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| Riding under I-55. 7/23/26 dwm |
The last time I rode my bike in Springfield, Illinois it was September 15, 2017 and the start of a vacation through Indiana and Michigan before returning home.
This time Springfield was the destination for a four day, three night stay in Illinois' capital city.
My wife was visiting family and I had the opportunity to get on my bike.
Our hotel was down the street from the trail head for the Lost Bridge Trail, the first of three trails around Springfield. In 2017 it was my only ride in Springfield.
I brought the Schwinn Traveler instead of the recumbent because it rides on the back of our car better than my heavier recumbent.
It was the first time this year on the Traveler. It's a good bike. If the tires are inflated, and it gets serviced periodically, it's ready to ride.
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| The South Fork bridge. 7/23/26 dwm |
It was just a couple miles down the trail when I felt something on my right calf. It was my water bottle.
After 46 years, the cage holding the bottle simply fell off. I stopped to grab the bottle, placing it in a back pocket of my bike jersey and put the broken cage into a backpack. Holding bottles are a primary reason for back pockets along the bottom of the jersey.
It worked fine but I'd rather have a cage.
Rochester, Illinois is home to 4,000 residents and is currently the end of the line for the Lost Bridge Trail. The interesting name comes from the missing Sugar Creek bridge which was pilfered by salvage hunters before the Department of Transportation secured the structure for possible use with a bike path.
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| The trail ends at Cardinal Hill Rd. 7/23/26 dwm |
I turned the bike around, noting a field of soybeans on one side, a busy highway and new developments on the other ready for the eight-and-a-half-mile ride back.
After getting back to the park-like property around the DOT, I pulled out my phone to search for a bike shop. It identified one three miles away on MacArthur Boulevard.
Springfield and most of the landscape in this part of Illinois is flat. The biggest hill I climbed on this ride was going up and over a bridge that crossed a set of active railroad tracks.
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| Hilltop Rd Tunnel on the way back. 7/23/26 dwm |
The shop was quiet when I walked in. One of the guys in the back came out to help. I told him about the broken water bottle cage and asked for a new one. Plus, I didn't have any tools with me, so could he install it?
He grabbed his tools and minutes later my bottle was secure in its new home.
While he installed the cage, I noticed shelves with Ace Bikes t-shirts and decided to buy one after this great experience. We talked about bikes while he worked, I learned he raced bikes in years past and now sticks to fixing them and putting bikes back on the trail.
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| Installing a new cage. 7/24/26 dwm |
Mentally, I was prepared to pay for equipment and the service. It was $9. I had already decided the least I could do in any case was to grab a store t-shirt to commemorate this fortuitous event. The total was $19, plus tax, which felt like a great deal.
If you live anywhere close to Springfield, Illinois - I'd encourage you to check out Ace Bikes. It has a good inventory of bikes and I learned first-hand they are indeed 'aces' when it comes to customer service. Thanks for your help and the more than fair price tag!
There was no bike computer on this trip, but the speedometer occasionally indicated going 14 to 15 mph, and from looking carefully at a map, this trip was conservatively at least 24 miles.
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| Ace Bike Shop 2500 S MacArthur Boulevard, Springfield, IL. 7/23/2026 dwm |
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| The DOT headquarters looks over the Lost Bridge Trail. 7/23/2026 dwm |
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| Interstate 55 on the other side of the DOT's pond and Lost Bridge Trail. 7/23/26 dwm |
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