Are you famous too??

[crysb]

@DSalovesh 37474 wrote:

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.

Heh, interesting. I always feel a little awkward walking in very sweaty in the summer before I grab my work clothes and shower.

[Terpfan]

Well after my run-in with a crazy guy, our employee newsletter did a small article about it from a humurous light. But outside of that, I have had two coworkers ask me about riding in and one does it occassionally now using the bikeshare and the other bought a bike because he realized it’s faster and cheaper than Metro (we don’t get any subsidies save small tax break). Outside of that, the comments are usually “wow, you bike that far” as if 7.5-8 miles each way was actually far bike wise. I told them many other folks cycle much further from 20+ miles out. Usually that leads to a discussion about how far that is and I remind them that driving in rush hour and biking are two different and things and that more often than not biking is much faster.

[Certifried]

I’ve been the subject of a few mass emails…

Quote:

[FONT=Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif] Colleagues,

We noticed that some vehicles were parking in front of the bike rack and impeding access. Please note that vehicular parking is not allowed in front of the bike rack which must be accessible at all times and during the four seasons (Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring) of the year.

As tempting as it is to park your vehicle in the open space in front of the bike rack, please use the designated vehicular parking spaces in the parking lot instead.

With that in mind, thanks in advance for complying with our request.

Thanks! Have a wonderful day!

I’m the only one who ever rides their bike in.

[/FONT]

[dasgeh]

@Arlingtonrider 37473 wrote:

Dasgeh, you got and continue to get a lot of respect from all of us! I hope we’ll get to see little Ryder one of these days too.

Thanks. Ryder did make it to Dec’s ABAC meeting, and probably will be at Jan’s. That should be some incentive to come!

[KelOnWheels]

The security guards always seem to get a kick out of seeing me come in all bikiefied and ask how the ride was

We’ve got a triathlete in the same office I’m in so people are used to seeing oddly dressed folk arrive in the mornings.

[Amalitza]

I don’t commuteby bike, so I’m not famous for that. I do ride to/from the office at lunchtime (now) or after work (when I have daylight), so I often get chatted up by the guards on the way back in, how far did I ride, etc. They mostly seem to think 15 miles is really really far. (that’s ok, we have a few employees who run marathons and I think that is really really far, so i suppose it’s all your perspective). I also made the front page of the Maryland Independent a couple months ago– an article on the IHRT, and I happened to be out riding on it while the photographer was getting a picture to accompany the article. THAT got lots of emails and phone calls, a few (tongue in cheek) requests for my autograph, and a couple copies of the paper left at my desk. I was officially famous for about 2 days.

[Bilsko]

@DSalovesh 37474 wrote:

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.

Wow…I’m not sure how I’d react to something like that. Lately, since I leave work shoes at the office (8th floor), and have to change in the gym down in the Basement, I throw on a pair of flip-flops for the elevator ride down. We share a building with a big name law firm (and the USGBC) so I sometimes get some of *those* looks. But, the 3 bike racks in the building are frequently filled up (probably an average of 30-40 bikes in summer, 15-20 in the winter) so I must not be the only one…

[KLizotte]

@DSalovesh 37474 wrote:

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.

You should show up wearing a kilt one day. Now that would blow his mind!

[Vicegrip]

@KLizotte 37493 wrote:

You should show up wearing a kilt one day. Now that would blow his mind!

But don’t roll it up!

[ronwalf]

I just got recognized in the hall not for biking (which is common at UMCP), but for producing that funky animation of it.

[rcannon100]

Went to #fridaycoffeeclub this morning and stood next to Ed. Asked him how his new tandem is…. Ed doesnt know me. He had to ask who I was. But he and his wife had tweeted about this new fab tandem they just acquired – so I had to ask about (fork is messed up and had to be sent back – ugh).

So eventually we were talking and he asked where I work. “Oh, down where you live” I answered. That has to be weird when someone knows what bike you are riding – and knows where you live.

But then again, Ed and Mary are famous:

[video=youtube_share;Gg60gjxSC1s]http://youtu.be/Gg60gjxSC1s[/video]

[bobco85]

It’s all about the elevator rides, I swear! There are the stares, sometimes aghast at the fact that I am not in a business suit or at my impressive helmet hair (I prefer buzz cuts for this very reason), sometimes in shock that someone would actually spend more than the minute it takes to walk to/from their parked car in this (or any) weather, and sometimes condescending that someone would drive anything less expensive than a Lexus (or equivalent, there are some senior management d***s from many of the companies in my building, one of whom I’m pretty sure almost hit me the other day). The few days I choose to walk instead of bike to work (days where there is a lot of ice on the road or I just feel like hiking), everyone asks me if something is wrong like if my bike got stolen (it did in May 2011, so there is a precedent).

But really, I like when people ask for advice, because holding a helmet or (when I take my bike to my desk) a bike makes you an automatic cycling expert. Usually it’s someone they know, be it a friend, spouse, or (most often) child, or it’s a problem with their bike that they never got around to fixing (the worst offender had a chain that came off once and they didn’t know they could just easily put it back on and continue riding). Sometimes they say they would like to bike, but they’re just not very good at it, so they don’t. Now, they don’t throw their hands up in the air when they say this, but it’s like they do that and say, “This is challenging for me, I quit.” That said, there have been a few converts who get really excited to tell me about a new bike they are getting, how excited they are to go biking in the spring (why wait until then?), or that they did a painfully long ride of 2 miles the other day (I smile and try to encourage them to aim for double digits someday).

I do my fair share of evangelizing, and if cycling were a religion, I’d be a traveling monk, inspiring the world to take up 2 wheels.

[txgoonie]

The reactions I get really run the gamut — from folks genuinely interested in it to the almost imperceptible eye rolls from those I know are the ones cutting me off in traffic. More often than not, people don’t say anything and try not to react — this is Crystal City after all. But the elevator doors in our building are mirrors. So people look at me not directly but via the elevator doors, thinking I can’t see them looking

[DaveK]

I work for an organization that really tries to push alternative travel modes so my reactions are almost always good. Lots of “oh, I would ride, but…”. Our “CEO” recognizes me from riding the elevators with my bike in the morning. There’s a few awkward interactions in the summer since I do ride in cycling kit when it’s hot, but I keep all my clothes and shower stuff at my desk so I ride the elevator up there to get it instead of parking in the bike locker. Besides, can’t beat the parking space.

[Tim Kelley]

@dcv 37459 wrote:

Not so much me, but my bike:
– On the Custis I’ve had a stranger pull up alongside and ask me why I wasn’t riding my Cinelli (when I was riding a Bianchi)
– I met a CL seller who recognized me as the guy on Cinelli (I wasn’t on a bike at the CL sale)
– I met someone on a group ride who recognized me as the guy on Cinelli (I was riding the Blue that day)
– DaveK spotted me taking picture of the Cinelli, this was before we met in person

When I passed a guy during the bike leg of a triathlon down in Charlottesville this spring, and he told me that he had seen my bike on the internet when he was doing tri bike research. I’ve got a customer paint job and bright highlights so he recognized it easily!

[Author]

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