American Cyclo

Paris Hilton in the Bike Lane (not on a bike)

2010-03-04T08:50:00.001-08:00

DC Bike Map (snowpocalypse version)

2010-02-26T14:38:00.001-08:00

Check out this map and add your own info if you've been out on the bike!

View Greater DC Trail Snow Conditions (2010) in a larger map

Sup. John Cook and FFX County

2010-02-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

Really? Bikes are NOT transportation and only recreation?

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Fairfax-supervisors-clash-over-bike-plans-84814842.html

Fairfax supervisors clash over bike plans
By: Brian Hughes
Examiner Staff Writer
February 21, 2010

Transportation or recreation? A debate about the purpose of bicycles will shape how Fairfax County residents reach new Metro stations in coming years.

"I don't believe a bicycle is a transportation device," Supervisor John Cook, R-Braddock District, said during a transportation committee meeting. "I think it's a recreation device. The big problem is people don't want to ride their bike in the rain or get sweaty before work."

Transportation officials have identified $12.7 million in pedestrian and bicycle projects for the Reston area -- intended to improve accessibility to the planned Wiehle Avenue and Reston Parkway Metro stations, part of the transit extension to Washington Dulles International Airport.

Cook categorized bike trails as little more than a weekend diversion, vexing fellow supervisors who have pushed for more bike access.

"I don't agree with him," said Supervisor John Foust, D-Dranesville. "People don't do it now -- not because they don't want to -- but because they can't. It's not safe."

In 2007-2008, 4.5 percent of Fairfax residents older than 16 used a bike on a weekday, about half of whomused off-road bike trails or sidewalks, according to a study commissioned by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

The Reston plan calls for new trails, more bike crossings and extensions to paths to enhance the bicycle grid in the county.

Despite recent improvements, Bruce Wright, chairman of Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling, said the county has a "long way to go," citing the lack of connecting roads, which forces cyclists to trek alongside cars.

In an effort to unclog roadways, the county approved more than $19 million last fall for pedestrian and bike projects through fiscal 2012.

The Wiehle Avenue station is the final of leg of the Dulles Metrorail's first phase, expected to be completed in 2013. The Reston Parkway station, near the Dulles Toll Road, is slated to open in 2016.

The Fairfax County Department of Transportation has won a $4 million grant that could be applied to the project.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Fairfax-supervisors-clash-over-bike-plans-84814842.html#ixzz0gHhsBAJo

2009-09-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

Props to Regions Bank for making biking seem mainstream. Although I question that last left turn in to traffic....

mission accomplished

2009-09-09T14:52:00.001-07:00

9/9/09 some say it's a lucky day. kinda appropriate that I reached my goal of 2009 miles on 9/9/09. Somewhere around Falls Church, I passed the 2009 mile marker for this year. I'm already at 2028 and I have 3 more months to go. I'll shoot for 2700, but maybe I can get to 3000. Maybe. Charts and Graphs tomorrow!

...and I had heard good things about Asheville, NC

2009-07-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

No way I'm ever going there, now. This behavior reinforces my stereotypes about the south and makes me worry about being as far south as DC.

Firefighter charged with shooting at bicyclist

The cyclist was riding on a 'Level III' road 'best for experienced bicyclists used to riding in traffic.' maybe we should include 'and being shot at' in the Level III classification.

Transit Mash-Up

2009-07-08T13:08:00.001-07:00

I guess I missed the boat on this one, but transit mashups are pretty dope. I was trying to put something like this together for my bike times. I figured it would have all these spindly arms sticking out where I could get the most speed up on major roads or bike lanes, while it would shrink back in some neighborhoods that were hard to navigate or had lots of stop signs....
In other news.... The neighborhood got a great walkscore. I guess I could see that coming.

Dear Dr. Gridlock: Cyclist Pushed Quest For Respect Back a Few Miles

2009-06-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

Sparked by a post on Washcycle that referenced a posting from Dr. Gridlock about the ethics, legality and safety of cycling in the area.

From: americancyclo.blogspot.com
Sent: Tue 6/23/09 10:55 AM
To: drgridlock@washpost.com; ombudsman@washpost.com
re:Cyclist Pushed Quest For Respect Back a Few Miles‏

Mr. Thomson-
In an area where cycling is on the rise, and therefore the conflicts between motorists are also on the rise, I would appreciate a little more research and education in your column when motorists write you with questions about etiquette, ethics, and safety, such as the following:

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

Adjacent to your column [Commuter page, June 14] was an article on sharing street space safely. I was disappointed to see missing the situation that I find most annoying and dangerous.

Scenario: I am driving along a lovely two-lane road. (There are many; let's use Hunter Mill Road as our example.) I approach a cyclist and patiently follow until I can swing out wide and pass. Not too far after, I come to a stoplight.

While we wait for the green, the cyclist passes all the waiting cars, sometimes running through the red light. Now the cyclist is first again, and all of us have to putt along behind until we can pass again. This seems wrong and dangerous.

Melanie Snyder, Vienna

Ms. Snyder is concerned that the actions she is observing are wrong and/or dangerous. My first reaction was to look up the bicycle laws of Virginia (http://www.vdot.virginia.gov/programs/bk-laws.asp) They specifically have a section that addresses her questions.

Q. Can the cyclist ride through the red light?
A. No. This is illegal and might be dangerous.

"Bicyclists must obey all traffic signs, signals, lights, and markings.Reference: §46.2-830"

Q. Can the cyclist pass all the stopped cars legally?
A. Yes.

"Bicyclists may overtake and pass another vehicle only when safe to do so. Bicyclists may pass another vehicle on the right or left, and they may stay in the same lane, change lanes, or ride off the road if necessary for safe passing. Please note that passing motor vehicles on the right side may be extremely dangerous if the motorist does not see the bicyclist and attempts a right turn.

A person riding a bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, electric power-assisted bicycle, motorized skateboard or scooter, or moped shall not travel between two lanes of traffic moving in the same direction, except where one lane is a separate turn lane or a mandatory turn lane.

Motorists must approach and pass a bicyclist at a reasonable speed at least two feet to the left of the bicyclist.
Reference: §§46.2-839,46.2-907"

I think it would be helpful for motorists to know that bicycles are allowed to pass, since I get the impression that many motorists automatically assume that cyclists are in the wrong. There is a handy guide to basic bicycling laws in the DMV area with links to further detail on WABA's website at http://waba.org/areabiking/bikelaws.php

Thanks for your consideration,

Shawn Gallagher
DC Cyclist

Mid Summer Update

2009-06-23T07:04:00.001-07:00

Three weeks in to june and I'm over the 1200 mile mark. Back on May 27th I passed the halfway mark and thought about posting, but never got around to writing anything to commemorate it.
June has been a difficult month for cycling. The rain has been torrential and unrelenting for the first two weeks of the month, flooding my basement and forcing me out of my home for over a week. I even ended up with a flat over on the Mt. Vernon Trail, three miles away from anything in a downpour. After walking for a mile, a fellow biker was nice enough to stop and give me a tube so I could continue on.
The Raleigh is getting older and even more squirly. I need to get an outer plate put on my crank to keep my chain from jumping off. The Shogun is even heavier now, with the addition of some nice wheel brows for a birthday present. They have served me well in the inclement weather, keeping most of the road grit and moisture off my legs.

Free helmets in Denmark

2009-05-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

in association with the North Jutland Police and The Danish Cyclists Federation (via Washcycle

Robotic Bike Parking

2009-05-06T05:08:00.000-07:00

Robot Valet Parking (courtesy of Hard Drive, The Oregonian, and the Washington Post)

Bike To Work Day 2009

2009-04-29T06:17:00.000-07:00

I'm leading a Bike convoy for WABA on Bike To Work Day (BTWD) from Falls Church, VA to the meet up spot at Freedom Plaza in DC. We're leaving at 6:30am and I'm hoping we can make it there in less than an hour. I have no idea how big the group will be, and whether or not that will slow us down at all, but it's for a good cause! Here's a link to the route we're taking.

P.U.M.A.

2009-04-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

Yet again, American car companies have given us something else we don't need. And it's not even a crappy car this time. The GM PUMA is about as useful as a segway, but bigger, and the jury is still out on whether it looks more stupid.

douchey

I can see this ending up where segways did. Tourist vehicles in DC, at amusement parks, for mall cops, and maybe in SF replacing the three wheeled scooters. They do serve a market, albeit a very niche one. Too big for bike lanes, too slow for traffic, too small for regular roads, these are the bastard children of GM. Our cities are not designed to accept this type of vehicle. We still think too big, and most of the country can't fit their groceries and wal-mart purchases in the back of this.
with a 35 mile range, that means you can get about 17 miles from your house and back, which would fit within the average commute distance but I'm willing to bet not all of those roads would look too kindly on a vehicle that maxes out at 35 mph. I know I wouldn't want to be puttering along the beltway on the shoulder of the road with no doors and a plastic windshield.
Did I mention price? They're saying "one-fourth and one-third of that of the average traditional vehicle" which giving a conservative estimate of the price of a Chevy Cobalt ($15,000). So we've got a range of $3,700-$5,000.

You could get any of these fine (and respectable) looking motorcycles

Kawasaki Ninja - $4,000

Yamaha TW200 - $3,990

Honda Ruckus/Metropolitan - $2,500

Or a hell of a nice bicycle.

DeRosa Corum Road Bike (17 lbs) - $4,400

Or shoot, even by a carbon motobecane bike for $1,200 spend the rest on spandex, and you'll still look like less of an idiot than someone in this two-wheeled golf cart.

Bike Snob

2009-04-12T18:44:00.001-07:00

ok, i may be late to the game, but I've been reading

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/

lately, and his writing is pretty funny, a bit reminiscent of dave carnie and big brother. it's good fun for everyone

March - 582

2009-04-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

That's right, 582 mile mark at the last day in March. I'm comfortably above the average now, and at this point, I've got nearly a hundred mile buffer. Here's the numbers:

338 Miles Biked

110% more than last month

29% of yearly goal

Break Even Day

2009-03-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

The new year got off to a rocky start with some chilly weather dipping down in to the teens which resulted in an uninspiring start to my attempt at biking 2009 miles in 2009. Yesterday, however, that changed! For the first time (since day two) I have caught up with the average I need to get to the 2009 mile mark by December 31st.

Elevation

2009-03-06T18:27:00.000-08:00

Just a little idea of my normal ride in to work

and then the ride i did today

note that today's ride was nearly double the miles and only took me an extra 5-7 minutes. that's what's to be said about riding strictly on trail instead of through the city streets.

Why I Hate Twitter

2009-03-03T19:56:00.000-08:00

This pretty much sums it up. I'm old, twitter is chaffing my ass.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Feb Monthly Biking Report

2009-03-01T06:48:00.000-08:00

It's the first of a new month, and instead of an unemployment check, it means time to reckon my biking for the past month and see how I'm doing on my goal of biking 2000 miles in 2009 maybe i should shoot for 2009 miles?

Feb Miles logged: 161 miles

Percent Change from Last Month: +93%

Running Total: 244 miles

Percentage Goal Complete: 12%

And the visual aide:

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-19T16:43:00.000-08:00

Va. Assembly Gives Final Approval to Smoking Ban

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/19/AR2009021901904.html?hpid=topnews

The Kojo Nnamdi Show: Social Networking: Hazards and Opportunities

2009-02-17T20:50:00.000-08:00

listening to the Kojo Show today

http://wamu.org/audio/kn/09/02/k1090217-20744.asx

There is so much hype now about facebook and other social networking security issues. I personally am mortified that employers are using social networking sites to spy on prospective employees and threaten current employees with termination. I'd like to see what types of companies are actually monitoring these activities. Also, the E-policy Institute talking about IP blocking? That is ridiculous to me. All those companies are working on an old model where the employer holds complete power over the employee and hampers creativity and focuses on weaknesses. This mentality leads to less productivity and happiness in the long run, but it's not apparent since there are so few employers following a well thought out business model of encouraging strengths within their employees.

Also, Journalists using facebook? WTF!? That's worse than citing wikipedia! Maybe I'm old guard, but the idea that personal and public facades are different things rings true with me. Possibly because I am a Gemini, but there are always different facets to a person, and the ones that come out on the weekend or after hours be that a kayaker, or a goth club dancer, does not, and should not be any indication of your performance at your job, unless of course it leaks over and affects your performance on a regular basis.

I know that the workforce is moving towards a lifestyle that has occupation and the rest of life tightly integrated, but there needs to be room for individuals to choose to draw a line between the two.

OK also, you're friends with your students? Bad Call.

There is also a disconnect between those that have grown up with FB as a strictly social tool for college students to connect to each other, and those that see FB as an opportunity to connect in a professional space and attempt to monetize their network of contacts. It's the second group, those that are using a social network for business purposes, that are making social networking sites a dangerous place.

The most lucid point I've heard so far has been from Jamie from Chevy Chase ~41 min. His point reinforces my ideas that companies need to change their policy in the face of new technology. Nancy Flynn and her hands off "well, there's not much we can do!" attitude is starting to really irritate me. She vaults the importance of the company's rights over the individual.

A decent show and well worth listening to, but I'd like to see some numbers and hard facts from the ePolicy Institute. A quick look at the website reveals no testimonials, and a shoddy attempt and selling Nancy's books and seminars.

Buddhist Economics

2009-02-02T19:11:00.000-08:00

BUDDHIST ECONOMICS

by E. F. Schumacher

Great read, particularly in these economic and environmental times. Some of the talk about consumption gets a bit convoluted, but the message is still there. It's a way of thought that I haven't always subscribed to, but I know it's never been very far away.

January Bike progress

2009-01-31T12:54:00.000-08:00

So it's the end of January and time to weigh in on my progress towards a 2000 mile year. With the freezing temperatures and the Inauguration, I don't feel quite so bad about only racking up 83 miles this month. I imagine it's about 1/3 of what it would be if the weather here matched that of SF. So here's the graph, and I can only dream of warmer weather and some long spring weekend rides.

Inauguration

2009-01-21T17:58:00.000-08:00

I was woken up at 7:30am by a friend in Japan watching live streaming video of millions of people gathering less than a mile from my house. After a hearty breakfast and eight layers of clothing, I grabbed a thermos of tea and a bottle of water and headed out in to the madness of DC.

The town seemed relatively calm for being so crowded and I made my way up Massachusetts Ave to the bike valet at 16th & K where I would be parking bikes for the next four and a half hours.

The valet went really smooth thanks to WABA and all the volunteers, we had to ad-lib an overflow bike valet when we filled up around bike 996. I counted as high as 1148 before I left at 3.30pm

Afterwards, I spent some time biking around photographing and taking video of the aftermath of the parade. The atmosphere was surreal, somewhere between mardi gras and wasteland. I couldn't help but think of 28 days as I floated through the city, buses blocking streets, trash blowing in the wind, and people milling about in the streets, ignoring crosswalks and the constant alarm of police sirens. Take a look for yourself.

Two Challenges for the New Year

2009-01-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

Make a resolution, stick with it for a few weeks, and then the new habits fade into a pile of well intentioned scraps. Instead of following through with those this year, I'm issuing myself two challenges for 2009 and encouraging everyone else to do the same. The second one just came to me, so here they are before I get any more bright ideas.

Challenge #1

Bike 2,000 miles this year. Given the adverse weather conditions, it's a challenge that is slightly more daunting than if I were still in California, but I'm hoping that the good weather and number of bike related events in DC will keep me on two wheels and average of 39 miles per week. I'm going to keep track and try to post results month by month here on the blog.

Challenge #2

Volunteer at least 100 hours of my time this year. I've been involved in volunteer nights for WABA, and I've been talking about Phonenix bikes. It's time to shoot for the moon! It's just under 2 hours per week, and if I can sacrifice a few weekends here and there, I think it isn't such an impossibility! I guess I should keep track of that too!

Internet Evil

2009-01-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

Here's something for those of you that are not suffering financially in these times and may want to waste a TON of cash. Please keep the following site away from anyone with Social Security checks, or your loved ones!

Swoopo is EVIL!

Winter

2009-01-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

It's no longer 65 degrees. DC is settling in to the cold, and I've been biking a bit less. I haven't completely abandoned it, but it's a little harder to get motivated when it's 32 degrees outside. That being said, I went for a 15 mile ride yesterday up to Tenleytown and came back from Woodley Park via the Rock Creek Trail. My lights aren't as bright as some, but when you're blinded by car headlights, its pretty hard to follow the narrow path you're on. It was fun, but a little nerve racking.

I picked up a Shogun 300 today from freecycle with the intention of fixing it up for friends to use when they come to visit. I'm debating doing a fixed gear or single-speed conversion. We'll see how well that goes...

65°F in December!

2008-12-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

It was so nice on monday that I had to get out and go for a quick 17 mile ride around the District. Headed out west towrds East Potomac Park, got a littl lost on the way looking for access to the bridge from L'Enfant Plaza Rd SW

Found the bridge and headed over to East Potomac Park to watch some planes take off from Regan

The park is a really nice one way loop going clockwise. Mostly empty during the day

Briefly stopped to appreciate the view of the monument

and continued on up the path to Georgetown, over the Key Bridge, and back down the bike paths, crossing at Arlington Memorial Bridge. It was a nice ride, but the first time is always the roughest. I might skip the part that took me through SW over to Maine st. not so bike friendly there.

WABA Holiday Party

2008-12-12T12:05:00.000-08:00

Went to the WABA Holiday party, which I helped decorate for last week at the volunteer night. We got there around 7:30 and it was crowded and hot, but there was still beer, wine, cheese, and wraps, so we got to eat, drink, and meet a few new people as well as see some I'd met from previous weeks. I bumped in to a new friend that had bought a $5 raffle ticket for the drawing at 8pm. At the last minute I dashed out and dropped $5 on a ticket, thinking it would go to a good cause. The first drawing was for a WABA t-shirt, which was cool, the second was for a 1 year membership, which I won! The third was for a rad WABA Bike Jersey. So we got some free stuff, talked to some good people, and I won a membership. Happy Holidays! Pics are here on the WABA Flickr Pool. and a few others here.

Taking the W&OD back home to DC

2008-12-05T09:23:00.000-08:00

I got the great idea in my head last week to bike home from falls church, va. I knew there were bke trails that went most of the way, but I ended up with a longer ride than I had planned. I got on the trail, knowing it was called the W&OD (Washington & Old Dominion) and started cranking away, keeping up a nice pace. What I didn't realize was that I went off course about a mile and a half into the ride. When I arrived at mile 5, I knew I had messed up, but I had come downhill for the past four miles and wasn't ready to track back. I knew I was still heading east, so I forged on. Shirlington Rd is NOT fun to bike on, and when I hit Glebe Rd, I knew I was a bit hosed.

Luckily there was a motel on the corner that had Arlington Bike Maps. I quickly got my bearings and forged on, realizing that I'd have to take a small detour around Regan National Airport. The ride ended up being about 15 miles, and my toes were mighty cold. It started snowing right as I began to pass the airport, and I almomst got blown off the George Mason Memorial Bridge. But not so bad for getting lost.

Just yesterday I attempted to make the trip again, this time following the correct path. It's a nice ride, and took me less than an hour to get home. The sun was out and I only needed one layer underneath my windbreaker.

I think next time though, I'll try to cross the Potomac a little farther south, at the Arlington Memorial Bridge to avoid all the traffic on Virginia Ave, and the unfortunate wrong way merge into Constitution.

Here's the two maps superimposed on each other so you can get an idea of how far out of my way I went. The top route is the proper way.

Green Festival comes to DC

2008-11-21T14:21:00.000-08:00

When I heard that the Green Festival was coming to town, and that I could get a $5 discount on the $15 admission for riding my bike, along with free valet bike parking, I printed out a couple copies of my resume (just a few, trying to conserve paper), threw on my helmet and sped up Mass Ave to the Convention Center. Valet bike parking had NO signs at the main entrance, but after locking it up on the street, going inside and finding a volunteer, i got directions to go around the building, and saw a two by six foot sign at the bottom of the window between buildings. So i left my bike, waited in line, got my discount ticket and rode the escalators up to the main floor.
I was anticipating a world changing event since Obama's rise to power is imminent. A Green sea of change coming to Washington. Tons of Green companies and Green (as well as "Mint") Collar jobs, looking for bright individuals such as myself to take the reigns of a burgeoning sector and bring it to the mainstream.
What I got was a bunch of crunchy granola salespeople hawking their "Green" wares. A guy looking for people to jump aboard his "Green Amway" product line. Empowering people with green products? My Ass. It's still door-to-door sales and tupperware parties. Conning people into things they don't need that are manufactured overseas somewhere and your still a slave to the bottom line. There were at least 20 vendors selling organic dog food, all the natural fiber t-shirts you could ever want, and 17 varieties of baby clothes made out of hemp.
My optimism about real change in everyday life was squashed by the juggernaut of Capitalism. Even the organic beer and wine was $5 to sample, so I drowned my sorrows in free samples of acai juice, organic valley milk, Annie's cheese crackers and a few shots of wheatgrass. The weekend wasn't an entire bust.
I met Jim, the founder of Elysian Energy and talked about his energy audit company, and debated trying that out as a new career path. Lots of grimy work though, and I still haven't heard back from him. I also met one of the volunteers at Phoenix Bikes, a youth-at-risk bicycle shop program over in Arlington similar to Pedal Revolution in San Francisco. Talking with the guy there was enough to get me inspired to volunteer, as soon as I have a regular schedule that is. There were also some folks that were interested in changing the way we commute to work, but again, putting my name out there and not hearing anything. Other good points were getting an extra ticket for free from some radio station, and the snacks that kept me fed for free. There were also free yoga classes that would have been worth it, had they been advertised at all. I also enjoyed seeing the wrap up speech with Dr. Kevin Danaher. He's a great speaker but he embodies SF a bit much for some of the East Coasters I think.
Overall a bit of a disappointment, the commercialism was more than I could bear, but I did get some good ideas going in my head. I didn't bother to take pictures, since it looked amazingly like any other trade fair. Hoping I'll be surprised by the next big event like that I decide to attend.

DC 50 States Ride

2008-11-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

The "50 States Ride" happened nearly a month ago, but it was a great introduction to DC, and I've been surprised that many more people don't know about it. I had been checking out the DC area bike coalitions and found WABA. The 50 States ride which ends up being about a 70 mile bike ride through DC riding on all of the state streets, covering all eight wards of DC. (Map) WABA claimed that the ride was "unsupported" meaning that there would be no vehicles, but they did offer a lunch option and promised two stations along the way to get water and refreshments.

We met up at the start of the ride in Adams Morgan where they had registration, coffee, bananas, shot bloks,mini clif bars, free water bottles, and cue sheets. There was quite a crowd here, more than I expected for an "unsupported" ride. A little after 8:30am we rolled out and I was reminded of Critical Mass rides in SF, the euphoric feeling of owning the road with a group of cyclists, blocking traffic and drawing the attention of everyone on the sidewalk. Most of the bikers were really friendly and we spent the first two or three miles letting others navigate and following the pack. Once we hit Florida, the leaders of our group got a bit confused, and that's when the real ride began.

From Vermont Street on, the pack started thinning out, dropping a few more riders here and there as we passed the White House through an unmarked detour since the WTO meeting was in town and they were expecting protests on the order of the Seattle (??) riots from years gone by.

After passing through downtown, we headed past Eastern Market, a few blocks from my house, and over the bridge to Anacostia where the ride through the park was nice, but some of the neighborhoods got really depressing. We reached the halfway point for lunch at about 11:15 and were told that lunch (which we opted out of) wasn't coming until 12:30pm, so we found a few other riders that wanted to continue a left in a small pack of four. We kept up a pretty good pace and caught up with three other riders around West Virginia Ave passing Trinidad and Galludet. By the time we cam near Fort Totten and Catholic U of A, were were down to four, and a mile or two later, as we approaced Green Circle, we were at three. We managed to stick together with a guy that was head to toe spandex racing gear, but he was a really good climber, dropped us pretty bad coming up out of Rock Creek Park.

The only water stop we found was hosted by the Cycling Team of American University. They had tons of stuff for us, were taking photos and had great energy, much thanks to them for being there 12 miles before the ride was done. We screamed through the rest of the ride, ending up at the start around 2:15pm. Roughly two hours before the post ride happy hour was to begin. So we biked a bt further, downtown to get some Five Guys, and called it a day.
The ride was a great intro to the neighborhoods of DC, I'd recommend it to anyone who has ridden 30 miles or more on a bike, and if you haven't, you should at least do the 13 colonies, or break up the 50 states ride into two or three smaller chunks. I'll be going again next year, hopefully with a larger group.

Biking for free stuff

2008-11-07T12:52:00.000-08:00

It was almost in the 70's today, and I saw a VCR on freecycle up near Tenleytown. Instead of taking two metro lines, since I think they're both under construction, I biked up there and got in nice 14mile ride in the sun today. Here's a link to the route I took. Stopped in at 9th and E for a bagel sandwich at Brueggers in DC!

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2381937

Also heading to the Green Festival this weekend... website has been pretty shoddy all day, through too many hits, or bad web design, i don't know.

http://www.greenfestivals.org/washington-dc-2008/

20 miles in....

2008-10-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

After shipping all my stuff out here and having it live in a few guestrooms, garages, and basements (thanks to all!) The one thing I was really excited about was getting back on my bike again. I'm sure I bored you to tears about it before I left SF, and there are pics on FB if you want to see them, but I did my bike ride around the bay, felt pretty inspired, and wanted to make sure that biking wasn't something I just did in California. Selling my car before i left helped a lot.
When I finally unpacked my bike, i found that i was missing a pedal, my brand new allen wrench set, and the bolt that keeps your handlebars on your frame. After replacing these from the local branch of performance bikes, just before closing, i rode my bike to the metro, and once again had my own personal city transportation. It was about 20 miles in to biking in DC that I really felt a sense of freedom and belonging. I have always felt free on my bike. It never fails to put a smile on my face, and running some errands up in Columbia Heights, through the twilight of rush hour traffic I felt the exhilaration that comes with the freedom and danger of urban cycling that I have come to love over the years.

New Beginnings

2008-10-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Diary,
A week or so before i left the bay, i was hanging out with some capoeiristas and one remarked that i should make a list of the things i knew about the bay. I don't know everything, not even close, but I had seen some things in my nine years between the ocean and the sierras. I had a decent list of places going over on yelp.com but i knew not everyone would be so keen to join yelp, and i have no idea if they do RSS (yelp, or the people that might be reading this) and later on another friend mentioned that i should blog about the bay area(s) since i guess DC is near the Chesapeake Bay. I had a few name ideas to work on, and if you're reading this, i must have found one i could be happy with. Being unemployed is a great reason to blog, since so many people were doing it six or seven years ago after the crash. Let me tie this up before i begin writing other posts within this one. Look for things I miss about the SF Bay Area, things I'm discovering about DC, and if you're lucky, I might even do a compare and contrast. I'm sure I'll be throwing a bit of biking chatter in here as well, but i promise, no serious gear-head talk. Hi MOM!