I rode today. Did you?

Nice first ride in the COLD.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on June 20, 2013 at 8:50am

Such a beautiful morning on the lake. And I saw a guy on a fat bike doing an incredible track stand in the bike lane at Madison and State and Madison and Dearborn. I had no idea that could be done!

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Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on June 20, 2013 at 8:51am

Fat bikes don't just stand upright on their own? XD

Lisa Curcio 6.5 mi said:

Such a beautiful morning on the lake. And I saw a guy on a fat bike doing an incredible track stand in the bike lane at Madison and State and Madison and Dearborn. I had no idea that could be done!

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Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on June 20, 2013 at 9:05am

I managed to finally find my way properly from the Channel Trail and Lawrence to Elston and California. Nice ride in. It's a couple miles longer than my usual commute from Evanston via Clark, and about one mile longer than taking the LFT. Big bonuses:

The Channel Trail goes under a number of big east-west streets - few stops or auto interactions
The Manor/California connection to Elston is fairly nice (a bit of road work on California right now, however)
Elston's bike lane is very nice: wide, relatively long distances between signals, etc

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Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on June 20, 2013 at 9:24am

The Channel Trail is good in the morning and late at night. Its not so good in early evening as it is crowded with other users and those of us who do not believe that we have lightening quick reflexes have to slow down a lot to keep everyone safe. Avoiding the major (and minor) East West is nice however...

As for today, a real nice day for a ride. Just about perfect weather. Set new time for the year on the commute.

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

I managed to finally find my way properly from the Channel Trail and Lawrence to Elston and California. Nice ride in. It's a couple miles longer than my usual commute from Evanston via Clark, and about one mile longer than taking the LFT. Big bonuses:

The Channel Trail goes under a number of big east-west streets - few stops or auto interactions

The Manor/California connection to Elston is fairly nice (a bit of road work on California right now, however)

Elston's bike lane is very nice: wide, relatively long distances between signals, etc

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Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on June 20, 2013 at 9:37am

Thanks for the input. I have yet to try it in the reverse direction. It can't be worse than LFT on a sunny summer day though, can it?

David crZven 10.6 said:

The Channel Trail is good in the morning and late at night. Its not so good in early evening as it is crowded with other users and those of us who do not believe that we have lightening quick reflexes have to slow down a lot to keep everyone safe.

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Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on June 20, 2013 at 9:43am

Its just as bad, in many ways. Its bad in a different way. One of the "bads" is because of those otherwise wonderful passes under the east west major streets. They are relatively blind, fisherman fish off of them and strollers and the like also use them. They are a nasty crash waiting to happen. And since you have fewer bicyclists, and what seems to be a very high ratio of small children and strollers to total users, the "rug rat" issue seems worse. But I do admit to avoiding the LFT just about always...

Have you also tried California? I often use that as well. Its particularly nice at night...

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

Thanks for the input. I have yet to try it in the reverse direction. It can't be worse than LFT on a sunny summer day though, can it?

David crZven 10.6 said:

The Channel Trail is good in the morning and late at night. Its not so good in early evening as it is crowded with other users and those of us who do not believe that we have lightening quick reflexes have to slow down a lot to keep everyone safe.

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on June 20, 2013 at 11:59am

Finally started doing the full ride from Mount Prospect (instead of jumping on the metra). 18 miles home and most of it is very easy. Yesterday's ride involved some headwind so I'm hoping today's is a little milder. Beautiful day to be on a bike!

With all of the bike commuters doing this ride, I do wish there was a better connection between Mount Prospect and Des Plaines. Route 14 (NW Hwy) is scary and Rand Road is only slightly better. Maybe as the city continues to ramp up bike lanes, the burbs will catch up? :-)

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Permalink Reply by Rich Evans on June 20, 2013 at 1:51pm

Looks like you'll have some tailwind today. Would Algonquin Rd work for you?

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on June 20, 2013 at 3:40pm

Tailwind would be nice. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm a little too far North of Algonquin but it is definitely a great idea. It's rather strange how bike routes/paths in the burbs are disjointed and short - not expecting people to travel very far on them. Hoping for a nice connecting of the dots... :-)

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Permalink Reply by Rich Evans on June 20, 2013 at 4:42pm

Know what you mean. My daughter's in the NW 'burbs, and it's awfully tough to find "friendly" routes that go anywhere near your destination, it seems. When you've got some time, I still think you might find Algonquin worth a shot out. I know I find Mt Prospect Rd, down to Algonquin Rd, a lot friendlier than Rand or NW Hwy, and usually worth the "angling" trade-off -- in traffic, you may be looking at more miles, but not a whole lot more time. Nice thing about it is that it turns into Talcott, which you can then take to Higgins, then Milwaukee or (via Lawrence) Elston, to proceed downtown. Some very nice, low-stress routing. In any event, enjoy your ride and best of luck in your route explorations.
Yasmeen said:

Tailwind would be nice. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm a little too far North of Algonquin but it is definitely a great idea. It's rather strange how bike routes/paths in the burbs are disjointed and short - not expecting people to travel very far on them. Hoping for a nice connecting of the dots... :-)