LITTLE ROCK — A new business in downtown Little Rock offers newcomers a diverting way to meet people while they see a bit of the city. But be advised: You’ll have to put in some work for your fun.
Bobby’s Bike Hike, at 400 President Clinton Ave. in the Little Rock River Market, offers guided bicycle tours on rental bikes.
This month it added a free Thursday Fun Ride.
While not a guided tour, the first fun ride June 7 cruised by many of the hot spots around downtown Little Rock and points west, from the Governor’s Mansion to Central High School, up to the shops and bars of Hillcrest and past the playing fields of Allsopp Park. The full circuit took about two hours and covered about 15 miles.
The fun ride is free if you use your own bike and $10 for those who need to rent.
Bobby’s can rent a variety of bike types - hybrids, road bikes, mountain bikes - with helmets and bike locks included. Those renting also receive a year’s membership in the nonprofit Bicycle Advocacy of Central Arkansas.
Regular rentals normally run higher, with a mountain bike or hybrid costing $20 and a road bike costing $35 for a four-hour rental.
Bobby’s offers a guided tour of historic neighborhoods in Little Rock at 9 a.m. every Saturday, but the newly created Thursday event is intentionally less structured, shop owner Jeremy Lewno said. He expects to conduct the free rides every other Thursday through at least July, although Lewno said his August wedding might interfere with the schedule a bit.
Lewno started the company, named after his father, in Chicago in 2002. A Little Rock native, Lewno and his fiance, Hadley Eblen, recently moved home with plans to start a family, and they brought Bobby’s along with them.
Installed in a corner storefront in the Little Rock River Market since March with a fleet of new bicycles, Bobby’s of Little Rock is meant to have its own local character, and the fun ride is part of building that identity.
Fifteen cyclists turned out for the first fun ride, including two parents and their teenage son, three interns from the Clinton Presidential Foundation and a trio of employees of the Capital Hotel. After a store assistant took a photo commemorating the ride (which Lewno later posted on a Facebook group page), he gave everyone a short pep talk.
“When we talk about having fun on this tour, by all means: spread the word, tell your friends, keep coming out to this thing,” he said. “We want to keep building this. I’d love to see a thousand bikers out here at some point, just going for these casual rides.”
Lewno also gave a brief tutorial on the hybrid bicycles that many in the group were renting.
These hybrid bikes had three gears that can be changed using the left hand grip and seven gears on the right hand grip, which allows for 21 combinations of gears, adjusted according to the steepness of the climb. I ended up sticking with one combination throughout for simplicity’s sake - it seemed safer to watch the road than my hands - and did just fine.
To the strains of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” emanating from a rider’s pack, the group set out east on President Clinton Avenue a little after 5:30 p.m. After a short pedal to Heifer Village, the group, led by Lewno in an orange safety jersey, turned south - and this is where the work came in.
The ride is meant to be a mild one, with riders welcome to return to the shop whenever their energy flags, but that’s easier said than done when you’re on unfamiliar streets and moving farther from your starting point all the time. Given that even our pack leader consulted his directions at one point, without GPS it would be tricky for a tourist to find his way back on his own. My advice? If you go, plan to go for the duration.
And make sure to tuck a big bottle of water into the holder on your bike frame; on this ride I felt like the guy in 128 Hours who drank half his bottle in the first few minutes of his ordeal, then spent the rest nursing the dwindling remainder ... (Well, that’s slightly over dramatic, but biking is thirsty work.)
We soon found ourselves outside the Governor’s Mansion, where a soiree appeared to be in the offing, judging by the well-dressed folks strolling toward its gates as we rounded the corner. The curious gazes and waves we received felt like a reciprocation of our group goodwill; later, one pedestrian kindly kicked large chunks of road debris on a steep slope out of our way. And we proved especially popular with dogs, or at least we had a knack for stopping to rest near yards with several barking madly.
ROLL, BETSEY, ROLL
Bobby’s rental bikes have names, indicated by labels stuck on the frames, a cute and practical touch, with male names given to the smaller women’s bikes and female names to the larger men’s bikes.
My ride, Betsey, showed spirit, quick to gather speed and reluctant to slow upon command, the left hand brake squealing on most downhills, although from my point of view the key thing was that the brakes functioned as intended.
However, the most temperamental beast was named Bill and Hillary, the tandem (i.e., “built for two”) bicycle, which threw its chain twice in the course of the trip. But the pack of riders, including Lewno and two members of his staff, looked after its own, and soon had the Clintons on their way again. (Hillary, for those keeping score, took a back seat to Bill in this case.)
Because the tour chiefly followed city roads rather than trails along the river, we were often obliged to negotiate evening traffic. But the experienced riders in the group stood sentinel for the rest, making sure traffic had halted, and the traffic for its part yielded readily. Any newbie nervousness some may have had was salved by the overall esprit de corps, abetted in no small measure by the guilty-pleasure rock played by Nick Bradley-Hole of the Capital Hotel, including Oasis’ “Wonderwall” and Jimmy Buffett’s “Cheeseburgers in Paradise.”
COASTING HOME
Although the trip’s pace was fairly laid-back, even the laziest rider (i.e., me) had to push it occasionally.
It turns out you can creep only so slowly up a sharp incline without actually falling over; at some point, you just have to make your heart and pedals race to reach the top.
Happily, the steepest hills of the trip gave way to a relaxed jaunt through Hillcrest and down past Allsopp Park. Some kind of party was under way in Hillcrest, putting our peloton in an even more festive mood, our music contesting with that of the bands strewn along the street.
The final segment of the journey took us past Doe’s Eat Place on West Markham Street (where a local extracted a promise from me that I’d try the steaks and bowls of butter soaked new potatoes) to a final glory coast down to the shop under the setting sun.
A fine way to end - provided you keep your wheel out of those trolley tracks.
The fun ride’s spontaneity was in keeping with the newness of the event and the sense that it will evolve according to the interests and needs of those who attend on a given night. If you’re a bit unsure of your cycling skills, check in advance with Bobby’s to find out what kind of trip they have in mind. On the other hand, if you feel up for an adventure (and slightly sore legs the next morning), just show up and see what the evening brings.
More information is at bobbysbikehike/littlerock and (501) 613-7001.
ActiveStyle, Pages 23 on 06/25/2012