Rutnick

I have spoken to several of you via private messages about the riding and racing scene in the chicago area and I appreciate all the great info all you have given me. It led me to do a crit in Winfield a few weeks ago and I loved the scene there the whole weekend.

The question at hand is commute times, distances and how often do you ride and how far do you drive to ride? I'm not going to ask where to live because that will only give about 50 different answers from 50 different people.

The only riding in the area I've done so far is in the winfield for the crit race and around the Fox River area starting in Geneva and St Charles.

I'll be local starting sometime in mid to late 2011 so I'm just trying to get some ideas on how you guys juggle your commutes, work and riding.

It's very easy for me right now to just ride from my front door and get about any ride I would want. The same goes for MTB since I have a 8.5 mile MTB course 4 miles from my front door which has 900 feet of climbing.

The thing that really trumps me is your racing scene there. I have to drive everywhere to race. Probably a minimum of 1-2 hours to just get to a road race or crit.

I'm doing my first cross race this weekend and it is nearly a 3 hour drive. It's raining today and the forecast is rain on Saturday for the race. I am so stoked.

Anyway, thanks to all the people that have helped me so far with the area and I hope to say thanks to even more of you as time progresses. I will be in the area from time to time as the next 12 months progresses so I hope to meet several of you and buy you some beer.

I'm too damn old to be great at racing but I'm having fun with it. Did MTB racing forever and just moved to road racing this year. Going to Cat up to 4 after my next race in a couple of weeks. Yes, we still have road, crit and circuit races still available here but the window is closing in about 3 weeks.

It's X and Fall MTB racing.

John Wilke

It may take you 2 hours to get to a race, but you'll probably have 20 or more throughout the season that's within 2 hours of you (not knowing where you live). I shoot pictures and can hit 50+ races within 3 hours of me. That's like living in Europe! Hope to catch 'ya at a 'cross race this fall.

(I've had it with these pop up video commercials).

MJH2

2 hours for any race from here? Sheesh.

You could probably start 5-10 races (crit) minimum that are less than an hour ride by bicycle.

2 hours drive (car) from here will put you at every crit and CX race in the Chicago metro area (and Kankakee), most any race south of a line running from Milwaukee to Madison, plus the Quad Cities (huge races) and Dixon. If you throw the training races held every Tuesday (Matteson) and Wednesday (Pella, Soldier Field... although it's not a "training" race), I'm guessing you could easily start 60 races in a season and not have to drive more than 2 hours.

Of course, if you go a little more than 2 hours, that throws in Madison and Milwaukee (where you could probably tack on another 10 starts JUST in Superweek and TOAD alone, probably another 10 on top of that for races that aren't part of either of those series). And, if you're "too old" to be good at racing, this isn't a bad place. How many other places have Omniums for 40+ 4/5's, and a Memorial day weekend for Masters only (which has included a 40+ cat 4 field)?

I get why other people think riding around here sucks. Really, though, we're spoiled. We don't have a lot of great natural terrain, but there are some hard road races (or, so people say... that's not exactly my thing). There are a ton of fast riders that live within the city limit... where there is no decent riding. Folks here just make the best of what they have.

As for commute times... ugh. An hour each way in the car is not abnormal around here.

Psimet2001 

Commute - I used to commute from Elgin to Aurora along the Fox river Trail - 50 mile round trip. It was a great commute with no worries. There are extensive trail systems through the entire area but you will find that there are major corridors that are NOT bicycle friendly - no real way of getting from A to B without putting yourself into total urban assault mode and taking your life into your own hands. Such is life.

Commuting by car is treacherous and not unusual for most people's commute to be int he 45 min- 1 hour range each way regardless of the distance. My commute is something like 15 miles now and it takes 40-50 minutes on average. Really wish I could ride it but as of now I have NOT found a good way to get there.

It is strange to drive over 1.5 huors to a race though.

The chicago cyclocross cup series (which I am a sponsor of *plug* ) is just what is says and it is an entire series held in Chicago. i could ride my bike from my home to at least 3 or 4 of those events if I chose to.

just move already.

Rutnick

Mrs Rutnick is already there. I'm still here because I'm a state government worker with a pension to finish. Yes, I am old but younger than most. I got to buy 5 ghost years so I have to work almost 1 more year to get my lovely *sarcasm* half pay from the state. Hey, 50% of what I'm making now is still better than most people's retirement plans. I will just need to start a new career. Any ideas for a washed up crime lab director with authority issues? I have a chemistry degree. I like bikes and I'm usually grumpy until around 10:30 in the morning.

I have no idea how we are going to make that road commute thing work for her and no idea how I can work and then get home to ride if it will take another 40 minutes just to get to a ride start location.

I'm crossing this weekend. It will be colder, raining and muddy. I prefer those days vs the 115 degree heat indexed MTB races we did this year. My teammate got 4th in the series but I did 3 of 7 races in 100-115 degree heat indexes in the woods and I melted so I said screw it. I did a few crit races in that heat but I died in the MTB races.

I'd love to come and do a X race up there when I can and finally tell you thanks for the help in person. I have zero prep for this weekend's cross race and it's my first ever. I think I'm peaking. I did a few mounts and dismounts during lunch yesterday. Everything seemed to go the right way.

If you run into someone that might sound like it's Mrs Rutnick, tell her I am eating horribly and that I am a shell of myself. The house is a wreck and I barely can take care of myself.

Psimet2001 

I try to peak weekly but mrs. P is usually having none of it.

Most rides are done as group rides on the way home. The PRP ride I do is because it is on my way home. When it wasn't i just left work early to get to it.

MJH2

Yes. What sort of work did you do at the labs before you became a director? First, send a resume to all of the ISP labs:

https://www.isp.state.il.us/docs/fslabareamap.pdf
(the main Chicago area one, Westchester, is not far from where your wife works... you guys could even carpool)

Second, consider expert work. It wouldn't be a ton of work at first, but if you're good it very well may be enough to keep extremely flexible hours and also get by. If you're really good, and stick with it, it could turn into a decent job with a lot of flexibility to ride whenever you want. Do you have a CV? I just may happen to know about 200 defense attorneys in the area.

Rob's right. Don't fight the commute. A lot of us ride near work (or on the route home) rather than worry about racing home to then ride. There are thousands of fairly involved riders in the area that are able to balance it all. I think it may even be easier this time of year... a CX bike, a good light, and an open field are there to crush you 24/7. It's not hard.

nixternal

Remember, a 1 to 2 hour commute is anywhere between 15 and 30 miles

Us Chicagoans aren't afraid of commuting. After a year or so of it, you will have it down. I am sure somewhere along I-290 someone will show you an alternate use of a break down lane or a shoulder

aham23

maybe i missed it, but where are you going to live? im in Will County and there was only on race that took me less than an hour to drive to. none of the races i could ride to. typical travel time for me to a race in the Chicagoland area was 1 hour 15 minutes..but hey it takes an hour to go anywhere in the burbs.

if you need a racing team i know a guy. later.

John Wilke

Then there was my commute from Willow Springs back to Milwaukee on a week day. What was that, a Monday?

Race ended at 5pm and I knew there would be no way I could handle driving through downtown at that hour, so I decided to go around.

Yeah ... 3 hours to Elgin.

Then I hammered it out to Rockford at 95 per. (not KPH either)

Then back to Milwaukee on cheezy roads in Wisconsin.

I knew that was going to be bad going in. Little did I know HOW bad !

Interestingly, I wasn't alone on my Rockford run ... I had two guys pacing behind me a quarter mile the whole way, probably cheering me on "Keep it going Cheeze Whiz!"

Rutnick

Thanks everyone for more great info. I've sent some of you private messages answering specific questions.

My first X race is in the books. Got 5th in my age group. My teammate won. No, there weren't just 5 guys racing.

Gotta say that the time went by really slow. In a 40+ minute crit race, when it is over, I think...damn that went by fast. In this race, the announcer was like...well, I think you guys should be able to get three laps. We did 5 and it was faster than I though but slow enough time crawled.

The course was 1.6 miles so I don't know if that was a large X course or not. I had one wreck and lost one spot but recovered well. It was wet and a little muddy so traction was an issue in some corners.

Gotta say that I did enjoy the setting. A X race at an apple orchard right outside of Hoosier National Forest was an awesome place to race.

I'm currently on a team that I founded last year and probably will race for them again next year but when I get up there then I'm looking for a team. Hopefully one that doesn't mind that I suck and enjoys that I drink beer after just about every race.

And for those that may or may not know....spd pedals offer a great way to open beer bottles. I never understood why people put bottle openers on their X or MTB when a good shimano SPD pedal can open a beer bottle.

nixternal

Shoot, I know of a few, one who has responded to this post, that has not only drank during a race, but also poured the rest of the ferminted coldness on his head. Beer is a staple, a must, for any and all Chicago cyclists and racers

That is good to know. Though, I think I would prefer a video to see this before I go purchase a pair of SPD's just for this, oh and maybe a bike or something too

Rutnick

That's nothing compared to civilians on motorcycles and a CHP motorcycle officer passing between you and another car (the white dotted line) on the 405 in LA. That was sept 2009. It was so close that I had wished I had gotten the supplemental rental insurance. I was doing 50 and god knows how fast they were going.

Scummer

Commute? No problem if you live in NW Indiana:
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/47314660

Just make sure you have good life insurance in case someone depends on you.

CyLowe97

Chicagoland warps the space/time continuum. The region dwarfs the average metro US city for how widespread people are dispersed.

Rule of thumb: In these parts, plan on at least an hour get anywhere more than ten miles away if you're hopping on an expressway/tollway.

Traffic jams can/will happen at all hours of the day, all hours of the night for no discernable reason. Living 45 miles from the Loop, I've made it there in 45 minutes, but made it there in two hours, as well. Nothing more frustrating than an hour from downtown to O'Hare on the outbound Kennedy at 11 pm on a Sunday night. But it happens.

The best you can do is live in a decent area relatively close to where you will work (preferably near a train station so you can save miles on your car). Save you lots of frustration and time.

Psimet2001 

My commute is a moving target with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes 20 minutes. Sometimes 1.5 hours. If it's raining - you're f'd. If it's a "fake" holiday - one where only Luddites take off - then you'll fly.

CyLowe97

Unless someone on the opposite side of the tollway has a flat tire to change, in which case all traffic in the other direction has to slow down from 75 mph to 5 mph to have a gawk.

Bam, tack on that extra hour.

Psimet2001 

Funny ...I was just thinking this morning - when it took over an hour for no apparent reason - that humans aren't meant to sit in steel cages waiting in line and destroying natural resources at such a huge scale.

Rutnick

gee, thanks for making me feel better. I don't mind driving 1 hour to go somewhere as long as the vehicle is moving at say 60-70mph. I drove 30 miles yesterday to see a friend that broke his neck and back in a road bike accident. I told the guy that was riding with me that this would be easy a 1-2 hour drive minimum in Chicago. We got there in like 25 minutes.

black_box 

this is part of why i moved out of the city, and somewhat close to an expressway. It sucks if you have to drive 30+ minutes before you can even sit in a proper expressway traffic jam.

Psimet2001 

It does go in waves. There are mornings I can hit downtown in what seems like minutes. granted they are usually on Sundays at un-godly hours...after a local sports victory.....but meh... I'll take it.

Rutnick - you get used to it but there are moments. I remember having a moment of clarity a few months back where I decided that on my death bed I would look back on this and realize I wasted a majority of my life trying to get somewhere I really didn't want to be and that ust wasn't worth it even if to leave it would mean i would have to make major sacrifices......then I thought of some new bike shiz I wanted and got back in line to serve the man.

Road Fan

Psimet, sounds like you got a job, congrats!

I did, too! it took about 16 months.

I gotta say, I miss Chicago, but I don't miss THAT Chicago.

Rutnick

I'm serving the man right now with a daily drive of 4 minutes or a bike ride of 6-7. You all should just sit back and think about it. Dream about it.

Of course, when i get here, I'm serving the man...oh yes...I'm serving the man.

It's my job to move the pile and not ask questions. The one thing going for me is Mrs Rutnick got offered a job making a really good salary even for Chicago standards and with my retirement money I could technically spend the next say 24 months after I get there "looking for the right job" or longer.


That would probably also include me doing all the house chores and being yelled at by Mrs Rutnick but she's Irish Catholic and I'm German Pagan. We'll just see who wins that battle.

Scummer

German hardheadedness against Irish hotheadedness... tough call.

Psimet2001 

I actually got one about 1.5 months after losing mine. I just went ape-poop trying to find another one. I lucked out for sure. But.....work is a 4-letter word for a reason... THEN the business took off.