spelger

has anyone any experience riding there? I found a place that rents bikes. Will be bringing my shoes and pedals aside from clothes. Not sure what the rules of the road are yet.

scott967

No, but from watching Korean TV, seems like there are a good number of paths, tho like here MUPs with all that entails.

scott s.
.

dedhed

Bike paths ? Seoul Cycle
https://www.bikemap.net/en/l/1835847/

https://klawguru.com/2014/04/13/bicycle-law-in-korea/

Cycling in Korea - General Info

https://roadbikeridinginkorea.blogspot.com/

spelger

Wow. Hugely useful links. Will need to read on a pc instead of my phone.

2_i 

I rode in Busan bringing along my own folder. I was generally able to avoid busy streets and mostly rode side streets, bike paths and sidewalks. Plenty of people rode along. Like elsewhere obeying traffic rules by bikes is somewhat optional, but you need to respect pedestrians. Busan was pretty hilly. I wasted some time on setting on a navigation app. Google Maps turned out to be useless for a bike in Busan. I settled on OsmAnd. It was not that good with POI as Google, but there was a way to search for a destination on Google and do the navigation with OsmAnd.

SlinkyWizard

Many bike paths that stretch for miles , relatively flat as the bike paths follow rivers, and riding on the footpath is not illegal. Unfortunately, we have a fine dust pollution problem, so it is useful to check websites like this to get accurate readings Sunae-dong, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi, South Korea Air Pollution: Real-time PM2.5 Air Quality Index (AQI) ( Today happened to a rare green day )

I try an avoid riding on the road as Koreans can drive quite aggressively, and I think most are not used to seeing cyclists on the road.

mr_bill

Brief warning - many places that rent higher end bikes want a passport as collateral.

So just make sure that if you've found place that rents bikes you also find out what they require for collateral and whether you are comfortable with that.

Otherwise, there is a bikeshare that is quite non-local friendly, SeoulBike (look for green bikes). It's relatively easy to register for the bikes. You load up some money on a T-money card (available at convenience stores, also good for transit, some museums, and convenience stores).

Caveats:

• You can get a refund of your T-money card balance at just about every convenience store (minus convenience fee), IF your balance is less than 20,000 KRW. Otherwise, you have to go to the T-money headquarters. (Don't ask how I know.)
• The SeoulBikes are a bit on the small side. (I was at max seat post.)

My trip reports (2nd with some pics) on the "Metro Boston: Good ride today?" thread.

2015 and 2016.

On riding on the roads near the Han, yes, but.... Only saw one small group of roadies (US Military) while I was there. (And for me, it was less about aggressive drivers and more about aggressive riders on motorcycles.)

-mr. bill