matchstick

Just did 28.5 miles today with my BIL and 12 year old niece. We averaged 10.5 mph (a bit slow for me) and did the Oak Savannah Trail from Hobart to Griffith, turned around and road back through Hobart over to Portage. We got to Willowdale Rd and turned around because my niece was beat. Was a fun ride.

My "home" trail is the Erie Lackawanna Trail out of Crown Point on Summit St since its just a couple miles from my house. There are a few websites that map out the trails nicely, and today we found paper maps with all the trails marked, as well as bike friendly roads and future planned trails. It was at the Griffith Oak Savannah trail head/park.

I grew up in Hobart/Portage so I'm pretty familiar with that area. If you want to ride sometime, even at a bit of a slower pace let me know. We can work up our speed together.

jwse30

It's a small world. We used to ride that route on dirt bikes before it was turned into a bike trail (and after the rails were pulled up). We briefly lived on the other side of the "tracks" from the Broadmoor County Club, and those tracks would have been the back edge of our property. Got a free home ride in a squad car once for riding back there.

J White

wdwfan78

Hello everyone,
Im Mike and Im new to biking. In late 30s and a badly out of shape smoker so decided to pick up a good bike and work on fixing that. I see all these posts about people doing 40-50 miles and I get out of breath just thinking about that lol. I average about 13mph and do 10-15 miles per run and been riding for about a month. I learned that I have to build up my endurance alot lol
I live in Yorkville and my home trail is the Virgil Gilman Trail which runs about 12 miles from Sugar Grove to the Fox River where it connects to the Fox River Trail in Aurora. Its extremely quiet and not a lot of traffic.

jwse30

Hi Mike,

I know what you mean about the guys (and gals) talking about the long rides. I am hoping to do a 20 mile ride in a few weeks; so far my longest has been a 14 mile trip at around 10 mph. My biggest problem is finding the time needed to go further. I can usually sneak in about an hour a day, but that's about it.

I used to swim in high school, and our coach preached to us that every stroke, lap, practice, race, or season was just preparation for the next one. That's the way I am approaching this bicycling thing. I'm trying to make each ride a bit faster, longer, or in some way better than the last one.


J White

GinnyRED57

Hi all (and sundry)!

Greetings from the Northwest burbs, where I spin my wheels literally and figuratively.

Anyone else on the Chicagoland Bike Group list at Meetup.com? Any other Tour de Cure riders? Red Riders?

I currently average about 12-14mph on local social rides (Busse, Poplar Creek, Fox River etc.). My partner/spouse is a road rider with a faster average speed and higher mileage, so I have a good target to chase down.

I can do multiple 30-40 mile rides a week, but have to be careful about heat and hydration.

Also have mad zero-speed "unclip FAIL" skillz. I'm no fun, I fall right over!

bikamper

[QUOTE=GinnyRED57;18049974
Also have mad zero-speed "unclip FAIL" skillz. I'm no fun, I fall right over![/QUOTE]

Just stand right back up and say "I meant to do that".

AlmostTrick

Greetings to you, Ginny. I ride with the Performance Great Ride group. We ride Poplar Creek, Paul Douglas, and Busse woods. We'd love to have you join us on Saturdays at 9 am. Look us up at: https://www.meetup.com/performancebike-schaumburg/

no motor?

I've done a couple of rides with them, they're a good group.

FUTBOL26

Hey guys,
My name is Devon, early 20s rider who is pretty new to bike riding. located in Romeoville but would drive to meet up for a ride, any decent routes around here?