All
participants must arrive at the main
transportation staging point by 8:00
am
unless you are staying
at the Chicago hotel the previous night,
parking your car in Chicago during the
week of RAGBRAI,
or arriving on several specific
Metra train lines (see
below)
 Main
Transportation Staging Point
All
participants must arrive at the main transportation
staging point by 8:00 am
unless you are
staying
at the Chicago hotel the previous night
without your own transportation,
parking your car in Chicago during the week of RAGBRAI,
or arriving
on several specific Metra train lines (see
below)
- Click
Here for more information about
the Main Transportation Staging Point.
Arrival Using Local Public Transportation
You will be able to arrive at the Chicago
staging point before the check in time
if you take any CTA L trains or
bus.
If you will be arriving in Chicago on most Metra
trains, you will be able to arrive at the main transportation
staging point at or very close to our staging
time including the walking time from
the train station. However, the following trains arrive
in Chicago up to 45 minutes after our check in time:
We
can still accommodate you if you will
be
arriving
on one of these train lines since we
will still be busy checking people in and
loading their bikes and baggage, but you must
inform us you will be doing so when you register
so that we will expecting you to
arrive late. If you
do not specifically inform us that you will
be arriving
on one of these Metra trains we will not wait for you.
- Click
Here for the earliest arrival and
latest departure times in downtown Chicago for
all CTA L and Metra train lines.
It will be significantly faster and easier to travel
to the main transportation staging point from all
Metra train stations (except the Metra Western station)
with your bike and/or baggage using a CTA L train
or taxicab instead of walking yourself. Our directions
to the main transportation staging point from Metra
train stations are via the closest CTA L train
stations.
Bike
Parts and Accessories Sales
Our mechanic will be directly at the main transportation
staging point to sell last minute
parts and accessories immediately
before we depart.
We strongly recommend stocking up before
we depart Chicago!
- Click
Here for more information about
our mechanical support services.
Our mechanic
will not perform any type of mechanical inspection
or
repairs
on your bike at
the main transportation staging point in order to
assure a timely departure from Chicago, or be travelling
with us to the start of RAGBRAI. If you will not
be using our Pre-Event
Bicycle Drop-Off service,
you must plan on arriving with all of your gear and
equipment
in great working order
and ready to be used. Otherwise if you need any mechanical
support services, you will need to use the ones at
the start of RAGBRAI.
Chicago
Hotel and Parking Garage Transportation Staging
Points
We will pick up your bicycle directly at
the Chicago hotel and parking garage because
they
are too far to quickly, easily, or safely
transport both your bicycle and baggage to the
main transportation
staging point yourself. You must pre-register
to have us do this otherwise you must transport
your bike
to the
main transportation staging point yourself. We
will pick up bikes at these locations before the
main transportation
staging point since this spreads out the work to
be done and ensures the fastest and most efficient
departure time from Chicago and arrival time at the
start of RAGBRAI.
- Click
Here for more information about
the Chicago Hotel.
- Click
Here for more information about
the Chicago Parking Garage.
We will pick up bikes
at the Chicago hotel promptly at 7:00 am then
immediately come over to the parking garage
to pick up bikes
there.
We will only pick up your bicycle
and not your baggage or any
participants. We will not transport any
baggage because we
will quickly become extremely busy after we arrive
at the main transportation staging site
and won't be able to adequately watch your
baggage
after we unload it from our truck. Having you
carry your own baggage yourself ensures that your
baggage
remains within your control and secure at all times
and that it also gets properly
loaded onto the coach bus. We also won't be able to
transport any participants themselves because we
won't have enough seats for everyone in our moving
truck. We also don't want to use the coach bus
to pick up participants because it would
then sit empty longer at the main
transportation
staging point, increasing the congestion
there as well as the cost for every participant.
You will still need to transport
yourself and your
baggage to the main transportation
staging point after we pick up your bicycle and
there are plenty of options to do so quickly and
easily.
By far the best option is to split a taxicab with
your fellow participants and we estimate
this
would
cost approximately $12.00 (plus $1.50 per additional
passenger) and is only about a 10 minute ride.
Otherwise you could also take a Green Line CTA
L train from the hotel or a #20 Madison CTA bus part
of the way from the parking
garage.
- Click
Here for more information about
the CTA L Train Stations serving the Chicago
Hotel and Main Transportation Point.
- Click
Here for more information about
Local Bus Service in Chicago.
Pre-Event Bicycle Drop Off
We will be accepting and pre-loading bicycles onto our moving truck at the
main transportation staging point in Chicago from
11:00 am – 7:00 pm on the Friday
before the start
of RAGBRAI!
Taking advantage of this service could be very convenient
for you, particularly if you work downtown and/or
will be arriving using public transportation. You
won't have to deal with the hassle of transporting
your
bike and all your baggage with you all at the same
time among everyone else who
will be arriving early Saturday morning, and you
might not have to convince your friends or family
to give you a ride. By pre-loading as many bikes
as possible beforehand, it will also help assure
a much quicker departure time for everyone
from Chicago.
- Click
Here for more information about
the Main Transportation Staging Point.
There are a few limitations to this service:
- You can only drop off your bicycle, but not your
baggage or any other gear (helmets, panniers, etc.)
This is because there is only enough room
to securely store your bicycle on our moving truck.
Your
baggage will be transported underneath
our coach busses anyways.
- Bikes can only be dropped
off during the hours only listed above. Bikes cannot
be dropped off at any other times because they
we cannot guarantee they will be secure at all
times otherwise.
- There is no post-event drop-off. All participants
must
take
their
bikes with them after the end
of RAGBRAI.
- Pre-registration is required. This way we
know who to expect, we can load bikes in the proper
order for unloading in the RAGBRAI starting town,
and won't overbook or miss anyone who is depending
on us.
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