Are you famous too??

I used to work in a large office building in Tysons, and got a lot of comments in the elevator or wheeling my bike in and out. Mostly “wow, you’re crazy” type stuff. These days I work in a small office, and everyone thinks I’m crazy but for totally different reasons.

“What else am I suppose to do? It’s way too far to walk…”

I don’t have far to walk from our garage to my office, or the shower, but the police here routinely ask me about my mileage or the weather, to the point where they ask if I’ve ridden if they see me in a suit. Also, on days I do wear a suit, I’ve taken to wearing the neon bicycle pins on my lapel, a la Earl Blumenauer. That’s gotten me a lot of recognition, serves as a talking point, and is still relatively unique at my office.

I mostly get strange looks from people caught off guard by my hi-viz yellow jacket, as my building is probably 99.5% drivers. Most of the folks I work with directly have finally come to terms with it, so most comments are reserved for cold days, “wow, must’ve been a cold ride!” and such. I’ve had a few people say “I’ve thought about doing that as a way to get in shape” and I go off on a 5 minute spiel about how awesome and easy it is, and offer to ride with them or whatever…but I’ve found that people basically just say that as a means of making small talk and/or being nice, and really have no interest in trying it out.

If you really want to hear the comments, ride a recumbent to work.

I don’t ride as often as most of you, but I do get some weird comments. We work in Suitland where people generally assume that if you leave the campus not in a car you’ll be shot and robbed so they think biking to work is extremely dangerous. Ummm.. not so much since 99% of the people around here are trying to get by and make an honest living just like the rest of us. Anyway, there’s always a lot of jokes about whether I carry a gun, or wear a bullet-proof vest etc…

Then I had a couple of awkward questions from a lady who was clearly a stranger to physical exertion. On two occasions not more than a couple of weeks apart she told me, “I wish I could wear shorts and a t-shirt to work” upon seeing me in my bike gear getting ready to leave. She didn’t understand that I change clothes. Then she asked me whether I take the beltway on my bike. Ummm…. really?

Try riding to work pregnant. Especially past your due date.

I wore fairly normal maternity clothes, so only the security officers really saw me biking. But everyone has to check in to get into the garage, so I saw most of them. I got a lot of respect from them. It also helped last night when our car wouldn’t start in the work garage — they were very helpful, and excited to see the little one.

Dunno about famous, but notorious maybe.

And the other day my boss popped his head in my office as I was changing shoes (the only bike-specific clothing I wear most days) and told me that rolled up pants legs are not allowed.

Been here four years now and I couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not, but ever since I’ve paused on the stairway up from the garage to roll down my pants legs.