Bike tour on the boardwalk--ah the good old days
By NJ Chicaa
@NJChicaa (120054)
United States
October 2, 2022 12:47pm CST
A coworker was talking about doing a bike tour with her mother this weekend. I came in on the tail end of the conversation so I don't know where it was but I'm guessing through a park or something like that. Back in my heyday we did bike tours. . . of bars on the boardwalk in Seaside. Yes THAT Seaside. The one that became infamous as the setting for MTV's show "Jersey Shore". I've lived across the bridge from there for my entire life and it is where I partied in my 20s.
The idea of a bike tour is simple: start at one end of the boardwalk and have a drink at every bar on the boardwalk. You ride your bike from bar to bar. You technically aren't allowed to ride bikes on the boardwalk during the summer but there really is nothing the police can do when a huge pack of people does it.
Bike tours can be informal with just a group of 10 or so friends but I've also seen them as big as 50 with participants wearing matching customized t-shirts. The big ones actually are annoying for pretty much everyone because the bartenders can't keep up, the "regular" patrons have to wait for the tour to be served, and those in the tour have a long wait for drinks that they then have to slam before moving on to the next place. The smaller tours IMO are much better.
The thing is that, unless you are a professional, you wind up hammered pretty quickly. There are something like 10 or 11 bars on the boardwalk (or there were back then) and sometimes the tour is extended to the main drag (The Boulevard) and there are a couple more places to get a drink there.
I have done a few bike tours and they were fun. That was back in the days before Uber, though, so we always had to make plans with someone (preferably with a pick up truck) to pick up us and our bikes. Technically it is illegal to ride a bike while drunk but I've never heard of anyone actually getting arrested on a bike tour for that. For other reasons--absolutely--but not for that.
6 people like this
4 responses
@LeaPea2417 (37369)
• Toccoa, Georgia
3 Oct 22
I rode bikes from childhood until 8 years ago. I fell off one and really hurt myself. I said then and there this is the end of my bicycling days.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (181235)
• United States
3 Oct 22
I had never heard of bike tours. Very interesting. Today not only couldn't I ride a bike, I wouldn't be able to handle more than two drinks.
1 person likes this
@arunima25 (87855)
• Bangalore, India
2 Oct 22
It was good to read your story. Luckily no one was arrested despite being drunk riding the bike. Else it would have spoilt the fun or you might have had something more interesting to add their in your story .
I don't ride but I enjoy going around on backseat with my husband.
1 person likes this
@Luli_hope (246)
• Romania
2 Oct 22
You wrote a long story :)
Me, i only had one bike tour in my life, on o beautiful island in Ireland. It was one of the best experience, making the tour of the island by bike, stoping to visit, to.enjoy the sun, the view...
I also.sometimes go for a tour in a park near the house but it's nothing compared to that experience.
1 person likes this