Dear ride organizer,

For more than 20 years, Ride Illinois has collected information about upcoming invitational rides and bike-themed events as an easy and affordable way for bike clubs to promote their rides. We are reaching out today to ask if the club (or organization) wants to use our service in 2022. For 2022, we will again have a digital Ride Guide -- a lower-cost method to reach 10,000 known invitational riders plus bike shop customers, while reducing the financial risk of an event cancellation.

For the past three years, we have published a Ride Guide "keeper" magazine, with each ride having a 5.5” X 8.5” ad. Last year's digital Ride Guide was extremely well received by all who downloaded it!

For 2022, our Ride Guide will be in a digital format, published as a PDF, to keep costs down for clubs and reduce publishing and distribution costs. Ride Illinois will mail postcards to 10,000 households and rack cards to approximately 200 bike shops across the state. Both the postcards and rack cards will direct people to the digital Ride Guide.

Ride Illinois invites you to promote your ride with a 5.5” X 8.5” page in our 2022 Ride Guide which will be distributed online in March. Since it will be a digital format, we will include links for both your ride’s website as well as a registration link!  

The fee to purchase an ad in the 2022 Ride Guide will remain unchanged from 2021. Fees will be $250 for Ride Illinois affiliated bike clubs (reduced by nearly 60% over the 2020 fee), $450 for other bike clubs, and $500 for other organizations conducting bicycle ride events ($600 for those organizations that do not provide a rider list).

Participating clubs will email their ad as a PDF (with fonts outlined) or JPG. All associated images must be at least 200dpi. The layout will be the same as the 2021 Ride Guide. You can view the template here.

Each 5.5" x 8.5" page of our magazine has only one ad! Most ride organizers provide their own ads; however, if you do not make your own ad, we can recommend a graphic designer that can produce one for you for an additional fee.

The $250 rate is for affiliated bike clubs that have made a donation to Ride Illinois within the past year. To learn more about supporting our advocacy work and the benefits of club affiliation, please visit our website. Thank you for supporting our work for better bicycling in Illinois!

Ride Illinois affiliated bike clubs also receive additional support in promoting their invitational rides by having:

• Their ride listed our website event calendar
• Their ride promoted on our social media with potential to reach nearly 11,000 followers
• Their ride listed in our e-newsletter sent to 6,500 individuals

If you are interested in purchasing an ad in our 2022 Ride Guide, please contact Ride Illinois Communications and Projects Coordinator Gina Kenny as soon as possible at gina@rideillinois.org or (708) 334-2244.

When: The Ride Guide will be available in the beginning of March. The earlier deadline will allow potential riders to plan their season's rides sooner.

Participant List: Clubs/Organizations must provide a list of previous event participants in an Excel spreadsheet to Ride Illinois with separate columns for first name, last name, main address, additional address info (such as apartment or unit number), city, state, and zip. Please send a separate file of your members so that they receive the ride magazine, too. (Please note that it greatly helps our deduplication process if the first and last names are in separate fields. Also, we only want rider lists for the past one to two years, not earlier.)

Geographic Distribution: This depends on the participant lists received from the clubs. Ride Illinois invites all Illinois bike clubs to purchase an ad in the Ride Guide and welcome the opportunity to promote organized rides throughout the state.

Participation Fee:

$250 for current Ride Illinois-affiliated bike clubs per ad, $450 for other bike clubs, $500 for other organizations providing a list ($600 if no list is provided)

Bike clubs must be current in their affiliation, meaning they have made a donation to Ride Illinois within the past year. If you are unsure of your status, please contact us at gina@rideillinois.org.

Our fee covers printing of postcards and rack cards, postage, and other associated costs. It does not include the production of your ride's ad.

Deadlines for 2022 Ride Guide

2/14/22: Commitment to Ride Illinois on your participation

2/23/22: Ad and participant list (if applicable) submitted to Ride Illinois

2/28/22: Payment for ad must be received.

Contact Gina at gina@rideillinois.org with any questions about ads in our 2022 Ride Guide. Thanks!

Learn more at rideillinois.org