Bicycle Illinois - Illinois' Bicycle Touring Company

Room block information updated for Hammond hotel. Click Here for more information.
The Hammond hotel has changed brands to Days Inn (previously Econolodge).

2/6/20

There will be an additional $25.00 fee to transport recumbents and tandems on any transportation service. However a tandem bicycle will not incur an additional fee if both people riding it register for the same transportation service.

2/4/20

Registration is now open for the 2020 Tri-State Tour Chicago Century #1 and #2! Click Here to register!
The new official name of the event is now the Tri-State Tour Chicago Century!
Web site updated with 2020 dates.
- The Tri-State Tour Chicago Century #1 will occur on Sun. July 12th, 2020.
- The Tri-State Tour Chicago Century #2 will occur on Sat. August 22nd, 2020.

1/21/20

Only online registration will be available four weeks before the start of the event in order to assure that we receive all of your information and payment in a timely manner due to laspes in mail service. Click Here for more information.

Major Previous Tri-State Tour Chicago Century Specific Updates

Starting and Stopping Towns

The starting location in Hammond has changed back to Forsythe Park from Wolf Lake Memorial Park. Free parking at the start will still be available. Click Here for more information.
- Out of the starting location we will bike along a brand new bike path and WE WILL NOT HAVE TO BIKE DOWN INDIANAPOLIS BLVD. ANYMORE!!!!!!! We will also ride immediately past the Indiana state sign - make sure to stop and get a picture!
Our ending location has returned back to Simmons Island Park in Kenosha! Click Here for more information.
If you are planning on starting your ride from Chicago, parking for the day is now available directly at DuSable Harbor. Click Here for more information.
Supported in town facilities and services added for Kenosha. Click Here for more information.
Supported in town facilities and services added for Chicago. Click Here for more information.

Rest Stops

DuSable Harbor will now serve as Rest Stop 1, the Chicago starting location, the return transportation staging point, and the starting point if you are riding to the Hammond hotel the day before the event from Chicago. All related information has been updated.
- On The Route bicycle shop will no longer serve as a supported location for any event services. Accordingly, it is very important that your bicycle is in great mechanical working order and ready to be ridden and you arrive with all the bike parts, tools, and cycling accessories you need since you will no longer be able to get anything there during the event.
- We combined our previous first two rest stop locations in Chicago at 31st St. Beach and Foster Ave. Beach into a single rest stop location downtown. Combining these two rest stops into one has the following advantages:
  - You will have even more time to make it to Kenosha within our route cut-off times because you'll have one less stop to make
  - It eliminates the confusion at the 31st St. rest stop due to overlapping marks for participants travelling north on the Lakefront bike path on the Bicycle Illinois event
  - It makes the first ride overall ride segment shorter for participants who don't bother stopping at the 31st Street rest stop because it's so close to the start.
  - This change significantly improves our ability to ensure support service coverage along the entire route.
Rest Stop 2 has changed to Skokie from Morton Grove. Click Here for more information.
Rest Stop 4 in Waukegan is now at the Waukegan Harbor from Dugdale Park. Click Here for more information.
- There is a deli, hot dog stand, and ice cream stand directly at Waukegan Harbor. You will easily be able to purchase lunch and ice cream there on your own during the ride!

Route

The route now follows a designated bike path along the "New Lake Shore Drive" from 93rd to 79th St. through the former U.S. Steel South Works.
We now follow the North Shore Channel Trail and the Green Bay Trail before and after Rest Stop 2 instead of the North Branch Trail.
We now follow the North Shore Channel Trail and Green Bay Trail through Lincolnwood, Skokie, Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, and Winnetka instead of the North Branch Trail Place through Niles, Morton Grove, Glenview, and Northfield.
The only option to follow the road or a bike path will be from Waukegan to Kenosha.
The Robert McClory bike path into Kenosha has been paved beginning at the Wisconsin state line. As a result all routes will now follow it to the end of the ride (including the century option), making the route safer and easier to follow. Unfortunately the Robert McClory bike path still has a crushed limestone surface through Illinois, so we will continue to offer a fully paved on road alternative to this part of the bike path.

Ride Itinerary

A guaranteed opening time has been added to all rest stops. A closing time of 10:15 am and 12:45 pm has been added to Rest Stop 1 (Chicago) and Rest Stop 2 (Skokie). The closing time of Rest Stop 3 (Lake Forest) has been changed to 3:15 pm. The closing time for Rest Stop 3 (Waukegan) is still the same at 4:45 pm and the overall route closing time is still 6:30 pm. Click Here for more information.
Information added about minimum average paces and latest departure times for specific routes. Click Here for more information.
The route opening time from Hammond has been moved back 15 minutes to 7:15 am in order to allow more time for riders to ride to the starting location from the 95th/Dan Ryan CTA L Train Station. This will also allow some more time for breakfast for participants staying at the Hammond hotel.

Arriving at the Start of the Event

You can now start your ride directly from Rest Stop 1 in downtown Chicago instead of just from Hammond. Click Here for more information.
If you do not have a car or another way to get to Hammond, you can now ride there
- On the morning of the event, you can ride there from the 95th/Dan Ryan CTA L Train Station. We will be coordinating a group ride from there to the starting location at 6:00 am. Click Here for more information.
- The day before the event, you can ride to the Hammond hotel from the 95th/Dan Ryan CTA L Train Station or rest stop 1 in downtown Chicago. Click Here for more information.
We will not be offering baggage pick up or delivery service to any of our supported hotels for any participant who is not continuing from Bicycle Illinois. If you are riding to the start of the event you will to carry your personal bag with you on your bike while riding. Click Here for more information.
The route from the supported hotel to the starting location now follows many bike paths, reducing busier highway riding and making it much safer and more scenic.

Departing from the End of the Event

You can now end your ride early in Waukegan by taking the Metra train back to Chicago from Rest Stop 4. You can also still complete a century ride by riding back to Waukegan from Kenosha. Click Here for more information.
You can also easily take a Metra Train back into downtown Chicago. The Lake Forest Metra train station is a very short ride from rest stop 3 in Lake Forest and cue sheets and maps there are available. Click Here for more information.

Return Transporation Service

Our transportation staging point in Chicago will now be at the supported hotel. Click Here for more information.
- If you parked your car for the day at Dusable Harbor for the day, you will need to walk or bike there from the hotel yourself. To do so you will follow the fully lighted and paved Chicago Riverwalk bike path and you will not need to bike on any downtown street at all. Directions and a map will be provided.
Due to increased costs from the school bus company, the price of the return transportation service from Kenosha has increased by $5.00 to $45.00 per participant.

In-Town Services

The cut-off dates for the room block reservations at the Hammond hotel are also the the same as the regular registration deadlines for both events. Click Here for more information about the Hammond hotel.

Event Schedule

In order to accommodate our new Bike Wisconsin events, the Tri-State Tour Chicago Century #2 will now always occur on the fourth Saturday in August, immediately following the new Bicycle Illinois recurring schedule. The Tri-State Tou Chicago Century #1 will now occur on a Sunday in order to give people who normally work on Saturdays the chance to participate in one of the events. Click Here for more information about the future event dates.
Tri-State Tour Chicago Century #1 will be held on a Sunday to give people who normally work on Saturdays a better chance to participate. Tri-State Tour Chicago Century #2 will occur on the Saturday immediately following Bicycle Illinois.

Other Event Services

WE NO LONGER ISSUE ANY REFUNDS AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON. If you do not participate and would like a refund you MUST purchase an individual travel insurance plan, which will reimburse you according to the plan coverage. Click Here for more information about our refund policy.
The regular registration deadline for both the Tri-State Tour Chicago Century #1 and #2 is now only one week before the start of each event.
The late registration fee has increased $5.00 from $15.00 to $20.00.
We now allow trikes (any bicycle with three or more wheels) to participate in our events. However, all participants riding trikes must provide their own on road support for them at all times because we cannot guarantee that we will be able to easily or quickly transport them off the road in any support vehicle in case of mechanical breakdown. In addition, we still cannot accomodate any trikes on any of our transportation services. Click Here for more information.
As part of registration you can now specify whether you would you like us to give you your t-shirt and any other merchandise items at the starting or ending location. No more worrying about where to put your new stuff during the ride!
Each baggage item to be delivered to Waukegan must be identified by two separate Waukegan baggage delivery tags so we can easily identify which baggage items should be delivered there. Click Here for more information.
A personalized Certificate of Completion will no longer be available.
Based on participant feedback we will no longer offer the same box lunches we had previously offered for any of our events and currently will not serve any type of lunch on the road.

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