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)

Spring Stargazing

Took a night ride out to the forest preserve with the boys a few days ago. We rode the fixed gear bikes into the wind for about 20 miles and stopped to gaze at the clear sky full of stars. Warm nights like this are probably my favorite part about this season.

T.J.'s Blazing Taint Alleycat Race

Last Friday, T.J. hosted an alleycat race out here in DeKalb. The race started downtown at 11pm and ended at our watering hole of choice, Lord Stanley's Annex. Despite the cold weather, there was a good turnout with a bit over 10 people showing up. The goal of this alleycat race was to be the first person to obtain all checkpoints before arriving at the finishing checkpoint. You can take any route you'd like, and the first person at the finishing point with a photo of themselves at each checkpoint wins. Obviously, the shorter your route, the faster you'll finish, so knowing your way around town really helps. Only T.J. knew where the checkpoints were before the race and handed them out at 11pm. Darrien and I got a late start, but still managed to finish in decent time. It was an enjoyable event.


T.J.'s list of checkpoints.


We decided to take a quick nap at the first checkpoint, hoping it would give us the advantage of energy.


Cheesy checkpoint photo.


1st place went to Team Double Wyde Boyz.


Bryce came in second.


Kyle was third.


Kevin was fourth... and wore shorts.


Team Double Wyde had an advantage with these custom aero helmets they had finished minutes before the race.


Bunch of bikes parked outside the finish point.

Thursday Polo Initiation

Played some great polo last Thursday, and a new member was initiated through the age-old tradition of laying down on the stairs while the Blue Demon bunny-hops the Black Widow over you. A successful welcoming.

Alloy Track Frame from All-City

Recently I've noticed a few photos a new prototype aluminum track frame from All-City. I must say, this thing looks sweet!

Birth of a Butcher

BIRTH OF A BUTCHER from EighthInch on Vimeo.

Our friend and colleague Tyler (aka Taylor aka Trevor aka Tigre) just built up an EigthInch as his polo bike. I thought this video showing the building process of the frame was pretty neat.

This is T.J.

...and this is T.J.'s new fixed gear ride. Unknown reclaimed steel frame from Hellmut, pink Velocity Deep-V rims, leather motorcycle bag from Farm & Fleet and other leftover parts. It is a bicycle as eccentric as it's owner.

The Gumbalaya Rides Again!

On Tuesday night, Gumby rejoined the SFCA and we all rode out to St.Charles on the GWT! It was great to have him back. All the quilting he's been doing has really taken a toll on his fitness and so he rode the Orbea "cheater bike". Ari and I put about 40 more miles on the fixed gear Steamrollers and we raced Gumby all the way home. The cold weather made a comeback and I felt chilly with 3 layers of wool.

A Wal-Mart Creation

This bike caught my eye while walking briskly down the aisle at the local Wally-Mart. It is the Genesis "Track One" bicycle: Single speed, complete with a flip flop hub (the bike was set up as a fixed gear), kickstand, clearance for extra wide tires, plastic chainring guard, schrader valves and one extremely scary cog. This thing may be extremely dangerous to ride and the drivetrain may self destruct without warning, but hey, at least it's better than the dual suspension 21 speed monstrosities that we're so used to seeing roll out those doors and into our bike shops.

Frostbike 2011 Recap pt. II Cutter's Ball

Saturday night we stopped by the Cutter's Ball at the Peacock Groove Headquarters. It was a good time and we got to check out some amazing bikes. Nice people, cool bikes, good music and free beer. What could be better than that?