The Chicago Neighborhood Bike Tours are back and ready to ride. Here is the link to register now:

http://tinyurl.com/fall2010biketours

Our first tour is Saturday September 11, 2010 with a Tour of Hyde Park, our most popular tour to date. Our original July 2009 Tour of Hyde Park drew nearly 150 riders. While it was a thrilling experience to lead that many riders at once, it also proved a logistical nightmare and stressed the limits of the usefulness of a megaphone, so for this and all future tours we are limiting registrations to 80.

The tour was understandably a popular one, as the area is amongst the most architecturally and historically opulent in all of Chicago and justifiably famous throughout the world. Hyde Park is both the name of the Community Area and the neighborhood, and the home of the University of Chicago, the institution that conceived of the very idea of Chicago Community Areas. The University was born out of the idea that every great city deserved and required a great university. Several buildings had been erected by the time that Chicago hosted World’s Fair of 1893 which changed the landscape and waterfront and the very nature of Hyde Park to create the splendor of the World's Columbian Exposition. The University and the World’s Fair are two enduring, indelible legacies that dominate the neighborhood, but their omnipresence is augmented by architectural beauty in the residences, businesses, civic and religious buildings throughout the area. Frank Lloyd Wright, Keck and Keck, Henry Ives Cobb, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Lorado Taft, Howard Van Doren Shaw, Dwight Perkins and Frederick Law Olmsted all offer marvelous examples of their genius in Hyde Park, and even this “best of” Hyde Park tour will exceed 5 hours in length over its 17 1/2 miles.

This is also the first tour of our revamped tour series and the first ride where we charge money. That in and of itself is likely more than enough to put a very severe lid on attendance numbers, but we’re hoping that people find the value commensurate with the fees at a minimum, and if they should feel otherwise after the ride we will happily offer them their money back.

Now when I ask people if they want their money back, it won’t just be a sardonic question.

While there is a fee for the general tours, we are happy to continue to offer dozens of free tours per year, each of which earns participants discounts or free entry into the paid tours. We also offer subscriptions with even greater discounts. Further, there are countless ways to earn discounts based on one’s participation in the Chicago cycling community, and in assisting with ride preparation and marshaling through our Tour Scholarships. Each repeat tour requires a pre-ride for changes and detour planning based on road conditions and activities scheduled for the date of the tour. Many will also require Photo Rides, which are opportunities to photograph many buildings and stops not part of the final tours. Finally, one new tour will be added per quarter, and these will require a minimum of 4 Research Rides that will be free and open to the public. Riders that participate in the free rides earn credits towards paid rides. Those that also act as ride marshals receive free entry into the paid rides, at a limit of 8.

Our registration system has been facilitated by the Active Transportation Alliance and is available here: http://tinyurl.com/fall2010biketours

The fee schedule is slightly revised from the original description. Here is how it works:

Pre-registered price - $25
Day of event price - $30

In order to create inexpensive opportunities for members of the Chicago cycling community to participate, we offer $5 off for active membership in each of the following:

Active Transportation Alliance
Chicago Cycling Club
The Chainlink

Active members of all three organizations who pre-register would therefore pay only $10 per ride after $20 in discounts.

There are two subscription packages available. A 6-ride pack has a time-duration of 1 year, during which you can ride any 6 tours of the schedule of over 20 a year. The cost is $65, but with a $5 discount per membership, it can cost as little as $50.

The Annual Subscription offers paid entry to any and every ride we offer for a year from the date of original purchase. The cost is $115, but with the $5 discount per membership, it can cost as little as $100.

While the Chainlink is a free membership, we are also offering $5 discounts for new or renewed memberships at the Active Transportation Alliance or the Chicago Cycling Club, in conjunction with ride registrations.

We are hopeful that at "community prices" of $10 to $0, we will continue to enjoy a healthy turn-out, and that the modest fee for the tours compared to nearly any other company or organization offering tours in Chicago will continue to make them popular options for folks looking to enjoy a bit of Chicago history on their bicycles.

Another noteworthy change is that while we have in the past encouraged all participants to wear helmets, we must now require it of every rider, every ride, throughout the ride.

Chainlink Event Page
Chicago Velo Hyde Park Page
Chicago Neighborhood Bike Tours Page
Starting Point
MapmyRide
Ross Felten Poster 1
Ross Felten Poster 2

Chicago Velo – up, but slow going.

Another way to enjoy the tours, free of charge is online. My new website www.chicagovelo.com is up and running in its beginning stages. This is an online version of the tours containing text about the stops on the tour, as well as hundreds of photos of all the stops, and dozens and dozens of places along the route. It also links directly to the Mapmyrides routes so anyone and everyone could literally take the tour on their own, free of charge.

Future enhancements will include links to hi-res photos of all of the pictures, partner links and tour video.

Truth be told, this HTML stuff is a lot harder and more tedious than I presumed. To that end, I only have three complete tours up, and the city regional gateways to the tours. There is an RSS feature to follow the site as I update and upload new tours. Here are the three completed online tours, though they are not yet re-proofed or edited! Yikes... be kind!

www.chicagovelo.com/austin.html
www.chicagovelo.com/jeffersonpark.html
www.chicagovelo.com/hydepark.html

That said, as Alex Wilson so eloquently stated, “You can’t ride your bike on the Internet”, so hopefully you will also consider a season subscription to the new tour series, or joining us for a ride here or there. That’s it for now. I hope to see some of you out there in the near future and thanks for reading and riding.

Cheers,
– Lee Diamond