Sites Serving the Midwest

The Region
Regional groups
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
North Dakota
Ohio
Wisconsin

The Region

Biking in the Midwest: A feature column from the monthly magazine, Conscious Choice; [Added: April 23, 2003. ]
North Central Mountain Bike Patrol: Regional affiliate of the National Mountain Bike Patrol, serving Wisconsin and Minnesota.
[Added May 29, 1998.]
Rick's RideMidwest Page: "Solely dedicated to off-road MTB riding in the Heartland. Covering six midwest states and offering maps, data, everything you need to shred." Wisconsin, happily, is one of them six midwest states, and some-- not all!-- of the Wisconsin stuff is links back to resources on this page. Much of the information on this page is shared by its readership, with attribution, It's a nice idea, a nice implementation of that idea, and an asset for the region. Newly rehosted in October 1996.
[Updated October 28, 1996.]
SW Iowa bike: A complete bike reference for Omaha, NE and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Information on trails and shops with maps.; [Added: March 2, 2003. ]
Wisconsin Spokes: "The mission of Wisconsin Spokes is to supply substantial information about biking in Wisconsin on the internet at no charge. The premier source for information biking trails in Wisconsin. "; [Added: August 23, 2002. ]

Illinois

Bicycle Club of Lake County: Membership form and information on their annual touring extravaganza, the Ramble, which will be in it's 16th year if they do it again in 1997.
[Added November 16, 1996.]
Chicago Area Transportation Study: The metropolitan planning organization for northeastern Illinois. CATS develops the region's long-range transportat ion plan and provides technical assistance to communities and public agencies in the Chicago metropolitan area. CATS recognizes the important roles walking and biking play in addressing the region's transportation challenges. These web pages describe pedestrian and bicycle-related planning activities, resources and events--information planners, engineers, and advocates can use to improve the walking and cycling environments in northeastern Illinois.; [Added: April 28, 2003. ]
CAMBr: Formerly TURF. See the link for information in our 'groups' list.
Chicago Cycling Club: A touring club in Chicago; their ride schedule and so forth are here for you to browse. They also have a nice jersey for sale...
Chicago Mountain Biking: "The Web's best source for information on off-road bicycling in northeastern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan." This site is penned by P. Strazz, the author of a book called Chicago Mountain Bike Trails Guide, and mostly offers online versions of his column for Windy City Sports magazine, in which he (she?) profiles a different trail in the Chicago area each month. He also offers a little information on his book-- we sense that he wouldn't mind if you bought it. Another nice section is Chicago-area bike stores that don't suck-- thankfully, there are dozens of them.
[Added November 10, 1997.]
Decatur Bicycle Club: A touring club in Decatur, "the riders of the great corn desert."
[Added September 5, 1997.]
Fox Valley Bicycle and Ski Club: LAB affiliate, recently merged with the Aurora Bicycle Club. They have a full schedule of tours, mountain biking events, and two annual supported tours.
[Added April 14, 1998.]
Illini Bicycle Racing Club: The NCCA affiliate at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
Illinois DOT Map Sales: Item 17 on that page is the bicycle map series, all of which are free.
Illinois Mountain Bike Connection: This page has information on mountain bike racing events, shops-- there is a list of several hundred-- trails-- there are a couple of dozen at this writing, of varying degrees of depth-- and weather, links, and so forth. All done by one guy, all oriented towards northern Illinois mountain biking. He suggests we check out the new "forum" section, which allows visitors to start or add to a message thread on a mountain-biking topic.
[Updated April 29, 1998.]
Illinois Valley Wheelm'n: "Greater Peoria's Bicycle Club" plays well in Peoria. This touring club has developed an advocacy agenda to add to it's recreational mix. Highlights of the newsletter are here, plus events, boilerplate, and... links!
[Added February 12, 1998.]
Jack's Bike Site: Jack's Bikes web site offers a variety of bicycling resources, links, riding locations and misc information.; [Added: July 23, 2001. ]
Joliet Bicycle Club: A club in Joliet, Illinois-- near Chicago-- that offers a variety of organized rides, including supported centuries.
Kickapoo Mountain Bike Club: Focused on the new mountain bike trails in Kickapoo State Park, in Danville, which is in central Illinois. They realize that there aren't all that many mountains in central Illinois, but they've built some decent trails nonetheless and welcome your help.
[Updated April 29, 1998.]
League of Illinois Bicyclists: A page for the Illinois advocacy organization, the League of Illinois Bicyclists.
[Updated April 14, 1998.]
McHenry County Bicycle Club: These folks have the a full touring schedule, online for your perusal. They even have some late-season hikes on their schedule to keep muscled from atrophying after bike season and before ski season. Sponsors of the annual Udder Century, typically held the first week of June. McHenry County is adjacent to the Wisconsin border.
[Updated January 5, 1998.]
McLean County Wheelers Bicycle Club: This friendly group from central Illinois says "We are a diverse group and our interests are many - touring, club rides, weekend rides, racing - but expecially friendship and eating. We ride road bikes, mountain bikes, recumbents, and just about anything else human-powered on wheels. We all love riding and being outdoors and making new friends. "
[Updated March 2002.] -->
[Added November 16, 1996.] -->
Naperville Bicycle Club: A touring group in the Chicagoland suburbs.; [Added January 1996 .] -->; [Updated March, 2002 .] -->
Oak Lawn Bike Psychos: A club in the Chicago area-- mostly residents of west and southwest suburbs-- with a brand new page. Their calendar and club news will be the main items as the season gets underway.
[Added March 1, 1997.]
Oak Park Cycle Club: A touring club of two hundred members serving Chicago and its western suburbs with a full ride schedule-- detailed here-- and a monthly social meeting. The page also hosts Bicyclopedia, a truly unique online encyclopedia of bicycling information.
[Added September 7, 1997.]
Prairie Cycle Club: Based in Urbana, the PCC "serves the needs of all types of bicyclists including recreational riders, touring cyclists, long distance riders, commuters, racers, and ultra marathon competitors." They serve those needs with a really nice schedule of events, available here. The riding season starts in April, probably not overly optimisic in an El Nino year.
[Updated February 12, 1998.]
Quad Cities Bicycle Club: The Quad Cities are (in this case) Davenport, Rock Island, Moline, and Bettendorf, and the QCBC is a LAB and USCF affiliatated touring club there. They have more committees than many clubs have members, so they would seem to be pretty active. They sponsor a number of Big Events, such as the annual Tour of the Mississippi River Valley, in its 21st year in 1998. This page is listed under Illinois because Augustana College hosts the site and they are in Illinois (at least until the Mississippi River changes course again) but the address for the club is Iowa, so it's probably a mistake.
[Added March 4, 1998.]
Springfield Bicycle Club: These folks have a professional-looking page-- Java "led signs" and so forth-- and a really full ride schedule. Besides that schedule, they provide a form for members to nominate their peers for such awards as the "No-Bell Prize," a "message board" that is a sort of stationary newsgroup, and weather information.
[Added November 16, 1996.]
Team Mack: "Team MACK Racing, based in Springfield, Illinois is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the sport of bicycle racing. Since its inception in 1992, Team MACK continues to rank as one of the Midwest's premiere racing teams."
[Added April 4, 1999.]
Telecomm Cycling and Gourmet Society: "The Telecomm Cycling and Gourmet Society is a cycling club comprised of telecommunications industry people interested in bicycling on former railroad beds that have been converted into cycling and hiking trails." Most of whom live in the Chicago area. Rails to Trails Conservancy affiliated.
[Added November 16, 1996.]
University of Illinois Cycling Gopher: Information for the UIUC cyclist.
Velo Club Roubaix: This road racing club in the Chicago area has been riding together for sixteen years, and they have a training ride each and every week, starting in Skokie. The page offers their ride schedule, a few photos, and links to their favorite sites.
[Updated January 21, 2003]
[Added November 10, 1997.]
Village CycleSport Mountain Bike Team: A mountain biking team in the Chicago metro area that says "the goal of the program is to give people access to our sport without arrogance... leave your attitude at the door." They have a bunch of sponsors and a full event calendar.
[Added October 7, 1997.]

Indiana

What's the only midwestern state without an Indian name?

Bandito Web: Mountain Biking in Bloomington: List of local trails, and a list of links, in a highly-graphical design.
[Updated February 11, 1998.]
Bicycle Lobby: The purpose of the Bicycle Lobby is to create a forum for the development of Pro-bicycling ideas for the residents of Southwestern Indiana, particularly, Monroe County and Bloomington." The page is largely an annotated links list at this writing, starting with sites of most interest to locals, and working its way down to the global stuff.
[Added December 15, 1997.]
Bike Rides in Indiana: ... and surrounding areas. It's actually more than an events list-- there is a list of clubs, a links list, a page of graphics, and on-line shopping-- links to online bike shops. Submit your own event using their forms. All packaged with custom graphics with a bike-trailer theme. Recently, a new webmaster took over; we are embarrassed to have just stumbled upon this resource today.
[Added November 16, 1996.]
Bloomington Bicycle Club: A mostly-touring club in Bloomington. This page has their events and a bit of other stuff.
Clear Lake Cyclists: Have organized rides several times a week during the summer months of June through September.; [Added: November 17, 2000. ]
Indiana Bicycle Coalition: The statewide voice of the Indiana bicycling community. The Coalition serves all those involved in bicycling by providing information, education, organization, promotion and advocacy.; [Added: December 20, 2001. ]
(Notre Dame) Pedestrian/Bikeway Committee: Hosted at Notre Dame, includes info from the Indiana Bicycle Coalition. Check out the clickable map of the United States.
Southern Indiana Wheelmen: Based in Clarksville, just over the border from Louisville KY, this site features the club newsletter, ride schedule, some advocacy information, and so forth.
Steuben County Trails: Promotes the construction of non-motorized multi-use trails in Steuben County, Indiana; [Added: November 17, 2000. ]
Three Rivers Velo Club: Based in Fort Wayne, this club has LAB, USCF, NORBA, and Adventure Cycling affiliation. Information on their many activities is here.
Wabash River Cycle Club: A recreational cycle club in West Lafayette, with online newsletters, ride calendar, weather, and links.; [Updated January 8, 2003.]
Wapehani Mountain Bike Park: Wapehani Mountain Bike Park is a thirty-four acre wooded park located off of Weimer Rd., between Second St. and Tapp Rd. in Bloomington, Indiana. Originally intended as the site of a reservoir, it's been a Boy Scout camp and an unauthorized dump site before being converted by volunteers to a mountain bike park in 1990, with almost eight miles of singletrack at this writing. This page tells the story.; [Added December 16, 1997.]

Iowa

Bicyclists of Iowa City: A page for this advocacy-oriented group in Iowa City, run by our netpal Gregory Kovaciny.
[Updated April 7, 1999.]
Iowa City Off Road Cyclists: A page for this mountain-biking club in Iowa City, which maintains trails in the area and advocates for others. The page features nice trail maps for the area.
Iowa State University Mountain Bike Association: Nicely-designed page describes the fine folks at ISU (in Ames, Iowa, a Real Nice Place), who "meet regularly to ride the trails around Ames, to travel to local and regional races, to help maintain and construct trails, and to advocate proper trail usage."
Iowa Ultra Events: Information on the events they sponsor, and links to relevant sites.
[Added February 16, 1997.]
Nishna Valley Trails, Inc.: "Nishna Valley Trails, Inc. was formed, November, 1991 to promote and develop multi-purpose recreational trails in the Nishnabotna Valley Area. This organization is a non-profit tax-exempt corporation." This newish site provides some information on the trails in this region and in Iowa in general, plus links to related sites.
[Added August 11, 1997.]
Trail News: This page is put up by the fine folks from The Bike Barn, a shop in Ogden, Iowa. While it's oriented towards news about the various rail-trails in Iowa, it's also the best general resource on those trails that we've found to date. There is other good stuff at this site, too, of most interest to folks in the immediate vicinity of the shop.
[Added June 14, 1998.]

Kansas

Prairie Spirit Rail Trail: This new rail trail is about one third complete at this writing, running along an abandoned Santa Fe line from Welda, Kansas to Richmond, Kansas; the next phase will take it to Ottawa, and should be completed in mid '97. This is Kansas' first rail trail. There used to be a dedicated site for this trail, with deep info-- where did it go?
[Added March 15, 1998.]

Kentucky

Bluegrass Cycling Club: A touring club in Lexington, with their newsletter and ride schedule online here. These are the folks who sponsor the annual Horsey Hundred, each Memorial Day weekend.
[Upated February 17, 1999.]
Central Kentucky Cyclists: Founded in 1995 by a group of mountain bikers, this club also welcomes roadies. The page offers trail maps, ride and race schedules-- and an ad for a place that specializes in screen-printed tee shirts.
Chain Reaction Cycling Club: Based in Paducah. This club's page has their schedule, some local race results... and a bunch of animated icons that make my disk go crazy.
Louisville Bicycle Club: Excellent page for this club (which once was the Louisville Wheelmen) based in Louisville, Kentucky. Since 1892!
[Updated January 5, 1998.]

Michigan

Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society: A touring club of about 700 (!) members that hosts a ride almost every day of the season. This page has membership info and the ride calendar.
[Updated October 4, 2000.]
Cherry Capital Cycling Club: "The Bicycle Club in the Grand Traverse Region." Touring and mountain biking are both on their agenda.
Friends of The Pere Marquette Rail-Trail: (NOTE: link is busted, October, 2000);; "The Friends of the Pere Marquette Rail-Trail support the development and enhancement of the Rail-Trail from Midland, MI to Coleman, MI." The site offers information of the trail, the organization, and links to relevant sites.
[Added March 9, 1998.]
Grayling Michigan Trails: The news about these trails for bicycling isn't all rosy; they tend to also be popular with motorized vehicles, and the some of the DNR folks aren't that keen on the concept of off-road bicycling. The author of this page says "fines in Michigan can be substantial; since I've had to pay a fine or two over the years, this writer recommends you ask permission rather than forgiveness." There are trail descriptions and contact information on this page, which is not strictly bicycling oriented.
[Added October 25, 1996.]
League of Michigan Bicyclists: The newsletter, a ride calendar, and information on joining this LAB affiliate. Plus assorted.
[Updated March 9, 1998.]
Michigan Bicycling Adventures: Journalist Larry Sobczak maintains this site, to provide bicyclists with a one-stop source of bike adventures (places to ride) in Michigan as well as events to participate in. Each bike adventure web page contains a description of the route, a map and photos.
[Added September 19, 1998.]
Michigan Mountain Biking Association: As you may have guessed, "the MMBA is a non-profit organization that advocates for land access for mountain bikers in the state of Michigan." They have a bunch of chapters, and seem to have in mind to provide a page for each. Lots of events are listed here.
Pere Marquette Trail: This pretty single-page site is offered by the promoters of Reed City, which the trail passes through.
[Added March 9, 1998.]
Tri-County Bicycle Association: Provides a rides listing, applications forms for the major club events, information about the club, links to other bicycle resources, classified and local commercial advertising, a weather service link and the current newsletter for this 2000-member touring club.
U.P. Mountain Biking Online: This new site was the subject of a long article in the July 1998 issue of Silent Sports. Apparently, the Upper Peninsula is an excellent place for off-road riding, and highly underutilized by Wisconsin standards. The idea of the site is to provide a central clearinghouse for information on trails and events that can be kept more current and accessible than print could hope to do. Thin at this writing, it is sure to thrive and flesh out in the coming months and years.
[Added June 25, 1998.]

Minnesota

Bike Trails in Minnesota: Information on several dozen off-road sites in Minnesota.
Dan's Bike Stuff: A mish-mash of mountain biking stuff, including local information for the St. Peter area. Perhaps the most fun are the MPEG (and other) movies of Dan and his pals doing stunts on their mountain bikes.
Flat City Cycling Club's Home Page: "A gateway to bicycle racing information and racers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area."
Habenero Bicycle Club: Based in the Twin Cities. "Originally just a cycling team, the Habaneros now include tri-athletes and cross country skiers, making the Habanero team a year round club. The team seeks to include everyone and develop racers from within the club."
[Added July 17, 1998.]
The Information SingleTrack: A personal page, recently resited (August 1996), with decent information on mountain biking trails in the Twin Cities, a bit of road-bike info... and a section on his new Jeep.
L'Equipe Lanterne Rouge: "L'Equipe Lanterne Rouge or Team Red Lantern is a bicycle racing club based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota area. The team name "Lantern Rouge" is taken from the Tour de France. In the Tour, the "Red Lantern" is the rider who, at any given time, is in last place overall. Fitting for our team." We'll bet that they accidentally place upon occasion. This page features the 1997 Road Racing Calendar for Minnesota, Western Wisconsin and Eastern Dakotas, which is promised to be updated throughout the season.
[Updated December 23, 1996.]
Loon State Cyclists: New page for this USCF road racing club. Their newsletter is up in full, and there are local links. More is planned.
[Updated March 20, 1998.]
Minnesota Cycling: Lots of information on bicycle racing in Minnesota, including events calendars, results, information on the Blaine Velodrome, and some essays by the webmaster. Gratuitous animation alert, but otherwise a very effective site, continuing to grow in scope.
[Added August 15, 1997.]
Minnesota Cycling Federation: USCF racing for Minnesota.
[Added March 20, 1998.]
STI - Biking: This is the cycling component of Minnesota's Sustainable Transporation Initiative. Brought to by the DOT.; [Added: July 18, 2001. ]
Munger Trail Towns Associaton: "The Willard Munger State Trail extends from Hinckley, Minnesota to Duluth, Minnesota and is touted as the longest paved trail in the USA. A year-round recreational trail used by snowmobiles [hopefully not year-round! -Ed.], bikes, inline skaters, and hikers. Welcoming you to share this magnificent resource are the fine towns and amenities along the way." Use this site to find out where, for example, to find the bakeries along the trail.
[Added March 19, 1998.]
Paul Bunyan Trail: This 100-mile recreational trail-- from Brainerd to Bemidji-- and the amenities along it are described in excellent detail by this good-looking page. It's a rail-to-trail, with an asphalt surface.
Saint Paul Bicycle Racing Club: "With 200 members, SPBRC is the largest and most diverse racing club in the Upper Midwest." In its fifteenth year. This site offers club news, their schedule, and road, track, and off-road sections. Yes-- links, too.
[Added April 20, 1997.]
Twin Cities Bicycling Club: "TCBC currently has over 1200 household memberships, with rides in and around Minneapolis & St. Paul (MN) and surrounding areas. We are a social, recreational club with rides for every ability level. This summer we have scheduled over 100 rides per month. Check out our on-line calendar for this week's rides!"
[Added June 1, 1998.]
Willard Munger State Trail, Short Line Segment: This 14-mile segment of the four-part Willard Munger State Trail runs from Duluth to Carleton. This site-- jam-packed with such features as frames and font control-- includes a map, personal notes on the trail, related links, and so forth.

Missouri

Bicycle Fun Club: A touring club with a big schedule of rides, based in Maryland Heights. We think that's near Saint Louis.
[Added October 29, 1996.]
EarthRiders: This page is for mountain bike riders in the Kansas City area, put up by the local mountain biking club. There are more than a dozen sections, including a few scoped beyond the KC region, such as a nice list of MTB clubs and organizations in the entire Midwest region, and a multi-state clickable map of trail listings. Some sections are still being implemented.
[Added November 3, 1997.]
Gateway Council of Hostelling International/American Youth Hostels: Bicycling: Proponents and practitioners of the golden art of youth hostelling. Besides their newsletter, this page has information on various and plentiful recreational activities- of most interest to this crowd would be the various multi-day bike rides that they run in Missouri, such as the Bicycle Across Missouri.
[Updated March 6, 1998.]
Interactive Katy Trail: "Missouri's Katy Trail is the longest "Rails to Trails"conversion in the U.S... a hiking and biking path that winds through 200 miles of Missouri river bottoms and farmland... passes through 35 small towns... This on-line guidebook will lead you on a town-by-town tour... There's also a day-trip of the month, a recipe for blue berry wine and more." Coming soon: online video. A slickness of the first order.
[Updated March 6, 1998.]
Katy Trail State Park: This page consists of an unofficial reprint of the trailhead handout for this 200-mile rail-to-trail that runs from Machens to Sedalia, MO. Includes a map. Two sections have been completed-- 45 miles from St. Charles to Treloar, and 81 miles from Sedalia to Jefferson City.
Missouri Bicycle Racing Association: "The Missouri Bicycle Racing Association coordinates USCF racing in the state. This MOBRA site includes race calendars, results, a club directory and even a little direction for beginners." An exceptionally good-looking site, too.
[Added June 1, 1997.]
St Louis Biking: St. Louis' Most comprehensive cycling web site. News, Race Coverage, Race Schedule, Race Results, Extensive Photo Gallery, FREE Classified Ads, Interactive Group Ride Calendar, Message Board, Bike Trails, Chatroom. Updated daily. Offical Website for the Gateway Cup Race, AMBC Big Shark Challenge and Wentzville Stage Races.; [Added: May 29, 2001. ]
St. Louis Bicycle Trails: Over a dozen trails are listed here, with a map showing their location, and page for each one with pictures and discussion.; [Added: August 21, 2002. ]
Missouri Bicycle Racing Calendar: Monthly listings for both road and off-road bike races held across the state. Free listings.; [Added: February 17, 2002. ]
St. Louis Cycle Central: Convenient, one-stop "links" site for all of St. Louis' online bike clubs, groups, shops and dealers.; [Added: February 17, 2002. ]
St. Louis Bike Trails: Maps and descriptions of trails in the St. Louis area.
[Added ]

Nebraska

The Cowboy Trail: "Work is starting on the nations longest recreation trail, the Cowboy Trail." Yes, it's a rail-to-trail conversion, but "only" 321 miles long. The site includes history, information, and a map thereof.
[Added February 11, 1998.]
Nebraska Biking and Hiking Trails: This big page describes some mountain biking and rails-to-trails resources in Nebraska, plus links to other relevant sites. The state of Nebraska puts it up as part of a larger page describing parks and recreation resources. Recently resited... again!
[Updated February 11, 1998.]
Road Cycling around Omaha: Lots of good local cycling information-- including maps and route descriptions-- for the Omaha cyclist.

North Dakota

The High Plains Rider: Big graphical page devoted to mountain biking, based in North Dakota. We liked the section on the Sunshine Award-- held at this writing by Kevin Hughes of West Allis, WI-- the holder of which is "entitled to nothing." Other sections include a North Dakota trails list, a ski page, an events calendar, and a picture gallery. Neato.
[Added January 17, 1997. Submitted by Stacey Piotrowski.]
West Dakota Biking: This page focuses on mountain biking in the Medora area. It's part of a larger page for the area, here. Maps, trail descriptions, and links to relevant resources.
[Added December 1, 1998.]

Ohio

bike Toledo: Information on biking in Toledo, such as a list of clubs, race information, and a decent off-road section with a reviewed trails list.
[Added October 28, 1996.]
Bike Miami Valley, OH: News, Events, and trail information for the Dayton area.; [Added: February 11, 2002. ]
Cincinnati Cycle Club: Since 1880, a recreational/sport club for cyclists with a full schedule of rides for all abilities and ages. The page features an advocacy section, a rides page, "bike lawyer" (a regular column by a legal expert), and-- of course-- links. This club is organized into seven "clusters"-- regional subgroups that take responsibility for leading certain events in their areas. Maybe that's why they're still around after 116 years.
[Added November 10, 1996.]
Columbus Outdoor Pursuits: COP is the largest outdoor recreation club in Central Ohio. It is best known for its bicycle mega-tours: The Tour Of the Scioto River Valley (TOSRV), the annual 210 mile Mother's Day weekend bicycle ride, and The Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure (GOBA) bicycle tour, the largest weeklong bicycle tour east of the Mississippi River.
[Added March 1, 1997.]
Dayton Cycling Club: This very active club has touring, mountain biking, commuting, advocacy, and racing (including an ultramarathon team) agendas, a pretty full plate. They get some support from Huffy, and sponsor two annual invitational centuries.
[Added December 11, 1996.]
Greater Ohioan Area Tandem Society: Otherwise known as G.O.A.T.S., these are the folks bringing us the 1997 Midwest Tandem Rally this year. They warn that "state and federal grants for tandem rallies have been sharply curtailed," but plan to do their best to bring us an excellent rally this year. And we believe that they will.
[Submitted by Glenn Boutilier. Added November 10, 1996.]
Hancock Handlebars: Touring club in Findlay, which is in Hancock County. Sponsors, since the early '70s, of the annual Horizontal Hundred century tour, which was formerly the largest single-day century tour in America.
[Updated January,2002.]
[Added April 5, 1998.]
Heart of Ohio Tailwinds Bicycle Club: "Located in Marion, Ohio, we offer rides for bikers of every ability level." Also, birthplace of William Harding and home of a gigantic penitentiary.
[Added April 5, 1998.]
Little Miami Trail: "The Little Miami Trail is a paved bike/hike/skate trail following an abandoned railroad route from Milford, an eastern suburb of Cincinnati, to Yellow Springs, 60 miles north. For much of its length, the pavement is paralleled by a grassy strip suitable for horses, walkers or runners who dislike pavement, and cross-country skiing in rare winters. The route is entirely off-road except for five blocks in Xenia." This page, hosted by the Miami Chapter of the Sierra Club (Ohio's oldest!) tells the tale of this trail with helpful hints, such as nice alternate routes for those who go bleary-eyed after dozens of miles of dead flat riding.
[Added December 15, 1997.]
Little Miami Scenic Trail: Another page for the Little Miami Trail, this one a bit longer and with photos and a map.
[Added July 21, 1998.]
Maumee Valley Wheelmen: "The Toledo area bicycle racing club." Since 1969, this USCF affiliate has been racing in the Toledo area. They also sponsor recreational rides. Their membership spans a range of ages of six (pushing seven) decades! This good-looking page tells how and why to join. Recently resited.
[Updated December 2, 1996.]
Mountain Biking Ohio: This page, by Single Track Press, should really be in the Books... section of Links to Commercial Pages, promoting as it does a book of the same name-- but it's regional enough in focus to be more useful here, and not egregiously pushy. The look is very professional, built, as the site is, by professionals. Up since April, 1997, they intend to feature different content-- such as an MTB trail-- drawn from the book, each couple of weeks. And, there is the opportunity for users to add trail reviews to the New Trails section. This is as deep as I looked-- I escaped from Ohio in 1973, an occasion I still commemorate with a twelve-pack of Little Kings at random intervals-- but those of you lacking my good fortune will want to dig deep, deep, deep to find the many nuggets offered by this site. Sometimes commercial can be okay.
[Added June 1, 1997.]
MTB Cincy Mountain Bike Racing Club: "Cincinnati beginner and sport class mountain bike and road racing. Our focus is training as a group, racing as a team and having fun as friends." They ride five times a week. Info about the club, their schedule, their races, and information of general interest-- particularly about training-- all here.
[Added June 12, 1998.]
Ohio Bicycle Federation: Advocating for Ohio bicyclists since 1880, this page looks professionally done. Besides background information, they have a giant statewide list of biking events online, and information on how to get your own (free!) print copy of it.
[Added November 10, 1996.]
Ohio University Mountain Bike Club: This club has organized rides, listed here along with a nice trail list for the region. OU is in Athens, in the southeastern corner of Ohio.
[Updated April 5, 1998.]
PDQ Cleveland: PDQ Cleveland, a club dedicated to the promotion of bicycle racing. Most members are licensed riders, over 30, and live the Greater Cleveland area, but the club is open to any interested individual.
[Udated 6 February 2000.]
anthony rhodes /andy bigfun kent bike guy: Advocacy in the Kent, OH area. Product testing? This site is not strong on grammer, and perhaps doesn't need to be in ALL CAPS.; [Added: November 9, 2000. ]
Queen City Wheels: "The Queen City Wheels, member club #0153 of USA Cycling, has been promoting sanctioned bicycle racing in the Greater Cincinnati area since 1972."
[Added April 5, 1998.]
Stark County Bicycle Club: A touring club based in Canton, which is in northeast Ohio.
[Added December 11, 1996.]

Wisconsin

See also our links to various bike-related groups in Wisconsin , and Dane County. interest.

Here are a few links that are of strictly local-- Madison/Dane County--

Effective Cycling Instructors in Wisconsin: Learn how to really ride a bike! Contact a certified instructor to find out when they are next holding classes.; [Added: April 28, 2003. ]
Madison City Home Page: Yep.
Madison Metropolitan Bus Company: Thanks to your letters and support, bikes on buses are now a reality in Madison.
Madison Metropolitan School District: Useful for finding the schools, which are sometimes the location of public hearings.
Madison Summer Hostel: Madison finally has its own hostel, new for 1997. Open from early June to late August at 210 Langdon Street-- about as central a location as you could ask, being only a few blocks from both the campus and the Capitol Square-- accomodations range from $10 to $30, with substantial discounts for those arriving without a deathmobile. The page offers basic information on the hostel, relevant links to local pages, and this dynamically-generated map, which I seem to have had the gall to have stolen. Life is good.
[Added May 31, 1997.]
The Capital Times: Dane County's afternoon paper.
UW Bicycling: Bicycling information from the Transporation Services division of UW-Madison; [Added: August 22, 2002. ]

Now we return to our regularly-scheduled program: Wisconsin sites.

Bay View Bicycle Club: "Celebrating Ten Years Enjoying South-East Wisconsin Cycling." Online is the ride schedule-- mostly weekend rides from April through October-- membership info, and information on their monthly meetings. They have a ride hotline at 414-299-0317, and ride all around the Milwaukee suburban area.
[Updated May 2003.]
[Added March 8, 1999.]
Wisconsin Biking: Tons of links on trails, clubs, maps and more.; [Added: February 18, 2002. ]
Bicycling Community Page: This page, which serves Dane County, Wisconsin..
Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association: "The premier system of off-road bike trails in the Midwest located in and around the beautiful Chequamegon National Forest region of northwest Wisconsin."
[Added May, 2001.]
Cream City Cycle Club: Milwaukee's touring club. The schedule, with starting points, is here.
[Updated: June, 2002]
[Added March 29, 1998.]
Cycling Historic Sharon: Sharon WI is a bit east of Beloit. The Sharon Main Street Association has teamed up with the Pac Tour folks to produce a set of six tours in the area-- all starting in the center of town-- which they publish as a set of plastic coated maps. This site tells you about the routes, the area, and where to pick up your own set of maps. Could it be that they are free? It appears to be the case.
[Updated May 2003.]
[Added June 22, 1997.]
GRABAAWR: GRABAAWR, and now SAGBRAW, are multi-day for-profit rides run by former BFW director Bill Hauda. This is a commercial site, listed here so we can pretend that there are more non-commercial WI sites than there really are.
[Added December 31, 1997.]
Great Dane Velo Club: A Madison racing club with a focus on USCF junior riders, but open to masters riders as well.
[Updated May 2003.]
[Added March 20, 1998.]
Hoofer Biking Page: Biking page for the Outing Club of the Wisconsin Hoofers. Also, a mountain biking page.
[Updated March 14, 1998.]
Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation: "The Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization headquartered in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. The Foundation has more than 1,200 volunteers in Wisconsin and more than 3,500 members nationwide. Through a cooperative agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the National Park Service, the Foundation staff and volunteers work to create, build and maintain the many segments of the Ice Age Trail, a 1,000-mile national and state scenic trail located entirely in Wisconsin."
Note that biking is not allowed on most or all of the trail, but you can bike TO the trail.
[Added April 13, 1998.]
Iron County Trails: This page is part of a larger site promoting Iron County Wisconsin tourism. They've got a lot of trails up there that are accessible to mountain bikers, and they are happy to let us know about them with this fine and informative page. Thanks, folks.
[Added April 7, 1998.]
Kenosha Velodrome: "Located at Washington Road and 22nd Avenue, Kenosha, Wisconsin is home to the oldest operating velodrome in the USA." Racing on Tuesdays.
[Added March 1, 1999.]
Kettle Moraine Fall Color Festival: The KMFCF is an annual fund-raising off-road race, which this site describes, but there is much more than that at this site-- trail maps in PDF format, for example-- and more coming.
Mad Trail FORCs: Information on the Mad Trail FORCs, a Madison-based mountain-biking club for women.
Madison Audubon Society: Highlights of the Audubon Caws, their wonderful monthly newsletter, calendar of events, resources for local birders, and links to related resources.
[Added May 19, 1997.]
Metro Mountain Bikers (Milwaukee): I don't know what it is about mountain biking that attracts much of Wisconsin's best talent in graphical arts, but the web side profits from that bond. This lovely page for Metro Mountain Bikers, the Milwaukee chapter of WORBA, offers wonderful events calendars, deep information on regional trails, news, and so forth. It almost doesn't matter what they tell us, it's such a pleasure to be told it when the design is this good.
[Added February 17, 1999.]
Mountain Biking in the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine Forest: This page, just starting up at this writing, is intended to be "an electronic bike ride through the northern unit of the Kettle Moraine State forest." He bemoans the lack of photographs, but there are some maps and the text is good. And, it will only improve with time-- after he gets his "carburator problems" resolved. There is an assortment of other resources here as well, such as a guide to Wisconsin frogs, well-written and augmented with good photos. Also, an augmented version of the Department of Tourism's new Wisconsin Off-Road Bicycle Trails Guide, with some of his own suggestions for trails added. Author Lucas Paruch is a student at UW Platteville trying to fill the hours while he waits for riding season to begin again.
[Added November 10, 1996.]
Southwest Chain Gang: This page is for a touring club for Southwestern Wisconsin. Club info and events list are here, plus- as far as I can see, a first for any club page- the membership list, complete with email addresses for the spamsters to harvest.
[Added July 11, 1998.]
Spring City Spinners: "Spring City Spinners is a bicycle touring club located in Waukesha WI. We emphasize group recreational cycling, safe and effective riding, socializing, bicycle advocacy, and fun."
[Added March 8, 1999.]
[Updated April, 2001.]
Team Life Cyclists: A USCF affiliate in Milwaukee, with road, track, and mountain bike racing on their plates. They sponsor bicycle helmet/safety programs as their contribution to the community.
[Added August 20, 1997; submitted by Dave Siegler.]
Trail Talk: "Trail Talk is published two to four times a year by the Bureau of Parks and Recreation of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. It provides news about planning, development, legislation, policies, events, funding, trends, research, maps, guidebooks, and other topics related to trails for hiking, bicycling, skating, horseback riding, skiing, snowshoeing, dogsledding, snowmobiling, all-terrain vehicles, four-wheel-drive vehicles, motorcycles, and other uses. It is intended for people who plan, provide, fund, and use trails." This link takes you to a Gopher directory with past issues and background information, but at this writing hasn't been updated in more than two years.
[Updated May 1, 1997.]
Transportation Information Center: "Every year Wisconsin's municipalities spend $900,000,000 to repair and replace roads and bridges. The Wisconsin TIC was created in 1983 to help local highway officials manage their road systems and this huge road budget." We also would welcome the opportunity to help them spend it. What's here is information on their activities, such as their 4000-subscriber newsletter for state and local transportation officials, but no actual technical information. It's a University of WI-Madison Department of Engineering Center.
[Added April 20, 1998.]
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Cycling Team: A fairly new NCCA road and mountain biking team at UWM, sponsors of the 1997 NCCA Mountain Bike Nationals. Their calendar, members, a photo album, and links to other clubs in the conference is all here, plus more.
[Added September 9, 1997.]
University of Wisconsin-Madison Cycling Team: This page is for the NCCA team at UW-Madison.
[Added March 20, 1998.]
Wausau Wheelers: A touring club and off-road club in Wausau, Wisconsin, LAB affiliated, with a big list of events, some of which attract riders from around the region-- for example, the annual Impulse Family Ride and Century and the off-road Gear Grinder Classic. This page has expanded in scope each time we visit.
[Updated March 15, 1998.]
Wisconsin Cycling Association: "A USCF member association, representing the sport of Bicycle Racing in Wisconsin." A source for race schedules and current Wisconsin Cup standings. Hurray!
[Updated February 11, 1998. Submitted by John Larson.]
WiscOnline: This page is a collection of events and attractions listings, supported by advertising. Of interest to bicyclists would be Wisconsin Bicycle Trails, Wisconsin Road Tours, and Wisconsin Mountain Bike Trails, though all of those will be more useful when the promised maps appear. Also, you can search the events list from a form on the front page to find all the bicycling-related events.
[Added February 18, 1998.]
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: I found the calendar of events (here) to be the most useful thing on this page. It's just starting up and much more information is promised soon.
Wisconsin Department of Tourism: This page has a new location and a slick new look. The section on biking is here, more than half of which is a pretty handy list of rail trails and off-road sites, including a map that shows the locations (why this isn't an image map is a question to ponder).
Wisconsin Department of Transportation: These are the fine folks that are bringing us such welcome projects as the proposed widening of state highway 12-- to four lanes-- between Middleton and Sauk City. The site features a news section, which tells about, among other things, public hearings, and features a clickable map divided into the eight WisDOT districts-- click to move to news for your district. Dane County is in district one, "south central Wisconsin." Also a handy newsletter targetted at WisDOT employees, the obligatory list of links to other transportation-oriented sites, and a handy "facts and figures" (lies, damn lies, and statistics?) section, where they even mention bicycling (!):
Currently, approximately 6% to 9% of all Wisconsin work trips are made by walking and bicycling. In several metropolitan areas, almost 20% of trips are made by these modes.
Also, that Wisconsin has 4.3 million registered vehicles for 3.5 million licensed motorists, and that there are 110,000 miles of highways, roads, and streets statewide (but only 4200 miles of railroad tracks). In 1994, 706 people were killed in motor vehicle accidents-- including 9 bicyclists and 50 pedestrians.
Wisconsin Off-Road Bicycling Association: WORBA is Wisconsin's off-road advocacy organization. This page gives background information and an on-line version of the newsletter, The Singletrack Sentinel.
[Updated February 1, 1997.]
Wisconsin Stewardship Network: An almost unbelievably good-looking site, this is the motherlode of information for local environmental activists: action alerts, issues-- the section on land use is the best we've seen anywhere, and we've been looking-- a calendar that allows users to add events, a set of chat rooms, a clickable map in the "hub" section that finds contacts and resources in your part of Wisconsin-- we found a wonderful page full of stuff from Citizens for a Better Environment. There's more, too, but we make it a policy to spend no more than two hours reviewing a site.
[Added May 19, 1997.]
WISIL HPVers: "The WISIL HPVers are a group of individuals from the Wisconsin and Illinois area who are bent toward Human Powered Vehicle riding, racing, and building." They have monthly meetings, and this beautifully-crafted web site is chock full of information about their projects and the people behind them. Also, a good set of links to other HPV sites, and some how-to articles on building your own HPV stuff, such as fairings or entire vehicles. And, a list of dealers.
[Added March 29, 1998.]
[Updated Dec. 30, 2000]

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