Bike Likin

It's been a crazy couple of days for me with all the events happening this weekend, well started last Thursday actually with the first Tour de Brew LNK of the year. Friday was the official launch for BikeLNK (bike link is how they pronounce it) so I boogied down the Cycle Works and rode down with Rick to join in on the festivities.




With a trail system in Lincoln that literally can take you almost anywhere in the city and boasts over 131 miles of trail, it only makes since that Lincoln should also have a bike share program; why it took so long is beyond me. Obviously to have bike share program you need bicycles but seeing them all lined up like that really put it into perspective, this is just 70 of the 120 or so bikes that the program has. Quite the site to see that many bicycles in one place and not a single parking meter was paid for either I might add.






It was great to see so many familiar faces at the launch, some directly involved with bringing the bike share to the Capitol City and others just passionate cyclists partaking in the monumental event.





Of course with all of these types of things, before we can get down to it, there is the usual pomp and circumstance that must go on. I suppose however, that when you invest your money into something like this you probably should get a chance to be able to speak and get some recognition.




Once the ceremonies were out of the way, it was kind of a really, really, really slow Lemans type start with the riders walking, rather than sprinting, to their chosen steeds.





It was kind of cool to see all those bikes and riders take off... and then promptly stop and then start, and then stop, and then start, and then stop. The lights on N Street being what they are, we inched our way down to the Railyard a dozen bikes per light at a time... there were some obvious newbies to the N Street Protected Bikeway as the comments of "those lights are quick" or "you don't get many bikes through at one time" were heard frequently. The struggle is real, you'd be quicker getting off the bicycle and walking across with the still lit walk signal in most cases, bike Eutopia we ain't yet but maybe someday.




The ride itself was pretty short but it was still cool seeing all those brand new shiny bike share bikes rolling down N Street at one time.





The Cube was the final destination of the ride where there were some booths setup and some grub catered in by Mellow Mushroom across the street. I believe that both Jamie and Ben talked a little bit later on but I had to get to getting back to Omaha so I missed that part. It's really rad to see Lincoln making huge strides in the last 5-10 years to help make Lincoln a greater bike community and to give folks opportunities to get around town by means other than an automobile.