Hyde Park Tour Discussion and photo exchange

Hey you north siders, if you are thinking of making the trek down to Hyde Park for our final planning ride, there is a north side meeting spot at 4:00 PM at Elston and Milwaukee, which is right here:

http://tinyurl.com/mlu5sf

The actual planning ride will depart at 5:00 PM tomrrow from Washington Park field house at 5531 S Martin Luther King Drive, Chicago, which is right here:

http://tinyurl.com/kspg9n

Finally, here is the route for us to ride that day with the aims of correcting for bad entry points, Obama visit, bad roads, and to shorten by a couple of miles if possible.

http://tinyurl.com/l3dlt2

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Permalink Reply by S on July 22, 2009 at 12:14pm

Lee, just fyi but the asphalt on dorchester was removed between 55th and 57th. It's rideable but rough although the asphalt around the manholes was left alone presenting a road hazard.

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Permalink Reply by Lee Diamond on July 22, 2009 at 12:17pm

Hey there...good looking out....i wish blackstone went the other way! that would be a great alternative...grrr.

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Permalink Reply by Lee Diamond on July 22, 2009 at 12:18pm

Planning ride map and turn by turn attached.

Attachments:

Hyde Park Planning tour map and turn by turn directions.pdf, 139 KB

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Permalink Reply by Lee Diamond on July 25, 2009 at 12:37am

Northsiders -

There is a northside hook up at Elston and Milwaukee at Noon sharp. Get there a little early to hit it down to Hyde Park THE BETTER WAY with some folks that did several of the planning tours with us. They have much better options than busy streets all the way down or the lakefront.

There is parking at the Field House as well for those driving in. The field house is JUST SOUTH of Garfield, which is also the same as 55th if you follow it further. The actual address of the field house is: 5531 S Martin Luther King Jr Drive. Google maps and the like are available on the event web site, which is here:

http://www.thechainlink.org/events/tour-of-hyde-park

The topic of where to drink post-ride has been raised, appropriately. Julie has put forth watching the final stage of the Tour de France somewhere. She suggests Brasserie Jo, which probably would have it on at least one of the sets. There is also the Woodlawn Tap, which is a much better bar IMHO, but doubtful (impossible really) that they would have the tour on there.

Suggestions?

Votes?

This will be hard to do on site without some direction/inclination.

So the route is set...I have opted for the sway of public opinion on route length as I can not bear to be the cutter of any of this stuff. If people want the full tour, let's just round up and say it is 18 miles. If they want the shorter version, we can round down right at the start and skip DuSable Museum, Stables, Fireproof Warehouse and the Armory and shave 1.8 miles.

If we get the usual vote (do the whole thing) than we will plan on that, HOWEVER(!) I have several cut spots for when the allegorical cycling stomach is not as big as the allegorical cycling eyes that can trim 1.2, 1.9 or even 3.4 miles

I always publish the full tour but whether i will have time before tour or on morning of remains to be seen. I am having a yard sale tomorrow (ahem) and have been busier than the proverbial 1-legged man with work, moving, Pitchfork, and so forth, but I assure all I have not slacked where it counts. This will be a hells-bells-great-tour. This baby is loaded!

Cheers all

P.S. - some have asked about when austin and other specific tours will have their virtual tours up on our website. I do the virtual tours of the previous season during the winter when I am only holding repeat tours, so austin, jefferson park, north center, this one and forest glen along with the pending tours of Lincoln Square (next month - with the chainlink!), North Park in September (with Chicago Cycling Club) and West Town (with West Town Bikes of course) in December will all be up by say February.......pant....pant......pant....or March.