SUN CITY – Bob Hinkle really, seriously likes to ride a bike. How seriously, you ask?
Well, he once rode a bike from San Diego to Georgia. It took him six weeks. He later topped that with a bike trip from Seattle to Delaware. Those were tours sponsored by a touring group called Wandering Wheels.
A resident of Sun City since 2005, he has ridden every bike trail and route in the northern Illinois area and has created several new riding routes in the Sun City area. He has been a busy rider most of his adult life.
In fact, his riding hobby actually brought him to Sun City about eight years ago.
“I was a long-time member of the Arlington Heights Cycle Club,” Hinkle said. “We used to ride and camp out in the Garden Prairie Park area near Woodstock, and other places in McHenry County. I wasn’t looking for a new home after I retired in 1995, but I began to notice a lot of homes being built in the Huntley area. I saw houses I liked in Sun City that [were] for sale, and I took a virtual tour of the property on Realtor Sara Mitchell’s website. I liked the prices, and my wife Shirley and I came here in early 2005.”
Hinkle and bike riding are inseparable, like a boy and his dog. Hinkle rides all year, in rain or shine, cold and heat, in snow, ice, and fog. A day without a ride is a bad one to him. He likes it so much he makes a big deal out of getting dressed for a ride in winter. When this writer arrived at Hinkle’s house for an interview, he had his cold-weather riding clothes laid out on the dining room table, and he happily demonstrated how he puts on several layers of pants, shirts, sweaters, jackets, and high-tech gloves, shoes, and hats. He doesn’t wear just one of anything when it’s cold.
“For bike riders, cotton is out in winter,” he said. “You need polyester and Lycra materials in what you wear, and you need layers. You also need bright colors to be very visible to motorists.”
When Cyclepaths Club members ride in a group, it’s a colorful scene, with lots of bright red, green, yellow, and blue outfits.
“Most of us use metal cleats in our shoes, which attach to the pedals,” he said. “That helps us keep our feet firmly in control. But it requires us to twist our legs and pull up to separate our feet from the pedals when we stop.”
Hinkle has been instrumental in turning the Cyclepaths Club into a year-round activity.
“We ride in winter when the pavements and sidewalks are dry and it’s around 40 degrees or higher,” he said. “We try real hard to get a group together on every New Year’s Day for a mid-winter ride. We’ve been able to do that for several years. We usually ride over to Hampshire or Marengo, go to the Cool Bean Coffee Shop in Hampshire to warm up and drink coffee, and then return. One New Year’s Day when the weather was bad, we just rode around the block near our homes.”
Hinkle was a major early member and the first president of the Sun City Cyclepaths Club, one of the community’s newer charter groups. It began with just a few riders and now numbers about 40 men and women. Hinkle and others have made up several routes for riding in the northern Illinois area.
“We have three groups in our club,” he said. “The C group rides in the community. The B group rides a little faster and goes to nearby communities. The A group goes beyond, to the Fox River trail east of here and to places up near the state line or into Wisconsin. The routes vary from a few miles to 30 or 40 miles.”
He said, “I’ve ridden my bike in every state of the nation, including Alaska and Hawaii. I’m proud of that. I keep fit by riding, and my life is exciting, not boring.”
Hinkle didn’t get into bike-riding the usual way; it happened because of one of his sons.
“My son was hanging out at a bike shop in Arlington Heights, where we raised our kids,” Hinkle said. “The shop’s owner eventually gave him a job there, and I could tell my son really liked bikes and riding. I soon learned about the Arlington Heights Club, and I joined. My first bike was a 12-speed Fuji, and I remember getting sunburned and being chased by dogs. I learned the hard way to get used to some of the challenges in riding.”
Hinkle, now 73, retired in 1996 from a career as a biology and chemistry teacher at Maine East High School in Park Ridge. Asked if he taught any of several East students who later became famous, he smiled and said, “I had Jami Gertz in one of my classes, and I remember she was talented in drama and singing. I don’t remember if she changed her name. She eventually wound up in Hollywood in movies. My other major memory of East was how the airplane noise from O’Hare broke windows in the days before the building was sound-proofed and new windows were installed.”
