Comment

Comment by karen furlong on April 18, 2010 at 1:05pm

i will keep this in mind when i ride the route for logan's may 8th ride and come up with two "turn-around points" which we can announce pre-ride and reiterate once we get to them

Comment by Jason Greenberg on April 18, 2010 at 11:36am

I missed this weekends ride, so I'll keep my comments to general principles (since I'm not familiar with the ride particular details in this case). We have mentioned on posters--and should continue to stress-- that parents are expected to ride with & chaperone their kids on the ride (so they need a bike too). We should not take kids on a ride without their parents- and parents are ultimately responsible for assessing the energy level and capabilities of their kids (and if they should turn back).

Having 2-3 points on the tour to ask parents to assess the situation seems smart. In the Logan Square rides we had one family who's daughter had a bike that was too large for her and she had trouble keeping up on the bike. After two falls, the parents wisely decided that they wouldn't continue with the tour out of Palmer Square, but she stayed and rode the park loop until the tour returned and then she got play time at the end with all the kids.

Announcing "check-in" points at the beginning of the ride will be helpful to alert parents to be mindful of their kids abilities...

hopefully this will assist preventing difficult situations in the future...

Comment by Todd Allen on April 18, 2010 at 2:07am

After sleeping on the problem of group cohesiveness here's my suggested solution. If you think there may be a better solution please speak up.

We must expect to split any ride with children. Prior to starting out we must announce that we are capable of splitting the ride ONCE with full support such that each group will have a leader, a sweep and a crossing guard/corker.

Every map/route must have planned stops where it is ASKED to all if anyone wants to turn back. Expecting parents with children to speak up on their own without prompting is insufficient. If ANYONE wants to turn back or it looks like anyone should turn back we must make the decision to split at that point and STRONGLY encourage anyone who is unlikely to complete the full route to join the returning group.

At the start of a ride everyone must understand this and we need volunteers committed to the support roles for both the full ride and a short ride.

As for the number of stops/potential turn around points, my suggestion is two on each ride at approximately 1/3 and 2/3 the total distance.

Everyone should still be encouraged to call out a ride stop whenever needed, but we shouldn't rely on that as the sole method to stop and split a ride.

Comment by Kathy Schubert 'n Suzy Schnauzer on April 17, 2010 at 7:01pm

From my vantage point, I thought Todd did a terrific job.

And thanks to Jamie for bringing and applying balloons to so many helmets.

Comment by Todd Allen on April 17, 2010 at 6:27pm

Today we had quite a few children and parents show up without bikes. We had a couple tricycles, a kick scooter, a kick/glide bike and some parents on foot.

While it wasn't a disaster today, we could have handled it better.

I think we should make more explicit in ALL of our promotional materials that these are bike rides and establish a minimum expected level of capability.

Today we put the burden of deciding when to stop on the individual participants. It worked for most. The ride split into two groups upon reaching River Park and one group went ahead into the park and the other group including myself and Kathy our ride sweep turned back.

Unfortunately I know of a father and child (and perhaps there were others) who passed those of us stopping and continued on with the faster group. But they were unable to keep up and turned back on their own. They returned to the start but were unhappy about going back alone.

We never want people leaving the ride alone who would rather not be leaving alone.

We need to handle this better although I'm not sure the best way. I'm going to be thinking about this issue and will post again as my ideas firm up. Please also think about this and state your minds too!

Comment by Todd Allen on April 17, 2010 at 8:53am

Photos from todays ride:

Comment by Andrew Bedno on April 16, 2010 at 11:56am

Confirming, me and rogers park pals and kids are 100% planning to come tomorrow, plus I'm brining small facepaint kit, basic bike tools, and some handlebar streamers to giveaway.

Comment by Andrew Bedno on April 15, 2010 at 4:19pm

THIS SATURDAY April 17th from 4731 N. Lincoln at 9am, me and a few plan to come.

Comment by Barbra Mann on April 12, 2010 at 10:10am

I will be glad if the Logan Square ride becomes a regular...this is close for me, and a ride I can commit to on a regular basis. I had so much fun!

Comment by Todd Allen on April 11, 2010 at 2:10pm

I test rode my proposed route to River park for the Apr. 17 ride. It was just under 4 miles round trip. The ride can be shortened by 1 mile if needed by not riding to the playground in River park.

At the ride start, crossing Western on Eastwood isn't great as there's no light, but there is a light just to the north at Leland - one way street though so we can't cross there, and a block further south at Wilson. By watching those lights one can start crossing without any traffic and if we do a good job corking we should get everyone through easily enough.

On the return route, the crossing of Lawrence from Francisco is awkward due to the bridge to the west which blocks the line of sight limiting how far out one can be sure there's no traffic. We could avoid this by taking Ainslie to Washtenaw to Leland. That adds a little distance and I didn't test ride it though it should be fine.

So all in all I'm satisfied with this route to River park but would still like to hear others thoughts.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 16
• 17
• 18
• 19
• 20
• …
• 28
• Next ›
• Page