August 20, 2026 Big improvements to Cook County’s Des Plaines River Trail; flooding persists on Lake County side Have a look at the remade Des Plaines River Trail between Lawrence Avenue and Irving Park Road in Cook County, with the new boardwalks. Plus, how to get hints about flooding in Lake County.
August 12, 2026 Summer’s here! Calendar of organized and charity rides, big events Suburban bike clubs and other organizations host invitational and charity rides all year. This is a list of the prominent organized rides plus big events in the suburbs.
July 12, 2026 Top suburban Chicago bike trails: A beginning look The Chicago area is full of bike trails, including and especially out in the suburbs. They’re paved or gravel or rocky or dirt. Here’s a round-up of the top trails in the region.
June 22, 2026 Finish this ride in southern Wisconsin and get a pie If you want to draw bicyclists from suburban Chicago to Janesville, Wisconsin, serve ’em pie. That was the selling point of the Janesville Pie Ride besides the pretty bike trails and country roads north of Rockford.
May 1, 2026 Merry month of May: What’s happening in the suburbs for National Bike Month May is National Bike Month, as established by the League of American Bicyclists in 1956, and plenty of suburban events are organized for it. Here are highlights, then a list.
April 2, 2026 The Cal-Sag Trail: How sweet it is, how much sweeter it could become On the long list of bike trails in Cook County’s forest preserves, the Cal-Sag Trail in southern suburbs is a relative baby. But it’s been created with love and care so far.
March 25, 2026 Latest Cook County forest trail plans: DPRT, Midlothian, Palos, Major Taylor … and Busse? The Forest Preserves of Cook County released its updated 5-year Capital Improvement Plan, and a few sections involve trail improvements.
March 15, 2026 Cook County trail reconnaissance: Thorn Creek The Cook County forest preserve district was “focusing on an evaluation of the Thorn Creek Trail system” over the last couple of years. I decided to evaluate it myself.
March 5, 2026 The repaved Old Plank Road Trail: Oh yeah, it’s good Fans of the Old Plank Road Trail were rejoicing at even the prospect of repaving the bumpy west end in 2025. Now that it’s done, the trail sure is beautiful.
March 2, 2026 A classic child of the ’70s: The North Branch Trail As the Cook County forest district celebrated its new Wellness Center at Caldwell Woods, it pointed out a big change to the classic adjacent bike trail — bringing back memories.
February 3, 2026 Bike lanes or paths town by town: A compilation of suburbs’ infrastructure As Schaumburg residents differ on the village’s move from bike lanes to off-road paths in some places, I examine what other suburbs are doing for bike routes — paths or lanes or nothing?
November 21, 2025 Arlington Heights’ unique new e-bike law: Avoid age limit by taking this quiz on road riding Arlington Heights trustees amended its e-bike law to require a minimum age of 16 after they rejected the concept of age limits just two months earlier. But at the last minute, they offered a unique caveat.
November 6, 2025 Our best fall colors of 2025: Less the preserves and more the neighborhoods It seemed like we waited longer this year for the fall colors, didn’t it? And what we’ve seen while riding around has been more muted. That means we just had to look a little harder.
October 27, 2025 Behold Streamwood’s new bike-ped bridge over Route 59 The bridge Streamwood residents have been waiting for is open at last, and the first bicyclists and pedestrians have crossed over Route 59. Here’s a good look at it.
September 23, 2025 Nice little trail: The one around the Bloomingdale Golf Club On the north end of Bloomingdale are a few trails that kind of end a bike route system from Roselle and Medinah. I find one of those trails to be a nice surprise: the one around the Bloomingdale Golf Club.
September 14, 2025 Pictures: Streamwood bridge’s trusses over Route 59 are in place! The final trusses of the new bridge over Route 59 have been assembled! You can now see the bike/pedestrian bridge being built just north of Irving Park Road to connect two Streamwood neighborhoods.
September 6, 2025 Bike the Drive ’25: Bicycling an open Lake Shore Drive, with no wind! The 2025 edition of Bike the Drive in Chicago may have been one of the most glorious I’ve ridden, because there was no wind! And a prominent local club helped me set a fast pace.
August 19, 2025 Invitational ride review: Roun’da Manure out of Sharon, Wisconsin, with ice cream How about a bike ride where every rest stop is an ice cream shop and there’s a pig roast at the end? Even if it’s not exactly all that anymore, Roun’da Manure might pique your interest.
June 25, 2025 Charity bike ride on the open roads: A hot, windy Bike MS Tour de Farms The Bike MS Tour de Farms is what the title says it is: a ride through open farmland. Those who’ve ridden the charity event know that the open land usually exposes you to all kinds of weather.
June 4, 2025 The Stearns Road missing link: Bike-ped projects not getting state funds About three dozen suburban bicycle-pedestrian projects were rejected for new state funding. Among them was a much-needed off-road path along Stearns Road. See the list of other nice ideas around the region.
