Let’s Ride!
Click on the buttons below for information about our rides and other events!
NEW! - Automatically add CATS Events to your Personal Calendar
It is now possible to subscribe to the CATS Events Calendar so that CATS Events automatically show up on your personal calendar the same time they are posted to the CATS Events Calendar.
This will work if your personal calendar is a Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or most other calendars that are capable of accepting an iCal (.ics) link.
More information can be found at the link below.
NEW! - Midwest Tandem Clubs Calendar
A joint calendar has been developed so that each of the Midwest Tandem Clubs can post their individual club rides on one combined calendar. This calendar is new this year and is sparsely populated as of the time of this writing, but rides will be added as the season progresses. CATS will still maintain our ride/event list on this website, but will also add our rides to the combined Midwest Tandem Clubs Calendar. The new calendar can be viewed by clicking the button below.
Lead a Ride
Have a favorite ride that you think others would enjoy? Riding is what makes the club and all club members are welcome to become a ride leader. The ride leader is responsible for designing the route and creating cue sheets for use by other riders. Most ride leaders will create a route on Ride With GPS, which can then be downloaded by participants. Ride leaders will also need to download and print waiver forms for signature by participants on the day of the ride. Following the ride, copies of the signed waiver forms should be emailed to the CATS club secretary.
Members who are interested in leading a ride may do so by clicking on the “Lead a Ride” link below to submit a ride. You will then work with the CATS webmaster to have your cue sheets and any other pertinent information posted on the CATS website. Thanks for considering becoming a ride leader!
Log Your Miles
For those club members who are interested, we maintain a mileage logger spreadsheet and have integrated this with a cumulative, year-log virtual ride. Members may log tandem, single bike, and trainer miles ridden. Each rider is assigned an icon on the map and the icon progresses along the virtual route as you log more and more miles! To join the virtual ride, fill out a Contact Form requesting to be added to the ride and we will enter your name in the system. This is meant as a fun means to motivate us to continue riding, and riding keeps us all healthier than we would otherwise be!
The 2024 virtual ride follows two established cycling routes in Europe. The first segment of the ride follows EuroVelo 6 from the western coast of France to the Black Sea. We’ll ride (virtually) almost the full length of the Loire and Danube Rivers and cross through France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, and Bulgaria before reaching the mouth of the Danube at the Black Sea in Romania. We will then transfer to Athens, Greece, to begin segment two of the ride which will follow EuroVelo 8. This segment stays close to the Mediterranean Coast all the way to Gibraltar, Spain, passing through Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France, and Spain. Wow! That’s a lot of riding!
About CATS
Greetings from the Chicago Area Tandem Society. We want to welcome all visitors to the site whether you are new and curious about tandem bicycling or looking for a club to join. Founded as an off-shoot of hosting the 1984 Midwest Tandem Rally, the Chicago Area Tandem Society is a friendly group of riders who enjoy riding together and developing friendships with other tandem enthusiasts. Any tandemist will tell you that riding a tandem is great fun. It's hard to beat the exhilaration of riding in a pack of a dozen or more cruising tandems.
Although our members primarily live in the greater Chicagoland area, we welcome members from any location and even have some members from adjoining states. Club rides typically take place on a monthly basis during the summer and usually involve a restaurant lunch break either during or after the ride. Some members enjoy a rapid pace while others enjoy taking in the scenery while ambling along at a very comfortable speed. As always, the goal on any of our rides is to have fun and enjoy each other's company. No matter what style of riding you like, or what type of tandem you have, you'll find you're welcome in CATS! If you have any questions, feel free to ask using the “contact” form.
The Chicago Area Tandem Society maintains a Club Account with Ride With GPS. The CATS RWGPS Club account can be accessed using the link below.
The other link below is to a copy of slides from the RWGPS presentation given at the 2024 CATS Spring Meeting.
Routes for all club rides where the ride leader has submitted GPS based files will be stored on the CATS RWGPS site.
CATS RWGPS routes are available for viewing by the general public, but all CATS members should obtain individualized login credentials that will allow members access to added benefits such as Voice Navigation on all club rides. Members may use our Contact Form to request RWGPS login credentials. You will be sent a link that will allow you to obtain your personal login.
The RWGPS mobile app is the most convenient way to utilize RWGPS while riding. You can download the RWGPS app to your phone using your phone's app store.
Photo Gallery
A gallery of photos from past rides can be viewed by clicking the link below.
Club Jerseys
The jerseys shown in the above photos are the 2023 and earlier version. A completely new 2024 CATS jersey is currently in the works and will be available soon. If you would like to purchase one of the “older” 2023 jerseys fill out a contact form by clicking the link below, state your interest in purchasing a jersey on the contact form, then we will get back with you and arrangements will be made to bring sample sizes to the next ride or meeting so you can try them on. Size availability for the 2023 jerseys is limited.
Mobile Users - Where’s the Beef?
While the CATS website presents fairly well on a mobile device, sometimes you have to do more scrolling than you would like to reach a link to your desired page. For this reason, we have a “Just the Beef” page which centralizes access to the most frequently used pages and sites and contains only button links to those pages. You can bookmark the page on your phone, then use it as your starting point to jump to your desired pages. Want potatoes and veggies with that? No thanks, I’ll take Just the Beef!