Milwaukee Weekend Getaway

Travel is mandatory in the summer time. It wouldn't be right to go through the season without a "summer vacation", and what better way to travel than by bike, so we decided on a short trip up to Milwaukee. This trip was also partially in celebration of Darrien's birthday. It is about 100 miles to Milwaukee from Chicago, and a bit further to our final destination. We would be staying with some very nice friends who were willing to lend a few couches to us for the weekend.

The crew and I left Logan Square early on a Friday morning, and headed north along the lake. The toughest part of the ride was just getting out of the city. There are segments of trail, but sticking to them isn't necessarily intuitive. We ended up riding through lots of residential areas, stopping to check the map and to wait for green lights at intersections. Somehow, we stopped long enough for me to capture what must be the most amazingly photogenic picture of the ladies that I have ever seen.

Once we escaped from the city and the majority of the northern suburbs, it was smooth sailing, more or less. We remained mostly on well-maintained, scenic, wooded trails, and a good amount of crushed limestone. It was a real treat. Three of us were riding single speed, and Darrien was actually set up fixed gear (a pretty tall gear too). Between that gearing and her skinny road tires on limestone, she really proved her undeniable toughness throughout the entire century. Everyone rode incredibly, in fact, and moral was consistently high. The weather was perfect, and I enjoyed nearly every mile.

Note the homemade frame bag above.

A small portion of my mid-ride snack. This convenient store literally saved all of our lives, as we collectively neared the inevitable bonk in what seemed to be a nutritional desert.

Some intense fog rolled in, which made for a really cool environment to ride in. It remained this way practically untill the end.

Unfortunately, after nightfall set in, we took a shortcut to make up for lost time. The shortcut led Darrien into a giant pothole, which took the life of her front tube and made us realize that the only tool we didn't bring happened to be the most important: a 15mm wrench. We phoned the friends and got picked up at a nearby bowling alley, where we were found relaxing with some treats. We ended up getting 100 miles in anyways, and to tell you the truth, I think we were all about done for the day. The fun was running low, and we were all just anxious to be done by that point. Perhaps it's a good thing we forgot that wrench...

The next day was spent doing some touristy stuff. We checked out a neat bike shop called Corey the Bike Fixer, and made some new friends.

We happened to arrive on the weekend of the Summer Solstice festival, and so we hung out there and treated ourselves to the traditional Wisconsin grub and brew.

The remainder of the day (and night) was spent hanging out behind the bike shop, making more new friends and quickly forgetting their names. We drank our fair share of New Glarus, perhaps a bit too much considering we planned to make the second century back to Chicago the following day. By the way, you may not recognize it, but that's an All-City Nature Boy up there - The same bike that Ruthie and I rode on the trip. It had a bolt on derailleur hangar added and a custom paint job, which made it really hard to recognize at that point, unless of course you love that frame as much as we do.

The next morning, we came to the realization that maybe we did have a bit too much fun the night before, and that perhaps even the hardiest of breakfasts couldn't save us at that point. Regardless, we gobbled up the grub found on Brady Street and pressed on towards home.

We said our goodbyes to the fine city of Milwaukee, and thanked it for all of the fun it provided that weekend.

The ride home was surreal.

I told ya it was surreal...

We made it to Kenosha (halfway home), at which point we threw in the towel. We just so happened to do so about 30 minutes before the last train to Chicago arrived for the day, and seconds before finding Darrien's tire to be flat yet again. We were truly lucky. We were clearly meant to take that train home. Nobody minded taking the train home either. We got a good 150-something miles in for the weekend and had a blast.

Good trip.

(All photos taken with an iPhone and edited with the VSCO app)

Junk Yard Doggie

Well, All-City unveiled their latest creation today, and chances are, you've already seen it (cause it's everywhere!). I meant to post this earlier, but got too busy with "real" work. Anyways, the JYD, or Junk Yard Dog, is a single speed 29'er that is basically designed for doing whatever the hell you want. I love the look of that fork. While I'm a bit undecided on the paint job, I think that overall this thing looks badass. I had a feeling it was only a matter of time until All-City did this, and I'm glad they did.

Check out many more photos and a write-up here. Full specs and more here.

Saturday on the North Branch Trail

Last weekend, spring came into full swing. The sun came out, green things came up out of the ground, and the temperature was ideal for cruising. I went out in bib shorts and a short sleeved jersey for the first time this year. It was weird, and I felt chilly at first, but quickly warmed up. I still wore the toe covers and wool socks, paired with some extremely hairy winter legs. It may not have been very #pro, but I was not very concerned. I was just real happy to be out in the sun.

I cruised up Elston, through the bike lane, all the way to the start of the North Branch Trail. The trail isn't too far from my apartment, and it's easily accessible via bike-friendly roads. If you aren't familiar, the North Branch Trail stretches about 17 miles from Caldwell and Devon in Chicago up to Glencoe, ending at the Chicago Botanical Gardens and loosely following the path of the Chicago river and the Skokie Lagoons. It is mainly paved, but there are many offshoots of offroad trail that meander through the forest. Some portions of the paved trail run along the equestrian trails, and if you're ok with horses, you can share those trails with them too.

In short, the trail system is a lot of fun and offers the opportunity for some exploration. I spent as much time off the pavement as I could, stopping numerous times for photos. I finished with something like 30-40 miles, and was pretty beat up by the end of it. I had a strong headwind all the way back home too. I guess I'm  not used to this anymore, but I will be again soon. Thanks to the great weather and the discovery of this trail, I had the most enjoyable ride of the year... so far. I'll be riding out on this trail a lot.

A good ride deserved a good beer. I treated myself to this imperial IPA from Goose Island upon returning home. It was pretty alright.

All-City's Latest Reveal - The Macho King & Nature Boy Disc

I wasn't able to make to out to Frostbike this year, but you lucky dogs who did got to see these: The All-City Macho King Disc - an upgraded version of the Macho Man disc, with Reynolds 853 double-butted tubing, and the Nature Boy Disc - a disc brake equipped version of the original, of course. Both frames feature some beautiful custom investment-cast dropouts and nice details all around. I'm, not a particularly huge fan of disc brakes, but All-City did a great job on these things, and I just can't get over the dropouts...

Photos were stolen from here, and more info and full specs can be seen here.

Another Reason to Love All-City...

...They're always sweattin' the details. The amount of thought and customization that they put into their frames is so far beyond what other companies offering Taiwanese-made products do. Anna had some great posts recently on the All-City blog, documenting her design process here and here.

Sunday, Slender Fungday

Lately, it's been bitterly cold here in the city, and cabin fever is setting in. It can be difficult to get out and ride regularly in this weather and just getting bundled up enough can be a big ordeal. Fortunately, it was relatively warm on Sunday, and so I took advantage of it by going out at night, after finishing all of the errands for the day. (Seems like I'm never able to get out during the day time in winter). Riding is often better when you have a destination in mind, or at least a goal to achieve, and so I decided to ride out to my office in the burbs. Since starting this job, I've been curious about how feasible it would be for me to commute by bike to work - It's roughly 10 miles one way by bike, which isn't too bad, but I'd be dealing with both city and suburban traffic and arriving sweaty and without the convenience of a shower. Still, I've been curious, so I bundled up and headed out.



It took a lot longer than I thought. I had estimated it would take about half an hour, but it ended up taking at least twice as long. Part of the ride was spent cruising down the bike lanes on Elston. That was the easy part. After that I hopped onto the North Branch Chicago River Trail, and that's when things got difficult.



The condition of the trail was the equivalent of rocky singletrack covered in ice. Frozen snow full of footprints and ruts. It would have been nice to have a 29'er... maybe... maybe even a fatbike... At one point, I rode through a hidden puddle that was covered with a thin layer of ice and snow. The puddle was about 6 inches deep and the water quickly froze and coated the surface of my rims in ice - rendering my brakes practically useless. (I guess in this one situation, I'd have to give +1 point to the disc vs. canti debate. Although, Paul doesn't make a disc brake, and so I guess I'll be sticking to cantis). Eventually I made it to the office, after straying from the trail and hiking about half a mile through the woods.



In conclusion, cycling to work is very feasible, but not at all convenient. At least not in the winter. The ride was super fun though, and it was nice to get back on a trail and ride in the snow. It reminded me of the many Slender Fungus rides through DeKalb in the dead of winter. The SFCA flame still burns within me.

(P.S. I apologize for the crappy iPhone pics. I brought a real camera with, but when I took it out to snap a couple photos, I found that the battery was already dead. I just hate that...)