General Cycling Discussion - Let's plan it....the Midwest Bikeforums meeting

I was sitting here thinking about my recent thread and my invitation to anyone out there coming to Chicago being welcome at my house- a bit extreme if I suddenly got a whole bunch of people coming in at the same time, then I thought about a better idea- a Bikeforums gathering.

The only reason why I suggest Chicago is because I live here. I love my town and would love to host a picnic, sometime in May. So, what I would like to do is get an idea of who would show, then go down to the city hall and apply for a permit for a beachside BBQ... I can buy and make as much food as possible, but donations would certainly be appreciated;).

So how about a general shoutout so I can figure out if it's worth going for the permit? I'd like to plan for something like the second Saturday in May- meet in the early morning for a long ride, ending along the lakefront for a big ole BBQ and fun frolicking in the sun- provided we have some sun by then! Let's keep the thread alive as long as possible.... I know I should be putting this with the big rides topics, but since there's going to be a big picnic and party thing going on, I figured I'd put it here.

Side note- if I can't get a permit for the day, I plan to rent out a room for the day in my building. It overlooks the lake, and we'd be more flexible with the meeting times, and I could schedule the BBQ for early evening so we can party and drink it up after a hard day's ride, and then watch the fireworks at 9:30pm from the room. We could still do the ride in the day and the beach after the ride before going for the food in the room. Hmmmmm.... actually, that may be better than getting the beach permit, since we'd all have access to showers, bathrooms, and an indoor place to rest, plus no worries about what to do if it's raining. What do you guys think? Morning ride, beach and volleyball in the afternoon, and drinks and BBQ and food in the evening ending with fireworks display (maybe music and dancing too?) at night....

How does it sound? I'm motivated and basically unemployed :D so I could pull it off....

Let me know!


Koffee

I'm a definite "maybe" :)

P.S. In addition, if you're coming from a far distance, I'll also go out on a limb and offer up my place for a place to stay. It's only a studio, and I have 1 double bed and one hideaway double bed, but if we need to, we can get more in if they bring a sleeping bag too....

My way of helping to bring it all about and bring in more people (come on over, all you wayward Canadians! ;) )

Koffee

I'm not totally opposed to this idea, it has merit.

Just a thought, Sunday June 15th is Bike the Drive in Chicago. Lake Shore Drive is closed down to traffic and only cycles are allowed. A fun ride and a great chance to not only get people together but to ride as well.

My .02 cents worth.

i am north of the city. can come down and/or help with some planning or input some ideas. i definitely still know all my older city rides.

I plan on being out of the country if all goes well in June for the month, so June wouldn't work for me. BUT if the majority of the people want June, I say go for it.

I'm kinda stuck on May myself. RiPHRaPH, why don't you send me a PM or an email, and we could hook up sometime via phone or whatever to make some preliminary plans.

I'll go. Anytime is OK with me, but I have to remind everybody that June is usually pretty rainy and often cold in the midwest.

Damn, if only I still lived up there! Ikea used to be my neighbor!:rolleyes: Anyhow I'm still close enough to be a maybe. I do kinda miss Chicago. (I moved back to Cincy a year ago.) Maybe i can get a free tune up from the shop I bought my bike at while I'm up there?

I'm halfway up Wisconsin and I work weekends, but possibly I could get Sunday off and spend Saturday night with my sister in Milwaukee....

Ok, here's an update for the offer of digs-

Again, if people are coming from out of town, I can fit some in my condo. You just need to let me know. I can comfortably fit 7 in my studio- with 3 of the people sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag. Uncomfortably (if no one minds, and I don't mind at all), I could fit about 11. I'm serious. Don't hesitate to come if you're in Wisconsin or Ohio or whatever. I'm happy to have visitors over. And if there are any other fellow Chicagoans that can open their doors for a night, post and let us know. If we get a running count of everyone, we can work on getting you room.

If you can't get a room, there's a youth hostel down here too- right downtown, a mere 6 minute ride from my condo for $28 bucks a night. I can talk to my bosses over there and see if we can get a group discount if enough people want to stay there too.

Let's brainstorm over this one and see if we can't do something fun out here. Chicago is great, even if the weather's not the best sometimes. But it's always good cycling, unless it's less than 10 degrees F!

Koffee

I have a good friend that works for a hotel chain. She used to get my friends cheap rates when they would come up there to visit. I'll talk to her and see if she can do anything.

Count me in. This sounds fun.


Bill F.

What if one of us shows up and likes your place so much we don't want to leave? I'm thinking couch, free cable, lots of free beer in the fridge... you know, Kramer style :)
Just kiddin'
The get together sounds awesome, but alas, I'll be back in Montana by then. Who wants to meet in West Glacier Montana? Cheap beer, food, awesome scenery, awesome riding, grizzly bears....
:)
Doug

Koffee,
That sounds like a blast. If you remember I was the guy that "almost" met you in person in Rome last June. I still wish I'd gotten up from my seat and chased you down. Oh well.

What a great invitation! I'll definately have to consider it. I'm in Ohio and it would be a bit of a drive but worth it. Chicago is a great city and the weather can be pretty darn nice. At least better than the last three weeks. Keep me posted.

Could be a fun time. Keep us posted. I work on the weekends, but can manage for time off. Maybe a few of us in MN could do a carpool/road trip to Go.

that is mothers day weekend..... ratz.. and i am doing a marathon in Ottawa(where my mom lives)
any other weekend and i will just trot on down.. its not that far from Toronto :)
enough notice and we can take over a small hotel or motel nearby.. sorry not familiar with chicago.. but i am willing to help out from my end.:beer:

Oooh, good call jl, Mother's Day Weekend would be a tough sell.

Koffee, appreciate you taking the lead in this, perhaps a poll of alternate dates is in order?

Oops... I got a reminder from another fellow forum member via telephone on Saturday about mother's day. So we're now planning it for either on May 3rd, or May 17th.

As soon as we get some details, we'll pass it on to you. I want to get some firm dates in there ASAP so people will be able to plan for it. I'm more partial to dates towards the end of the month myself, since it'll definitely be warmer (or at least, we hope so!).

On a side note, I'm also working with one of my clubs to allow them to let me bring in people to run a 2X20 anaerobic threshold test on the spin bikes for anyone who is interested in doing one but hasn't had the opportunity. The test will probably run on Friday night for early comers, and early Sat morning for the latecomers at one of my downtown clubs. See these threads for more details about that:

http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20602
http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20353


Come on down!

Koffee

end of the month is better for me also.. i fear i will be drained from the marathon and you may have to draft a cradle for me lol
.. we are bringing our bikes? or no?

HEHE, the music department at my school is doing a trip to Chicago from the 30th of April to like the 5th of May. I may be able to sneak away.

Well World-

If we end up not doing it on the 3rd, and you still want to hang in Chicago, you're more than welcome to stop by for a visit in downtown Chicago. The crib's always open to wandering souls... send me a PM if you're interested in hooking up.

Take care,

Koffee

P.S. If you want to ride, bring your bikes. But we'll plan for alternative events for people who cannot get their bikes over here. Thanks for bringing that point up.

That would be a good time. I'll just visit the family in LaPorte, IN for a long weekend. They would rather see their grandson and the daughter in-law anyways. LOL

RunYun :beer:

Funny coincidence... my parents live in LePorte too.

Come on over! Maybe you can bike in from LePorte?

:D

K

Sounds great. I would love to attend! Keep us posted, Koffee. As the time gets closer, message me and let me know specifics and let me know if there is any way I can help. Perhaps any other Texans who want to go can catch a ride with me.

UPDATE!

I'm working with another forum member, and we've picked the date- May 17th, which is on a Saturday. So, if people are looking to come in from out of town, if you want to come in on Friday night and stay over to Saturday (or Sunday if you want to stay in Chicago longer), as I said before, you can stay at my place.

We're going to plan for two different activities that day, just in the event that people can't drag their bikes in from out of town. I'll be taking one group out on the town. I'm going to try and work with one of the local clubs to allow us to come in and do rockclimbing, but it's a private club, and we'll have to see. There will also be some other places around town we'll be headed for. The group of people who do bring bikes will be headed out with RiPHRaPH on a looooooooong bike ride- we'll figure out the route probably within a month or so and post it here.

If anyone else wants to help or is interested in getting extra details, you can PM me.

Koffee

LaPorte = The Door.

Small world. I grew up there and moved to Buffalo a few years ago for work. Of course since I am from Indiana I went to PURDUE. I did a lot of training rides north on Fail Rd and various other county rds. My uncle owned the Bike shop on Lincolnway and then on Indiana Ave. He moved on to other things in the mid 90's.

What a small world.

I will try to be at this event if the timing is right.

RunYun :beer:

I may be persuaded. I dont live far from Chicago. That Bike the Drive thing sounds like fun.

On second thought I don't know if I should go. All I can think of is Gino's East, Portillo's, Delilah's, Vienna Beef Hotdogs, and Goose Island beer.:D Just kidding. In all likelihood I'll be there!

I know that Trollsville isn't technically in the Midwest (You get there by wishing) but...

well...

Can I come to the shindig too?

looks like my visit is out... sorry and keep up the good work Koffee

hmmmm May 17th, if it's that date i MIGHT be back in Rockford at that point for a little summer break, right now i'm in Grand Junction, CO @ school, which happens to be 30 miles from Moab, so i'll have to see if it's worth coming back to rockford/chicago. Put me down as a MAYBE.

Ok-

I am definitely going to plan this event out. This is what I need:

-If you are planning to DEFINITELY attend, send me an email in the next month so I can count the bodies.

-If you are coming from a far distance (ie- another state), and you are DEFINITELY coming, let me know so I can see how many people I can squeeze into my tiny condo. I need to register every person that will be staying with me with the doormen and get them access to the building.

-If you live in or around the Chicago area and can help out DEFINITELY, drop me an email

-If you live in or around the Chicago area and can take in some of our long distance friends, drop me an email. I will also need to know what the maximum number of people is that you can take in so I can make plans for the out-of-towners. Again, I will take in as many as possible, but I'm sure there will be some people I cannot accomodate.

-If you are DEFINITELY coming and you are bringing your bike, drop me an email and let me know. I would like to plan a nice ride for people who are bringing their bikes, and for those who aren't, I'll be planning an "activity day" around Chicago- part sightseeing, part sport-sy type stuff.

-If you are DEFINITELY coming and you will be staying at my place for more than one night, DEFINITELY drop me an email and let me know how many nights you'll be staying- limit= Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. Monday morning, I don't care where you go, but you gots to git! ;)

I think that's about it for now. Oh yeah, if you are DEFINITELY coming and you have some food preferences, or if you have food allergies, or if you have food anything, drop me an email.

Thanks,

Koffee

I am interviewing for a summer job, so my summer tour is on hold- I am wondering now if we could do the bikeforums meeting in June for the "Bike the Ride" event. I'll definitely be in town for that, so how would that suit people?

I'll PM everyone that responded to my original post soon.

Koffee

P.S. Bike the Drive is June 15th.

Ok- Picked the weekend and the day-

The weekend of June 15th looks to be the best day- with the Bike the Drive stuff going on, it could be great. Extra kudos if you're wearing your bikeforums.net jersey (I will be).

If you plan on coming and want to attend Bike the Drive, go to http://bikethedrive.org/ and read up on it. You've got until June 6th to register (5th or 6th, I can't remember).

The one thing to remember- I think it may be Father's Day that weekend. If you can't make it that Sunday, that's fine. I'm going to plan for a Saturday ride- either north up the path to the Botannic Gardens, or north up the path to the North Shore Trail, which leads to Wisconsin, or south down the trail and into Indiana. Keep in mind, some of the riding will be street riding, so if you're not a person that can deal with the cars and stuff, you can always stick to the path and just ride it rather than going on to the road parts, although you'll definitely be missing out on some good riding!

For people who won't be bringing their bikes, I'll have some non-riding events planned around the city.

I know I keep saying it, but I mean it- I'll be contacting everyone who said they were thinking about going or made a definite commitment, but over the coming weeks, please send a PM or respond to this post if you intend on coming over. People living farther distances will have first crack at crashing at my place. If there's anyone that lives in Chicago that also has room for folks to crash, please contact me.

Thanks,

Koffee

ok here's the delima, I am car free, so any kind of long distance travel is hard I am also employed so its not like I can just ride to kc and fly or ride to wichita and fly (as if I could ride that far and be alive :)) I could prolly hadle getting to and from the wichita airport if someone would be able to pick me and bike up at chicago airport and take me back....hmmmmmmm have to think on that. put me down for a maybe.

Nemo- we have a Blue line train that will take you and your bike (during non-rush hour traffic) from the Chicago airport all the way downtown. You will be ok if you don't have any way of getting here. I can get people directions from wherever they're coming from in Chicago if they don't want to taxi or take an airport shuttle straight to my place.

Koffee

Really sounds neat. I have a lot of things going in my life at the moment everyone wants a piece of my time it seems. getting away would be very nice for my sanity. However other obligations may come first I will have to play it by ear on this one.