52telecaster

My gf, Sarah and I went on a 2.5 day 155mile tour this weekend. We got off work friday at 1:30pm and rode to com lara park north of bloomington Il fro peoria Il. the next day we rode thru bloomington and normal illinois on our way to moraine view state park north of leroy Il. just got home a while ago and we are itching to go again.

52telecaster

more flip fone pics

TSWisla

Sounds wonderful. You did roads and trails? Where did you camp?

52telecaster

we camped at comlara park north of bloomington and moraine st park north of leroy. both are in illinois. we traveled mostly on roads but did do significant trails, specifically the constitution trail in bloominton/normal and the rivertrail in morton and e. peoria. all trails and roads were paved which we prefer greatly.

jefnvk

Ooh, didn't know Fazolis still existed! Looks like a good trip, if you got to eat there

52telecaster

ate a truckload there. i think it slowed me down a tad.

robow

Nice photos and now that you have the itch, consider scratching it by heading down to southern IL or northwestern IL, much more scenic but definitely a few more hills.

BigAura

Huh???

1. Ok...they are inherently nice
2. Looks like a great trip
3. BUT.....The photos are rotated

@52telecaster FIFY





Not sure whats going on here:

52telecaster

fisrt, thanks for rotating them, i took them with my flip phone and always reorient them on my computer but for some reason this site doesn't recognize the reorientation. they show up right on facebook. i can only assume my software is leaving something undone that bikeforums doesn't like.

robow

Now be nice and encouraging and not so critical, besides..... quite easy to turn my laptop sideways : )

52telecaster

we like hills we just don't like the heat.

BigAura

Huh? All I said was the photos were rotated...AND I fixed them!

My monitor is 27"...too lunky to rotate

52telecaster

no offence taken man. ty

indyfabz

I know IL heat. We crossed IL doing ACA's Northern Tier route. It was God awful hot, and there was no shade. The day to the Streator area was so hot that tar used to patch cracks liquified and splattered on my down tube. Little bits of rock and sand got stuck in it. When things cooled (I got a motel room), I had to scrape everything off. IN wasn't any better. Huntington topped out at 106. The city asked business to close early to ease the strain on the power grid.

andrewclaus

Same experience here going through on the NT in the great heat wave of 2012 (105 every day, 75F dewpoint (lovely warm fog every morning)). Tough going, early starts and late finishes with afternoons in libraries and cafes, lots of extra dietary salt. Pretty nice SW breeze every day and every night kept me on the road and camping comfortably enough. I had fenders that clogged up with the tar and gravel at times, and my 25mm tires would at times sink into the macadam enough to notice. When temps finally dropped into the upper 80s, it felt like A/C.

But with all that, the trip across IL was fantastic. I grew up in Chicago and had never experienced such wonderful touring in IL. The people in the farming communities were the among most hospitable I've ever met. I had a great time.

Craptacular8

Heading to the Quincy IL area next week. Bringing bikes, but not sure we will get to do a lot more than use them for around the town commutes...family reunion and all.

Say, @52telecaster what mustache bar is that, and how do you like it?

stardognine

Illinois was great, right up to East St. Louis. All I could think of was, Chevy Chase, and the original "Vacation" movie. 😁 Mostly very good there, though. 😎

52telecaster

its an origin8 tiki bar. sarah likes to be very upright when she rides and honestly i usually set my bikes up the same way( inverted mustache). after about 1700 miles on the space horse i am convinced that a mustache bar is in my future. the tiki bar has quite a bit of rise or drop depending on how you use it. i love having the rise and also the hand positions. she is also using interrupter levers as her main brake levers. gives the bike a raliegh sports seating position except that she is riding on a reynolds 531 frameset with 21 gears and 700c wheels.

1989Pre 

52t, what kind of temperatures did you get? It looks like you got full sun all the way. Very cool ride and an awesome stone bridge. Are there many of those in S. Illinois?

Champaign's (and Peoria's) finest:

stardognine

Might as well just get a trekking bar now, and save the cost of the mustache. 🙂 That's the natural progression, in my experience. The only issue is, trekking bars take MTB sized shifters and levers, rather than road bike parts. The advantage, is way more hand positions, plus you can really stretch out your back, and get more aero.

Trsnrtr

Bridge maybe a railway viaduct east of Goodfield, IL?

52telecaster

i think your right

52telecaster

i've used the tiki and its great 20.00 and my bar ends work.

52telecaster

was pretty sunny but temps were not horrible. the stone bridges are not everywhere but you do run across them.

mobilemail

You could have fun from Quincy. Ride East to enjoy places like Siloam Springs State Park or Pittsfield. South to be all touristy and explore Hannibal! (There are definitely hills in Hannibal!) If you go down the Mississippi, I would recommend going down the IL side instead of south from Hannibal. The US highway going south from Hannibal is narrow, kind of twisty and most definitely lumpy!