Bogota Blogger

The guy who works on my bike is the best. His name is Mauricio, and I met him on the Ciclovia, where he sets up on the Septima where Calle 84 intersects and goes up to the Circunvalar. Here he does routine and minor maintenance for folks on the spot, and this way he meets clients to do more extensive work. He’s basically a domicilio bike maintenance guy.

His English is minimal, but he’s a super-nice guy and finds a way to communicate. He also knows bicycles inside out and is an avid rider himself. He’s told me about weeks-long trips he’s taken alone or with friends all over Colombia, which of course means up and down mountains and up and down again.

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Bogota is a pretty big bicycling city (the whole country is fairly bicycle-enthusiastic, actually), and getting work done on your bike is not the expensive ordeal I was used to from the States.

I imagine that if you need work done on your bike, you can take it to one of the bike shops around town, but there’s a much easier way. On Sundays, during Ciclovia, bike repair guys set up shop on the street, and there will be one every two or three blocks on the main routes. They bring their equipment and lots of spare parts, and do a lot of work right there on the street. If you need air, it’s free, though you should then tip the guy.

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Bogota’s a pretty good city for cycling, as big cities go.

Ciclovia

The best thing it has going on is called Ciclovia, which happens when several of the major streets throughout the city are closed on Sundays and holidays from 7:00 AM till 2:00 PM and it’s cyclists (mostly), roller bladers, and walkers only. All kinds of people show up, whole families sometimes, people running, walking, blading.  There’s a separate post on Ciclovia.

Ciclorutas

Ciclorutas are bike lanes. There is a series of them throughout the city, and they do a fairly good (though not excellent) job of connecting to one another. 

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One of the greatest things about this city, in my humble opinion, is the Ciclovia. This is the closing of several major artieries all throughout town to trafiic, and the streets are taken over by bicyclists, rollerbladers, runners and walkers. Almost 70 miles worth of roads are closed overall, and it happens every Sunday and every holiday from 7:00AM till 2:00PM. This is so cool. All sizes and types of people get out on the roads, mostly on bicycles, and bike repair guys set up every few blocks to help folks out with air, repairs, whatever. Volunteers who I’m told are mostly college students work at the intersections to let cars pass across the Ciclovia streets.

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