Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.perspiration
05-30-11, 06:49 PM
Hey guys, this weekend a buddy and I accomplished one of my summer goals: we biked to Dekalb, IL from our town taking mostly the Illinois Prarie Path and the Great Western Trail.
The map looks like this:
http://spaceghetto.org/images/tripkvk.png
It ended up being about 62 miles there and 63 back. I knew I was going to like long distance cycling, but it's so much more fun than I thought! I love adventure, and this definitely was an adventure.
It involved two flats before we left our town, me kissing the pavement shortly after (i have some sexy road rash on my leg), taking the wrong bike path and having to rush along a 4 lane highway for a few miles, riding in a seemingly endless void of pitch black MUP, imbibing far too much once we arrived, and that was just the way there!
The way back involved no cloud cover, 90 degrees, constant sun shining on you...I felt pretty bad on the way back, actually. We took a lot of shade breaks and I chugged a lot of water, but I was still sort of worried about sunstroke or something like that. We were in direct sunlight for well over 6 hours...at least the path was flooded up to my waist at one point and we picked up our bikes and forded the river! That was somewhat refreshing...
tl;dr I had an amazing time and feel really proud of myself. This was easily the longest trip I've ever been on and I made it! My legs are pretty tired, but my butt was hurting me the most. I can't wait until my Brooks comes in...
This was also the first time I ever used a rack, and wow they're great! I got the Tortec expedition and it is a wonderful thing. I'm riding a 2011 Crosscheck and while I noticed some of the front wheel wobble I've heard people mention, it carried the load very well. I really think I'm going to enjoy touring with it.
Anyways, I'm just feeling really good so I thought I'd let you all know!
The map looks like this:
http://spaceghetto.org/images/tripkvk.png
It ended up being about 62 miles there and 63 back. I knew I was going to like long distance cycling, but it's so much more fun than I thought! I love adventure, and this definitely was an adventure.
It involved two flats before we left our town, me kissing the pavement shortly after (i have some sexy road rash on my leg), taking the wrong bike path and having to rush along a 4 lane highway for a few miles, riding in a seemingly endless void of pitch black MUP, imbibing far too much once we arrived, and that was just the way there!
The way back involved no cloud cover, 90 degrees, constant sun shining on you...I felt pretty bad on the way back, actually. We took a lot of shade breaks and I chugged a lot of water, but I was still sort of worried about sunstroke or something like that. We were in direct sunlight for well over 6 hours...at least the path was flooded up to my waist at one point and we picked up our bikes and forded the river! That was somewhat refreshing...
tl;dr I had an amazing time and feel really proud of myself. This was easily the longest trip I've ever been on and I made it! My legs are pretty tired, but my butt was hurting me the most. I can't wait until my Brooks comes in...
This was also the first time I ever used a rack, and wow they're great! I got the Tortec expedition and it is a wonderful thing. I'm riding a 2011 Crosscheck and while I noticed some of the front wheel wobble I've heard people mention, it carried the load very well. I really think I'm going to enjoy touring with it.
Anyways, I'm just feeling really good so I thought I'd let you all know!