Multi-Modal in Raleigh

We biked from Raleigh to Durham one beautiful fall Sunday with the intention of taking the 2:30PM Amtrak Piedmont service back into the city after stopping in downtown Durham for brunch. The cost for a one-way trip costs anywhere between $6.50 and $8.00 to go from Durham to Raleigh, and there is currently no charge to bring a bicycle.

The Piedmont Train services the following stations twice per day and you can take your bicycle for free anywhere to the stations along this route. I recommend it!

Raleigh
Cary
Durham
Burlington
Greensboro
High Point
Salisbury
Kannapolis
Charlotte

Update April 2013: No change to the price or process.

"Add Bike to Trip" when you purchase your ticket on the Piedmont Service between Raleigh and Charlotte

Once at the station they give you a baggage tag to attach to your bicycle and you must roll your bike to the left hand side of the platform where the baggage car is located. The baggage handler loads the bikes into the compartment, although we did help them do some of the lifting. Once you hand off your bicycle, you need to walk quickly down to the seating cars and board.

My biggest advice is to reserve space for your bicycle in advance, at the time you buy your train ticket. There are only a limited number of spaces for bicycles available. Several in our group had to lay our bikes down on the floor of the baggage compartment because there were not enough bicycle hooks.

Although many of the trains have 7 bicycle hooks, this train only had 5. At left is a photo of what this compartment looks like and how the bikes are transported. Be cautious if you have a large group as there may not be enough space for everyone's bike to hang. Also, as was the case on our trip, there were already bikes on the train. I expect this to become more popular in the future so be sure to reserve ahead of time!

The Piedmont service has very roomy seats. Our crew really enjoyed the bike trip and learning how to use the regional Amtrak services. Truly multi-modal!

Update April 29, 2013. I recently rode to Durham and used the service again. I got a better view of the baggage compartment on the Piedmont Service where the bikes are stored during the trip. As of this writing, there have been no changes to the process for putting bikes on the train. Staff in both Durham and Raleigh seemed very familiar with the process for loading and unloading - just make sure you save all the bike tickets (both baggage and claim) to turn in when you get to the final destination.

This particular train had space for 6 bicycles.

Oaks and Spokes has officially kicked off in fabulous form. I stole some of my friends photos (hope you don't mind!) and put together this short post to recap all of the kickoff weekend activities:

Friends enjoying the 2nd Raleigh Bikes Art Show

We started with the kickoff events on First Friday. There were around 100 bicyclists attending the Bike First Friday event, wheeling around downtown to the various galleries. I was stationed at CAM Raleigh hosting the Oaks and Spokes / CAM Creation Station, where 200 participants made reflective Tweed Rosettes to pin on their garments -- an effective cross section of safety and style. Several hundred strolled or rolled into the Raleigh Bikes Art Show to take in the bicycle themed art show. I finally made it there after CAM, hoping it wouldn't be too late to see things on opening night --it was a total hit with folks lingering well past the hour that Benelux Cafe generally closes to mix and mingle among the steeds. I heard that many works of art were sold through the course of the evening and that the show was a smashing success.

Triangle Tweed Ride takes it to Fayetteville Street
in Downtown Raleigh

On Saturday, around 300 folks donned their fashionable frocks and headed down to City Market for the 2nd Triangle Tweed Ride. At the photo booth, you could get your picture taken with your tweed steed. The rosette-making table was quite popular. The 'sally forth' occurred at noon, when merrymaking took to the neighborhoods and downtown streets of Raleigh. During the stop at Pullen Park, we took a group photo (headcount TBD), played badminton and other yard games such as Kubb, ate cookies, and enjoyed more of the March sunshine. Prizes were awarded for Sassy Lass (Monica), Finest Fellow (Stuart), Tweed Steed (Desiree), Dapper Duo (Jared and Ileana) and the Tweed Choice Award (Janet).
We had a crowd cheering contest to determine the most Magnificent Mustache. After some beers from New Belgium, we departed in style to Party Like It's 1899 at Humble Pie where the night finished off with some casual drinks and desserts.

Street closed off for Frankenbike Parts Swap and
vendors ready to sell all sorts of neat bicycle stuff.

Sunday was a bit chilly but we headed out to set up our wares at the Frankenbike Parts Swap hosted by Oak City Cycling Project. We set up our table on the sunny side of Person Street, which was closed off for the event, and turned on some tunes to watch the event unfold. Around 50 vendors were there to buy, sell, and trade. There were some really neat things there -- including some beautiful Campy Athena pedals, a 1966 Schwinn Paramount, a table of NOS suntour parts, a mutant trike, and a bamboo bicycle. I talked to Debbie from the East Coast Greenway, made new friends from the REcyclery, bought a couple of bells from Mike Dayton from BPAC, chatted with Matt Butler about his new #BikeRaleigh t-shirts, and sold a bicycle to a Raleigh woman (wish I could remember her name) who promised me she would ride it often.

Mallet on mallet action at the Oak City Open

After things began to slow down, we picked up shop and made our way to where things were just starting to heat up at the Oak City Open. We watched as teams from Asheville, Charleston, Winston-Salem, Norfolk, Wilmington and (of course) Raleigh competed for the title. I served as a goal judge for a couple of rounds and was constantly ready to duck just in case there was a loose ball flying towards my noggin. The Raleigh Bike Polo club did a great job of pulling this tournament together and had a fantastic set up considering support from City of Raleigh Parks and Recreation Dept fell through and they had to switch locations at the last minute. I loved the hand made spectator bench, spirit of the crowd, and megaphone-toting announcer sideshow. Big shout out to the traveling teams, Raleigh Center Ice, and Raleigh Bike Polo on this one. We finished up our night with laughter, soaking up some warmth and eating pies at Lilly's Pizza.

Oaks and Spokes is still going strong. Tonight is the Bike-In Movie ... Bring chairs and blankets because it'll be a cold one. I'll see you there!

And some more photos from the weekend, in no particular order: