Paseo de la Reforma, Ciudad de México, Mexico
Every Sunday the main boulevard in Mexico City is closed off for public biking. When I visited Merida on my first time to Mexico they did the same thing. Back then I thought it was because of Easter and didnt realize this was a normal weekly event.
Back in Merida I had rented a bike for $1 USD for a couple of hours in the morning heat. See entry - Biking Merida - http://v2.travelark.org/travel-blog-entry/londone7/38/1502140172
For today I had read mixed information online about how to get bikes. There were various bike stations setup from 8am but you have to go early as the bikes run out. I had left my hotel at 730am expecting there to be a rental place in the Zocalo square were I was staying.
There was a rental station but you couldnt pay by card and needed an online membership. I asked some of the tour operators but they didnt know properly. They said the tourist info booth would open by 10am and they would know but I didnt want to wait 2 hours as the bikes would run out.
Everyone kept saying the bikes are at Paseo de la Reforma which didnt agree with the online information and I didnt want to walk all the way when I was supposed to be biking.
By the Bellas Artas was the start of the bike path. I asked in a tent and they gave me different information about where to go to get bikes. I asked further along and they told me to goto the Independence Monument.
When I arrived there was no sign of the bikes and locals kept giving me different information where to go. I decided to go back onto Paseo de la Reforma where people were biking. There were orange bikes just parked on the street but people said I cant use them.
Eventually I found one of the free rental stations. It was about 930am and two hours wasted of walking and running trying to find this place.
Just as expected he gave away the last of his bikes as I had spend so much time trying to find here. He rolled his shutters closed, I said I wanted to wait for someone to return but I dont know what they said in Spanish.
I tried to go further and was willing to rent a bike from the stations even though today was free. I tried to enter my credit card info but the POS - Point of Sale (Piece of Shit) kept rejecting my card.
Eventually I found another tent giving away bikes but they were all out. I sat and had to wait another 45 mins for people to bring bikes back. The line was stretching 20 people long so I was lucky I was at the front.
This was not very well organized with lack of information for tourists. I dont know why the rental places wouldnt even take my card. Eventually people came back with bikes and I was finally able to begin close to 11am after starting out from 730am.
I followed Paseo de la Reforma west towards Chapultepec Park. The bike route then detoured to the north west.
This was the museum area I was going to return to later today and was a tree lined boulevard in the middle of the city park.
The route ended here and at the turnaround was a map of the various routes. It was quite big and I wasnt going to do the different arms and just stay in the touristic parts.
I went back along Paseo de la Reforma retracing where I had come from and earlier on today jogging trying to find the bike stations.
Heading back along Reforma was modern architecture of all the high rise skyscrapers.
I then detoured back to the Zocalo town centre. I didnt see where any bike rental place was so the information online that I could get bikes here was not correct.
Returning back to the main bike route on Reforma I passed more of the mixed styles of architecture.
Finally I completed my circuit and made my way back to the original bike station. The line had gone so they had either given up or managed to get bikes. Finally I got a 6 inch Subway sandwich for 57P ($3.75).
This was a great free experience for anyone visiting the city. However ignore the information online and head straight to Reforma to try to find the free bike stations. There was nothing at Zocalo and the rental stations need a paid online membership.
2025-05-22