Charlotte Bcycle Ride Out

A Charlotte Bcycle

Charlotte Bcycles for life! Check it out. Tyler, Ethan, and I participated in the Charlotte Bcycle Go Live Ride Out last night. Our friend, the Jeremy Goodwyne, through a series of random events became the station captain for the Kings Drive/CPCC bike station, and he needed some folks to help ride the bikes out.

Because I was last minute to the situation, as in three hours previous to the ride out, I really had no clue what I was getting in to. It was amazing.

Our Group

Charlotte Bcycles is a privately sponsored program to share bikes within Charlotte. It's really designed for people to get place to place and not for touring the city. When renting a bike, you get it for a 30 minute increment to get from point A to point B. Then you can check it back out (part of 24 hour or annual pass) and then ride back from point B to point A or any other point they offer. The bike itself is a beast, but is pretty easy and safe to ride and also has a pretty large basket on the front to carry the goods.

Riding Trade St. with Ethan

 Our group met up at the United Way building and got ready to ride. We were joined by some great people from Uptown Church (since Jeremy is the worship director there, he has a nice pool of people to work with), and we headed out as part of a group of 200 bikes to the 20 locations throughout Charlotte. I hear this is just the first round of stations they're making with hopes of extending the program throughout Charlotte.

Ethan is obviously not big enough to ride one of the haus Bcycles (they weigh about 40 pounds each) and so he brought his own bike to ride along. We were riding down Trade Street in uptown Charlotte and I was so nervous he would ride out in front of a car. I definitely felt like a mother hen last night. Of course, my nervousness was unfounded as he was amazing and followed directions well.

Ridin'

In my Bcycle Shirt

At the corner of Trade and Tryon we all met up for a "send out" and heard from different speakers who supported this initiative. Apparently North Carolina is the 17th fattiest state in the USofA, so this program creates a green way for people to get out and be active in their commute to work. As the annual pass is only $65, with discounts for students, BCBSNC members, seniors, and military personnel, it really is less expensive than driving into uptown. Parking is outrageous. You can also buy a 24 hour pass for $8.

Bcycle Station

Our ride from Trade and Tryon was simple. We rode straight downhill to Elizabeth and Kings Dr. It was pretty simple and not strenuous at all. The most difficult part was explaining to Ethan that the ride was already over and we couldn't take the bikes further than the station. The stations are really easy to use. They have kiosks which explain how to use the bikes. To return a bike to the station, just push the bike in an empty slot until it locks.

Jeremy(sunglasses) leading our group

In reward for our efforts, the Bcycle group took everyone to Buffalo Wild Wings at the NASCAR building for free wings and drinks. The cherry limeade is killer. Of course, it was a late night for Ethan and he hated getting up this morning, but it was well worth it. I'm pretty sold on buying an annual membership and I don't even commute into Uptown. I hope they install a station closer to our house. I'd definitely be on board for the long haul.




Check out Tyler's Photos (some featured in this post) of the event here.

Check out more about Charlotte Bcycles at their website.