Originally Posted by
Cougrrcj
US20 is too much city riding through Chicago to me!
Back almost 40 years ago I rode around the Chicago area on my round-trip from Cleveland to Milwaukee/Madison. I rode around Chicago by following the Fox River (on the east side of the river on SR25 rather than the busier west-side SR31) between Elgin (where your route of US20 comes in) to Aurora where I picked up US30 to Valparaiso, then jogged a bit back north to US6. I chose to ride across Indiana and Ohio on US6 because it has less traffic and goes through less 'built-up' areas compared to US20 like South Bend-to Elkhart IN and Toledo. US 6 and US20 cross between Toledo and Sandusky, then I followed the shore of Lake Erie (still on US6) to my former apartment in the west suburbs of Cleveland...
US20 through IN and OH has many parts that are 4-lane and 'no bikes' compared to US6.
Getting through the Cleveland metro area from The Lorain/Elyria to Mentor will take a full day. Again, I prefer to follow the Lake Erie shorline. Dropping south to bypass the city looks good on paper, but - as another BF.net member found by riding SR303 - can be quite hilly! He said SR303 was the worst (killer hills) part of his ride from Texas to upstate NY!
I think bicycle bike infrastructure in the area has changed quite a bit.
Riding through Chicago was not a problem. We came into town near the airport and rode to the lakefront trail. Cleveland did take awhile to get though, but again it was not a major problem. We were invited to lunch by the local dentist in Elyria, and he showed us a decent route through town. it's about a 40 mile ride through the area in an urban environment. A lot of clipping and unclipping! I think(it was 2007) we also used Hwy 6, once we got east of Toledo.
This street, W. Lawrence Ave., with a nice bike lane went right across the city from near the airport to the lake. It was a fun ride; we tried to see how many people we could get to smile back at us.
The only problem we had with Chicago's lake front trail was the air show going on as we rode through. We had to walk our bike a couple of miles.
Hwy 20 on the Ohio border.
I'm pretty sure this was Cleveland.
