You’re it! Play Bike Tag to explore your city

Bike Tag is the ideal pandemic activity: It takes place outdoors, it’s social and you don’t have to burst your isolation bubble to take part.

One part treasure-hunt, one part geocaching, Bike Tag is a safe way to explore your hometown. Your only clues are a photo of a bike at the mystery location and a brief text hint. How well do you know your city? Hop on your bike to find out!

How well do you know your city? Instagram user @passing.as.human has found lots of interesting public art playing Bike Tag in Seattle.

After months without travel, Bike Tag is a way to see your city with fresh eyes and show off your favourite hidden gems. After months of isolation, it’s a way to play a game with neighbours and meet new people — even if you’re never in the same place at the same time. After months without fitness centres and team sports, it’s a way to compete in a non-contact game, and find fresh motivation to get active.

Bike Tag started in Austin, Texas, and has since spread to cities around the world — with many active games on the bike-friendly West Coast. You’ll find Bike Tag in Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, and the popular game continues to spread. Try it out to be a tourist in your hometown, and log on when it’s safe to travel for local tips while exploring new cities.

Some Bike Tag locations are cool street murals or creative public art, others are beautiful spots for a ride — like this trail on Burnaby Mountain in Vancouver’s Bike Tag.

How it works

1. Look up the current mystery location: Search “bike tag + your city” online, check biketag.org, or look on your local Subreddit. Look at the picture of the current tag, read the hint, and see if you can find it.
2. Bike to the mystery location and take a photo: Prove you’ve located the current tag by replicating the photo — with your own bike of course.
3. Continue biking to a new location and take a photo: Your tag must be taken on the same ride as your first picture, and the location must be freely accessible to the public. Take a picture of your bike outside your favourite coffee shop, next to a fantastic piece of public art, or on a path you think more people should ride. Choose a spot that’s interesting and unique, even if it’s a bit of a mystery.
4. Upload your photos: Post your pictures of both locations at the same time, plus a hint to help players find your mystery spot (@passing.as.human gets extra points for writing rhyming hints reminiscent of an ancient treasure map, but poetry is not required). You can’t reserve being ‘it’ by posting a photo of the first location before you’ve photographed the second, but biketag.org is working on a feature that would let users see how active the current tag is. More than one person may visit the first mystery location and set course for a new tag — the first person to post gets the glory, but everyone gets to enjoy exploring new parts of the city.

Ready to play? Pump your tires, oil your chain and find a game near you!

Bike Tag is part treasure-hunt, part geocaching. @passing.as.human’s poetic clue for this tag was “See Orion; the stars are so pretty/A fancy home, north of a tent city.”