Local Bikers to Ride 200 Miles this Weekend for Charity

This weekend's Rotary GroveFest isn't the only major undertaking by a local club this weekend: The Pedalheads Bike Team, featuring many members of its off-shoot Downers Grove Bicycle Club, will embark on a 200 mile bike ride in the name of charity.

Taking part in the 2012 Bike MS: Tour de Farms in Dekalb in this weekend, Team Pedalheads have raised nearly $45,000—with every biker in the ride required to raise at least $300 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society—and currently sit as the top fundraiser for the event, according to team captain Vicky Tate. If the Pedalheads can hold on and remain the top fundraiser, they'll receive certain perks at next year's ride, like the ability to be the first team to start.

“Getting to leave first means you don't have to spend the first hour getting past all the amateurs riders,” Tate said.

Roughly 120 members of Team Pedalheads will help make up an estimated 2,400 riders in this weekend's ride, which starts and ends each day at Northern Illinois University's Convocation Center. The ride takes place over Saturday and Sunday, with roughly 125 miles of the ride taking place on Saturday and the remaining 75 miles happening on Sunday. It's a social ride, Tate said, and the 125 miles on Saturday will take up to eight hours to ride for leisurely riders and less than five hours for those pushing themselves.

While the Pedalheads mainly participate in MS rides, the Downers Grove Bike Club, which was born out of the Pedalheads, does a lot more, according to Tate. The 100+ member club is based out of Downers Grove but membership is available to anyone who wants to join, regardless of where they live.

“The bike club is for anybody in the community that wants to ride their bikes,” Tate said. “We do various rides and hold social events and it's a nice way for people to connect in the community.”

The club also holds picnics each year and participates in the Grumpy Troll Ride, which is a group ride in Verona, Wisconsin named after a nearby brewpub in nearby Mount Horeb, Tate said. The bike club is also active in the community and has held meetings in response to the to make Downers Grove more bike friendly to brainstorm various ways the village can improve bike safety.

Among those ideas, Tate said, are pedestrian street lights at crossings on roads the club take to get to their training course on Frontage; street sweepers that sweep the shoulders of the roads where broken glass causes flat tires; street signs that alert cars there should be a three-foot gap between cars and bicycles.

Anyone interested in joining the bike club on a ride can usually find them leaving from on Saturday mornings around 7 a.m. for rides of various distances. To make sure, though, Tate recommends checking out the club's calendar, which you can find here. No matter what your skill level, Tate said, the bike club offers something rewarding.

“We offer a nice alternative to eating and drinking and give people something healthy to do and it's very family oriented,” Tate said.