Gasoholics Anonymous

Later this week I'm taking a trip to Chicago for the weekend. To be clear, I'm flying to Chicago from San Jose CA, so that part of the trip is not oil-free, but I'm looking into how to arrange for the rest of the trip to be as oil-free as possible.

I'll be staying in Westmont IL, and attending a conference at Hamburger University in Oak Brook. H.U. is a training facility part of the corporate headquarters of McDonalds, and is a very curious place. The facility is a hotel operated by Hyatt, and unfortunately they're booked up, so I'm staying nearby. The nearby place is very inexpensive but looking at the maps it appears to be quite a trek to get there, if by foot. By a wheeled vehicle it'll be fine, and the distance is just perfect for a bicycle. Especially as the majority of my time during the workshop will be at the H.U. facility, with no time off to go sight seeing or any other activity.

I can easily get from the airport (O'Hare) to and from my hotel using a van service or taxi (if I have to). While that's not quite "car free" it's pretty close. I haven't checked mass transit possibilities, yet. UPDATE:I've checked the mass transit and found that it isn't very useful for my needs. To go from the airport to my hotel requires going downtown, switching trains, and getting off at a station that's two(?) miles from my hotel. Not quite desirable. And there is no bus service that connects my hotel in Westmont with the Hamburger University.

Because of the trek between my hotel and the conference center I'm thinking about a bicycle. One possibility is to bring a bicycle with me, the other is to rent one. A bit of web searching turns up Windy City Scooter who will rent either Vespa's or bicycles on a per-day or per-hour basis. The Vespa rental is pricey enough that I might as well just rent a car, but the bicycle rental is pretty decent ($20 per weekday, $55 per weekend day). My search turned up several bicycle rental companies that service tourists along the lakefront, but in my case I'll be far from the lake. Windy City will deliver.

I have checked with the airline. The general luggage restrictions are "50 pounds per item" with outer dimensions (length+width+height) being 62 inches or less. I this clearly leaves out a regular bike, but a foldup bicycle should be fine. Hmm, how to get one on a quick notice?

The bicycle rental from Windy City Scooter would be nearly $200, which is nearly the cost of a folding bicycle. That makes a folding bicycle a more than interesting option, if I can find one right away. For the edification of my readers I've put together a page about folding bicycles.

UPDATE: I've gone out and bought a Montague CX bicycle. It's a little larger than I'd had in mind, but that means it's a proper full size bike. It does fold up pretty well, and they sell a bag you can use to carry it around. In my eye the typical folding bikes like Dahon or Brampton, well, they look rather rinkydink and have smallish tires. I did find a Dahon, and actually, it felt pretty darn solid. I don't know if I'm missing out on something here, but the Montague is what I'm going with.

Unfortunately the place didn't have a bag, so that's on order and should arrive within time for my flight. Unfortunately the place I paid for the bag isn't going to deliver it in time for my trip.