General Cycling Discussion - l.a.t.e. ride

anybody planning on riding the l.a.t.e ride in chicago next weekend 7/11? www.lateride.org how is it never done this one before.

I am planning to go, but have not registered yet

It's been a long time since I moved away from Chicago but I used to attend the LATE ride every year. I may be exhibiting memory-fade however. It's a total blast. The ride starts in "back" of Buckingham fountain. They Block off the streets although sometimes cars will slip through. The course is 25 miles total and ends back at Buckingham. You first head south for a little bit and cross over the river near the Dan Ryan/Eisenhower interchange and head back north up Clark (I believe). You end up heading east again somewhere around Bryn Mawr I think. You take parts of the path along LSD on the return. You can ride the loop as many times as you want. It's basically one big rolling party that starts at around 10PM and ends around 6AM. The last LATE Ride I was on (1993) had around 10,000 people. Bring lights and a halemt and have fun.

I am expecting it to be a blast too....

now, they have schedule the ride to start at 1:30am....

I am expecting it to be a blast too....

now, they have schedule the ride to start at 1:30am....

Wow! Why so late? Maybe to get traffic cleared out?

more information here

http://www.lateride.org/

yeah going to take the mrs to this one if shes up to it . on the tandem .i think its being so late on the account of i have read that some of the roads are going to be shared with the cars.lol can u imagine 10,000 bikes sharing the road with cars ,omg.i havent registered either .no biggie

i thought bout wearing a shirt with bikeforums.net on it if the owners of this site would be ok with that .hey free advertisement to 10,000 cyclist .:)?

Cool idea....but not $40 cool. I go for night rides all the time. I see no reason to put a month's worth of beer money into this.

Cool idea....but not $40 cool. I go for night rides all the time. I see no reason to put a month's worth of beer money into this.

Hmm... $40? It certainly has gone up since I used to ride them although the money goes to a good cause (Friends of the Park).

they provide refreshments (drinks on the road too), many sponsors
and you get a breakfast at buckingham fountain (probably not too good)

it takes money to pay for the police, to help organizing things too t shirts food etc.i know they have volunteers but not everythings free .im not condoning it but if 40 is too much just show up and jump in somewhere. we have to share the roads with cars too so why not other bikes . but im regeristing cause it helps the parks and also helps fund it again next year.

two more days :) hehe

i thought bout wearing a shirt with bikeforums.net on it if the owners of this site would be ok with that .hey free advertisement to 10,000 cyclist .:)?

Sounds good to me! ;)

i just registered yesterday, so i will probably riding in the last wave

cool joe ill take some pics too lol,i dont know if the mrs is going shes not very athletic .we have a tandom but shes kinda freaking a little so i might be going it alone or maybe not.but ill definately be there:)

cool joe ill take some pics too lol,i dont know if the mrs is going shes not very athletic .we have a tandom but shes kinda freaking a little so i might be going it alone or maybe not.but ill definately be there:)

It's a very easy ride... all flat and can be as casual as you want. It's really a lot of fun.

It's a very easy ride... all flat and can be as casual as you want. It's really a lot of fun.

i know khuon im kinda pushing her to, besides itll be my birthday on sunday so she has to be there to celebrate that dont u think ? :D

i know khuon im kinda pushing her to, besides itll be my birthday on sunday so she has to be there to celebrate that dont u think ? :D

How could I do anything but agree? :)

lofter, which wave are you going...

so when i see a tandem, i know its you

lofter, which wave are you going...

so when i see a tandem, i know its you

we havent regestered either will do that when we get there so probably the last 1 or 2.unless i feel like a bad boy and sneak in on the first couple waves. i do the moon light ramble in stlouis and we went on the last wave it just doesnt feel the same when u arent surounded by bikes darn near the whole trip if you know what i mean .well be on a mtb tandem ,a grey kent . like i said earlier im going to the tshirt shop tommorrow and going to put bikeforums.net on the back lol, probably lofter on the front.were dropping my son off in 1 of the burbs at his friends house then heading down . i just love to look at all the different bikes and talk to folks.by the time it starts off itll be my birthday so ill enjoy it just that much more :D

weather is not looking too good...

but anything forecast over 12hr is pretty much worthless

hehe, aint that the truth lol, ah its sweltering down here so if it rained ah it would bring back memories of playing in the rain when i was a kid lol. cheep ponchos tho :)

just checked the weather again....

looks like you won't bring back those memory...

well just look around at the fountain area saltly. we got to drop our son off in aroura then cruising to the fountain. never been to this. its probably like the ramble in stlouis bikes everywhere .:)what parking lots do you suggest ? i got to go get my tshirt made here in a bit.check back in awhile

ok salt here's the shirt im wearing ,joe what do ya think? :D charging the camera batteries now . raining like crazy here :( see everybody at the start area. :rolleyes: lol

I love it, very cool! :)

looks good....hope to see you all guy sthere

ok , we made it back in 1 piece. wife is a little sore, lol poor girl ,but she made it :). riding thru greek town was fun .rode past house of blues ,harrycarrys thru down town chicago. riding thru traffic downtown was hectic at times,specially on a tandem.but once we got out of downtown and into the more residential areas it began to strech out and was more pleasant.the ride down the lake shore bike path was wonderful and we watched a beautiful sunrise while eating at the rest area in lincoln park.very memorable ride.salt, sorry we missed ya so many bikes in such a area.here are the best pics we took ,so enjoy them we did:)

and the rest:)

I did not participate in the late ride in Chicago, but I was unpleasantly introduced to it when I left out for my 5am morning ride. I jumped onto the bike path at Grand heading south, forgetting that the late ride was happening. Well, about a block into it, suddenly I became aware of all these people on bikes, and I remembered that the late ride was going on. Far from wanting to continue with them, I really wanted to escape the riders as soon as possible, since they were going so slowly that I knew I'd never be able to do a good timed ride, but I was stuck once the bikes got back on the path at 150 north. Then some idiots see me on my bike and start hissing and screaming "Cheater, cheater!" at me. Turns out, they didn't bother to ask me what was up, just assumed that I had crashed the ride and was now on my way to Buckingham fountain for breakfast with them. I didn't appreciate the catcalls, and seriously, I found the riders annoying. I seriously don't equate that group of riders with every late rider, but what a bunch of inconsiderate do-gooders. Bleah.

I did see the pictures on television, though, and it did look like people had fun. It still doesn't inspire me to participate. I guess it's not my thing. I will do my best to avoid them at all costs next year.

Koffee

it would not be fun if you lived there and had to deal with it .but at 130 in the morning most peeps r in bed , except for the club areas. trying to ride fast ,yeah, not a good thing in this ride.i know what u mean koffee,but im trying to get the mrs to join me on more rides and this is the kinda of thing to get her on the bike to see that cycling is also fun too.i like to go ride by myself and ride at a pretty good pace,but i also would like her company too.

I feel you, but this was at 5am. What, they don't think that people could possibly be out riding that early? Just dumb, dumb, dumb.

Koffee

Here are some jpg's of the ride. Couldn't get them up sooner because I was a a teaching seminar from that afternoon and since.

Thanks for all the pictures guys, I was born in northern Illinois so I enjoy seeing Chicago pictures a lot.

nice skit,i liked the lake trail,it was calming

I rode the LATE in 2002 (I believe), but didn't like the fact that I had to basically walk my bike for the first 5 miles due to the congestion of all those riders. I hope they changed how they do the send-offs since then, but maybe it's better if you're in the first wave - we were in the third or forth. However, that last 10 miles, along Foster and the lake-front path was pretty enjoyable, watching the sun come up over Lake Michigan.

It is definitely something to experience at least one time in life though.

I rode the LATE in 2002 (I believe), but didn't like the fact that I had to basically walk my bike for the first 5 miles due to the congestion of all those riders. I hope they changed how they do the send-offs since then, but maybe it's better if you're in the first wave - we were in the third or forth. However, that last 10 miles, along Foster and the lake-front path was pretty enjoyable, watching the sun come up over Lake Michigan.

It is definitely something to experience at least one time in life though.


yeah definately a one timer .the traffic congestion wasnt fun .im looking foward to moonlight ramble in stlouis in aug. they close the route off .its lot better. no sharing with cars:)bout the same amout of bikes bout 12 to 15 miles.1 rest stop.40th anniversary