First Divvy Bike Excursion: Downtown Chicago to Hyde Park
Since the weather was so nice on Friday, Liz decided on a whim that we should try out Divvy bikes and ride home along the Lakefront Trail.
It’s been ages since either of us rode a bike, but we figured… why not give it a go? We figured we could take our time, and just go easy if we felt too tired.
We slowly made our way to the trail, and within the first 15 minutes… we began to regret our decision to ride home. The hills were nothing terrible, but we both seemed to be struggling a lot. Once we got past the Field Museum, we hit this “either we call it quits here, or we go the whole way” moment.
I was nervous about going the full distance (a little over 7 miles). I’m a terrible runner, and it’s been ages since I’ve done any cardio. Liz was optimistic, and so we decided to just head out and make our way – as slowly as we needed to.
So you know: on using Divvy as a non-member, we purchased a 24-hour pass. Which means we had unlimited 30-minute rides for a 24 hour period.
Instead of docking our bikes, and checking them out again – we decided to just go the full way home. In this way, we incurred a slight extra fee (since we went over the 30 minute mark). Nothing terrible, but I’m not sure that Divvy bikes are really intended for large distances like this.
The ride home was incredibly beautiful, and there were large sections of the lakefront that I had never seen before. At several points, I wanted to stop and take some photos… but we were worried about our rental time, and just kept going the whole way. Surprisingly, once we got past the initial 15-20 minutes… the rest of the ride was just fine.
We arrived in Hyde Park about 50 minutes after we left downtown. Not great, but also not terrible – we seemed to be keeping pace with what Google was estimating. Liz and I were both pretty amazed that we made it the whole way without too much struggle, and talked about making this trek again, whenever the weather picks up once more.
I’m really bummed I don’t have more photos to share, but one of these days – perhaps we’ll take a longer trek home, and stop to take in more of the views. Having had a taste of what it’s like to ride along the lakefront back home, it’s nice to be able to have this other (more scenic) option – particularly when it’s nicer out.
Related:
Josh and His Tall Bike, Logan Square
Conference Book Brochure, 2004
To the Mother Fucker Who Stole My Bike………
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