2012 Bike The Drive Photos
The Southern Route

My friend Dale on his recumbent as we started our 2012 Bike The Drive ride by Grant Park, around 5:30am in downtown Chicago.

The early start to this ride was the hardest part for me (I'm not a morning person) and is also the reason why I had not done this ride in the past. In order to take advantage of the entire time that Lake Shore Drive is open to bikes and closed to traffic you need to be here at around 5:30am. Allowing about 2 hours for the time it takes me to get up, shower and and get ready then drive downtown means I need to get up around 3:30am for this ride (yawn!). In the end, it was definitely worth it though.

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A peaceful early morning scene as 2 riders cruise Lake Shore Drive with Lake Michigan in the Background.

From the other side of Lake Shore Drive I saw the fastest riders who had already turned around at the southern end of the ride.

These riders must have started a little earlier than we did and were probably riding fairly fast. Some riders do the entire 30 mile ride twice! (some maybe even more).

More northbound cyclists along the lake, as seen from the southbound lanes.

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This is the turn-around at the Museum of Science and Industry at the southern end of the Bike The Drive route.

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A group of riders just past the southern turnaround.

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A beautiful view of the Chicago Skyline as we head north on Lake Shore Drive.

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One of the many famous photographers along Bike the Drive. OK, this one is me but the Chicago Skyline photo above was not the one that I took.

This is a team of cyclist ~ with the red shirts ~ on Bike the Drive. I am not familiar with the group but their shirts have IAR on the back.

This is a view of Soldier Field (go Bears!) as we rode past it going north on Lake Shore Drive. This view is looking back (south).