Psimet2001 

I know I am asking for it, but I need to know what date will work best for the up coming BF ride to be held between the Chicago and Rockford area. I apolofgize for not including details about the ride, but I want to lock in a date before I post the details.

Chime in...which of these dates will work for you (no other dates are/wil be discussed), and tell me if you are planning on riding.


Date options - Vote for ALL of the dates you can make.... 09/23, 09/24, 09/30, 10/01

CyLowe97

I've chimed in with my votes.

When is the poll closing?

aham23

Ooooh a Poll. We are so officially a bike club. Let the BFNIC roll!! Later.

Kimbercop

Good job on the poll, Mr. President, you are the BFNIC grand poobah..

Psimet2001 

Or more like..."Grand Poop - Ahhhh"...as I prefer to be known...

MrEWorm

I have a wedding in Houston, TX on Friday the 22nd and will be traveling that wekend to get back to Aurora.

dekalbSTEEL

30th or 1st for me (no kids that weekend) and yes I WILL ride!

Shemp

As noted in another thread, the Sugar River Century is on the 30th just northwest of Beloit/Rockford.

S_DOG34

9/23 is out for me...engagement party for my brother. I voted, but am pretty flexible at the moment.

Drag

Could be cool.

I'm just getting back into riding so I may opt out on this round 'cuz I don't want to be a straggler, but I'd be interested in regular group rides in the future.

Psimet2001 

I haven't announced the details yet, but this ride will be a different format. There will, in essence, be a 100, 62, and a 31 mile route. The 100 group will start early then loop back (38 miles) to the parking lot to meet up with the riders for the 62. Everyone will go ride the second loop (31 miles) together. No drop past the ride leaders (me and at least 1 other volunteer).

Then we all meet back at the beginning. At this point we meet up with the 31 milers. This way the "fastest" riders with more endurance will already have 69 miles in their legs by the time we start out with the "slowest" group. This will help keep the groups together.

Timing is key, but I have a really good idea of how long it will all take. Worst case is that the next group will spend an extra 10 minutes getting to know each other before we all get a chance to make introductions.

It is meant to be a social ride. I am organizing it to make sure that it will work for all riders. I also think it's a great way to give riders who haven't done a century, metric, or "half-metric" a chance to do it with other riders with more experience riding alongside them.

Long story short....you aint gonna be a straggler. You're gonna be a fellow rider.

Hope to see you there!

silversmith

What a great idea!

Kimbercop

"I'm just getting back into riding so I may opt out on this round 'cuz I don't want to be a straggler, but I'd be interested in regular group rides in the future."

Drag, I'm no century guy either, my personal best is a 50 mile ride, but I started off that ride with Psimet, Cylowe and the guys. It was very fun and a decent pace, that worked for all, when they say that there will be no stragglers or anyone getting dropped, they mean it. A great group to ride with. I hope this calms your fears and helps get you out for the ride, you will enjoy it for sure.

Kenal0

When I am on your wheel it means just that. If you are going 3mph then so am I, so if you are a straggler, then so am I.
Kenal0

Drag

Alright, you guys are infectious. I'm opting in. The end of the month works best for me, but I'll let the voting take its course. At least that'll give me a chance to get some mileage in before then. Realistically, I can only handle the 31 miler for now. Thanks gang!

A bit of a background - I'm traditionally a mountain biker. Started riding recreationally in '89. Got pretty serious in the early '90s but it waned as the years passed and my riding partners and buddies all got wedded off or we became more focused on our careers. Anyway, I've been completely off the saddle since 2001. A year and some months ago, a revelation (and a near heart attack) hit me that I needed to get my act together or I'll die one fat potato. Started running (and lost over 20 lbs) but that never panned out as a regular thing. I was never that good of a runner - never thought it was all that fun. So two months back I took a hard look at my bikes collecting dust in the corner of my basement and it hit me like a ton of bricks! What have I been thinking? Where have I been? So I updated my old roadie and also bought a new one. It was odd why when getting back into cycling I gravitated toward my road bike instead of my roots which is mountain biking. I've always thought of my road bike as a novelty, even though I've been a TdF groupie for the last several years. Anyway, here I am and this forum has been awesome! I'm looking forward to meeting all of you local BF folks. Btw, I'll be coming from Addison, Illinois.

Kimbercop

Welcome to the fold. These guys are not only infectious, but a good group to ride with, lots of knowledge and character too. BTW, I'm probably only good for the 31 mile portion too, so looks like we've got riding partners now.

Psimet2001 

OK...I've been stewing about something for 12 hours or so...

I was going through my old cue sheets and recognized our third leg (basically) and looked to see what ride it was...turns out it was the Pumpkin Pedal Bike Tour....October 2nd 2005.

I looked online and they are running it again....on the same roads on October 1st of this year. They only offer a 25, 45 and 65 mile route options.

OK - Our options:

1. Ride the Sunday before 9/24 and invite anyone who wants to ride the Pumpkin Pedal out with us the next week.

2. Ride 10/1, but find other route options to stay clear of the other ride.

I'll make the final decision, but I just want to get a feel for what people are thinking.

aham23

I can make 9/23 and/or 10/1 but can not make 9/24. So my thought is 10/1 with a reroute.

I rode out to Silver Springs Park this past Saturday and ended up in the middle of some Organized Century. I had SAG stopping me asking my if I knew I had skipped the rest stop? It really wasn't a big deal, but I was only one rider. I did think about stopping for a cookie or two, but went with my good old Cliff Bar and road on. Later.

Kenal0

I cannot make the 9/24 date but if you ride and are planning on riding in the Pumpkin ride then I would maybe meet up with you guys for that ride on 10/1. A metric is fine with me. That is what I would probably do anyway due to the driving time to get to either a private ride or the Pumpkin. It is about 65 miles from my house.
kenal0

jtm1631

10/1 works best for me. 9/24 is doable but would be difficult as we are having 20 people over for dinner Saturday night.

Do we have any ideas of start time and start location? If I knew what time I need to leave the house in the morning, I would know how likely the 24th would be.

On a side note, who is going to start the thread about the North Shore Century in Evanston on the 17th? The roads are marked for the ride already and it should be nice and flat!

[EDIT] Ok, where did this regional discussions group come from? I now see the NSC thread there. OOPS!.

Psimet2001 

I just did some calculations. I wanted to see based on their latest leaving time, and slowest allowable riding on their longest route if we would actually end up crossing paths.

If we start at 8:00-8:30am then we probably wouldn't see anyone. BTW we would be riding in the opposite direction as them.

There is a possibility of us using their stop as our last stop...but remember it is for Special Olympics - pony up a donation if you want to do that....

Psimet2001 

- Believe it or not I was going to send you a PM this morning because I hadn't seen you on here yet. I sent one to Signal11 yesterday for the same reason....

jtm1631

Yeah, my knee has been acting up again and I have been trying to avoid the forum, just too depressed. I have had my wife massaging my IT band every night and it seems to be helping.

Psimet2001 

All right guys...I just spent a ton of time calculateing possible encounters between the two rides. There is a 4 mile section where we will probably encounter a "large" amount of their 65 mile riders going in the opposite direction. This only pertains to our riders who opt to ride the metric or longer.

After that, while we do share a large chunk of the same road, it looks like there may only be 2 sections of a mile or so where we might encounter heavier traffic from the other ride. The other sections should be pretty empty by the time we hit them.

I'm feeling good about it so unless there is something major that someone comes up with it looks like it's going to be 10/1 with the original route. I will wait for the poll to close and then post the thread about the ride with all of the details and send out PM's to everyone who might be interested in going.

Ahhhhh - now I can actually get back to work.....

S_DOG34

Major kudos for all the hard work in organizing this.