Peoria IL bicycle clubs

[kevmk81]

Anyone know anyting about the two clubs in Peoria?

Peoria Bicycle Club

Illinois Valley Wheelm'n

Pros & cons of both?

[carlosflanders]

The clubs aren't exclusive. Quite a few people are members of both.

IVW has been around a long time. It's a purely recreational club with a couple hundred members - with a relatively 'advanced' age profile. They have tons of rides that cater to all abilities. They also organise a century ride, the ride of silence and are involved with bicycle advocacy. Rides are graded from 1-4. Typical average speed from 12-17 mph. THere's one hard ride on a Tuesday with a lot of former racers that averages 20 mph or more with a few sign sprints.

PBC is both a club and a team. Rides are fast and competitiive. Membership is about 100 with 20-30 active racers in road and MTB. A good 20-30 of the other members are former racers. It's a competitive club for those who enjoy pushing themselves hard. Rides tend to get quite competitive. They have a long history of organising races and their events have an excellent reputation. They also have an indoor training center with a dozen computrainers and a focused winter training program that's very popular. Emphasis on developing riders and their skills, going faster and supporting the sport and activity of cycling. They'll cooperate with IVW on many activities. Age profile is quite a bit younger than IVW but with plenty of riders in the 50+ cat.

Also, well worth joining PAMBA. They do stellar work in maintaining and expanding the astonishing six MTB parks in the area. Several of the parks are enormous (Jubilee and Famdale) and the riding available is regarded to be much more challenging than anything available in Chicago. In particular, Indy is probably the hardest in Illinois.

All clubs have very cheap membership fees and are well worth supporting. Plenty of details about rides available on each clubs website. Choose which suits you the best.

[kevmk81]

The clubs aren't exclusive. Quite a few people are members of both.

IVW has been around a long time. It's a purely recreational club with a couple hundred members - with a relatively 'advanced' age profile. They have tons of rides that cater to all abilities. They also organise a century ride, the ride of silence and are involved with bicycle advocacy. Rides are graded from 1-4. Typical average speed from 12-17 mph. THere's one hard ride on a Tuesday with a lot of former racers that averages 20 mph or more with a few sign sprints.

PBC is both a club and a team. Rides are fast and competitiive. Membership is about 100 with 20-30 active racers in road and MTB. A good 20-30 of the other members are former racers. It's a competitive club for those who enjoy pushing themselves hard. Rides tend to get quite competitive. They have a long history of organising races and their events have an excellent reputation. They also have an indoor training center with a dozen computrainers and a focused winter training program that's very popular. Emphasis on developing riders and their skills, going faster and supporting the sport and activity of cycling. They'll cooperate with IVW on many activities. Age profile is quite a bit younger than IVW but with plenty of riders in the 50+ cat.

Also, well worth joining PAMBA. They do stellar work in maintaining and expanding the astonishing six MTB parks in the area. Several of the parks are enormous (Jubilee and Famdale) and the riding available is regarded to be much more challenging than anything available in Chicago. In particular, Indy is probably the hardest in Illinois.

All clubs have very cheap membership fees and are well worth supporting. Plenty of details about rides available on each clubs website. Choose which suits you the best.

Thanks for the reply! I'm joining both :-) Hope to maybe meet some people that are on here!

[carlosflanders]

Good stuff! I know most of the characters involved with both clubs. PM me if you want any more info.