A Real Bike Café: The Fuga Café + Bikes

The Fuga Café + Bikes, which actually repairs bikes.

Bogotá has had a mini-boom recently in bicycle-themed eateries. But for some of them, the bicycle is merely decoration.

A high-end racing frame, set among bicycling books,
mostly in English.

That's not true, however, for the awkwardly named Fuga Café + Bikes, tucked behind a building just off of 81st St. and around the corner from the 11th-St. Cicloruta, on the edge of La Zona Rosa (Calle 81 #11-55). Fuga means 'escape', as in a group of racers who escape from the pack.

Yuppies at work.

Besides the bicycle racing theme: glossy photo books (strangely, mostly in English), high-end bikes on display and constant bike races on the tele, the café also has a working bike repair shop, altho I suspect that the charges are a bit steeper than the repair outfits which set up on the sidewalk along the nearby bike lane. But the repairman appears to keep busy, and the café really is frequented by cyclists, judging by the bikes in the rack outside its window.

But if you go, get your wallet ready. A tea cost me 5,000 pesos - steep by central Bogotá standards, if
not necessarily by Zona Rosa standards, or for the yuppies inside pecking away at their laptops.

A working repair shop.

Energy foods, to keep those yuppies typing.

A TV streams bike races.

The Fuga café is out of the price range for most of the working class cyclists who abound on the nearby bike lane.

Cyclists wait to cross a street in the rain on the Carrera 11 cicloruta.

Around the corner, 14 Ochomiles and El Toma Corriente make this something of a cycling district.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Tale of Two Ciclorutas

Pedaling past congested cars on Carrera 11's bike lane.

Rush hour on the bike lane. 

The Cicloruta, or bike lane, which runs up carreras 13 and 11 from the Museo Nacional to Calle 100 represents and best and worst in Bogotá bicycle infrastructure. So much, that it's more accurately two bike lanes stitched together.

The 18-block stretch between calles 82 and 100 are wide, clear and smooth: great for cyclists' self-esteem - particularly when one is sailing past cars jammed against each other. Perhaps the sight of us free and fast cyclists will persuade a few drivers to emerge from their steel cans.

But even on the bike lane, cars cause problems. Here, waiting for a traffic jam to clear.

South of Calle 82, riding around a car
stopped across the sidewalk bike lane.

South of 82nd street, however, the bike lane shifts onto the sidewalk, where cyclists must dodge pedestrians and delivery vehicles, not to mention cars waiting at stop signs and the occasional dog. As bad as it is for the cyclist, this arrangement must be more miserable for the poor pedestrian, who steps across the sidewalk only to have a furiously pedaling commuter rush past them. And the cyclist feels like an interloper, a bully rushing between pedestrians and swerving around them.

Sidewalk riding can be crowded.

A ´puddle and broken pavement.

Amphibious cyclilng, anyone?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

These Bikes Make a Handy....Tent

A tent where a bike repair stand used to be.

On a soggy afternoon, with few flats needing patching, a pair of bike repair guys on the Carrera 11 sidewalk, in front of the Universidad Pedagogica, flipped over their bikes, tied a plastic sheet between them, and retired to nap, play cards or whatever, until the evening rush hour brought more customers.

These guys are part of a growing industry of bike repair stands along Bogotá's bikeways.

Give them credit for inventing something which is just as dry as North Face, and lots cheaper and quicker to assemble.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Petro for President? A Cycle Policy Perspective.

For years, Plaza San Victorino has hosted this bike rack, which sometimes contains one or two bikes.

Gustavo Petro, a one-time M-19 guerrilla leader, was Bogotá mayor from 2012 to '15, and now wants to be elected president.

From a cyclists perspective, his record is mixed.

Take a look at Plaza San Victorino, which for years had a small bike rack which sometimes held one or two bicycles.

What was wrong with that? A lot, according to someone connected to the Petro administration, who decided that the plaza needed dozens and dozens more bike parking spots.

These Petro bike racks on Plaza San Victorino actually found users.

But this one didn't.

Finally, a bike in this rack.

Another rack, around the corner, provides seating for tired street vendors. 

I guess you get the point. Petro's government issued a contract to install bike racks, but didn't care or didn't bother to check where they actually installed them. So, naturally, the contractor installed them where it was easiest and cheapest, not where they were useful.

Along the same lines, Petro's administration also issued a contract to create a public bicycle system - to a man who had no experience with bicycles and did have a history of corruption accusations, in a consortium with a Chinese company with not apparent experience with bicycles.

The contract was annulled by Mayor Peñalosa, and Bogotá still has no public bikes.

On the other hand, under Petro the city did build some useful bike lanes, called ciclorutas.

A Petro-era cicloruta along El Parkway in Teusaquillo.

Petro also created a limited bike lending program, called Bicicorredores, which lent bikes in six locations in Bogotá. Unfortunately, bikes borrowed in one location could not be returned in another, limiting the program's usefulness for transport. Mayor Peñalosa ended the program, calling it too expensive. 

Public bikes lent out during the Petro administration, now parked for the long-term.

Overall, Petro did some things for cyclists, but many of his initiatives were poorly thought-out or apparently full of corruption. All of which makes one question his sincerity and dedication.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours