lofter

hi my name is don loftis, im from springfield illinois.im 39 yrs old took up cycling at about 20. first bike was a blue schwinn super letour.graduated from there to a 81 melton racing frame buit for larry doering. rode this bike for years and years . i was a biking junkie.then had to grow up and become a normal human being so i hung up the melton and lived my life.late last year i decided to get a mountain bike and start again . bought a mongoose aluminum daule and started to ride.boy it sure was hard to get my legs back.rode with some of my friends ,but they just werent used to how i liked to ride so when i rode with them i felt like i was putting in slow mo.i would say lets ride out to this place in the country and they would look at me like i was crazy lol.so as of late ive been going at it alone.i was kinda heavy when i first started round 200lbs but i stepped on the scale at the docs office the other day and i was 186 and dropping.. yeah! this may sound wierd but i love to ride at night too.plan on going to the late ride in chicago on 7/11 this year for a birthday ride also plan on doing the moonlight ramble in st louis too.was disapointed last year tho the route to me was to short anyway ive been on the forums the last couple days and thought i should introduce myself to everybody im including a pic of me on the melton riding in estes park colo. in 83 or 84.man what i would do to have that hair back lmao. plan to get a new road bike too after i restore the melton. well everybody enjoy and nice to meet ya all .

Hatsephsut

Hiya - I'm in Chicago area - joined in March - yeah, I hung up my bike years and years ago - finally got back into it when the kids were little and I was doing a stint as a stay home mom - had to quit again in the last couple of years for various reasons, but I'm trying to get back with some purpose this year - I cannot believe what horrible shape I'm in compared to the last time I was riding like this - between the weather and that, I'm not having as much luck as you are :-) - but I'm doing what I can when I can and I had a great long ride yesterday for the first time in a long while

anyway, Hi to a fellow Illinoian (sp? right word? I live here, you'd think I know right?)

lofter

nice to meet u hatsephsuut , lol

Gus Riley

We live around 80 miles down route 97 from you. Welcome to the forums!

MsVicki

Welcome to Bikeforums, Don.

lofter

where at gus, canton area , havanna ,spoon riverarea, galesburg ? i ride alot to and around petersburg , newsalem area. its nice out that way and hardly no cars and some fun hills that follow the river. anyway nice to meet ya, and you too ms vicki.

Gus Riley

I'm near Canton. Little town of Cuba, which is 18 miles further down the way from Havana on 97. I'm attempting to catch up with my RAGBRAI training, so I'm getting out just about every day for at least 40 miles. We have found some good scenic riding routes, but most of these are on chipped sealed roads. We stay off of the fresh chipped seals, but even so when it gets hot, they aren't as fun to ride on, but still rideable and our only choice.

lofter

lol i know what u mean . my roads are ok to not so ok sometimes , i like to ride the boy scout trail road from springfield to new salem and back bout 45 to 50 round trip . i only have a mtb for right now .in the process of restoring my racing frame back ,then i want to aquire a new road bike. its for me a serious stress reliever. average bout 12 to 13 mph right now not to bad for me so far . really looking foward to a new road bike .not that theres any thing wrong with the mtb just want a road bike bad .been on vacation last 2 weeks and been on the bike quite abit .its tough for me cause my wife is not athletic at all so i go at it alone but feel bad cause shes not there with me .does that make any sense?i bought a tandem mountain bike for us to try at wallyworld , it was cheap so if she dont like it too much its not that much money wasted. im eagerly awaiting the completion of the lost bridge trail .there a section from rochester illinois to taylorville that needs done . it will run from idot building in spfld to pana. stay in touch this forum is the most fun ive had on any forum ive been too . ill be up that way in july for rams training camp. i have season tickets to the rams so a ride in between practices is not out of the question. plus my wife is going to have a booth at spoon river too , somewhere i dont know yet , her and some friends r going in together on it .keep in touch
don

Gus Riley

Our town is on the Spoon River Drive route. Is this Boy Scout trail from New Salem to Springfield paved? If so that would be a good ride for my better half and I. We also ride a tandem (road).

LuisB

Hello Don from Naperville, IL!

I also picked up cycling around 20 years ago and started with a black Fuji touring bike and eventually upgraded to a Colnago with Campy. I recently started riding again but not quite as much and long as I used to. I purchased a Raleigh steel road bike about a year ago with Campy Chorus 10-speed. The model is called Professional which is a model Raleigh first built in the mid-70s. I also bought a road tandem which my wife and I ride every weekend. She's also come with me sometimes to my group ride on Sunday's.

I'm glad to be riding again and I'm sure you do too. The only thing is that the roads around me that I rode 20 years ago are not the same. A lot more traffic you know.

Enjoy!

LuisB

A.troll

Some of my favorite people are from Illinois!

Welcome to Bikeforums, boyfriend!

powells2

I live in St. Louis and I am wondering how the Moonlight Ramble really is to ride in? It looks like chaos from the news coverage. I would like to ride in it but I am not convinced I want to be caught up in all that!

lofter

hi luisb , my oh my a.troll what a welcome , powell its really great, the fun part is before the ride all the bikes and people everywhere. so many different kinds of bikes. the ride itself used to be longer but i dont think the st louis pd like to stop so much traffic . they send the riders off in waves and let them get some distance between them before the next wave goes. its fun just dont ry to get to bunched together with alot of riders cause ive seen some pretty ugly crashes over the years . it happens , but u just have to ride responsibly. sorry spelling suks sometimes lol.u really should go . i went last year for the first time in bout 15 years and had a blast .my friend i took along was freaking out too when i showed him the pictures from the rambles website, but had a great time and is looking foward to this year.the more people u know to get to ride in a group the funner it is . im going to try a helmet cam this year .then edit it and put it to music and put it up on my sons server.sounds fun eh?going to chicago on 7/11 to try their night ride for the first time

lofter

some of the roads gus are ok some r really bad .there farm roads not a bike path per say ill take some pics and send em lol

Prosody

Hello from Chesterfield, MO, a west suburb of St. Louis. If you're looking for organized rides, check out the Tour de Donut in Staunton, IL, on July 10. The St. Louis Boeing Employees Bicycle Club sponsors it. Information here.

lofter

hi prosody, omg that was funny, kispy kreme donuts i hope,nuttin better than a hot now sign in the window dont u say?staunton huh?theres a golf course thats right next to I-55 i would love to play, timber lakes or something. unfortunetlyim going to chicago that day for the l.a.t.e. ride https://www.lateride.org 10,000 cyclist at 1 in the morning yeah baby

litoespi

love is lovelier the second time around

happy riding and make sure you have flashers for the front and rear when you go riding at night. which reminds me, i better charge my nmh batteries for my litestick (5 watts) head light.

once, while riding along a secondary street in our area, there were kids playing street hockey, turned to this street, my headlights on, i heard the kids yell out "scooter, scooter!!"

i can still picture the look on their faces as i cruise pass them, i heard them say "wow, it is a bike"

Bentley6

Hi lofter. Glad to hear you're from my neck of the woods. May run into you along the IDOT to Rochester Trail sometime. The company that I work for, UCM, has been working on the highway from Rochester to Berry and now from Taylorville to Edinburg so we're building the bike path. I ride from Taylorville to Pana often and can't wait for it to be completed from IDOT to Pana. We also ride the Katy Trail a lot and from Alton to Pere Marquette. Once in a while we do the mountain bike trail at the Jim Edgar Panther Creek Wildlife Area. It's pretty awesome. 17 miles of mountain bike trial is pretty tough for an old guy like me.

Just wanted to say hi and may cross paths with you someday. I ride a orange 73 Schwinn Continental.

Mark

lofter

yeah jim edgar is a cool trail havent done it yet but i did walk a bunch of it this spring looking for mushrooms i reponded to your thread too who knows maybe we can do a ride sometime .the walbash trail is cool it goes from behind the old navy store on the west side of springfield all the way to chatam now they had a strech that was indispute by pedigo sod company. but that got ironed out and they rebuilt the bridge over lake springfield to finally get it all hooked up .there suposed to be working on a rail to ride path from west springfield to athens too but havent heard bought how that 1 is going have fun, don

Bentley6

Hi Don,
We've did the Wabash one but only to where it was disputed at. Rather short run when we did it. I've not did the northern trail at Jim Edgars yet but did the 17 mile one around Prairie lake early this spring and it was a killer! Did it in the rain and had three flats and took a bad fall. Took about 4-5 weeks to get over my bruised ribs and had 2 kidney stones before I got better. Old age stinks! Had plans over Labor Day to ride the whole Katy Trail but had to cancel so I'm planning that ride for next year. Hope to meet up with you sometime. Have a great 4th.