arsprod 

Commuters, I figured I'd ask here for suggestions for riding in Chicago. My wife works there one or two weekends a month and I'm going with her next week. While she works, I want to ride. I have a few hours on Thursday and all day Sunday. I'll be staying downtown (Michigan & 8th) and certainly going to do Lakeshore Drive. Any suggestions? Are buses and trains bike friendly? Thanks!

ill.clyde

I'd recommend the Lakeshore Path, not the drive

Buses and trains are bike friendly, to a degree. Metra allows bikes on its trains but on non-peak hours. Not sure of the CTA but I'd doubt bikes are allowed on the El.

As for specific rides ... I can't really offer much help in the city ... I was in the northern suburbs for the past 22 years until I recently relocated behind the Cheddar Curtain.

Steely Dan

bikes are allowed on CTA el trains at non-rush hour times. but even then, the few times i've lugged a bike onto an el train due to getting caught in a storm, i found it to be a pain in the ass because the train cars are just too small and not at all designed to accommodate a full size bike, and you'll be in everybody else's way if the train car is even moderately occupied with other passengers.

as for nice rides, i'd recommned getting over to milwaukee avenue, and riding that north to devon where you can pick up the north branch trail and ride that all the way up to the botanic gardens. from the south loop area it's around 60 miles roundtrip.

ill.clyde

So they're allowed, but it's inconvenient ... yup, sounds like Chicago

arsprod 

ahh perfect - and I can hit Cigar King on the way back!

no motor?

They've done a lot of work to connect the various shorter trails around here. That's great if you know where you're going, but not so great in some of the places where those connections aren't well marked. But if you can find your way around, you can go all the way up to the cheddar curtain from your hotel.