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Suburban Chicago Bicycling

Neil Holdway

A source for the great trails and roads to ride a bicycle in Chicago's suburbs, and to learn about efforts to make bicycling easier there.

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Looking at a bridge on an angle over a street and into a wooded and prairie area under a blue sky
Featured Post

Newsy week! E-bike law frenzy, Streamwood bridge, DPRT update, Stearns Road plans

Hey, that bridge wasn't there a week ago! Actually, it was late Thursday or overnight Friday morning last week that the final trusses of the Streamwood bridge over Route 59 were put in place. The village posted about it, and then last weekend I rode out there to get a better look. It's a connection that west Streamwood residents have been waiting for all year. Check out my pictures of the progress and area trails. And that started a crazy-busy week of news in our bicycling world. To wit:...

8 days ago • 1 min read
One tree in a row of trees starts to turn red on the left along a two-lane curving road.

There it is, my first fall color of the year. I caught it Tuesday on Klein Road, west of DuPage County's West Branch Forest Preserve. (It's a favorite road of mine.) We were coming off a cool several days — but now this week it seems to be summer again. Well, so, about the end of summer ... This suburban Chicagoan, and I'm sure hundreds if not thousands of others, took to a DuSable Lake Shore Drive free of cars on Aug. 31 for Bike the Drive in Chicago. The weather was fantastic — summerish...

16 days ago • 2 min read
A bike trail with a new asphalt patch curves left in a forest preserve.

Happy Labor Day weekend! Surely Busse Woods and its trails between Schaumburg, Elk Grove Village and Arlington Heights will be busy. That means it'll be better for more casual bicyclists, not the faster cyclists. Busse Woods' bumps: But all of us who ride the Cook County preserve already might have a tough time with all the cracks and potholes. As I'm enjoying the few new asphalt patches like in the picture above, I got updates on repair work still to come. E-bike back and forth: In other...

29 days ago • 1 min read
Looking down a street in a suburban neighborhood with a green painted bike lane, a Bike Route and street signs up front to the right, and trees in the background.

Hey, is that a painted bike lane on a neighborhood street? In Elgin: I finally rode through a different part of Elgin than I usually ride and discovered more of the city's bike facilities. Like, bike lanes painted green, sharrows, "Bike Route" signs and off-road paths all are used. I had to update the Elgin listing in my compilation of bicycling infrastructure suburb by suburb. In Schaumburg: My trip came on top of a little bike path controversy in Schaumburg, where a lane reduction and...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read
A bicyclist on a short e-bike rides on a neighborhood sidewalk and crosses a street, with Bike Route and other signs up front.

Happy dog days of summer. They got me thinking about ... dogs. More on that later. Some local controversies are top of mind. Creative differences on e-bike laws In the last newsletter, I noted that Fox Lake enacted new e-bike laws that, among other things, required proof of insurance on the e-bike. Who has that? I learned that e-bike insurance at least is plenty available. Then I analyzed all the new e-bike laws coming out in the suburbs. My other favorite rule is where anybody can ride an...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read
A cyclist in helmet takes a selfie in front of a road lined with tall pine trees under a hazy sky.

First, a pretty travel scene — this one out of the Northwoods of Wisconsin. That's my roommate Chuck and another tourmate riding County X east of Three Lakes. More on that later. We're about to have a lot of activity in our neck of the woods. Charity bike rides starting this weekend It was slow for invitational rides this July in the Chicago area after the Fourth, but things ramp up again in August, and a lot for charity. To wit: Cowalunga Charity Bike Tour: The two-day event out of Gurnee...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read
A two-lane road runs through a forested area

Can you tell which scene above is in an eastern Maryland peninsula and which is in the Chicago area? Discovering Maryland: Michelle and I took a road trip to her cousins' place southeast of Washington so they could take us out on their boat, from which we watched July 4 fireworks over Chesapeake Bay. Of course I brought the bike on the trip. It turns out bayfront views from roads were hard to come by — but I did find them — while the surprise was the selection of pretty forested roads. Here's...

2 months ago • 1 min read
Looking down and up a switchback in a hot green mountain pass

Yes, this was as hot as it looks. But just as much of a problem with the Tour de Farms MS ride June 21-22 was the wind. That starts my tale of two TdFs: the Tour de Farms in Kane and DeKalb counties, and the Tour de France as a new edition of it is about to begin. TdF #1: How does the two-day Tour de Farms compare to the Tour de France? Yeah, it really doesn't. It's just hard (for mere amateurs) in its own way. With the primary feature of the ride being ... farms, we're exposed to all kinds...

3 months ago • 1 min read
A child on a small e-bike rides on a narrow suburban neighborhood sidewalk

Take a last look at spring, because the heat's comin'. One place I had to stop and look again It's a great time of the year because the sunlight is around past 8:30 p.m. and the greenery is out in full force. The little Klein Road in west DuPage County offers a striking view of the West Branch Forest Preserve, above. I found myself having to stop and take pictures, though the camera can't really do it justice. I tried anyway. Things heating up, besides the weather An e-bike reckoning: I was...

3 months ago • 1 min read
Two cyclists ride the shoulder of a two-lane road through a hilly scene of lawns and trees.

Nothing beats a Sunday bike ride in June, right? Rollin' roads up north The Bicycle Club of Lake County's Ramble Ride took cyclists just over the Wisconsin border last Sunday to ride up to five routes. The area surrounding Twin Lakes offered views of prairies, farms, forests and small towns. It also presented hills that enhanced the scenery as well as the challenge. Here's what the ride was like. Nice construction surprises What? New asphalt? I wasn't even sure this really had been part of...

4 months ago • 1 min read