Do That / In Shape / It's Culture / It's Life

Ten Fun Facts About Biking Downtown

FullSizeRenderI’ve been wanting to ride a bike. It’s been a super weird craving-like experience. But the craving hasn’t been wholehearted. It’s like when you pass a young mom and her adorable baby: You all of the sudden want to volunteer yourself to babysit for her, but aren’t at all convinced to transform your womb into a housing facility for a fetus. When I passed a biker, I was likewise unsold. I had the passion to pedal, but I’m not going to drop a few hundred on a Schwinn—especially I’m pretty sure I’m not at all good at the balance thing.

giffer-16

THERE’S GOTTA BE ANOTHER WAY!

Enter: B-Cycle. There’s several stations downtown, and here’s ten fast fun facts about how it works.

1. You’re able to rent a bike for free for an hour or $5 for 24. I can commit for $5.

2. Buffalo Bayou Park has about 4.5 miles of biking (and more trail on either side of it).

3. There’s a downloadable map so you can plan out where you wanna go!

4. Oh, and there’s a top-secret bubble in the bayou you can burp with the press of a button. Hint: the button is street level, close to the Wortham Center and it bubbles under the Preston Street bridge.

giffer-17

5. There’s a B-Cycle port at 190 Sabine St., and since it’s pretty centric, if you don’t mind going back there every hour you never have to pay!

6. You can’t go on the asphalt paths—those are for runners!

7. OMG PUPPIES. There’s the new dog park and there are puppies galore.

8. The bikes have a basket! So, you can bring a picnic or anything else fun, just remember that this basket makes the bike really top heavy. Well, the bikes aren’t exactly built for speed anyways.

9. Selfie game strong. There are so many photo opportunities on this trail—and all to the beautiful backdrop of the Houston Skyline. Here were my favorites: the Police Officers Memorial, the Sabine Street Bridge, and Allen’s Landing.

10. Use the Map My Ride app to log how many miles you get.