{"id":239,"date":"2019-04-29T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T19:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/29\/bike-riding-guadalajara\/"},"modified":"2019-04-29T15:41:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T19:41:00","slug":"bike-riding-guadalajara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/29\/bike-riding-guadalajara\/","title":{"rendered":"Obstacle Cycling: Riding Road Bikes in Guadalajara"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

We are avid road cyclists. We loved living in Colorado
\nbecause of the many glorious riding routes we could choose from, ranging from bike
\ntrails into Denver to loops on mountain roads. We usually rode two or three times
\na week, including a long ride on the weekend. Lisa rocks a Specialized carbon
\nfiber road bike with about 27 gears, and Bob has a classic green Bianchi.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSo we optimistically brought our road bikes to Mexico on the
\nback of our car, hoping to continue our healthy habit and explore Mexico on two
\nwheels. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nTrying to Find a Safe Place to Ride<\/h3>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI knew we were coming to a city of 5 million, people and despite
\nresearching online, I couldn\u2019t find any active road cycling clubs, or even
\ndecent rides, on our favorite cycling route app, MapMyRide<\/a>. Nonetheless, every night
\nduring the drive to Mexico we dutifully took them off the car and took them
\ninto the hotel rooms, and now the bikes live in the guest room of our house in Tlaquepaque.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nBut they don\u2019t see the road much, and neither do we.<\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

\nThe roads in Tlaquepaque are rough, narrow, virtually
\nunsigned, and often chaotic. We\u2019ve only driven the car four times in the four
\nmonths we\u2019ve been here because of the challenge of the roads. There are
\nvirtually no bike lanes in our section of Guadalajara. However, the city does
\nhave what is called \u201cVia RecreActiva\u201d on Sundays and holidays, where they shut
\ndown several major roads for recreational purposes for six hours. We\u2019ve come to
\naccept that as the best we can do.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nThank God for the Via RecreActiva<\/h3>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSo every Sunday morning, we pull on our cycling clothes,
\npump up our tires, fill our water bottles, and hit the Via RecreActiva. To get
\nthere, we have to ride almost two miles on a busy street with no bike lanes, Avenida
\nRio Nilo. Bob
\nhas almost been \u201cdoored\u201d by cars several times, Lisa was almost run off the
\nroad by an aggressive bus driver, and almost rear-ended a cab that pulled in
\nright in front of her t collect a passenger. <\/span>But it is what it is. Rio
\nNilo gets us to the Via RecreActiva, and then we get to ride for one day a
\nweek.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIf you can call it riding.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\nThere are essentially two main problems with Via RecreActiva<\/b><\/a>.
\nFirst, literally thousands of people take advantage of it \u2013unleashed dogs
\nchasing each other back and forth, kids learning to ride their bikes, teenagers
\ndoing tricks and popping wheelies, old ladies pulling carts crossing the street
\nat a mercado, boyfriends on bikes teaching their wobbly girlfriends how to skateboard,
\n <\/span>and people just walking three or four 4
\nabreast. It is just plain crowded and you have to be extremely vigilant to
\navoid running into someone. Lisa calls it \u201cObstacle Cycling.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

\nThe other main problem is traffic on the cross streets. While
\nyour road is closed for a few hours, other roads aren\u2019t, so you have to stop at
\nmultiple lights and wait for traffic. This
\nmeans that you only get to ride several blocks before you are forced to stop so
\nthat cross traffic can go. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIt is better than nothing, but it is not for the faint of heart!<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nTrying to Find Other Riders<\/h3>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWe have tried to make contact with other cyclists in Expat
\nforums here, but didn\u2019t get anything really solid from those groups. We have
\nalso seen cyclists riding on the sides of highways outside of the city, usually
\nfollowed by a sag wagon. But at this point we are leaving Guadalajara soon, so
\nwe don\u2019t plan to pursue that option. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWe hope to find better cycling in our next stop, Guanajuato.
\nLisa has already found a few promising routes on MapMyRide!<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

\nEnjoy a video <\/a><\/b>of the Via RecreActiva here<\/b><\/a>! <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are avid road cyclists. We loved living in Colorado because of the many glorious riding routes we could choose from, ranging from bike trails into Denver to loops on mountain roads. We usually rode two or three times a week, including a long ride on the weekend. Lisa rocks a Specialized carbon fiber road … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Obstacle Cycling: Riding Road Bikes in Guadalajara”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[92,42,43,4,9,65,66],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bike-riding","tag-exploring","tag-guadalajara","tag-mexico","tag-retirement","tag-tlaquepaque","tag-via-recreactiva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}