Hey GPLJR75,

Can we get some details of your trip? I was thinking of a long weekend trip to Wisconsin from Chicago, and was interested in camping out.

If I go out for the weekend, every other or 3 rd week, or if I go for a 2 week tour, it always is packed as you see it no less no more....

This is my rig halfway through my initial shakedown tour. I was impressed with the BOBs handling and are planning to do 500 Kilometers in a couple of weeks to really try things out.I hope to refine my packing list with a few lighter camping bits and pieces as the budget dictates. It is a Giant NRS 3 with Hydraulic discs and SRAM components. I hope to do the Mawson trail (900ks) next year in South Australia possibly in two stages time permitting from work. This is my first post love the info on this forum.

My friend and I started out from the Western suburbs (Wheaton area), so I'll comment on that route. I think there are other ways to get to WI from the city.

Day 1: Illinois Prairie Path Elgin Spur to Elgin, then Fox River Trail north to Algonquin, IL. At this point, we lost the trail and ended up biking on roads all the way to McHenry, IL, where we got on another trail leading to Genoa City, WI. Trail ends there. Took roads ("Old 12", I think, is the road you want to take) to Big Foot Beach State Park in Lake Geneva. (~70 miles)

Day 2: Made our way southwest to Union, IL to KOA campground outside of town. No specific route to share. Just used maps and took what looked like country roads. (~50 miles)

Day 3: Union, IL to along roads to Dundee area, then on the Fox River Trail to Prairie path back to Wheaton area. Again no route to share. We just made our way with a map and I can't remember what roads we took. (~50 miles)

Hope this helps. On my next trip I'm going to keep a note pad handy to keep track of routes, etc.

That's one of my favorite books, I've read it recently for the second time. When I read it I want to take my bike on the road and ride and ride and ride....if only this work would stop getting in the way of an extended tour.

That's a pretty nifty setup with that plastic tub on top of the rack, a good place to keep small things that can't be easily bungee'd, but also gives you a larger platform to bungee easily bungee'd items like sleeping pad/bag. The tops of my panniers are taller than my rack so I probably couldn't fit one on my bike like that.

Some pics of my friend, just rolled out of town today.
I met him on the Appalachian Trail, he's also hiked the PCT and CDT. Well, almost, he is riding up to MT now to finish his hike from Glacier area to the border. His current cycling trip is from Chicago, to St. Louis, then across to Salida, CO and then north along the divide to MT. He's done some amazinng things travel wise in his lifetime, but he just won't up and tell you, you gotta get him talking about things.
I was talking with him about how fun I think it would be to ride to Alaska, and he said "Oh, I did that in 1982!" An amazing, inspiring person.
I love how he is doing it on an old, kind of rusty, mid 1980's touring bike! I think he has like 30,000 miles on the bike, and he likes to use a 40 for his big chainring!

Today's ride:

Here's my 520 rigged for commuting.
Rigged a double stem for my handlebar bag to keep clutter off the top of my bars. Might put some aero bars on there for a longer tour next year.

Missing is the front rack, which I took off earlier this summer when I started using it for commuting and utility. Still need to do the following: swap cheapo plastic fenders for some SS, swap original Trek rear rack for something more substantial and lower (my large Ortliebs ride really high on the existing rack), and change out the rings and crank for something much lower....

What are the double stems for?

Today's ride:

I switched to the double stem mainly because of the way the Ortlieb handlebar bag mounts. There is a large plastic mount which stays permanently on the bars, and eats up alot of realestate. I had a Minoura Space Grip thing that stuck up above the bars to mount my NiteRider lite, computer, and HRM.

Using the double stem does a few things:

it gets the bag mount off the top of my bars, freeing up space
it drops the bag far enough so I can now see the front of my front tire (nice when riding in a group)
dropping the bag allows my light (when I need it) to hit the road, instead of the top of my bag
it will allow me to mount an aero bar for a long tour I have planned

Today's Ride, up to the Norwottuck Rail Trail

This is almost ready putting it together after arriving at Cancun's airport



Ready to go in just 1 hour

The guardrail is at normal height. There is a clearly visible deep depression between the road and the guardrail in which the bike is sitting.

Wow your pic from NZ immediately rang a bell in my head! I think I went trough the same trail, this is my pic closest to that location:

It is the gravel road from Queenstown to Te Anau



cheers!

Yes, the guardrail is at normal height. Then is the bicycle in front of or behind the guardrail...? It's obviously in front of the rail, then why so small?

hi,
the ditch was quite deep,you are right.this bike is so long ...I edited my original post including an other pic of the same bike.the shot was done with a wide angle lens to... I f any body wants to view my 120 pic peru album please send my an e mail to mrterra2000@yahoo.com that I will gladly send an invitation.
cheers!
Manuel

I'm not sure if the pictures will upload or not....
This was taken last week on a 7 day tour of the North Shore of Lake Superior and also the Willard Munger state trail in Minnesota. The bike is a Koga Miyata World Traveler with Arkel GT 54's and 34's with an Ortlieb small bar bag.

You gotta love Minnesota!
(IF you all don't see any photos, would you mind giving me a little photo upload 101....thanks!)

THe LAdy on our recent tour in South and West Australia.

My touring bike is also my commuter. Here it is from yesterday's commute.

This is a shot of my Lemle Lighting Tailwind on a tour in Door Co. WI. that I just returned from. We need more bents on this page as tourning is were they really shine. Long days on a chair with the legs pumping.

Ooooh! Door County! NIIIIIIICE!

I used to date a great girl from Appleton, whose family had a cabin up in D.C.
Many a Leave was spent up in that lil' bit of paradise.

You're the first person (besides Moi) that uses more then one set of bar ends - and especially those inner bar ends!

They're great like that, eh? Very aero since your "narrow" and also comfy cuz the heel of your hand rests on the flat bar!

Actually, I've found well balanced front pans actually enhance "handling".

You're no longer "twitchy" and have that riding on rails feel.

Mmmmm, I can smell the cow manure from here....