too bad but it gets you breathing hard. Need to think about lodging.  While theres a lot of places to stay in the door , motels are sort of limited in Sturgeon bay.



Albany Park Al said:

There is a Century up in Door County in Wisconsin, the Ride for Nature, that I'm thinking about doing as my first.  It's obviously flat, so that's good.  And I've read that if you are a regular rider, you should be able to handle 3x that mileage at a sensible pace.  My 'regular' ride during the three seasons is the North Branch loop which takes me 2 hours for 32 miles.   And I'll be practicing longer rides before then, too.

Also despite living in Chicago for over thirty years, I've never been to Door County.  The UP, yah, but never Door County.

There are shorter rides as well: Metric Century, 50, 25, etc.  Might possibly do one of those instead, with the wife.

http://ridefornature.com/register1/#.UVTXlxl3bpR

Permalink Reply by Elwood Gruschow on March 29, 2013 at 12:23pm

BUMMER!  

  I read about Le Tour de Shore yesterday, babysat grandkids today, worked out time and money to ride Le Tour de Shore, got out credit card and went online to register.  

 

 THE CAMPING OPTION IS SOLD OUT !!

  Missed out going cycling today, one of the first 50+ degree days in a while and now the main tour I was interested in has the part I wanted sold out.  

  I wish Amtrak would hurry up and have bikes on Michigan trains like they do between here and Kansas City.  I would do the Tour de Shore route independently and come home on train.    

1zt7hr8qm0y90Permalink Reply by 1zt7hr8qm0y90 on March 29, 2013 at 4:17pm
Lisa, sign up for GITy Up S24O in July. It's so much fun that there are no words to describe it. I have an extra tent. What about the 40 mile all trail ride tomorrow morning? Keep thinking distance trail rides.
Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on March 30, 2013 at 1:13am

Douglas,

Thanks, but my idea of camping is a Holiday Inn!  Spoiled brat, I know, but there you have it.  And this morning, I am running errands and cooking.  I am hoping to sneak in a few miles in between the work.

Permalink Reply by Boonji on March 30, 2013 at 4:27am

I am doing the ADA Century out of aurora in June.  I think registration might be closed.  

Permalink Reply by Tim Heckman on March 31, 2013 at 5:54am
Of course, once you start doing longer rides, they become addictive...
Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on March 31, 2013 at 12:39pm

I am coming to the conclusion that the hardest thing about longer rides is finding the time to do them!  Yesterday I managed to get out for about 11 miles. I felt like I had just started, but had so much to do at home that I had to quit.

Tim Heckman said:

Of course, once you start doing longer rides, they become addictive...
Permalink Reply by Tim Heckman on March 31, 2013 at 12:50pm
I resolutely thought I would never be a morning person, but now I find myslf going to bed early and waking up at 7 on the weekends. I'm ruined... ;)


Lisa Curcio 4.0 mi said:

I am coming to the conclusion that the hardest thing about longer rides is finding the time to do them!  Yesterday I managed to get out for about 11 miles. I felt like I had just started, but had so much to do at home that I had to quit.

Tim Heckman said:

Of course, once you start doing longer rides, they become addictive...

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