Great Lakes - North Shore Century - Evanston, IL 9/23

I know in years past, a few on here have done this...

Anyone signed up for this years?

http://www.evanstonbikeclub.org/nsc/index.asp

I'll be there. It'll be my first organized century, and my first event of any kind in Chicagoland.

I'll be there too, first organized century, although I am shooting to complete one on my own before hand just so I have my timing down.

Look for the old blue Schwinn with the big guy on it, can't really miss me.

Looks like I'll be doing the 50 mile loop with the kids- look for 4 'bents and a 7 y.o. on a teeny orange Gitane road bike all in a row.

Completely forgot about it.

I will be there.

I'll be there. Woodgrain fixed gear with a Rev-X on the classic century.

It was a good ride and I had a lot of fun. I didn't get lost once although a few long sections on the major roads were not marked and I felt a little unsure if we were still on the route. I think we went 2 miles one time without a single marking on the road and through 2 dozen stop lights coming out of Waukegan on the way home.

Next year I'm going to grab some real food the first couple of stops. After the second stop there was really nothing but sugary and starchy carbs. Even bananas were few and far between. I can't eat sugar and starch on a ride without crashing/bonking a half hour later. I sure wished I had one of those subs from the first two stops, plus a few power bars which were not to be seen after the second stop either. But if you liked brownies, cookies, and pretzels -or grapes, you had plenty of carb choices to chose from.

But that was my own fault for not loading up on power bars and snagging a turkey sub or two at the breakfast stop and stashing all that in my handlebar bag for lunch & dinner.

It was definitely a great ride, and glad it was my first century. Ran into my 8th grade teacher who has been riding with the Evanston Bike club for a long time I guess, was even the club president for a bit so that was cool.

Here are some pics I took, nothing extreme and I didn't take a lot, but things I felt captured the day.

(Click to enlarge any of the smaller ones)
Coming down Dempster towards Evanston, every car out in the pack I was in traffic with had a bike on it!
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Just got my directions and snapped a picture before riding.
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Turned down the exposure for this one, BEAUTIFUL morning albeit cold!
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Random pic while riding, this was most of the morning. Unfortunately I forgot my remote charger and couldn't charge my phone to take more pics till I got back.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-v_l6aZLBX-I/UF-xuqyeKsI/AAAAAAAAFlw/trw6PT2UQDg/s649/IMG_20120923_095740.jpg

Bike parking at the 1/2 way point, probably a few hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment there. (sorry for the fingers at the bottom!)
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-KZPtJhzvRhs/UF-xkPWvZAI/AAAAAAAAFlg/1tr10JBBjUM/s649/IMG_20120923_104213.jpg

And there is Gertrude, I have decided to name my bike after this rider, enjoying the shoreline views at the end. About 3/4 of a mile from the end I ended up with a flat, luckily it was a slow leak so I just pumped it up and rode. The gentleman, Bob, that was riding with me said he would walk it with me if needs be. Great guy and really appreciated the partner when riding, I was solo for the first few hours and that was boring.
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I would highly recommend this ride to anyone, I don't know what the food issue was above, but we had subs, bananas and such at every stop. I finished the ride in 6 hours 50 mins rolling time and about 8 hours total time with stops and such. No cramps and felt great afterwards, even today, slightly sore but great.

Took 4 of the kids on the 50 mile loop (13,11,9 and 7)- nice weather and had a great time:
In Highland Park:

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t144/yachtie/September2012andNorthShoreCentury157_zpsc79b2e75.jpg

The 7 y.o. pulling to the end on Sheridan:

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t144/yachtie/September2012andNorthShoreCentury172_zps6989e1f2.jpg

Looks and sounds very cool; one of my good friends is a star rider (US Team or something like that) living in Chicago..he says if it works out we will do it together next year.

Looks and sounds very cool; one of my good friends is a star rider (US Team or something like that) living in Chicago..he says if it works out we will do it together next year.

I would highly recommend it!


And does your whole family ride recumbents or just a random run of them in front of you? And really good that your fam was out, excited for my 3 week old to be old enough to ride in a trailer!


Took 4 of the kids on the 50 mile loop (13,11,9 and 7)- nice weather and had a great time:
In Highland Park:

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t144/yachtie/September2012andNorthShoreCentury157_zpsc79b2e75.jpg

The 7 y.o. pulling to the end on Sheridan:

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t144/yachtie/September2012andNorthShoreCentury172_zps6989e1f2.jpg

And does your whole family ride recumbents or just a random run of them in front of you? And really good that your fam was out, excited for my 3 week old to be old enough to ride in a trailer!

Just the oldest 3 (so far) and their dad ;). They love 'em. Regarding trailers, your little one should be good to go for short rides next summer :D

Great way to spend time with the kids.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-KZPtJhzvRhs/UF-xkPWvZAI/AAAAAAAAFlg/1tr10JBBjUM/s649/IMG_20120923_104213.jpg


Hey! You were at that same stop when we were. Thats my friend's white Argon up against the telephone pole cable on the left.

Here's the reverse angle shot of the fence line:

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/485800_10151170318944855_842034178_n.jpg

Thats my Litespeed with another friend's Pinarello behind it.

It was a nice ride. Slightly on the cold side, and I felt the return route had a bit too many MUP sections, but it was well supported and positively memorable for me.

HAHA, that's funny!

Actually I was probably still there, I took that pic as soon as I stopped. I think I had the ONLY bike on the century with a kick stand, lol, tree and bush parking became sparse so the kick stand allowed me to put it anywhere I wanted. At Lincoln Park it was sitting right out in the open by the pavilion.

Probably the only bike of it's age on that trek, except maybe the older Raleigh I saw.



Hey! You were at that same stop when we were. Thats my friend's white Argon up against the telephone pole cable on the left.

Here's the reverse angle shot of the fence line:

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/485800_10151170318944855_842034178_n.jpg

Thats my Litespeed with another friend's Pinarello behind it.

It was a nice ride. Slightly on the cold side, and I felt the return route had a bit too many MUP sections, but it was well supported and positively memorable for me.

HAHA, that's funny!

Actually I was probably still there, I took that pic as soon as I stopped. I think I had the ONLY bike on the century with a kick stand, lol, tree and bush parking became sparse so the kick stand allowed me to put it anywhere I wanted. At Lincoln Park it was sitting right out in the open by the pavilion.

Probably the only bike of it's age on that trek, except maybe the older Raleigh I saw.

At least one other with a stand. :D and the little girl's Gitane is from '75. Some classic steel out there.

IMO, one of the cooler bikes I saw on the century was a steel Cervelo whose rider joined us for a portion of the route back south. It had factory paint but only 2/3 of the frame was painted so it lead me to believe that it was stainless???

After DAGS, I found this sample image on the web:

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lcuxyyXO0e1qdzxizo1_500.jpg

It's apparently called a Cervelo SuperProdigy.

So refreshing to see amongst the carbon landscape. If anyone sees one of these for sale in a roughly 52.5 top tube, please let me know. This thing was gorgeous!

My Raleigh frame is from 1974, but other than the frameset there isn't anything original. 8-speed, 700c, 105 with Ultegra bar-end shifters.

No kickstand either ;)

It was a good ride, a bit cold until 9:00. Rode up alone and back with a team.

It was a good ride, a bit cold until 9:00. Rode up alone and back with a team.

I wore my thinnest sheer jersey with the intention of using my Pearl Izumi Barrier Convertible Jacket over it. It was a bit chilly that way in the first couple of hours of the morning but I never needed to take off the jacket or even remove the sleeves. I did zip it down about 1/3 of the way before the end.