BikingGrad80

I'd like to see a wild police chase video on the evening news tonight of a bunch of cops on mountain bikes chasing a Cervelo through Barrington Hills.

ColorChange

LOL, kind of like a really slow speed OJ chase huh?

nixternal

To be honest, I don't see what the big deal is with the double pace line. Do like we do on our team rides. Someone yells car back from the rear, go single file until it is clear. The back roads where we ride aren't highly traveled. I do understand Old Sutton and not clogging that up. Where ABD rides in West Chicago, pretty much every driver has been awesome. Plus we have "Share the Road" signs everywhere on our ride.

CyLowe97

In Barrington Hills this means yelling Car Back every 10 seconds, especially on Old Sutton and Ridge. These are the places drivers seem really to get pissed.

The other issue is that the "hills" part of Barrington Hills means there are little crests everywhere that drivers cannot see over. It's dangerous to pass blindly, but after a while many drivers get steamed and do it in spots where they just might end up with oncoming traffic in their dash.

Barrington Hills is a great place to ride, but rush hour on a Tuesday night is not the best place to have 20+ riders occupying lanes on less than visable roads. Who wants to drive way under the speed limit for a long way to accomdate riders? In an optimal world there would be such patience, but in the real world, that's not going to happen. I think that's the point and why residents get frustrated.

Psimet2001 

For reference the group recently has been riding across the entire lane. Enough that I removed myself from it last week. Going the opposite direction it was truly amazing how every time I passed the groups was across the entire lane.

As a result we have taken action to eliminate this potential from the ride in the future. As I mentioned to you during the ride last week we WILL be departing in 2 different groups The people that don't get it are not welcome in our group. They are more than welcome to ride with your team "5:45".

Invitations have been sent along to riders we wish to have join us. If you didn't receive one but think you should have then please contact me.

Unfortunately this seems to be the only way to restore some sort of actual form to the ride with a repeating route, safe riding, and camaraderie with good people.

nixternal

What we do (ABD) on our rides in situations like this is go single file. We yell single file and everyone follows suit. As for the hills, that I understand. There are only a couple that the group really slows down over that I remember. I do understand the frustration the drivers get.

nixternal

This is good. If there are more than say 15 people, split the groups and have a 15 minute separation in starts. Enforcement is going to be tough, but a pint of Guinness and I am down to run enforcement Haven't seen a whippet I can't choke out in 15 seconds yet Though carrying my fat ass around will slow the pace down to about 3MPH

CyLowe97

There are other options for those wishing to practice their wicked awesome double paceline action, even on a Tuesday night.

1. Head out west of IL-47 and US-20 to Hampshire.
2. Find Melms Road. 6 miles of flat, straight road with no stop signs between Harmony and 23. Almost no traffic outside of the stray farm truck or tractor.
3. Get crazy with your killer rotations.
4. ???
5. Profit!

CyLowe97

This piqued my curiosity, so I did a little google search.

How does 4 across for much of such an exercise constitute "well less than half?"

Second from the left:


Call me wacko, but this kind of riding probably doesn't belong on low visibility, two lane, rush hour roads.

Psimet2001 

Last week we were doing the third on in except the right side was accelerating through the whole time and the left was dead stop and not rotating back in. Instead they were yelling at people to join in and in the process jamming up the road causing situations like #2 as riders from behind overlapped as the front slowed.

The proper patroons IMHO to be used out in barrington is the first one. That is the method we have used the most on that ride and is the most appropriate. The third is unacceptable especially with the issues with residents and traffic.

aham23

or they could take their team to Matteson for a some practice racing. heck, tonight you can get some practice racing in with the SCW crew at the Joliet Autobahn. i mean, if you want to race and all. later.

nixternal

https://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=397987

What, are you trying to get us hurt now?

CyLowe97

That's a four way stop with a flashing red light and helluva lot safer (usually) than the B Hills ceremonial Tuesday night crossing of Algonquin Road. I'm guessing the driver had his mind on his lapful of food after exiting the Chick'n'Dip drive in and just didn't see the kid.

Hope the kid's okay.

Spring Water

1. The city ordinance is single file. Like it or don't, i'm not going to get a ticket because you are pretending that you are Dave Zabriskie.
2. The recent group has been taking up the entire road 3-4, sometimes 5 wide.
2a. This is annoying
2b. It is illegal
2c. It does not do anything at winning the "hearts and minds"
2d. You're not Dave Zebriskie, this isn't Le Tour, there is no reason you can't sit single file on the road and ride your bike. If people would be reasonable about riding in a pack on small busy roads that are mostly traveled by local citizens, there probably wouldn't be a single file rule in the first place you knuckleheads.

aham23

^^^^ i am not DZ but i do wear DZnuts on a regular basis. maybe you should try some. later.

ColorChange

Maybe a bit of exaggeration there? While last week was busier than most, it wasn't that busy. What did bother me though is when someone did yell "car back", a lot of the riders didn't get the heck over, preferably into single file. That was rude, dangerous, and frustrating. I think the group was just far too large.


Agreed. I support #1 on the most dangerous roads, and #3 otherwise. Groups would be best kept to around 10 riders IMO. This is kind of hard to enforce. I'll try to have a chat with the people I know about keeping it to #1 or #3 as appropriate.

nixternal

Or let them know that a 230 pound ex-middle linebacker and former MMA fighter (1 win and a **** load of losses) will come get them!

CyLowe97

Obviously, but not by much. I fell back, mainly because I'm slow, but partially because I was frustrated with the erratic riding going on along Old Sutton and then Ridge last Tuesday. Ridge Road is a very busy pass through and, true to its name, has a lot of little ridges over which cars/riders travel. Even getting everyone in single file causes problems at that time of day. The line gets strung out and cars stack up behind.

So while every 10 seconds may be an exageration, getting backed up behind 25+ riders doing ~24 mph on the flats and much slower on the uphills begins to take its toll on the patience of the motorists and all the sudden we've got "Car Back!" every 2 seconds.*

This is going nowhere. Either people get it that it's up to us to hold up our end of the deal by dropping the Us v Them attitude and the whole "the cops are targetting us!" schtick or they don't. (Not aiming that at you, CC. That's a general statement, as this conversation is not exactly new in 2010 and it's not exclusive to Barrington Hills)


*2 Seconds is an approximation. I did not have my eyes on my timer; I had them on the road.

Spring Water

And that's about all there is to say about that.

ColorChange

While I appreciate your sentiment CyLowe, the cops could be out to get us. As I stated earlier, I will wait till I have a conversation with them and see how they act before I decide to drop or support an us vs. them attitude.

cyclpsycho

More sarcasm. Get it now?

ColorChange

ROFLMAO ... didn't think of that.

CyLowe97

Maybe they could be out to just keep the damned peace and enforce what they are told to enforce per the village law creating cabal? Hell, I don't know. The liberals stole my tin foil hat.

MJH2

I doubt Barrington Hills is bringing in additional cops and telling them to "go get the cyclists". Knowing about a billion cops and working around them nearly every day, I'm going to go out on a limb that those guys just want to keep the static to a minimum. Period. They don't want cars running over cyclists. They don't want cyclists impeding traffic. Their angle is to minimize conflict. They're on nobody's side.

Don't think of laws as rules aimed at "us" or "them". Think of laws as tools for law enforcement to use in an effort go after stuff that "just doesn't look right". Barrington Hills has the single file rule. The state now has the "new" rules protecting cyclists. What happens if a car buzzes (at a close proximity) a group of cyclists that aren't necessarily tightly single file?

Your average officer is going to typically enforce the law against who ever looked like they were acting unreasonable. Was the line of cyclists merely passing a slower rider? Did the car speed up on the cyclists and make a dangerous move?

Officers who get into bike detail aren't going to be "after" us or them. They're just going to want to make sure there are no major conflicts between cyclists and motorists.

Besides all that, this gets back to my opinion of earlier this year: The Penny Road Pub route is fun. It's not great for training, though, and seems to be getting less so with every passing day.

cyclpsycho

Thank you, counselor!

GEEESH!

Can we just ride our bikes now?