Tag: organized ride

A Tale of Two Cities’ Bike Rides

June 26, 2011

One of the reasons I love living in the Milwaukee area is its close proximity to Chicago. While there are many reasons which give Milwaukee the edge as to my choice of residence, I consider Chicago as a second, adopted hometown. (I guess growing up midway between Chicago and Milwaukee has left me with torn allegiances – we won’t even get into Bears vs. Packers or Cubs vs. Brewers). Anyway, I avail myself of any opportunity to take advantage of what both cities have to offer. Organized lakefront bike rides are no exception with each city offering up a ride on back to back weekends.

The first was Chicago’s Bike the Drive on May 29th, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Organized by the Active Transportation Alliance, a group encouraging biking as transportation within the Chicago area.  The ride offers the once a year opportunity to ride a bike along Lake Shore Drive. The 30 mile loop begins at Jackson, with the option of 1st heading south to the turn around at the Museum of Science and Industry or north to the turnaround at Hollywood. I love the views of the skyline and Lake Michigan, the museum campuses and harbors from a car along Lake Shore Drive and was quite excited to see these from my bike. Alas, this year, the weather did not cooperate. The city was fogged in with a slight mist all morning. Not sure I ever caught an actual glimpse of the lake…or even a true view of the skyline.

 This ride was very well organized and supported. The event website included a calendar of spots to pick up ride packets in the weeks leading up to the ride. We didn’t make it in town until too late to get to one of these pick up locations…but will next year. The line to pick up packets was long when we arrived around 6:30am, and getting longer by the minute. Look closely in the picture below – when we got there the line went to the porta potties in the far back, by the time we got our packets, it had doubled back upon itself. Packets included the mandatory, and frequently checked, race bracelets and numbers, along with t-shirts and route guides.

Rest and re-fuel stations were provided at each turn around point and in the middle/start area. Quite impressive set-up – well stocked, tons of volunteers, and active recycling efforts.
While in line to pick up packets, I heard a group debating which direction to go first, and the 1st mention of “the hill” – as in “maybe we should go north first to do the hill in our first half”. As we rode, I’d hear bits and pieces of conversations about folks dreading the Ohio Street hill. When we encountered this hill at about mile 28, it reminded me that hills are relative to where you live…and that Chicago is a very flat place. Yes, as I was feeling smug about my ease of riding up “the hill”, I also acknowledged a biker from Colorado would laugh at all my complaining about Hillside Drive or the Hanson Park hill on my bike commute. At the top of the hill we stopped for a quick photo opportunity of a leg of the river and the idle construction site of the Chicago Spire project.
The ride offered a post ride festival, but the weather just wasn’t hang in the park and listen to music friendly. Instead we biked over to our fav breakfast spot, Yolk as a post ride treat. Great ride despite the weather, and one I plan on making a tradition.

 The next weekend was the Miller Lite/UPAF Ride for the Arts in Milwaukee. This fund raiser for Milwaukees Performing Arts scene offers a variety of routes from 5mile and 12 mile family friendly routes through downtown, to a bit more challenging 25mile route heading south along the lake, and for the true cyclist northerly 50 and 75 mile versions. We’d originally planned on doing the 50miler, but technical difficulities (a deja vu of hubby’s flat in last year’s ride – but with need of a new tire in addition of the tube) put us behind schedule and we called an audible and joined the 25miler.

All routes begin at the Summerfest grounds. As with the Chicago ride, routes are well marked, well organized and well supported. Yellow shirted ride marshals were apparent through out. I appreciate all the volunteers time and efforts, but would suggest the ride provide a bit more training and guidance to the marshals. We happened to be riding much of the route by a couple of marshals that frequently rode no-handed, changed lanes without looking back, passed without calling out to riders – all of which in a crowded biking situation could cause problems, but more importantly did not model good biking etiquette and safety while on an organized ride.

 A highlight of this year’s ride was the trip over the Hoan Bridge. Before the start organizers warned that no photography or stopping on the bridge was permitted, s have no pictures of the incredible views. The 3 percent grade of the bridge made climbing it not too strenuous at an easy pace, nor did it cause problems on the group descent. Hopefully this made us one step closer for the DOT to allow biking across the bridge in the future.

Bikes of all types, road, mountain, hybrid, recumbent, were apparent on the ride. Huge props to the guy on the single speed old fashioned bike. We saw him start and finish – and at the turn around, so know he did the 25mile route. Passed a couple of families using tandems plus tag alongs for a three person ride.

The UPAF Ride also includes a post ride festival on the Summerfest grounds. Local fav, ‘Love Monkeys’ were the featured band. However, we opted to head to brunch instead, this time to Honeypie in BayView. Creating our own post ride tradition, of re-fueling at brunch favorite restaurants.

Recommend both rides, and together they make a great way to kick off the summer riding season!

My first real bike "ride" – Miller Lite Ride for the Arts

June 8, 2010

This weekend I did my first organized bike ride. Until now all of my cycling has been done either solo or with one or two other riders – in fact with the same one or two other riders, my son or my husband. Unless of course, you count time on a compu-trainer with other “real” riders, teaching me that my pace has, well, some room for improvement.

The combination of worrying about pace combined with an uneasiness in having another bike too close to my wheel (defined by within several bike lengths) had me just a tad concerned about an organized ride. At the same time, it is something I want to do – and if I do plan on finishing a triathlon, something I need to get over.

This was the perfect first ride. Many different options for length (5, 12, 25, 65, and 75 miles) with staggered start times, many volunteers along the route to keep you on course, well placed and stocked oases, and as we found excellent rider support.

Hubby was doing ride with me and we choose to do the 25mile distance – one we can easily ride, and knew would not be a challenge. The ride had an early start so the night before we got everything set up, clothes laid out, drink bottles filled and chilled, rack on car, spare tube and tool kits, and road ids set on the counter next to car keys and coffee mugs. I checked the pressure and aired up my bike tires. Morning brought the hint of a beautiful but cool day – perfect riding weather. And the first of our mishaps – two flat tires on my bike. I’d not closed either valve correctly. Oops.

Starting line was the Summerfest main gate, and it was filled with bikes when we arrived.

We choose to hang back and leave behind the initial rush of our group.
About a mile into the ride, shortly after we’d crossed the Milwaukee River, I heard a loud bang. Really loud. Everyone jumped, some nervous laughter, a women commenting that’s why you should always carry a spare tube. Over the next half mile I kept turning around wondering where my husband was in the crowd. Then my phone rang, and I found out. The sound was his back tire exploding with the force of 120psi. I turned around and went back to help. Neither of us had ever actually changed a tire, but we were making an attempt when the SAG vehicle arrived.
The tire wasn’t cooperating and even the SAG guys couldn’t get a small section to stay in the rim. We decided to load up the bikes, and head back to the starting line where Wheels & Sprocket had professional assistance. They quickly got us on our way and we once again started from the Summerfest grounds.
After that, the rest of the ride seemed uneventful, but hugely enjoyable as we headed south along the lake.
Stopped at the halfway oasis and the 20 mile one. At halfway to remove layers and at 20 miles paused for an apple and a refill of water.
The skyline in sight, we knew we were close
As we headed into downtown, we came to the stretch I’d traveled four times: on initial start, heading back to find Steve, on our second start and of course the “race” to the finish.
One last trip over the river and the finish line/Summerfest grounds were in sight.
Once back at Summerfest we enjoyed the after ride party. Re-fueling with Wisconsin greats – brats and of course, the cold, great taste of Miller Lite. What could be better?
While triathlon pace I do not possess, this ride did teach me I can manage in a bike crowd, that clicking in and out of pedals is becoming somewhat second nature, and that organized rides are fun.
Also learned that hanging back and starting well after the others is a good strategy for me. That said, the competitive bit in me was glad to realize our pace wasn’t the worst. We ended up passing the people who were around us when the tire blew – so made up close to 45 minutes on them. Will do this one again, however, will choose a more challenging length in the future!