profile

Suburban Chicago Bicycling

May events, May rides, May routes, May May May

Published 4 months ago • 1 min read

May is National Bike Month, and the suburbs are stepping up for it.

Events lined up

The Active Transportation Alliance has assembled a list of May bicycling events throughout the suburbs. Plus there's Bike to Work Week and National Bike & Roll to School Day. All the May events​

Organized rides ramp up

Organized and charity rides really get going in May. Plus there's the Ride of Silence, in memory of bicyclists killed on roads. It's actually several rides around the suburbs. Updated list

E-bike/e-moto law watch

The Illinois House in the coming week could be taking on the Senate's legislation about e-bikes and e-motos. This as I've learned that two more suburbs ban e-bike use. The round-up​

In suburban Atlanta

Meanwhile, I learned on a business trip to greater Atlanta that it's better to stick to the trails there than the roads. In part that's because the Silver Comet Trail is amazing. A little tour​

Also updated thanks to tips from reader Andrew Campbell: The list of bicycling infrastructure projects in 2026 now includes work getting finished in Skokie and Northbrook.

May is the month to get in shape for summer. In shape yet? — Neil

THANK YOU, DONORS: The Arlington Heights Bicycle Club, Alan White, Mitchell C. Jones, John Heer, Terry Witt, T L Szensy, Douglas H. Hoffman, James Krause, Melynda Findlay Shamie, Eric Slagter, Jeffery Norman, Kathleen Hays, Andrew L. Campbell, Mark Rathe, Robert M. Yedinak, John S. Perry, David Waycie, David Michels, Cynthia DeVoss, Cheryl Zalenski, Richard H. Jordan, Mark Joseph Dugo, Richard Wadleigh, Colleen Stevenson, Randy Barich, Michael D. Staples, Michael Vander Weele, Hilliard B. Grossman, Kevin V. Barba and Bill Kragh.
I create the Suburban Chicago Bicycling website and newsletter with the help of readers like you.
​Buy me a cup of coffee, as they say?

​Read old newsletters. And please forward this to anyone interested.

600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​

Suburban Chicago Bicycling

Neil Holdway

Your one-stop source for the great trails and roads to ride a bicycle in Chicago's suburbs, and to learn about efforts to make bicycling and bicycling infrastructure better there.

Read more from Suburban Chicago Bicycling
A sleeveless young cyclist with a blue backpack rides on a boardwalk bridge through a forest preserve

Look at this on the Des Plaines River Trail Reader Gary Donnelly tipped me off to the Des Plaines River Trail work that got done between Lawrence Avenue and Irving Park Road in Cook County. I knew two boardwalks were being built there this year, and the trail in spots was going to be rerouted away from the river to ease flooding problems. When Gary rode the milelong stretch Aug. 8-9, the boardwalks had long been done, he said, but not all of the new path. A couple of weeks later, I saw for...

about 20 hours ago • 2 min read
Empty rural road with trees and a construction sign on the side.

This construction's done It was a treat to catch up to Old McHenry Road between Long Grove and Hawthorn Woods and find its repaving ... all done! The construction signs lingered, but even the striping is finished. The best part is the shoulders are mostly nice and wide. I'm sure they did that for us road cyclists. Meanwhile, if you haven't seen, the City of Geneva late last month finally announced a much-needed detour for the quarter-mile of the Fox River Trail that it is closing at least...

14 days ago • 2 min read
A newly paved road curves right through tall, thin trees after many brown leaves fell, while the sun sets in the background

My money roads I hope you're riding more than working this summer. That's what summer's for, right? I have been riding a lot as usual and found myself on money roads — roads that are destinations themselves, because they're so money. Fun, beautiful, mesmerizing. So much better than the others. I just did a tour in Wisconsin's Northwoods. I always ride these money roads: County X between Wisconsin routes 70 and 32 by Three Lakes Military Road nearby County K between Star Lake and Boulder...

28 days ago • 2 min read