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2012 Bike The Drive ~ Chicago
Ride Report and Photo Tour

This past Sunday (5/27/12) a friend and I rode the MB Financial Bike The Drive ride on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. This was my first time at this event and it was a fantastic ride and a really fun day.

Bike The Drive Bikers
Individuals and team riders on Lake Shore Drive with the skyline ahead.		 Bike The Drive Southern View
The beautiful Chicago Skyline as seen from Lake Shore Drive heading north.		 Lake Shore Drive turn after the river
The turn on Lake Shore Drive just past the Chicago River.

They close down 30 miles of Lake Shore Drive (Route 41) to automotive traffic for this event and this scenic road is only open to bike riders for about 5 hours on the Sunday morning of the ride.

Bike The Drive Ride Report

Even though Lake Shore Drive in Chicago is a scenic road, it is normally very congested with traffic and most of the time you are just not able to appreciate how nice it is in a car. On a bike, however, you can take in all of the views of the city and lakefront. Plus, although there are a lot of cyclists at times, I found the bike riders to be very courteous and friendly (unlike people in automobiles sometimes).

Aside from being an excellent way to see the most beautiful parts of city of Chicago and the Lake Michigan lakefront, I found the bike riders and various bike types and attachments to be very interesting and entertaining.

You have road bikes and serious riders, more casual hybrid and comfort bike riders, mountain bikes, plenty of recumbent bikes. I saw more types of recumbent bikes on this ride than on any other ride that I've been on. Then you also have elliptical bikes and families with kids that are either on their own small bikes, in bike trailers, in tandem, tandems with 2 kids and an adult, or in bike seats and just about any combination you can think of.

The people ~ and their various riding machines ~ really made this ride interesting...

Woman and child racing down lake shore drive hill
A woman and young boy racing down the hill just past the river.		 Friendly people on Bike the Drive
Some friendly riders on Lake Shore Drive near the lake.		 Recumbent Rider on Bike The Drive
One of the many recumbent riders on the Chicago Bike the Drive.

I would highly recommend this ride for anyone who lives in the Chicago area ~ or even if you happen to be visiting Chicago when this event is going on. The only thing that prevented me from doing this ride in the past is the very early hours of the ride (it starts at 5:30am and is over by 10:15am). Even though that is pretty early for some of us, I have to admit that it is well worth getting up early for.

The ride is well organized and there are places along the route to take breaks and have some food and drink when you get hungry, thirsty or need some nutrition for the rest of the ride.

Since the ride starts and ends near Grant Park, you can also head out the the Chicago Lakefront Trail for some additional riding, touring or exploring. We did a short trip on the Lakefront Bike Path to go out to the aquarium and planetarium for some views of the Chicago Skyline. We were not disappointed.

Food at the Rest Area
The food and snacks at the rest stop near the northern turn-around.		 The beautiful Chicago skyline and colorful Lake Michigan
A view of the Chicago Skyline and a very colorful Lake Michigan from the Shedd Aquarium.

Bike The Drive Route and Maps

I had my Garmin Edge 800 GPS bike computer with me on the ride (of course) so after the ride I downloaded my ride data to the GarminConnect site and to Google Maps for review.

Below is are two screen shots, from the GarminConnect website, that show a map of the northern and southern Bike The Drive Routes. You can click on either map to see the full size version.

The Northern Bike the Drive Map
Bike The Drive Map North, Chicago *
(click to enlarge)

The Southern Bike the Drive Map
Bike The Drive Map South, Chicago *
Note: The trip east to the planetarium was after Bike the Drive
(click to enlarge)

* © Copyright Garmin and Microsoft.

Bike The Drive Photo Tour

Although it would probably have been nice to just ride the ride rather than taking so many photos, my friend and I both had good cameras with us ~ a Canon and a Nikon DSLRs ~ and we stopped to try to get photos that captured the feel and mood of the ride.

It was a mostly overcast day, so we had some problems in that area, but we still managed to get quite a few good photos.

I tried to capture the Bike The Drive scene (the large groups of riders and Lake Shore Drive route) as well as the city, skyline and especially the people on the ride.

Bike The Drive Photos

Here's the photo tour of the 2012 Bike The Drive, Chicago May 27th, 2012.

Bike The Drive, Chicago Photos 1
Bike The Drive, Chicago Photos 2
Bike The Drive, Chicago Photos 3
Bike The Drive, Chicago Photos 4
Bike The Drive, Chicago Photos 5

Photos © Copyright Rob Chapman, about-bicycles.com. Photos with * Copyright Dale Kiffel.