About Bicycles >Bike Trails > Bike Trail Blog

Bike Trails, Bike Stories and Articles

This page is dedicated to bike trail information, cycling articles and casual bike stories, comments and articles...

4/20/2009 - Achieve Only. Moving to Bike Blog.

The official About-Bicycles Bike Blog is now open and active! I will be updating the official blog now in place of these pages. It's been nice blogging here but the new bike blog is much nicer and has a lot of nice features. For example, you can easily add comments or subscribe to the blog to receive updates!

Please go to About-Bicycles Bike Blog for the latest updates.

4/16/2009 - "Online Bike Stores" Page and Good Riding Weather

I'm catching up on my bike blog today and just completed another web page for this site. This one, Online Bike Stores ,was not that hard to put together but I think that it will be a real nice resource for people looking to buy bikes online. This page references the most popular sites for bike sales online all in one table with references to the bike brands that each online store (or website) sells.

OK, enough about website updates (for now), I need to get back to just writing about rides and stuff too. The weather is really starting to get nice again and I just did a 21 mile ride yesterday and again today. It really feels good to get out and ride again!!! My odometer now reads 253 for the 2009 bike season so far!

4/10/2009 - Most Popular Bike Brands Research and Updates.

I just completed another article for the bike site. This one is Most popular bike brands in US and really took quite a bit of research to complete! I read a number or articles and facts and figures on popular bike types and bike sales and also read through numerous opinions in various bike forums, etc. then put together my summary. I think the summary makes a real nice reference.

4/2/2009 - Bike Type Updates

I just did some additional research on different bike types and what seems to be the most common names. My new page can be found here: Most Common Bike Types. As usual it can be a little difficult taking a large amount of information and then reducing it to just a clear and concise summary. Well, I've done the best that I could. Check out the new article and see if you agree or not...

3/28/2009 - A cold 11 miles, About-Bicycles Page updates, The Algonquin Road Flood Update.

I got a little behind on a few of my ride updates but I'm back now. We've had some great spring (March) weather here in the Chicago area, but NOT TODAY! I just did my usual 11 miler today and it is in the mid 30s! That is about my low end temperature limit. The 40s are cold on a bike and you need gloves and warm cloths, but the 30s get just way too cold. Well, anyway it was nice to get out and ride (before the snow that is expected for tomorrow!)

I've been doing some updates to the site recently and, as you can see, the format for this page is a little different too. I am using Dreamweaver templates to keep all of the pages more consistent. This page now uses the "trail page" template so you will get all of the trails on the side bars now.

I've also just updated the Algonquin Road Trail page (on 3/18) with some information on the flooding that I ran into there. So, if you live around here, check that out. I haven't been back there since then so I don't know if it is still flooded.

3/11/2009 - Trip to Wisconsin, Speeds Bike Shop in Sparta.

I just took a trip to Wisconsin this week and took a trip to Speed's Bike Shop in Sparta. The bike shop is just off of the Sparta bike trail. I found that they sell recumbents and that they also rent bikes there (of course, being right on the Sparta Trail). The bike shop owners were extremely helpful and very friendly. They also have some cool antiques on display including a 7 seater tandem bike! I took some photos but have not had a chance to upload them yet. I am hoping to get a chance to do that, but I just wanted to update the blog here right away while this was all fresh in my mind and I have some other improvements to make on the bike site (this site) before I get wrapped up in the photos.

That's it for now...

3/11/2009 - More GPS Updates

Well, I went out to a few of the major bike shops to get some additional information on GPS units today. I went to my local bike shop, in Palatine first, then Performance then REI. The local bike shop did not even carry bike GPS units (yet) and Performance only had one in the store and mostly suggested to go to Performance online (which, of course, I am completely aware of).

REI on the other hand did have quite a few GPS units and were extremely helpful. I just could not believe how much time and effort they put into helping me. They were pretty familiar with the GPS receivers but could not really answer a lot of the tough questions that I had. They did, however, look stuff up online and give me a lot of handouts on GPS units.

What I have been finding out is that some people do actually use the hand held receivers on bikes and other people get the integrated bike computers. I am still trying to find more complete information on the trail maps that would be available for Garmin GPS units.

3/5/2009 - GPS Updates

 I was just catching up on the bike site stuff and researching GPS units a little and I see that they have lots of cycle computers with GPS now. I did not see that at all 5 years ago when I first wrote my bike GPS page. The bike sites didn’t even carry GPS. Now I have seen a $1,200 bike computer (with GPS) at Performance!!! Wow! I’m sure some people will buy that too! I have just changed my bike accessories pages to include the GPS page on all of the pages. In other words, I have made it a major accessory category on this site.

01/19/2009 - A little Summer Flashback...

I put together couple more "trail pages" for my bike site yesterday... I took the pictures on a ride that Dale and I took last July but never got around to updating the website... I've been saving some of my bike site trail page updates for now (the cold boring part of winter...). The pages were really a lot of work (as usual), it took about 4 hours total (photo selection, formatting, writing, etc.). But it sure was a nice Summer Flashback seeing the photos and thinkin about riding season again!

Check out the new pages here http://www.about-bicycles.com/robert-mcclory-trail.htm and here http://www.about-bicycles.com/illinois-state-beach-trail.htm (I liked this part of the trip the best!)

10/18/08 - Beautiful Fall Weekend

Wow, what a nice fall weekend (so far...). I just did a 32 mile biker ride on the new part of the Algonquin Road trail!!! I met up with Dara after 20 and we saw 9 deer on our ride! I got a few pics on my phone, but my phone pics just aren't that great...

10/4/08 - Bike Miles Goal Clenched on 52 mile ride...

As you can see above, yesterday I clenched my goal of over 1,000 miles in a biked riding season!!! This is the 4th season that I have done over 1,000 miles (including my record breaking season of 2182!) I just checked my total miles since I have kept records (1997) and I have done 9,312 miles so far... I guess it's almost time for a tune up!

9/21/08 -  Clinching...

Also, I've done quite a few bike miles in September and have almost clinched my seasons goal (of 1,000 miles). It looks pretty likely that I'll make that goal this year... unless something totally unexpected happens (an injury or something...) This should be the 4th time that I've ridden over 1k miles in a season (including my record of 2182 miles)

7/8/8 -  Bikin and New Path!

Dale and I did a 43 mile Bike Ride from Lake Bluff into Wisconsin and then back along the Illinois Beach State Park... The North Chicago and Waukeegan parts were like major gettos! It was not a nice trail at that point... BUT the northern part was nice and the path along Lake Michigan was GREAT! I will eventually update my bike site with this stuff, but not right at the moment...

I also got a chance to ride Dales new Tour Easy recumbent (bent) bike... I really liked this bike!!! I think it will be my next bike!

2/17/2008 - New Trail Page (back to fall)

 Well, I finally finished my  Illinois Prairie Path web site pages on my bike site ! Dale and I did this ride in the fall and I am just now getting the article and pictures posted... It's getting hard to keep up on my bike trail articles... I think that I've actually been doing too many photos... since this is not a totally automated photo format, I have to manage each picture individually and it's been taking a long time... Now, I still need to get my additional Green Bay Trail pics formatted and posted! Check out the trail article on the link above!

12/16/2007 - New Bike Trail Pages...

Well, I finally got the photos and pages done from the bike trip that Dale and I took on the Fox River Tail and Illinois Prairie Path back in September! I haven't completed the IPP pages and photos yet, but check out the Fox River Bike Trail South pages!

11/05/2007 - Made my 2007 Mileage Goal!  

Well, I made my 2007 bike miles goal of 1000 miles... Just in time, I think... The weather has just taken a cold turn and we are back on daylight wasting time again! Now, it's back to walkin (and maybe runnin) for exercise again... (maybe a ride or 2 if we get some nice days again).

Please feel free to send me comments on this bike blog anytime.

Comments?

Do you have a Bike Trail Description or Story?

If you have a bike trail description or even a casual bike story that you would like posted on this site, please feel free to Submit a BikeTrail Description / Story.