Bike Fridays in Prague

This post is for the bike-minded. If you're looking for our ramblings about Prague, skip down. This is about weather, roads, safety, and of course folding bikes.


Pauline rides a red extralight Pocket Rocket Pro Petite with drop bars, Shimano 105, skinny tires, folding rack, Capreo hub. I have a green New World Tourist with single chainring, chunky tires, H-bar, Gripshift, Capreo hub, SPD pedals. Fenders were a must if you're riding to a nice restaurant, but they can interfere with quickfolding.

I thought that bikes in Prague in November/December would be questionable. I had visions of icy cobblestones and smog, but I was glad we had our bikes in the end. Maybe we were lucky, but we got no snow. It rained lightly and often. By the end our bikes were filthy and we needed chain lube real bad. I will have to find an airline-safe version.

There are tourist maps of Prague online. (example) There are also two dedicated cycling websites: this one, the other one. We got a decent free cycling map from the tourist office with numbered bike routes and paths, but is not a good street map. Google maps has excellent satellite coverage of the Czech Republic. None of my GPS routes are very helpful, but you can find some good stuff on Grant Podelco's site, which we will refer to often. In case you have a GPS, you should figure out how to download posted routes from the web and upload them onto your GPS. It's worth it.

Bikeability varies. You can find wide quiet roads, but you'll probably have to ride on a narrow busy road to get there. Intermittent bike routes and bike paths exist, but they don't exactly form a network. Watch out for right turn lanes that get green lights while the straight-on signal is red. The cobblestones and tram tracks can get tiresome, especially with skinny tires. I like the 90psi 32mm Schwalbes.

We heard all kinds of warnings about bike security, but we were surprised when some loser stole Pauline's rack bungee. We each used a bar lock and a cable and took everything off when parked. Our hotel didn't say anything when we brought our bikes inside, but we were careful not to leave tracks on the carpet just in case. You can take your bikes on the metro for free -- space permitting. Use the first or last car. To get down there be ready to carry your bike on stairs and escalators, which I assume is allowed since we got away with it.

Take your Bike Friday everywhere. You never know.